mardi, février 25

LAFRAISE CYCLES – JENNIFER’S ALL ROUNDER – TANGE ULTIMATE

lafraise cycles-artisan-cadreux-acier-roubaix-velo-de-course-acier-cintre-plat-acier-tange-ultimate-veloacier_2

lafraise cycles-artisan-cadreux-acier-roubaix-velo-de-course-acier-cintre-plat-acier-tange-ultimate-veloacier_2

LAFRAISE CYCLES is presenting us one of his latest achievements. As usual at Andreas, the bike is custom-made and braze-welded but this time it is made of TANGE steel tubes. This ALL ROUNDER has a frame designed and constructed specifically for a female morphology. This bike, realized for Jennifer, is used daily as well to make a  trip around the village than to ride along the sunny roads of South Ardeche without a timed objective.

Jennifer is a member of the Cycling Club of Cadenet (Vaucluse) and rides at the rate of 2 rides per week from 60 to 100km depending on the season. There are also stays offered by her club on various itineraries in the Alps. Owner of a carbon bike - CKT Campa record / super record and Rotor Qring - the project of a secondary bike made of steel tubes is the result of a long maturation. She plans to travel with this future bikes along the routes of her next holidays, on a daily use or even trips around her city ... and even more.

Reading, searching informations and inspiration about steel bikes on several manufacturers website, it is with Andreas - LAFRAISE CYCLES that she decides to start with. What seduces her is very simple: a lot of various photos of several projects already achieved and the speed of LAFRAISE CYCLES to formulate a quote for a bike adapted to her practice. But three words resonate for the elaboration of her bike: "energy" efficiency, comfort and lightness.

Jennifer's only apprehension, with full knowledge of the comfort of steel, is the final weight of a complete bike made of steel. But Andreas has very quickly understood this. Morphological data on hand (size, weight ...), he will concoct in his workshop the first sketch of the frame and with the final agreement of Jennifer, will build it.

Here are some geometry data. The seat tube is 460mm long with a top-tube of 522mm. The frame is small and the headtube angle is of 72 degrees and provide stability in addition to the use of a flat handlebars and a short stem. Chainstays are 415mm long, the right balance between comfort and responsive.

The frame is made in the TANGE ULTIMATE steel tube series. It is the most high-end series proposed by the Japanese steelmaker. It combines lightness and resistance by using for the toptube and the down tube a minimum thickness of 0.35mm - Double Butted 0.6-0.35-0.6 -.

To adapt the frame to the morphology of Jennifer, Andreas uses small tubes, in order to not penalize the cyclist by compensating her small size by a truly light and reactive frame. It uses a tube of diameter 25,4mm for the toptube and of 28,6mm for the downtube bringing the best ratio weight-rigidity to the cyclist. The seattube is single-butted and offered by TANGE in a unique diameter of 28.6mm suitable for a seatpost in 27.2.

For the rear triangle also completely made of TANGE ULTIMATE, the tubes used for oval chainstays and the seatstays do not receive any heat treatment to preserve all their elasticity  to mainly facilitate the work of the framebuilder after welding to complete the right alignment of the rear triangle. The total weight of the frame is very good with 1.44kgs on the scale .... and only 6.8kgs for the complete bike.

About components, the set-up is functional and is the result of numerous exchanges with LAFRAISE CYCLES concerning the choice of each part: reliability, lifetime, weight. Dérailleurs are SRAM RIVAL 2x10 groupset and coupled to SRAM SL700 flatbar shifters (10 speed). The cranks is a ROTOR AGILIS with QRING rings that facilitate pedalling in flexibility and with velocity.

Jennifer says : "About the Rotor crankset, I use a road version with oval rings as on the Agilis models on my first bike, because my bikeshop made me try these crankset a few years ago and immediately i had no more pains in the knees and no more cramps in the calves, so i will not use anymore round rings! "

The 1/8 "headset comes from the RITCHEY WCS components range, same for the stem. Brake are cantilever model and controlled by EXTRALITE Ultra Lever2 levers manufactured in Italy. The handlebar is a KCNC model.

Jennifer says :

"I needed a bike easy to ride and stable because my daughter and my grand- daughter will use it when they'll come on holiday with us in the Ardèche. But at the same time i wanted performance and manoeuvrability, so not easy to reconcile all those requests, but Andreas has perfectly handle the project and i am very happy."

"This bike perfectly fit my needs and all sort of terrain that i am riding in my area. It is really responsive, very easy to drive. It rides almost by itself and has no problem with the Ardéchoises hill !! I am completely satisfied. Thank you Andreas. "

LA FRAISE CYCLES bikes and frameset are available worldwide, please contact Andreas for an accurate price in your currency and to know all shipment details.

LA FRAISE CYCLES Website : http://www.lafraisecycles.com/
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Or contact him directly by email : info@lafraisecycles.com