Was browsing FB Marketplace for a steel frame to build off of and found this one, previous owner didn't know much about it just that they bought it from someone who "likes to build bikes". Components on it were decent and clearly had a neat custom job, but am fairly confident this is stainless steel as it's about 10 years old, mostly raw unpainted and minimal rusting here in New England. Fork is carbon. Does anybody have any idea of who made this frame if a manufacturer or just a custom made? Coming up dry in my research, only thing I can point to is the arrow shaped bits on the rear dropouts I've seen on some Surly frames, but doesn't seem like Surly ever made a Stainless frame.
by cmwills29
8 Comments
Was browsing FB Marketplace for a steel frame to build off of and found this one, previous owner didn’t know much about it just that they bought it from someone who “likes to build bikes”. Components on it were decent and clearly had a neat custom job, but am fairly confident this is stainless steel as it’s about 10 years old, mostly raw unpainted and minimal rusting here in New England. Fork is carbon. Does anybody have any idea of who made this frame if a manufacturer or just a custom made? Coming up dry in my research, only thing I can point to is the arrow shaped bits on the rear dropouts I’ve seen on some Surly frames, but doesn’t seem like Surly ever made a Stainless frame.
New England + stainless + custom paint + “inday” = Indy Fab? Just a guess, although that’s a different seat cluster than I remember with IF
Holy!!!!! @&$?
As a former frame builder.
I don’t know what frame that is but you should buy it.
From the pictures it looks quality.
Check the SN# and check with local cops yada yada
That looks like a lovely ride
The stainless steel tubesets introduced 10 years ago would be pretty expensive but surprisingly lightweight martensitic stuff like Reynolds 953, Columbus XCr, KVA MS2, etc.
I doubt this bike is built from Reynolds 953 since that tubeset is meant to be built with low-temperature welding techniques like silver brazing using lugs to preserve the martensitic steel’s extraordinary strength properties. XCr is somewhat more forgiving but still difficult to do beaded welds at tube joints with.
I would guess this might be a higher-end cromoly tubeset.
Damn, nice find
Chubby Cat on the fork. 👀
real nice, whatever it is. your location plus that “inday” sticker makes me think of a cheeky pronunciation of “indy”, as in indie fab? the seatstay bridge looks like seven but i wouldn’t count on that.
edit: one thing i can say for sure is this is not a surly, it is quite a bit nicer than that. that seatpost collar has me also thinking seven. did you try sticking a magnet to it to rule out titanium?
Whatever the fuck this is, it’s low key like, a pretty damn nice bike.
Solid components throughout, frame looks really nice, nice full carbon fork, work horse DT Swiss 350 hubs, solid reliable Velocity rims… Like, everything about this bike is very decent, sans the paint job.
Nice bike, for sure. Not a Surely, that is also for sure. You really don’t see too many head tubes like this. They can be found on Ritchey bikes, but if this were a Ritchey, we’d know.
What other steel frames have this style of headtube? With the IS lower?