Recent content by hamster

I think you are taking the point about tube specs to a black and white extreme: you can make an aluminium frame that feels like steel, it just doesn't last very long. Similarly you can adjust the feel of a steel frame from over-stiff to compliant to flexy to wibbly by changing the tube...

I'd say you are basically right - there are a combination of characteristics that give a kind of box of limitations for any material. After all, you could make a frame from pasta, it's just that you would need very thick tubing. Each material has a different box, but they definitely overlap...

Well said. The tyres have much more effect than even the frame...starting with tyre pressure!

The stiffness issue is that indeed you could make an alu frame as flexy as a steel one - the problem is the different fatigue characteristics. Aluminium is entirely unlike steel in that it has a finite fatigue life regardless of the load. Steel has a limit below which it is effectively infinite...

My gravelly Dawes Edge XT, a real do anything bike that does nothing badly. Build thread here: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/dawes-edge-xt-purists-look-away-it-has-drops.465985/

It's here: https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/1998-orange-p7-tourer-atb.493153/page-6#post-3767761

Good day out on my Pacific Reach last week - had to take the car to a specialist and the Reach is ideal to throw in the back. Part of the ride was along the Bournemouth Seafront and the Castleman trailway. The Reach with 28mm gravel tyres is surprisingly comfortable on unsurfaced stuff. The...

Yep, SKS ones in dark colour, IIRC the wider variety (65mm?) with all fitting kit etc. Alternatively I would be happy to switch them over to offer a 55mm silver set. £22 posted. I'll do some photos.

I'm not overjoyed with the elastomer rear shock on my Pacific Reach folder. It works OK, but the elastomer tends to squeak and I end up dismantling the thing to add silicone grease. Having had a look on eBay I can't see many old 150mm shocks, does anyone have good ideas what to look for?

If you want to run singlespeed full sus without a tensioner then you need a design that doesn't change the distance between bottom bracket and rear hub. This typically means a URT design. Trek Y22 perhaps?

One surprise left off the list in my mind is anything from Orange. The P7 soldiered on past the millennium in steel. I love mine, rides like a scalded cat.

Not sure that's always the case - definitely agreed that cheap nutted axles are thinner, but IME Shimano used the same dimensions and only switched the axle itself for nutted variants.

What's the advantage you are hoping to get from it? It will roll a little faster over bumps, but after all the engine is what counts.

TA or Stronglight rings from Spa Cycles will work every bit as well and last longer.

No way 30 years ago! It's Aluminium and got disc dropouts. A 30 year old one would be in 653. My guess is 2010s.