Bicycle Thread

[xALmoN]

magura HS33s? i'm sure those will stop it good.

[Mr Eps]

hey marco - here's the deal

i was gonna get a second singlespeed bike basically to share with the missus, erealised exactly WHY converting a fkn repco frame is just DUMB and was looking into just "BUYING" another "fixie" enter the eighth inch (brand) Scrambler (2nd edition frame - much better product)

reasons being mostly in the frame

BB is 10mm higher to eliminate pedal strike

horizontal dropouts - obviously for an SS bike these are must-have)

track frame geometry that isn't fkn $1200 on ebay (wtf) (im not kidding people think that frames are worth that much if they're from the 80s)

free of branding / decals, marking etc (easier to respray)

plus

customisable with whatever parts i choose from the factory in any colour

this was the demo bike they had in japan as pictured above, it's a little heavier than my c-dale... but for 900 bucks delivered and for a bike that'd essentially be my gf's... i can't complain too loudly... btw - the pink accents are actually red...

anyway - then i thought

waitaminute wtf am i doing

i have a wicked bike

i LOVE my bike - why the hell should i get another? if my stupid female companion wants a bike then she can fkn buy her own

so i scrapped the idea and wrote a really long post that wasted your time and made you think "well played, sir"

but

then i thought

perhaps while i LOVE my bike... maybe i have lost the lust i once felt for it - and perhaps it's time i manned up n bought a pair of Velocity wheels...

point of this post is - do B43's come in machined for brakes? because i can't see any on fleabay... i hear people talking on forums saying "run the brakes over the paint and the brakes will take the paint off"

but i doubt this would be a good idea... because the rim is a smoothe surface and the brake would be useless.. i want to slow down or stop. not die

so do B43 come in machined? and if not - would an engineer with a laithe be able to machine them?

or should i just give up on B43 and start looking into DeepV's

[xALmoN]

Thats one of the reasons why i at one point of time, had 4 different bikes... But i mostly only rode one.

I get bored of seeing my current bike and needed to build another, and another and another.

[mad082]

the smooth edge of the rim will still stop you as the machined section goes smooth pretty quickly anyway, it just doesn't look ugly after a while.

the b43 though isn't designed to run brakes though. it doesn't have the flat edge for the pads to rub on, it is an angled rim a bit like a disc brake specific rim.

[Mr Eps]

after posting this lastnight i read an interview with one of the american designers... he says that the anodised face just runs the braking surface... and eventually the surface rubs away but the surface is "ready to run brakes" according to velocity

$290 - $350 delivered from bell's bike shop over in USA depending on which hubs / spokes i get

any chance you can provide advice based on their use / application of what is the best? (no track, mostly street / road riding)

cheapest @ $285 delivered

middle priced @ $350 delivered with soma somax track hubs

anddddddd i dunno why these are so exxy - purple spoke AND somax track hub?

EDIT: im not settled on purple... it's up between purple, electric blue... red and white

Edited April 23, 2010 by Mr Eps

[mad082]

you didn't read what i said about the b43's did you. they don't have a flat face on them for the brakes to contact, meaning your brake pads will only contact with the top corner of the pad until they have worn away a bit, by which time the top of the pad will nearly be completely worn and the bottom of the pad will be like new still.

here is what i mean. technical drawings taken from velocity's australian website (since the rims are made in brissy)

b43 rim

deep v rim

also those prices are in $US and i would double check the price of freight as i wouldn't be suprised to see that go up a fair bit once you actually went to pay for them. and for not much more you could get them through your local bike shop with velocity track hubs, or could get them built up with whatever type of hubs you want.

[Mr Eps]

not to rag on your advice man but that's the official price - i've dealt with this particular bike shop before many times very fast postage too...

however i do prefer to purchase locally to help the industry... some things i'm okay with... but other things not so much...

for example two weeks ago i got a PAIR of vittoria rubino 700 x 23c 160TPI folding bead in biachi celeste colour for my gf delivered for $75AUD from taiwan - for the pair!

my friend however, paid $95 for ONE single white wall 700 x 28c 120TPI wire beaded tyre

like i know we as consumers are supposed to support the industry that supports us and i always preach that to people - i also preach "buy cheap, buy twice" with bikes...

however with certain things like that tyre example it's ridiculous... it's more than double the price over here.. one time out of desperation i once bought a vittoria rubino form a shop here in perth nobody had stock throughout perth, tried about 20 bike shops... one guy had ONE in stock.... and the single tyre... was off another bike... he wanted $110 for it... IT HAD BEEN FKN RIDDEN ON ALREADY and i pointed scuff marks where it'd been skidded on and dirt from road n manager goes "NUP hasn't been touched mate you're talking shit you want it that bad i can give ya 5 bucks off"

sooooooooo case is rrellevant when tlaking about wheels i suppose... but thanks for the diagrams, really showed me a lot! - i didn't really know what you were talking about with the flat surface thing... a lot of dudes over here in perth run the B43 (the B stands for Brisbane) =D haha, anyway alot of dudes run B43 and have brakes on theirs...

it's definately something for me to really think about - esp considering the B43 is a weighty rim construct, but that obviously comes with the territory of being a triple wall... good for topspeeds though!

Edited April 23, 2010 by Mr Eps

[mad082]

it's also weighty because it is such a deep v rim. there is more alloy in it than there is in shallower rims.

as for the buying stuff cheap from overseas, etc, unfortunately that isn't something that the bike shops themselves have any control over. those tyres you bought were probably the same, or less than the wholesale cost of them here. there are many reasons why, but the biggest one is the population of the country. somewhere like the UK or US the suppliers can supply the whole country from 1 or 2 warehouses and are getting the profit from servicing a market of 3 times the size of ours in the case of the UK and 15 times the size of ours in the case of the US. this means that they can buy things cheaper than the australian wholesalers because they can buy in much larger quantities, as well as they can run smaller profit margins as they will shift many more items than here so will still make more money. and unfortunately the more australians who buy from overseas the worse the prices will get here. small things like tubes will go up, as will servicing costs because the shops running costs aren't going to drop, and the shop dropping the price doesn't work either. i worked out 1 day that if i run everything at 20% less than rrp, i have to sell twice as much to make the same amount of profit.

i understand why people do it, but i don't think people realise what sort of effect they are having on local industry. or the positive effect they could have on the local industry if they stopped doing it.

[Mr Eps]

i'm sure they DO realise it, but i can guarantee you they put themselves to bed that night saying "it's only ME that's done it - nobody else..." "one person won't make an impact"

[mad082]

rowan have you thought of buying a single speed 29"? redline do a nice one.

[mad082]

thinking about getting a carbon fibre mtb. just got a specials list and there is 1 on there extremely cheap. is a $2200rrp bike. going to get 1 in for stock. if it sells then it sells, if not i will keep it

[mad082]

just ordered one of these

http://2009.apollobikes.com/bikes09/id/4/c.../title/Taos%20C

dirt cheap (40% off).

[Mr Eps]

looks sick!

that frame will give harsh torque on the up hills too

[mad082]

complete bike is about 10kg, so not to shabby on the weight either.

[Mr Eps]

haha - my alias is 13kg, or 14 kg... i think... pretty sure something like that... not too shabby for a mountain hog... but 10kg fk me that's light...

weight never meant much to me on a mountain though

[mad082]

i was thinking about getting a track bike as well, but they have no provisions for brakes and are a proper fixy (no freewheel), but it was only a few hundred dorra.

[mad082]

looked up the specs on the taos. bit heavier than 10kg. 12.33kg, but still very light. the alloy frame version of it is 13.2kg, so it loses nearly 1 kg just from the carbon frame. next model up is 11.75kg compared to it's alloy version at 12.5kg. the top model they do is 11.11kg

[Mr Eps]

no point being a weight weenie in regard to mountain biking though... you're holding onto the bars for dear life hoping your face doesn't meet rock in the next 10 second or your struggling trying to pedal up a 50 degree incline!!!

road bikes i can understand being being pedantic over 20g etc...

some hipsters who ride "fixies" sand the paint off their bikes to save weight from the paint.... what a bunch of faggots i say..

marc - more info on the trackbike? i'm curious myself..

is there room for brakes to be drilled??

[xALmoN]

What? Its good to be a weight weenie with mountain bikes too! It helps with the climbs, or i could just take a dump before the ride. We had 10kg trials bikes, but without a seat and seatpost, and running rigid aluminium wrist killer forks, who can't achieve 10kgs, right?

[Mr Eps]

yeah now you mention that... tell a mtb rider not to be a weight weenie when put on marc's new bike then put him on a 24kg bigW SLug!!!