i say paddy wagon… surprised that others havent.
2c…
I can recommend the Steamroller frame. New, warrantied, tough and reliable. I test rode a complete, but the quality of the components wasn’t as good as what I had on my old bike (which I swapped over). And, it was a 3/32 drive train, so didn’t match up with my 1/8 stuff.
any opinion IRT the plug vs the mongoose maurice cromo?
so far these are the two on my shortlist…
– had a ride on the SE Lager, but thought a chinese frame for $750 is a little too much - any comments on this?
thanks in advance
hate to break it to you, but for $750 of the shelf you’re not going to find anything that wasn’t built in China and shipped from Taiwan.
fair enough - what do you think of the mongoose maurice cromo? or/and any other suggestions?
I gather from your options that you are looking at what you can get on Wiggle? Mate, with a sale of 25% off the Charge Plug Racer at the moment that is your best option I’d say, forget the Mongoose, the Charge has far better parts and is a nicer build.
Mongoose Maurice is $641 delivered to Aus (full price)
Charge Plug Racer is $737 delivered to Aus (on sale)
with those wiggle prices you have to go for the plug racer. Has a good enough rep, with any new bike in that price range you’ll end up upgrading, chances are you’ll have to do far less to it than the mongoose though.
i have a plug and my friend has a mongoose, the charge is and has far superior component’s.
cool - thanks guys!
yes I am looking at the plug on wiggle.co.uk, the mongoose is LBS for $630
did you get charged import tax on the charge when shipped as a complete bike?
No import tax on purchases under a $1000 if they have correct paperwork - wiggle are very good with this, so there shouldn’t be any problems at all. They also ship rather quickly.
Shit… I’m going to suss out that Charge Racer
If you’re assembling a shipped bike out of a box, be sure to tighten the sprocket and lockring. They’re normally finger tight from the factory, riding it like this will strip out the thread in a couple of weeks.
- Joel
Thanks for the tip Joel 
Is there any difference between 09-10 models? Saving 200 bucks is tempting, thoughI was planning to fork out the money in march, not now…
i got the masi off the shelf just to get me riding quicker, it’s done the job so far, although not much of the original setup remains on it, but i think the components on the surly are pretty average. the newer masi’s come with sugino messenger crankset too…
yes I am tossing time-$$-patience ratios around while trying to get something decent I can build on, but can start rolling straight up too…
been off 2 wheels for 5 years (riding all my life until moving to oz) and now it struck me - got to get back on…
got the racer delivered yday.
even my wife said it’s shit hot… 
and it is even out of the box…
Ooohhhhh, some pics when it’s done please
Awesome ride after I figured the ergonomics of it and myself - so far this is what I’ve to show (off;) http://i.gelatinpixel.com/2010/01/20/plug-racer/
I’ll have to put some tapes on the handle bar tomolo etc but all in all it’s really great bike.
The 42:16 nearly made me throw my exsmoker(for 2 months or so) lungs up on the way back up from winmalee (blue mountains) but I didn’t give up. Ah and I had a msger bag of wedge shopping on my back and it was 41celsius.
You can tell I’m excited!
Ps: sorry for dodgy type - it’s off mobile.
Lots of Charge bikes around Bayswater as the local lbs stocks them. You’d be very tempted with the wiggle price though. Damn my need for new wheels and putting the house on the market.
you mean in syd?
wonder if there are any fixers in the blue mountains or is it just me that left for a parallel universe?