I have a Leader frame that I'm happy with. What kind of wheel cutout problem do these have?

I had a cycling buddy in college who used to ride only Leader and was happy with it. However, if it were me, I would stay away from the frames that have the bad wheel cutout. The normal non-irregular frames are only a little bit more and you would run into any problems. It looks like a fairly severe problem from the pictures.

Guys I have a Leader TT frame and really like it alot. It is pretty much the same geometry as the Cervello P3. Didn't have the coin for P3 cause of family, mortgage etc., so went with the Leader TT frame. Have had no prob AT ALL since I've had it. Used in in a half IM where I qualified for long course dist. world champs in my AG (Almere). Since I've had it, it has only needed the BB bracket tightened up once and I've ridden over 1700miles on it. It's been great for the coin. So the wheel cut is off by a bit. No prob for me. It goes faster than the RB I had before but the biggest diff is the transition from an RB to this frame. It is great on the legs after a 5-6hr ride. They feel fresh. For the $ ya can't go wrong I say. I recommend them. My 2 cents. PS - PM me if you wanna discuss things further.

Here is a picture of my Leader TT frame bike. I've been very happy with its riding characteristics. I had good customer service response form Leader. My first frame came damaged at the headset when I received it. I sent it back and they replaced it wihin a week.

It's the Leader fork. Carbon TT fork

I think that you missed the point of what UFTriGator is saying. I take it to mean that a company that is worried about the perceived quality of their brand name is not going to sell a defective product just so they don't have to lose money on a quality control issue. These bikes are most likely fine and this cutout should not affect the structural framework of the bike (It should not explode on you when you are riding it). However any company that is trying to establish itself as a quality brand would not sell a known defective product. UFTriGator wasn't saying that you need to buy a Cervelo or another expensive brand; he was saying that there are a lot of cheaper bike frame manufacturers out there (Like Fuji for example (I’m Biased)) that still make a high quality frame, but would not try to sell a defective frame to the public. To my knowledge, Leader makes a great frame, but if it were me, I would stay away from these frames.

My advice would be to not rush the decision just because it is a good deal. I was able to buy my bike frame on EBay as well and only spent $150 on the frame and it came with a headset and carbon fork. I have seen this deal on EBay for a while so it isn't something that you need to jump on right away, it will still be there in a few weeks. Take some time and think it over, if you still want to get the bike in a little bit go ahead, but look around there are a lot of great deals out there.

Also if you do get the frame, please promise me that you will not have your friend of a friend do some welding on the frame that is just asking for trouble.

Thanks for helping me out, Dan. I'm not even trying to steer you away from Leader, either. Just away from that particular frame. The good ones are only $389. That's like the difference between mid- and high-level brake calipers....hell, the whole frame is still even less than a Zero-G brake caliper by itself. You're still going to have to build up the bike, and in the grand scheme of things $190 isn't that much to pay for piece of mind. You might get the $199 frame and be fine....but you might not be fine, too. You're not talking about a lot of money....it's less than $200, and I just think that getting a frame (or anything for that matter) where you know something's already wrong is just asking for trouble.

Hey Gator
Prety freakin kewl stuff! For 199.99 I'll take a little mistake! I'm a ham and egger, 48 years old, bin riding a Cannondale SR 300, didnt think I could afford a true aro bike, but now I can!
Dwayne

You might want to repost the WHOLE link to that post on bikeforums. The one above is incomplete. At least I get a 404 when I click on it...

But that's interesting to know about the Leader TT frames. I couldn't for the longest time figure out why there were such cheap frames available.