Pete Jones's Klein winter bike
Member's Machinery First in a new occasional series...
The bit of the site where we take a look at interesting or extravagant bikes that the members have cooked up...
Rigid and proud
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Winter bike, eh? Just building it up now as it 'appens, although it
won't be getting used until the spring.
Warranty replacement frame (i.e. I don't care if it gets trashed) with rigid forks and hydraulic brakes. I've deliberately chosen Magura rim brakes for the rear because it means I can get medieval with the WD40 on the drivetrain after a wet ride, without worrying about pad/disc contamination.
Old meets new
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Speaking of drivetrains: thumbshifters and an eight speed cassette. Why bother with anything else? Couple that with my own handbuilt wheels (Hope XC hubs) and I'm ready to go. Maintenance? I don't need no steenkin' maintenance...
Got a bike you think we'd be interested in? Drop us a line and tell us about it.
Forgiving without being 'flexy', of course. Here she is.
Posted: 30/01/2003 14:19
That article was a pretty shoddy effort on my part; I'd like to flesh it out a bit. The shifting problems due to mud and ice build up were solved by routing the rear gear cable along the top tube, first with tape then latterly with stick-on hose guides. I had to stick with the front gears as they were, due to the lack of a seat tube cable stop. There were problems with tyre clearance and the Magura HS33 brakes, so I changed out the caliper half on an old set of C2s, enabling me to run them with the 22mm post mount frame fitting. Once I'd sorted out the braking and gears, it became apparent the bike was a beautiful ride. I'd had a bunch of aluminium frames fail on me over a short space of time, so I was very sceptical about the Klein's longevity. In the end, it became much more than just a winter hacker, and got a lot of use as both a mountain bike and as a fully laden tourer. It finally bit the bullet after three years, when the welds around the seat tube/BB area cracked. Not too bad, and Trek gave me a replacement!
Posted: 01/11/2006 11:06
Were ya bored or something Montgomery? I like it when i get that ice effect on my bike. I dont like the fact that gears freeze etc, but cleaning the bike after a ride like that is the easiest job ever. The bike seems to come up like new when you melt the ice :-) Here is my new baby Montgomery. What do you reckon? Pipedreams Sirius
Posted: 01/11/2006 11:50
Oh, just attention to detail - and yes, bored...although, I'm finding that my road bike is also a very competent singletrack flier now that I've taken the plunge. I'll try and take a pic tomorrow. It's convinced me that 29ers are one/the way to go - the 700cc wheels don't even look too 'wrong' under me, either: pic.
Posted: 01/11/2006 13:01
Aye, why not? Throw in a link to the review as well, eh?
Posted: 01/11/2006 13:32
This morning - badly flattened & widened by the camera, this is actually a lovely steep, narrow singletrack section that drops off the local hills, cutting across the hairpins of a road that leads up to a radar dome. Because of the skinny touring tyres (f28/r32), I have to reign it in on the drop-offs and ditches. As such, it's quickly become apparent that, even with the skinny tyres, the 700cc wheels roll through stuff that would've led to a diving stall on 26" wheels. That Sirius looks nice, but....you need to get some bar ends on there, lad. Trust me - you'll wonder how you ever rode without them...
Posted: 03/11/2006 04:09
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