Current Projects chat and miscellany

any bikes a good bike.

And Any one on two wheels is a friend*

*Neither of these statements is strictly true.

I think you need to buy parts and throw them together to find out what you want from your bike, or you will end up wasting time. To learn from experience, you actually have to have some experience.

Very good point. I'm really happy with the build I've ended up with after 2 years, and haven't wasted tooo much money . . . . (:

That is purely due to advice on this forum.

If you believe any bikes a good bike, buy this and go forward*

http://www.sportsdirect.com/universal-track-bike-939428

*forward movement not guaranteed

You may go forward but stopping may become difficult

ftfy. Chains don't drop off the bottom of the chainring, unless you pedal backwards.

I know. I pedal backwards to check the pedals over obstacles sometimes. I know this having lost the chain from the bottom many times running 1x9.

Maybe I'm doing it all wrong.

Yep. Always pedal forwards, this is what I was taught for mtb and also told to do the same on the road. Eg preparing for a corner

maybe not all bikes are 'good' but most bikes are 'fun' even if in the wrong ways.

i know what i want from my build : stiff, fast, flickable, light, strong enough for potholes, sporty looking not bmx-y looking, bum up hands down riding position, lots of space for legs to turn, or potentially just a high saddle.

not sure if by your standards those are valid needs but thats what id think i want.
i do have experiance with bikes, crashes, wasting money, shops, websites, parts, mechanics. etc. from years of frustrating mountainbiking. but yeh i completely agree, and thats what im going to do. jump in the deepend, and build my first fixie, myself.
quite frankly i dont care what anyone might say about my bike as long as im happy with it, im just gathering information on what other people are happy with.

as for the critism of the unipack/create bikes i think its unfair, theyre cheap and probably cheerful, and look good about a mile away. perfect for the people that buy them. ive had cheap awful dangerous bikes ive had far more fun on that expensive 'good' bikes to be honest.

flickable?

as for the critism of the unipack/create bikes i think its unfair, theyre cheap and probably cheerful, and look good about a mile away. perfect for the people that buy them. ive had cheap awful dangerous bikes ive had far more fun on that expensive 'good' bikes to be honest.

i wasn't aware dangerous was the same as fun

^^ Yeah, haven't you seen people flicking the tubes and listening to them?

i wasn't aware dangerous was the same as fun

You haven't ridden the Clunker Classic then.

DING ooooh yea baby thats 753

strong enough for potholes...

unless it made of cardboard, any bike will be strong enough for pothole, otherwise it'd crumble under normal use.

just keep an eye out for larger than usual pothole which tend to be killer.

953... I like it raw

Buy your visp frame, varnos wheels, bars/stem/chainset/saddle/brakes from classifieds...

you could've just bought an OTP fuji or specialized or better.

You wanted cheap right? Maybe a cheap otp then tweaking it would be a better idea to start?

If it being cheap isn't major priority build your own.

i wasn't aware dangerous was the same as fun

remember your childhood! fun is dangerous.

Will, have it occur to you that there's a reason to why the forum tell people to avoid the unipack/create bicycle?

Will, have it occur to you that there's a reason to why the forum tell people to avoid the unipack/create bicycle?

because theyre bad quality yes, but so what, so is haribo.

and malaysian, i'll gain experiance from making my own, and it means i can do it bit by bit in smaller chunks of money.

flickable?

Like a 250GP bike rather than a BMW RT. Common usage among motorcyclists.

Yep. Always pedal forwards, this is what I was taught for mtb and also told to do the same on the road. Eg preparing for a corner

Ok that's good to know. Obviously I wouldn't ever do that on the road.

It did feel wrong. But I was fire-fighting really, just trying (anything) to survive.
It's a steep learning curve when your 1st ever proper trail ride involves The Wall at Afan. On a rigid bike. With crap cable brakes.

Like a 250GP bike rather than a BMW RT. Common usage among motorcyclists.

Or a Keirin bike rather than a Dawes Galaxy?

Or a Keirin bike rather than a Dawes Galaxy?

Indeed

i know what i want from my build : stiff, fast, flickable, light, strong enough for potholes, sporty looking not bmx-y looking, bum up hands down riding position, lots of space for legs to turn, or potentially just a high saddle.

Visp is the way to go, keeping in mind that you're on a budget. Note that some people will advise you against getting a Visp, these people are either a. pretentious bellends or b. from the stone age and wary of any aluminium frame. Either way for the money these are handsome frames:


handsome frames

I LOLed. Never seen a Visp before so haven't got any preconceptions about them. You can't be calling that head tube cluster "handsome"

i know nothing about fixies and only about mountain bikes, but my nose tells me that those visp bikes are a bargain, if you ask me they look amazing. http://velospace.org/node/29985 i love that, thats the kinda thing i want.
the ones i'd seen on ebay looked quite alot different in some ways, like the picture i sent above, although similar, if that makes any sense, from that picture you posted though.
nice to see someone with a non critical tone. thanks.

The old Visps were cheap, but seemed perfectly decent, ask Sumo. The new ones are gross.
You could look for Dolan precursa's there was a batch of those going cheap on ebay recently, or keep an eye out on here. OTP frames come up regularly.
Alu frame
Varno deep v wheels/dp18's off px
cheap risers
messengers/andel cranks

etc etc