John Neugent at Neuvation Cycling puts his brand on frames made by Trigon, a top fab shop in Taiwan. Trigon makes frames for a number of truly top brands -- including, for example, Pinarello.
I'm pretty psyched about the new Neuvation FC600. He's finally offering this bike in the adult size of 62 cm. Neugent is also advertising a taller head tube, a design change intended to fit the normal cyclist. According to his daily missive:
"This is a bike that is long overdue. It is very similar to the FC500 (our top of the line bike) but has a taller head tube. Over 95% of the bike fits we do result in handlebar heights that are as high as we can get them. This not only gives you higher bar height positions but also allows you to have a lower stem position on the fork. These are all set up with the newest in 11 speed components and Neuvation 11 speed wheels (see more info below)."
In exchange for less than exciting graphics Neuvation lets you pick up a top end ride for much less than a mainstream brand. For example, a Sram Red 11-speed build comes in at less than $4000. Ultegra 6800 11-speed for $2600.
With a FC100 build you can get the Sram 11-speed for more like $2700. I had one of those frames in my possession for a few weeks due to a shipping glitch on Neuvation's end. It's a very nice looking setup -- carbon tubing with aluminum lugs.
That's not much more than a self build using components from Merlin ($1300 for 2013 Sram Red 10-speed) and a $495 closeout price on the FC100 frameset.
12 comments:
Could you truly be looking for a 62 cm frame? I'm in the process of selling a 58-cm road bike because it's too big for me, and you're only two inches taller. For most manufacturers, 6'2" is right in the wheelhouse of 58 cm frames. If you need a 62 in Neuvation, they must have some exotic geometry going on.
Having followed the link, the sizing jumps from 57cm to 62cm. Assuming that height follows a bell curve, that seems like an odd place to have a massive 5cm jump in sizes. I'd think it would result in some real oddness, like a 70mm stem on a 62cm frame, or a 140mm stem on a 57cm frame.
Interestingly the 'specs' page lists the sizes as 54, 57, 60. There doesn't seem to be a geometry page, which makes it tough to compare this frame to any other.
I'm about Max' height (maybe 0.5" taller), and all my bikes are in the 62 - 64cm range. The 64 is actually my most comfortable fit, but the 62s are comfy as well. Every bike I've tried below 60 has definitely been way too small for me, and Max' old Cannondale (61, I think?) is too small as well.
Frame sizing is so ridiculously arbitrary.
The FC600 looks nice. I see I built up a couple new 10-speed bikes just in time for them to be obsoleted by 11-speed.
Long legs. My 60 cm Gunnar has lots of seatpost and several spacers. My 58 cm Cervelo has lots of seatpost and fewer spacers. Bigger frame and less componentry is a better way to build.
Neugent always makes dumb editorial errors. The e-mail I quoted actually calls the frame the brand-new FC500 -- but they've had the 500 in their line for at least three years. I would bet 60 cm is what he means.
I definitely see a lot of head tube on the bikes to the right of this page. Maybe y'all do have unfathomably long inseams. But that doesn't quite answer the question: if your long legs drive you to a 62, that's even more reason why you'd also be finding yourselves needing an unreasonably short stem. You'd be candidates for custom frames. But I'm not really a road bike fit expert. When you start buying 62cm tri bikes, we'll have a conversation. Of course, given Max's recent posts, that seems a distant day.
I'm guessing that Nashbar's "famous maker with Ultegra" bike has a lot more FSA components than Ultegra.
On the subject of bike fit....
I've been tempted to splurge on a set of long cranks. Doesn't it seem odd that crank length is apparently so important to justify offering 170, 172.5, and 175 and yet so unimportant as to offer anything longer? Is it really reasonable that a full-size person uses the same crank length as a mini person?
Some of the online calculators imply that a 36" inseam should result in a crank length of ~190. I don't know if I buy that, but surely 180 might make sense? Unfortunately all the custom cranks seem to be square taper.
The trend in TT bikes is strongly toward shorter cranks. I actually ride 165s on my racing bike. The justification in that context is that they allow you to get into a more aggressive position. That doesn't quite translate to road bikes, but even so, a key finding in the research is that power output doesn't vary much with crank arm length. You could probably add or subtract 15mm centimeters and not affect performance. In all, I wouldn't go out of your way to get longer cranks. The "crank length as function of inseam length" theories have fallen substantially out of favor. (Parenthetically: 36 is a monster inseam.)
Torque, I gather, is a linear relation to the radius (which is the crank-arm). That suggests longer crank arms do not translate to huge power benefits, but there is (obviously) a power benefit. A 180 mm crank-arm should give a 3% advantage over a 175 mm crank-arm (and more like 6% over the 170s I ride on the TT bike).
The cost of this is longer distance for your legs to travel, which potentially is itself tiring and can lead to injury. (Circumference is also a linear relation to radius length, so neither overwhelms the other.) I would propose that if you pedal slowly (e.g., climbing a hill slowly and steadily) the added crank-arm length is a boon. If you pedal fast, the difficulty of moving your legs that far exceeds the benefit of the additional torque.
It is pretty easy to find 177.5 in the Shimano cranksets, FWIW.
I just bought one, and this bike is amazing. Super nice ride, super quick and descends like a demon. I am 6 2 with really long arms and legs, got the 60 cm frame it fits great. Have the new Shimano Ultegra DI2, simply unbelievable Total cost for this bike was around $3000. Deal of a lifetime! Here is a link to some pics--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithgeorge/sets/72157638487471795/
Larry, agreed. Thanks for the pictures! Great-looking bike.
I took advantage of John's Thanksgiving sale and upgraded my partner's bike to the FC600 with Ultegra 11-speed. I'm still regularly loading the cart and not purchasing for myself, but your comment is starting to sway me.
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