Breaking News

Yes this is some news. About broken frames... and I'm sorry about that title.

Anyway, it comes via Pijin and basically it is that three frames have broken in comps over the weekend. One at the Masters in Cologne, one (@8:15) at NASS in the UK, then another at NASS. All three have just sheared off at the head tube. Nasty.

I'd heard a few stories of frames collapsing in exactly this way. But stories are one thing, to have three "on record" incidents, makes it all the more real. Not to mention making you wonder how many other frames bit-the-big-one in a less public way over the weekend.

I suppose when frames weights drop and drop like they have, you could say that this looks to be like the official bottoming out... ahem. The difficulty is that all the frames going around use a wide range of different technology and processes that means comparing by weight alone won't give you an accurate measure of strength. Heat treated tube sets v.s front triangle only v.s full post-weld, internally butted tubing v.s gussets v.s internally gusseted tubing, machined this, shaved that - a frame is not a frame is not a frame. Throw into the mix the possibility of poor welding and/or quality control and you're well and truly fucked!


Sunday's Ian Schwartz frame: keeping gussets alive and hearts out of mouths, 4.95 lbs

So you've got to be an engineer just to get your head around which frame to buy, but the information is out there. And you can be safe in assuming that if a manufacturer's description of a frame doesn't mention something, it ain't on there. Think of the description as their sales pitch - they're not going to leave out features that they've spent time and money putting into the frame.

I think the way Federal are doing things goes a step towards making life a little easier and is definitely something worth supporting. Apparently their 2010 frames will be coming out with three tiers of heat treatment options: Standard, Front triangle or Full Post-weld. That's on top of a butted and internally gusseted tubes - You know exactly what's going on and can choose the option that suits your riding... or the dollars in your pocket.


Federal's Notorious HT: Full post-weld heating, a bunch of other features, a respectable 4.6 lbs

In regards to these three breaks over the weekend: I'll leave the detective work on all the details of the frames to you, but it must definitely have some people feeling a little shaky. If you do happen to be aboard one of these frames, or if the whole thing is just getting you down, here's some light entertainment... pun intended.

Chris Kink

While I'm talking about Kink, I might as well post this thing:



It looks like a normal headset, but it's actually a super headset. What's so super about it? It's got ceramic ball bearings and titanium coated races which may, or may not, make it smoother and more durable than your current headset. Super!

But, if you are thinking of buying this headset you should first ask yourself these 3 questions:

1. Is this the most pointless and expensive upgrade I can think of?
2. Should they have called this the Chris Kink headset in homage to the original overpriced headset?
3. Is it worth paying $1.67 / gram for each of the 59.5 grams that this thing weighs, or should I just buy 10 sets of these.

Food for thought.

Viridian is the New Black

Tony Hamlin bike check up on the Transworld site and Kink have snuck a few prototype bits on his ride.

There's a little black pivotal, which is, of course, a must have item for any bmxer about town. Run it high or run it low, they're just so versatile! So it's black. And kind of textured. And looks like it's covered with the same stuff as this one. It could just be me, but it might also be a little smaller than a stock standard "slim" pivotal moulding. At least that would mean that it's actually worth mentioning and these six lines that I've typed hadn't been wasted.



Looks like Kink now have female front hub. And if you look at the pic you'll see that it seems to be called Viridian, which is the name of a greeny-blue-type colour that my grandmother uses in her water colour paintings, but obviously Tony prefers black:



And now for the interesting part - well relatively speaking. There's a proto stem called the Bold. (sorry, couldn't resist that) It's not revolutionary in that it's a run-of-the-mill front load with the sides machined out, but the shape and proportions of the cut looks pretty good. And if you want proof of that, you've only got to compare it to the recent Subrosa prototype. Although you'll still need to be an above average hacksaw technician to ensure that the steerer on your fork is cut to precisely the right length. Oh yeah... and it comes in this lovely shade of really, really, really dark grey:

A Woman Walks Into a Bar...

2010 bikes have well and truly started to appear.

Subrosa are having an honest tilt at the "more is more" crown, with a humble tally of 17 bikes. But it's not won yet - Mongoose are yet to run.

Colony Descendant bike is having a fair crack at taking the "how low can you go" title from Blackeye's Killorado complete . It's a race to the bottom. But wait, this guy is already polishing his trophy, if you know what I mean, with his custom Solid from last year.

On that note, a joke:
A woman walks into a bar and asks the barman for a double entendre.
So he gives her one.

Anyway... I can't tell you much more than that other than the Kinks 2010's are out and they've kept it to a round number. That GT are doing a brakeless street complete that I can't find a picture of, and Verde are doing two completes that both look nice.

Over and out.


You be the judge...

Insane Manual Feathering

Do you think that brakes might be making a comeback?

Not two of them obviously - that's a far too high brake to bike ratio. But one on the back end can be a revolution in opening up new worlds of variable speed riding, insane manual feathering and sudden stopping. Sure brakeless completes were novel at first, but now they're just passe. Their cleaness crying out for some cable and caliper clutter.

Anyway, maybe in Spain brakes were never "out", cause Fly have pumped an unfashionable amount of time and effort into improving them and have just released the final piece in their forged, cnc'd and anodised braking puzzle:


Fly brake lever: 66 grams / 2.3 oz

I've grown very fond of my Primo J Lever over it's five years of faultless service, but since reading up on Fly's new offering the wobble it's developed over the course of it's life seems a little worse. They've addressed this by using a larger diameter brass bushing that is apprarently also of a harder material. Sounds good.

Everyone want's less for their dollar these days, so I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that you can now also have less for your lever-dollar. Working on the principal that all frames now come with a barrel adjuster, they've not included one on the lever and in the process have been able to further reduce the size of the lever body.



You'll also get a little bag of hardware that allows you the choice between the 4 set ups above, depending on how complicated or clean you want it. The "internal coned piece" is one of those options and seems like a good, simple idea that acts to open up the end of the cable casing to reduce friction on the cable. It's probably not going to make a huge difference to your braking performance, but every little bit helps and it ain't going to hurt.

Besides, you don't even run brakes.

It is Done

Just a quick update on the No.1 post I made a few days ago.
Jimmy at Eject has stepped up and given me a keyworded link and the No.1 spot is a done deal. In the process he's bumped himself into the no.2 spot and put those... ladies... in their place.

Cheers Jimmy.

Rad Wrench

This wrench is like... so... totally random. Hey, hold on a minute - it's actually really specific. Bmx specific to be precise. In fact it's so specific that it has just about every bit that you'll need to work on your bike while out pedaling. And it hasn't just been thrown together. The V2 of DK's Random Wrench has had a lot of thought and effort put into the design. You don't believe me? Read this.

The original version was a good idea, simply executed that became a bit of a classic. But the V2 makes the original look like a stone age pick axe by comparison. It features a slimmed down machined main body with some nice graphics so you won't need to faff around trying to work out how all the bits fit back inside and it even has it's own logo. Only special wrenches get their own logo.

Here's what you get for your US$32.99: a 15mm pedal wrench, 5 and 6mm allen sockets, 15 and 17mm sockets, a socket extension, and a spoke key.

So don't just sit around, get out there and grab yourself a Randy Wench.



The progression from stone age axe to the mordern form of the DK Random Wrench is clear and undeniable.