Anyone know much about them? Spotted one in a second hand bike shop today. Pretty sure it was the same as this one here:
Super Alan Bike Frame and fork, Vintage Aluminum Bike campy
Decked out with what looked like pretty early series Dura Ace (7200 series I think, after some investigating).
Not my size (looked like a 52ish) but it got me curious.
There crap,
Now where was it and how much?
I have it on good authority that this Alan CX frame is for sale - $500usd - contact the webpage owner for details.
1986 Alan 'cross bike
My old man imported one of the early models in the seventies.
I love it and I’d recommend them.
He never rides the thing anymore but he still won’t give it to me (I don’t blame him).
I’ve got an Alan Competition - you can tell it apart from the Super Record as the Competition has bolts joining the seat stays to the seat tube and the SR has cutouts in the lugs
I was close to buying one in 2008 when I was living in the states and they were routinely going for around $500 complete with NR or SR groups (sometimes a lot more, sometimes a lot less). Something to be aware of is that a shedload of them are cracked at the front of the head/down tube lug. The wreath below the “Alan” is commonly the end of a hairline crack coming up from the bottom of the lug, front dead centre. I think a lot of them a ridden like this for many years without a problem, but it made me uneasy about grabbing one.
Their CX bikes have been ridden to many wins.
Their name is kind of funny.
I don’t want to start a flame war but I’ve always thought that Alans look naff. Something about the use of glue to hold a frame together just doesn’t sit right with me.
My concern with Alan bikes is the whole durability thing- they have a pretty bad reputation as JP points out. Keep in mind these we cutting edge designs using aluminium before things like finite element analysis was around… just sayin
There is a reason you don’t see many early 90’s carbon frames being ridden anyone.
But as a mantelpiece bike, for sure!
inb4spirito.
use the search function, this has been roundly debunked.
Paging Spirito!
Really? I’d be very interested to read this.
so… USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION.
Or just link to this debunk-ment.
NOBODY LINK IT FOR HORATIO!
Make him do the legwork himself!
awww he’s just trying to have a conversation that isn’t about seatposts or lights 
weather’s too cold for shirtless riding don’t be to harsh on him
is shirtless with arm warmers considered cheating??
haha Blakey, how is it possible you can still accrue awesome points?? +10 for the lolz.
if I had an Alan bike I’d constantly be riding around saying Alan a lot like that little gopher thing in that YouTube clip.
Only if nipple warmers are employed.
Ha!! I don’t really like Alan’s … they look a little gaudy to me and I much prefer Vitus’/Vitii 
That being said … most old frames die eventually and I haven’t come across any data to suggest Alan’s are an more prone to failure than lugged steel. Again a case of “I read/heard/assume they’re fragile” so I’m gonna discredit a frame that I’ve had no personal experience with because I’m a parrot on the interwebs with a baseless opinion.
Do you know how many steel frame failures I’ve seen? Not from impact, but just riding along then bam, right rear dropout/derailleur hanger, bottom bracket area, fork crown’s, seat stays etc etc. Plenty of failures, yes … but a correspondingly similar percentage of lugged alu frames break/fail we get web experts who’ve never owned or ridden one make claims that they are all junk.
Treat every frame on it’s merits/appearance. Most bikes are likely to have been crashed. Most older frames are likely to have been ridden and don’t come with an warranty. If you’re not an expert take it to a framebuilder or a good LBS and have them inspect it for damage and roadworthyness. Don’t automatically assume because it’s steel that it’s gonna last forever or because it’s glued alu that it’s gonna fail tomorrow. Old shit breaks, so does new stuff too. It’s up to you to check your frame over and know what to look for.
^ Fair enough.
Having said that you’d rather have a steel fork fail on you than an aluminium fork, right? I’ll let Blakey and DaFrog elaborate on each materials failure characteristics… 