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On One Fat Bike Frame

438K views 2K replies 291 participants last post by  qclabrat 
#1 ·

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#826 ·
what is the orange rim strip? Is it something grime resistant, or is it ribbon?
Anyone know of what to use that will resist soiling while being available in multiple colors, and is fairly light?

I was thinking colored vinyl or cloth backed vinyl tape stuck sticky side to sticky side to a wider tape, so that the overlap can stick to the rim.
Is this what others are doing?
does it work well?
 
#810 ·
So, still unboxing and weighing stuff, but here's my thoughts:

- The tires are HUGE! The tread is HUGE! Mine weigh 1444g and 1516g.
- I like the skewers. Levers look neat and the machined aluminum nut with the captured spring is a really nice touch. F 58g, R 59g
- Tubes weigh 593g each. If the orange decals weren't bad enough, the valve caps are orange as well!
- Front wheel 1722g w/ rotor & rim tape, w/o skewer.
- Rear wheel 2293g w/ rotor & rim tape & cassette, w/o skewer. 30 pt freehub engagement = 12 degrees.
- Rims are pinned, not welded (not a worry to me). I'm concerned that the profile of the rim bead seat might make it tough to go tubeless, as the shelf isn't very wide.

More to follow...
 
#811 ·
Update #1

Well, I already had to make a trip to the LBS. The socket type Park BB tool I had won't fit the Howitzer BB as the spindle is in the way. LBS was nice enough to lend me a wrench type one. The crank and BB that come on the bike are massive. They could handle the fattest of the fat IMO!

And by some miracle, the Race Face Evolve 24-36-bash crankset fits!!!

But there is only one mm of clearance between the chainring and the chainstay! So I need a 34. But I don't see 34s on the Race Face website! So, asked LBS to look into and order one if possible. Comment on this thread if you'd like to.

More weights:
- Big Nose Saddle 290g. I wonder why they called it that. It looks kinda odd to me. The front part of it is much wider than my regular saddle. Saddle shell says Velo, the mfr I guess.
- Twelfty seatpost 282 grams. 31.6x 350. Wondering who the little cartoon guy on the back of it is supposed to be. Customer? Designer?
- Cassette 391 g SRAM 11-36
- QR seat clamp 37g.
- Howitzer BB 430 g.
- Truvativ Holzfeller crank (170 mm, 32T) 687 g.

Only issue so far is that there was not a chaingiude on the bike as per the specs. Its not a big deal to me as I am going 2x anyhow.

I will post photos of the complete bike, but the garage is not lit well and is a complete mess. And I know the response that a messy garage would get on STW!

Any bets on whether another LBS trip will be needed today or not?
 
#812 ·
Update #2

IIRC, the website said that the bike was supposed to come with white bars. My bars are black, and I'm glad! However, the gold print on the bar looks out of place with the rest of the bike as there is no other gold anywhere. Oh, and these bars are 30 inches wide! My regular bike is 26.5 inches wide. There are some real narrow gaps between trees where I ride, so if I like the wide bars, I may have to go cut down some trees!

As far as headset concerns expressed by someone, I took the fork off, and the headset bearings were nice and smooth. The cups were greased when put into the frame as there were gobs of red grease squeezed out around them. I couldn't figure out how to get the bearings out of the cups, though. I didn't try sharp tools or a hammer, though because I wanted to keep the seals intact. So I just added a little grease to the top and bottom of the cartridge bearing and reassembled things. On-one provided a 5, 15, 15, and 20 mm spacer on the steerer.

More weights:
- Stem 145 g, 31.8x60 mm. Looks nice. The steel steerer tube is exposed at the rear of the stem, so I need to figure out how to stop it from rusting.
- Fork 1300 g with ginormous crown race attached
- Ancho bar, 316 g, 30" wide
- Grips 124 g w/ plugs. I will put Ergon grips on mine, but keep these around.
- Front brake - 333 g with 34" brake line
- Headset spacers (5,10, 15, 20 mm) 21 grams

Now I'm getting hungry. I don't think that I've eaten anything all day, which is not normal. More to follow...
 
#813 ·
Update #3

Question - is it humanly possible to remove a non-removable (black) SRAM 10 speed powerlink from a chain? I've used the 8 speed (removable) ones forever and love them. I spent a embarrassing amount of time trying to get this 10 speed one undone. Bare hands, needle nosed pliers, etc. And both LBS close at 6 on Saturday! So the second LBS trip of the day was not possible. Grrr! Then, finally I figured out the answer:



Luckily, I already bought a 6 pack of KMC reusable 10 speed ones off of Amazon! Whew!

Then I notice, there is no derailleur hanger on the frame! WTF! Panic; look through boxes, etc. Oh no, I won't be able to do anything till next week! Run around, curse, etc. And as above, LBS closed till tomorrow. Then, I notice that it is still attached to the rear derailleur that I had already removed from the bike as I'm going to put on a Shimano one. Disaster averted.

The frame was masked where the derailleur hanger attaches to the bike, so its not painted there. There was a bit of paint that squeaked in under the rear edge of the mask, though and it was really thick. Enough to cause the hanger to be misaligned? I dunno, but it was easy to scrape off with a razor blade.

And I found that I needed to run the front brake line in a different way than I've ever done before. It seems to route well when its right beneath where the head tube and down tube join. If I put it out in front of the head tube, it was much too long and twisted around all weird. I don't have a bleed kit for DOT brakes, so shortening the hose isn't possible for me right now.

So, stay tuned for another exciting chapter of Joe Builds a bike.
 
#816 ·
...Question - is it humanly possible to remove a non-removable (black) SRAM 10 speed powerlink from a chain? I've used the 8 speed (removable) ones forever and love them. I spent a embarrassing amount of time trying to get this 10 speed one undone. Bare hands, needle nosed pliers, etc...
It just takes seconds. Squeeze the link on the diagonal and it separates neatly. A small pair of multigrips makes it easier.
 
#814 ·
Update #4

What others have said about the tire beads being loose is true. You know how you can usually use a tire lever to sweep the tire bead onto the rim when they're not too tight? I was able to use my finger instead of a tire lever, that's how loose they were. It does make it easy to align the tire logo with the valve stem, though! And when I got the tire mounted and started pumping it up, I think that it took 5 psi or so before the tube contacted the tire tread. Before that, I could feel space between the tire and the inflating tube with my hand on the tread area. I do realize that the pump gauge isn't real accurate at this low of a pressure.

BIG PROBLEM! The hub logo is not visible through the valve hole, FFS!* Isn't the wheelbuilder aware of this rule? Do you know how expensive it will be for me to have the wheel rebuilt to align said logo and hole?

Both tires have a noticable "hop" (to use the wheel truing term) to them when mounted on the bike and and spun. The bead is seated fine as far as I can tell. I ran them up to 20 psi, the max on the sidewall, and will leave them overnight. Maybe they're still a little stiff from being folded up for who knows how long since they were made.

I also noticed that the seam on the rims is at a bit of an angle; it is not parallel to the hub axle. I never noticed this on other wheels, but I never really looked, either. My guess is that at least some other wheels are like this too, but that the width of the rims makes it more noticeable. It is not a concern to me at all, just pointing it out.

There are no logos or stickers on the rim. IMO, it needs at least a little something to dress it up. And the rim needs a name, like the Surly and Vicious ones, too. On-One names everything else that they make, why not the rims?

Oh, and the plastic trim pieces underneath the saddle aren't held on with regular phillips or slotted screws; they use a hex key. No real value, but it does look really nice.

I also discovered that it is absolutely impossible to mount a disc wheel when the brake caliper still has the little plastic travel block between the brake pads. Front wheel or rear wheel, it doesn't matter. Its amazing how easy they go in after it is removed, though. Why on earth did Avid make them out of black plastic? They should be a bright color so that you notice them. Its kinda hard to notice a black plastic block in a black brake caliper. Magura uses yellow, which you can actually see.

The brakes drag ever so slightly as well. I loosened the tri-align bolts, squeezed the levers, and tightened the bolts again while holding the levers. I did this 2 or 3 times and its still the same. There is not enough drag to slow the wheel (they spin forever) but I can just hear a little rub. Hopefully this will go away once the pads bed in.

I got one of those Problem Solvers direct mount adapters to mount my front derailleur on. It attached to the seat tube in the area where it is bent. The seat tube is not perfectly round at this spot; I've tightened the clamp but can still see daylight between the front of the clamp and the seat tube. I bet that at least a gram of dirt will accumulate there adding unnecessary weight to the bike!

I'm tired and going brain dead. i can't make sense of how to attach the cable to the front derailleur. So, tomorrow will be cable time. Front derailleur, rear derailleur, KS Lev dropper seatpost.

To be continued.

* I may or may not not give a sh1t about this at all...
 
#817 ·
Ugh, my Fatty is still at FedEx somewhere. I had it shipped to my workplace, since I had figured it would come on a weekday(it was supposed to get here Thursday). Then, when it didn't show up Thursday, or Friday, I had it rerouted to be held at the local FedEx store since it was going to be delivered on Saturday, and I didn't want to hang out at the Shop all day waiting for it. Then, I kept checking the status. It said it went out on the truck for delivery at 8:11AM, but it never made it to the FedEx store. I went there to check right before they close at 6:00pm, but, not there. Now it says Not Delivered, Local Delivery Exception.
To make things worse, there is another package with some headset parts they forgot to put in the box, since they didn't assemble theheadset because I asked thet the steerer tube be uncut. This was sent via USPS, also to arrive on Saturday, but the mail carrier holds all the mail when we are closed, so, even though it shows to be delivered on USPS tracking, it is not there, and probably won't be till Wedensday.
 
#820 ·
Yes, this 10 speed black quick link is not removable to be more reliable. Somebody has filed down a flat pliers to depart and close this link. Indeed this link is for mount, not for dismount the chain.
KMC or Connex are better.
 
#819 ·
I've seen Sram use a different joiner recently. It requires you to bend the chain sideways and then pop off the cover link. The other side has both pins, whereas previous Sram joiners were a symmetrical design. Sorry but I don't have any pics.
 
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