Diarmuid
Member
Has anyone ever heard of this company or bike? This looks exactly like what I've been looking for.
https://wattwagons.com/products/ultimate_commuter_pro
https://wattwagons.com/products/ultimate_commuter_pro
Has anyone ever heard of this company or bike? This looks exactly like what I've been looking for.
https://wattwagons.com/products/ultimate_commuter_pro
Hey bud. Thanks! I'm the owner of the company. I just PMd you. Let's connect if you have time today.Whoops. Guess we can close this thread.
This heat treated cro-moly tubing is precision butted and offered in a wide range of tube sizes for all styles of frames. This material is ideal for TIG welding and brazing, with joining by lug or lugless construction. 725 is a material that allows thin gauge, tight tolerance tube, providing maximum weight saving for competitive use.
This tubing rides like a classic, comfortable, light-weight steel frame. It is a bit heavier and less expensive than our Vari-Wall Supertherm material, but is just as durable and fun to work with. Although this is our lowest cost option, it is still a very high quality product. I realize that lot of mass-produced bikes have "cro-moly" stickers on them. These bikes are usually quite heavy and kind of give steel a bad reputations as being 'heavy'. Now, if you've read my frame materials article, you know this to be the case for the other materials as well.
Most mass produced cro-moly frames will weigh around 5 to 5.5 pounds. This is because they use lower grade cro-moly for the 3 main tubes only (seat, top and down tube), and then often use a much heavier high-tensile steel for the rest of the bike. :-(
We do things differently. All Rodriguez frames are hand-built with high-quality tubing that is much lighter than a standard mass-produced cro-moly frame. When we build a Rodriguez frame from Reynolds 725, the whole frame is high grade, heat treated cro-moly.
Weights - weights listed are for frames built for standard road brakes (disc brakes add some weight)
Final weights vary depending on frame size and type, but a recently built medium sized (6S) Rodriguez Competition sport frame weighed just under 4 pounds (3 pounds 15 ounces). This is a very respectable, verified weight for the price. Expect a sport Rodriguez 725 frame to weight in the range of 3.8 ~ 4.25 pounds.
THERMLX tubing is an aerospace grade of 'air hardening' steel and modified to enhance its properties for light weight bicycle frames.
Vari-Wall is seamless tubing as well. This puts it another level above the True Temper version that we have used up until now. All THERMLX bicycle tubing have a tensile strengths approx. 30% higher than other steel tubing, so we can use much thinner, lighter weight material without compromising strength. This isn't the only improvement over traditional cro-moly though. Air hardening means that the tubing is designed specifically for the higher heat of welding. Therefore, the tubing retains its high strength, even in the heat affected areas.
We've been building with this type of ultra-light steel tubes for years now, and I think you'll find the ride characteristics to be amazing. The price of a hand-crafted Rodriguez THERMLX frame is less than most custom builders sell their generic labeled, heavier 'cro-moly' frames for. For most people, a Rodriguez OX Platinum frame is the Perfect Blend of performance, light-weight, and comfortable riding.
Weight - weights listed are for frames built for standard road brakes (disc brakes add weight)
A Rodriguez frame built with THERMLX tubing can be very light. You'll see a few mass-produced 'light steel' frames on the market, and they usually weigh in well over 4 pounds. A Competition Rodriguez THERMLX frame in a medium size will usually tip the scales at about 3.5 pounds. In smaller sizes they've weighed in around 3.1 pounds. These are very respectable, true weights that we will stand behind.
Bike weight is important to a lot of people, and for that reason they are willing to compromise comfort and longevity for a lighter weight frame material. There's no need for that. I know that there are a lot of carbon fiber frame makers out there that claim sub 3lbs weights, but realize there's a lot of lying that takes place out there. When we weigh high-end carbon frames on our digital scale, we usually find that they weigh around 3.25 ~ 3.75 pounds just like one of our THERMLX frames.
First off, thanks for your comment. That is the kind of reaction we are hoping to generate in our audience. Not only does the Ultimate Commuter Pro look good, it actually has a lot of thought put into it. I sincerely appreciate your feedback.After finding out about this, I'm just shocked that a company actually built the exact same bike I specc'd out and was ready to build on my own.
That might be a way to retain the strength and weight characteristics of Ti but bring down the price.
The only difference between your bike and the one I was about to build is the handle bar, frame, lights, and rear rack and the frame I had picked out, would be custom fit for my size (I'm 6'6").
That all makes sense and you probably made the right choice given all those factors.
Is there any information you can share about the water resistance/proofing? I'm up in the PNW where it rains a ton and it was one of the reasons I was heavily looking at waterproof products like the Luna Cycle Wolf Liquid battery, PhaseRunner, etc.
Is there any information you can share about the water resistance/proofing? I'm up in the PNW where it rains a ton and it was one of the reasons I was heavily looking at waterproof products like the Luna Cycle Wolf Liquid battery, PhaseRunner, etc.
Do the Ultra in your bikes have the updated metal gear or the older nylon?
Good choice in tires, I have those on a Haibike and they're my all time favourite bicycle rubber.
I'm sure it's the metal gear. I still have the nylon one in mine and after close to two years, no problems.