Prologue

Alien Tarck bikes come in five sizes - 53, 55, 57, 59 and 61. The framesets have very nice track ends, long lugs, a gusseted bottom bracket, a top pointed seat lug and a flat crown fork (all rare on budget framesets). All of the lugs are casted, not stamped, which is a big bonus. I was apart of the Alien Group buy. I was one of the overly excited to order and then underwhelmed, upon receipt of the frameset, group. The raw, 59cm frame showed up in a timely fashion and was true to description, with a minor exception. It was missing a seatpost binder bolt, and when I emailed Alien, they shipped one out to me quickly. I was also happy to be given quick feedback from Alien when I inquired about which parts to buy, as I was having difficulty selecting a headset, as this would become my first “threaded” build-up. Joseph at Alien suggested that I get a Tange Levin CDS 1" 27.0 threaded headset. Raw as it gets Luggage

Chapter One: Dressed to the Nines

I took the raw frame to be painted by a local auto body shop, instead of opting for the free powder coating that Alien was offering through the group buy. The paint came out spectacularly, and I was excited as could be to begin the build. Having never chased threads on a bottom bracket and having never installed a threaded headset, I took a short trip to a frame builder’s shop. The bottom bracket, after the threads were chased, went in with ease but the headset provided a challenge. I was upset to find out that the fork that was shipped to me was not long enough to fit within the headtube and headset that had been recommended to me by Joseph at Alien. Had I not painted the frame already, I would have had Alien send me a new one. Since I had already spent $100 on the paint, and I didn’t want to incur that cost (or any additional cost, for that matter) I decided to have my friend “face” the headtube. At the time, I was unfamiliar with what this was. In short, it involved grinding down the top of the head tube. We took about ¼” to ½” off of the total height of the tube. The most unfortunate part of this situation is that we couldn’t take off an even amount on both the bottom & top of the tube because, with 700c wheels on, there is very little clearance, so, we took the large majority of the metal away from the top of the headtube, leaving me with noticeably uneven lugs. Casted not stamped Pretty enough to eat

Chapter Two: The Menace Lurks

I shared my story and concerns with the shipping of mismatched fork and frame combos with Joseph at Alien. I didn’t ask for any sort of refund or remuneration. I assumed that I would have at least received an apology for sending me a frameset that wasn’t compatible with the headset that I was told to buy, or perhaps a fork that was simply too short to begin with, but I received no reply. Once the remaining parts arrived I built the frameset up with more than decent components. The maiden voyage was exciting, while a little annoying. There was a huge amount of toe overlap and the geometry was quite different from the two previous track bikes that I had owned (a Leader & a Bianchi Pista Concept). I had originally installed track drops and I chalked up my initial discomfort and unsteadiness to riding drops, since I hadn’t done that in a while. The second trip out on the new bike was better; I was becoming more comfortable with the tight geometry. The third trip out put the strength of the frame to the test. I was hit head-on by a large SUV. The steel Alien frame suffered no damage. I attribute this to the solid construction and the strength of the metal. Crunch

Chapter Three: A Renewed Faith

After the crash I replaced the handlebars, saddle & wheels. The new set-up was more comfy. I put on Syntace Stratos bullhorns, which provided me a more comfortable hand position. Not much can be done about the toe overlap, I currently have large toe cages on the pedals, but even with medium cages (which I tried for one ride) there was still overlap. As of yet, I haven’t tried the bike with risers, but I suspect the comfort level would be similar or more comfortable than the bullhorns, for relaxed street riding. The bike hasn’t been ridden on the track so I don’t presume to know its prowess or stability at those speeds or angles. Phoenix Arising

Epilogue

My bottom line: If Alien were to send out forks with adequate tube length that match the frames and if they sent all the miscellaneous parts when they ship the frameset, then it’s a decent value for the price of $330 shipped. It’s an even better value if the buyer takes the free powder coating offer thru Alien (although, on tarckbike.com: in the Alien Bike Build Up Thread we saw that, in at least one instance, the powder coating quality is sub-par). Alien Bike Build Up Thread More Photos Of This Frame Discuss this review and product here: http://tarckbike.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4637