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I've got a Gangsta and it is brilliant. It is a very solid bike and is really well put together. Build quality is top notch, welds are tight and paint is brilliant.
The frame is stong and it will not dent easily unlike some of the NJS frames. It can basically take a bit more abuse that some other more track orientated frames. It is also a quick and fun bike to ride.
The people behind BMW are brilliant as well. Ged the importer is brilliant and will always try and get the parts / colours you want.
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check out this listing and the detail
Awesome piece of machinery.
I want, with Titanium optional upgrade springs of course :) -
you can get them with canti boss's ;)
One step ahead as always.
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I'm not much to look at but I ride well, ask dogs.
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I'm sure they're built well and I don't think the price is unreasonable, but the lack of functionality of the fork annoys me though. If it's going to be run brakeless then why not make the headtube longer so there's less sideways load on the headset bearings? Also, since it's not really designed for track racing, why not design it so that it could be run with a front caliper, rather than ruling it our completely?
I think the guy in NYC who wins lots of alleycats on one is going to put a cross fork on for the winter and use it to race cross.
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As stated above they do a fork with Canti bolts.
The fork's are the length they are to allow for barspins, bear in mind they're a mountain bike company so built a bike that was solid enough to mess around on and do some trick based riding.
The sloping top tube is to provide greater crotch clearance, again because it's aimed at people who will want to arse around and not just ride distances (though don't get me wrong, they're more than capable of proper riding too).
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You would need to beef up the fork for a disk but definitely possible.
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The fork is plenty strong enough for a disc mount already and Joe is on the case anyway.
No need to change the fork for cyclocross either as canti brakes are still the best brakes for cross riding anyway and as said, the fork can be ordered with canti mounts already.As also already mentioned, the bike looks like it does as Joe's bikes have his own style stamped all over....the Gangsta was meant as a play bike and a bike capable of being used by messengers in the roughest cities around...shortening the fork and lengthening the headtube while still allowing for barspins and tricks and providing the stiffness the gangsta does would have made the bike look a damn sight more freaky than it does right now.
Joe has been riding track bikes a hell of a long time so he knows the hows and whys....if he wanted the forks to look like every other pair out their he would have done it....the main reason the langsters look so wrong is precisely because they have sloping top tubes with long head tubes.
Again, it comes down to personal preferance, but i've ridden mine on the 120 mile dunwich dynamo as well as in the city and it's still my favourite bike i've ever owned....and i've owned a lot of bikes!If you like it, buy it, you won't be disappointed.
If you don't like it, don't buy it...and continue to whinge about the fork clearance and sloping top tube.
But whichever choice you make...i'll still be enjoying riding mine.
And in ten years time when mine is still going strong we can talk again about whether you think they're worth £700...:) -
You're right hippy.
I don't actually dislike langsters...there's not many bikes i do dislike....i think what i was trying to say is why compact geometry sometimes looks wrong is when they have massive headtube lengths with sloping top tubes.
Both my Brklyn and my Storck are compact and neither of them bother me. -
Compact geometry doesn't bother me at all and my mtb has very compact geometry for the same reason as the BMW. My mtb also has a suspension corrected rigid fork which looks a bit like the BMWs (although with a disc tab) and I could bar spin all day if I didn't have brakes, even with a suspension fork with control dials on top of the legs, because the head tube extends a bit below the down tube to ensure the fork clears the down tube. However, Scott's right - I'm not gonna buy one so whether I like it or not doesn't really matter! Having one with a disc with the cable running through the steerer tube would be cool though.
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@snoops....check the date on the reply you just quoted....you've had over 15 months to criticize,accuse,bitch and moan as much as you like....but then i guess 15 months ago you would have still been on the third bmx bandwagon right?
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Looks good with risers definately. I'd have one
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About
Brooklyn Machine Works
Posted by
@runcible_rakan
ive ridden one, they are bloody nice. thyere one of those bikes that instantly feels right, an effortless ride.
with that said i dont like how they look, and for that money id want somthing that rode well and looked a dream. i dont like the massive fork clearance and sloping top tube, it looks too much like a crappy mountain bike conversion with some homemade forks.
not that it matters, gangster is also a stupid name.