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If that is a custom made bike.... that is some of the worst welding I've seen. You sure that's a Strong?

As Dave Kirk of Kirk Framesets said:

"AL beads are phat yo."

Handsome Rob is the one selling and he posts a lot on RBR and Serotta forum.

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Why bother ..............

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Yes, MY opinion. I wouldn't buy it... and I would like my armchairs welded better than that too. Sorry if that offends. BTW, you didn't hurt the one feeling I have left.

I gotta agree with you....those are some crappy welds. The welds on my worthless 4 year old...Old Supergo...."Scattante" frame look better than those and that ain't saying much.

From a welder like Strong, I would expect them to look better regardless of how hard the material is to weld. If you are going to sell a frame out of a specific material you should be proficient at welding said material before selling the frames....that just look bad.

Makes me wonder if some Strong stickers were slapped on a repainted other manufacturer frame?

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If that is a custom made bike.... that is some of the worst welding I've seen. You sure that's a Strong?
I was thinking the same thing....
I personally wouldn't buy it because that welding finish will drive me crazy...

When a number of well known frame builders looked in at the Serotta forum and all said the welds were damn good,

I sus pect they may know something about the material and what it takes to weld it.

That frame is made of Dedacciai EM2 - it is an ultralite, and ultrathin scandium doped Al alloy material. There are very few framebuilders who even have the guts to step up to that stuff and weld it by hand.

Rather than calling the builder out for "crappy work" I would think someone may want to understand the material and the challenges of working with it.

When well respected builders opine on the quality of the welds - I would rather take thier opinions to heart than an armchair quarterback here.

Regardless of what the other builders said, do you think they look appealing? I don't. They may be the best welds in the business but they are awfully chunky and uneven looking. I wouldn't buy it just because of those welds.

This is not a comment on anything but the welds. I'm sure it's a great frame, like all other Strong frames.

Regardless of what the other builders said, do you think they look appealing? I don't. They may be the best welds in the business but they are awfully chunky and uneven looking. I wouldn't buy it just because of those welds.

This is not a comment on anything but the welds. I'm sure it's a great frame, like all other Strong frames.

For $2850, just for the frame....I would expect much, much better and finished welds for the price.

Why does a builder get a pass on welds that look like that just because his name is "Carl Strong"? You can get better welds on a $250 frame and anybody that plunks down $2850 for a frame should get a beautiful as well as a great riding frame.

I've seen other Strong frames that were/are beautiful....however that one, ugly, ugly welds and I'd send the thing back if I were the original owner. No way I'd trust a bike that looked like that....regardless of the builder.

Maybe it was his first attempt with the material? Regardless that frame should never have left the building....:blush2:

I know a few years back, Strong had a little bit of a production line going and I think he was sending out frames with his name that he hadn't built. I could be wrong on that exact accout, but I do recall there being some info on his site about how his business had gotten too big and he wasn't happy with where it was headed. He made a decision to scale back and get back to the basics of bike building.

This frame may be from that era. At least, I'm hoping that it is.

Hey caterham, I was wondering why you were asking questions about this particular frame? If you don't mind my asking.
I was also wondering why toomanybikes edited his posts.
Just wondering.

Its kind of a thing with me but if your building a custom frame why use a stock carbon rear triangle? IMO its got to limit the builder. I'm guessing its more of a fashion/cost cutting thing but what do I know. I never built a frame. I have purchased a few custom frames however and this one would be rejected by me unless that tubing is magic. To you welders, could he not have done a second pass to smooth it out or do the C'Dale thing and filed em smooth?

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I was also wondering why toomanybikes edited his posts.
Just wondering.

I'm not toomanybikes....but by the sound of his posts, he thinks we here are too stupid (yes I said it and flame away if anybody wish's) to notice the beauty of a Carl Strong welded frame. Hence....the "Why Bother" post.

He's taking the advice of posters on the Serotta forums...but not looking at the actual product. That frame is one of the worst welded frames I've seen in a long time, regardless of brand. It's just plain bad....and if he would actually look at the welds he would see that. Instead....he edits his posts to "Why Bother".

I'm guessing he owns a Carl Strong frame and had a great experience with him and feels the need to defend him.

As I've said before, I've seen other Strong frames and they were beautiful. The frame in this thread is not indicative of his work in general. Maybe it's a first edition with that tubing, maybe it was during a production phase? Who knows....the reality....it's an ugly welded frame.

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hi guy,i own a similarly constructed & featured cinelli aliante w/ muscle fork & rear triangle (pic in my gallery page) and saw the auction on eBay. Having been a welder in a past life and curious about strong bikes in general, i was struck by the workmanship.In posting, mostly i was interested in whether or not this particular frame was representative.

It is absolutely not indicative of his work.

Ok I am absolutely not going to get involved in this discussion-already did on the Serotta forum-but there are a lot of folks with welding experience here so I wil ask this question.

Many many years ago i visited a boiler manufacturing plant (Cleaver Brooks) and watched them roll big sheets of steel into cyclinders for the body of the boiler and then weld the joint. They ground the weld down smooth and I remember it was said that grinding the weld makes the joint stronger. As with a bike, a failure of this weld could be catastrophic (in this case a boiler potentially turning into a missile), so I am wondering if the same is true for all steel welds and why this is. THx

b21

Hey caterham, I was wondering why you were asking questions about this particular frame? If you don't mind my asking.
I was also wondering why toomanybikes edited his posts.
Just wondering.

If I could edit out the sections of those posts where I have been quoted I would do that too.

I have no wish to be a part, even peripheral, of a public slagging of anyone. Carl Strong or anyone else.

This thread has turned into a public stoning and I have no wish to be part of it.

It is unseemly and a touch petty.

Everyone is entitled to have their own opinions.

For any member of this forum to consider that they can tell from the other end of a keyboard what I am thinking or feeling and to ascribe public motive or opinion to that is unforgivable.

Hmmmm! I just checked out this thread, and with all the editing/deleting that's been done, it really makes no sense.

Hmmmm! I just checked out this thread, and with all the editing/deleting that's been done, it really makes no sense.

+1 :rolleyes:

What the heck happened here?

It would have helped if we could see the welds atleast!

I think you can still see the frame in question here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=140191988064&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=004

You know, if memory serves me right, there was a brief generation of framesets from Supergo (now "Supergone") about five or six years back that were Columbus Airplane tubing with the Muscle fork and rear triangle. Not available for very long - maybe one catalog issue.

A repaint and some "sign-shop" decals and voila! Hello, sucker! That sure doesn't look like anything I've ever seen out of Strong's shop.

You know, if memory serves me right, there was a brief generation of framesets from Supergo (now "Supergone") about five or six years back that were Columbus Airplane tubing with the Muscle fork and rear triangle. Not available for very long - maybe one catalog issue.

A repaint and some "sign-shop" decals and voila! Hello, sucker! That sure doesn't look like anything I've ever seen out of Strong's shop.


I actually have one of those "Supergo Specials" (mentioned above) that you are talking about and let me tell you, the welds on that cheap frame ($399.00 for the frame, fork, headset and seat post) are much, much better on the frame that was originally shown in this thread...so I'm not even sure it was one of those.

That bike is now my trainer bike (permanently affixed to my trainer) and has probably 1000+ hours of ride time and for the money....wasn't all that bad of a frame.

But that is part of the debate on this thread....that people seem to have erased their posts from(?). Knowing some of the work that Strong has done, it doesn't look like something he would ever let go out his door.

However, there were people on here and it sounds like the Serrotta forums well....that were defending those welds saying "Experts" said they were "Good or Great" welds....Huh? :idea:

Wookie,

I too had a "Supergo Special", the Scattante XRL, about 2004 vintage. I got it for $199 including a seatpost and stem. Yep, the welds and the paint were surprisingly good, easily matching the QC of frames costing three times as much (maybe more.) I built it as a second bike and only sold it because a stiff aluminum frame is not kind to my old body.

Again, if memory serves me, those Columbus Airplane and Zonal tubed Scatannte's weren't around long because of serious quality control problems (so sayeth a former Supergo store manager.) But, who knows. I still maintain that nothing like that likely came out of Strong's works.