Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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Remaerd
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Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by Remaerd »

Think I'm going to get the steel version of the Spa Cycles Audax.
The plan is to then throw on most of a 105 groupset and then sort some wheels out (that's a question for another day)

I briefly looked at other "audax" bikes.......

....Singular Osprey - 1" steerer :(
Hewitt Chiltern - out of stock :?

So it seams I'm kinda stuck, in a good way, with the Spa option.

Any I've overlooked?
Total bike build budget can strech to £1200.
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TrevA
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Re: Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by TrevA »

Thinking of doing something similar with their tourer frame and transferring the bits from my Ridgeback Panorama which has terminal rust. Spa frames are good value for money. There are a number of alternatives if you don't mind Alu but if you want steel then Spa seem to be the cheapest.
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PH
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Re: Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by PH »

Just to give you some alternatives, the Surly Pacer looks good and the Hewitt may well be available elsewhere, it's an Aravis frame used by a few, Henery Burton and Pearsons amongst them. Did you look at the Thorn Audax, probably the biggest competitor.
I think I'd probably go with the Spa, particularly if like with the tourers, they start doing it in colours other than black, but it’s nice to have a shortlist. OTOH if I ever build up another Audax bike, it'd probably be based on a frame that took V brakes, sacrificing a little weight for the option of wider tyres, the roads aren't getting any smoother!
pwa
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Re: Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by pwa »

I don't like the Tange headsets Spa supply with their frames. But apart from that the Spa audax seems to be the best at its price point. If you want a steel audax frame and don't want to pay a lot more, I doubt you could do better.
De Sisti
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Re: Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by De Sisti »

Image

I bought a Spa Audax frame exactly two years ago, after reading a few reviews and looking at its specifications on the company website. I took advantage of a deal they were promoting, whereby frame, carbon forks and headset were on offer for £275 (vice £325 Mar 2013). Being slightly shorter than average height (171 cm/ 5 ft 7 ins) and roughly knowing what frame dimensions would suit me, I opted for a medium frame. This proved to be a very good decision as the bike is an almost perfect fit. The top tube is 55 cm and I used a 10 cm stem. I must admit at this point that I have slightly longer arms for someone of my height (would have made a very good boxer with a long jab, keeping out of range of an opponent’s punch). 

I prefer Campag levers, so have used them for my choice of shifting (although the bike does benefit from Shimano Ultegra 9 speed hub and cassette). The frame material is Reynolds 725 steel with carbon fork. Total weight 2.2kg. I find my bike steady and stable (but not as quick on acceleration as my other two bikes, because of the heavy front wheel with a Schmidt dynohub. Without it it’d much quicker). Comfort also depends on other aspects too. I have Rolls saddle and 25 mm tyres. Wheel rims are Mavic open pro with Ultegra rear hub, Schmidt front hub (as already mentioned).

Overall I’d say this is a dependable (October to February) bike and have no regrets in choosing it.

Hope this helps,
Samuel D
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Re: Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by Samuel D »

The Thorn Audax is a good bit more expensive than the Spa Audax but has a steel fork rather than the Spa’s carbon-fibre. Whether that’s good or bad is up to you.

The other obvious difference is Thorn’s choice of colours other than Henry Ford black. Is there any reason to suspect Spa may offer other colours soon, as implied above? If so, I could be tempted! Though for me it would be my only bike, not an October to February bike.

Which 25 mm tyres are you running, De Sisti? Maybe they’re heavier than the tyres on your other bikes. I wouldn’t expect a dynamo hub to make a massive difference in acceleration.
PH
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Re: Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by PH »

Samuel D wrote:Is there any reason to suspect Spa may offer other colours soon, as implied above?


At York Rally they were displaying the Touring model in green and a musky red/pink (Sorry wouldn't know how better to describe it)
So suspect is the right level of knowledge, but as they have done well and are increasing the range, offering more colours makes sense. You could always ring and ask.
old_windbag
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Re: Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by old_windbag »

I've built a Spa Audax up from components from my old racing bike plus some new for various reasons. The componentry carried over were the campag veloce triple groupset and mavic open pro wheels. The new bits include charge spoon saddle, deda bars and stem and humpert seatpost. I've put on vredestein fortezza extremes in 28mm size, basically a lightweight ( 280gms ) all weather tyre. It's a lovely frameset with a nice carbon fork, pretty light at 2450gms in a 54cm( M ).. mine was only about 30gms different to the quoted weight, pretty good. Total weight for mine with mudguards, bottle cage, pedals is 10.5kg, not racing bike weight but not heavy. Without the guards and with a compact groupset ( current rather than the 2001 veloce I transferred over ) you coul be down at 9.5kg's. I think its an excellent frame to build a project bike with and it's competetively priced. The genesis equilibrium 2015 frame/fork also looks nice but the £150 saving of the spa can buy a nice wheelset. The equilibrium does also have the disc option if that appeals, I quite like them but the spa fitted my budget better and I'll just wait a little longer for the fun of discs.
Comfort wise it's hard to quantify a it is affected by tyres,saddle etc etc but suffice to say with the setup I have it's very good. It does have a spring like feel as you tick along, it's not as sprightly as my racing bike for obvious reasons but as an all round commuter, distance bike, light tourer it fits the bill well and it cope with most road surfaces well too. Clearly its a bike, so it won't smooth out everything but it does make a good job of most. I don't think you'll regret it if you go ahead, one thing to note is that I received a rather heavy stronglight headset with the F+F, I bought a fsa orbit mx to replace that, better design half the weight so it may be worth asking for an upgrade for change in price. A similar point was made above about the tange headset.
One point to add and that is I can use three bikes at present, cx bike, super acciaio roadbike and the spa..... well since building it the spa has had most outings of the three so it must have something good about it as the others aren't bad at all.
De Sisti
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Re: Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by De Sisti »

Samuel D wrote:
Which 25 mm tyres are you running, De Sisti? Maybe they’re heavier than the tyres on your other bikes. I wouldn’t expect a dynamo hub to make a massive difference in acceleration.

Schwalbe Durano Plus. I do notice a difference in acceleration between the dynohub wheel
and the others on my different bikes.
Samuel D
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Re: Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by Samuel D »

PH wrote:At York Rally they were displaying the Touring model in green and a musky red/pink (Sorry wouldn't know how better to describe it)
So suspect is the right level of knowledge, but as they have done well and are increasing the range, offering more colours makes sense. You could always ring and ask.

Sounds promising, though I suspect (that word again!) the Tourer sells better than the Audax. Anyone know?

old_windbag wrote:One point to add and that is I can use three bikes at present, cx bike, super acciaio roadbike and the spa..... well since building it the spa has had most outings of the three so it must have something good about it as the others aren't bad at all.

Persuasive!

By the way, I think there’s something to be said for having a single bicycle. I know most people end up acquiring at least a couple (and some a dozen) over the decades, but there is an attractive simplicity about having just one. And if you do want just one bike, something like the Spa Audax may be ideal.

De Sisti wrote:Schwalbe Durano Plus. I do notice a difference in acceleration between the dynohub wheel
and the others on my different bikes.

Dynamo hubs are heavy but their weight is at the centre of the wheel so is easier to accelerate than the same weight at the rim.

Schwalbe claims the 25 mm Durano Plus is 380 g in the folding version or 450 g with a wire bead. Often true weights are a bit higher than claimed. There are two of them, too. These are relatively heavy tyres.

But probably you notice a combination of the weight of the hub, the drag of the hub, the weight and rolling resistance of the tyres and tubes, the slightly greater weight of the rest of the bike versus your other bikes, etc. Each factor alone may not be significant, but added together they would certainly be significant.

However, for someone like me that would use a Spa Audax with lightweight tyres and tubes, no hub generator, etc., the bicycle might feel almost as fast as a lightweight road bike.
old_windbag
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Re: Spa Cycles steel Audax - any reason not to?

Post by old_windbag »

As a one bike does it all bike the Spa Audax does do very well, it could easily be built to 9.5kg. Now many will grimace at references to weight but it adds up at every acceleration you put in, so for the same effort as my road bike ( going by HR, average HR ) then it seems to be around 1-1.5mph average slower on the same routes ( remember this is 10.5kg bike + seat bag/tools 0.6kg + .75kg drink ). My road bike benefits with lower weight, narrower tyres on faster lighter wheels but it isn't practical, its the racing car whereas the Spa Audax is a ford focus ).The versatility of separate mudguard and rack mounts make it an excellent light weight tourer/ commuter. You can then trade the kilo's saved against a full on tourer for your panniers and their contents. If I had to give up all but one of the three bikes I mentioned the keeper would most probably be..... the cyclocross bike. Not what you want to hear I'd imagine but for genuine reasons. It's generally slower due to its weighter disposition but is fractionally more comfortable simply due to 35mm tyres, it can also handle any forest track or sustrans path ( they're quite gravelly where I live, large gravel about 30-40mm ). The spa audax with guards is probably at tyre limit of 28mm but should handle anything a dawes super galaxy would, clearly with less load.... but for road+rough off road tracks I feel the cx style is the better all round choice( kona jake has mudguard and rack fittings not all do if they full on cyclocross ).
So I give the thumbs up to the Spa if predominantly on metalled roads otherwise for commuting, distance and road+off-road touring some of the other alternatives ( adventure bikes, gravel racers, pseudo-cx bikes ) are worth investigating, whyte, kinesis, cotic, salsa etc.. too many to list. I think it's name "Audax" sums up exactly what it's design lends itself to perfectly, long miles at moderately fast speeds and posssibly with moderate luggage carrying. Discs are definitely worth considering too, pretty low maintenance and no rim issues, as I mentioned earlier for me it was purely costs for my project.
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