Giant Bowery

hammerite

dunno if it's the cheapest, but they do have a good range of sizes which you may struggle to find now the 2009 Bowery is out.

http://www.comptoncycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s197p3474

Ramanujan

hammerite wrote:

dunno if it's the cheapest, but they do have a good range of sizes which you may struggle to find now the 2009 Bowery is out.

http://www.comptoncycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s197p3474

Hi hammerite: do you know for a fact that they have a good range of sizes?

thanks
R

hammerite

Ramanujan wrote:

hammerite wrote:

dunno if it's the cheapest, but they do have a good range of sizes which you may struggle to find now the 2009 Bowery is out.

http://www.comptoncycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s197p3474

Hi hammerite: do you know for a fact that they have a good range of sizes?

thanks
R

website says they have s, m and l, just sold out of XL. I know someone who bought a medium from them yesterday.

blorg

hammerite wrote:

Everything seems to work fine, but when I apply some backward pressure on the pedals to slow down I experience a slip. Feels like the sprocket is slipping slightly. When I accelerate and apply some heavy forward pressure it then slips back again.

I also have this problem, the lockring has come loose. I has borrowed the tool to fix it in the first place.

toshmund

The new Giant fixed gear looks quite nice, with the retro colour scheme/gold chain. Love the Bowery, but if I had known the other model was about to come - would probably have got that instead. Don't know the name, but the lbs have one hanging on the wall. Does look very nice!

meagain

Shouldn't happen with or without a lockring!

blorg

meagain wrote:

Shouldn't happen with or without a lockring!

You mean you shouldn't be able to slip your cog backwards without a lockring? Even if you are attempting a skid stop?

Checked today (removed the lockring with another borrowed tool) and the threads are stripped. Cog is plenty tight certainly, it went up a 25% gradient at the weekend Wasn't coming back off easily with the chainwhip (wouldn't budge at all this time) so I left it alone. Got the lockring back on but it will now rotate happily as I tighten it (only with the tool mind.) [I am aware it is reverse threaded.]

Are there any risks to this arrangement if I only use the brakes? If I only use legs for gentle resistance - no skid stops?

Was pretty sure I had both cog and lockring on tight enough with no cross threading to start with but very possibly I did something wrong, it would not be the first time!

meagain

So....the threads are stripped. So....in essence the hub is scrap. Was this bought new? If so, take it back! If not, get a new hub or a wheel.
If the cog IS firmly in place (which it might be if e.g. cross threaded) then with brakes could continue running with it. If it is revolving on the hub, then personally I'd get rid.
This all assumes that I have understood the problem correctly!

blorg

Thanks meagain. The bike was new but came without the track cog/lockring attached. I borrowed a lockring tool tool and did this myself, I think pretty carefully, but it is always possible I fecked it up.

Before I had a go at it today (after the substantial uphills of the weekend), the cog had been slipping when I would try a skid stop. I didn't notice this so much at first (just thought it was the skidding) but I did notice when I would pedal hard forward again it would slip back in the other direction.

meagain

So....it is in effect tightening and loosening according to pressure. Obviously (and I do not mean this sarcastically) you are a stronger and more aggressive rider than I am. If I tighten a cog with a proper chian wrench and a 1/2" drive 12" breaker bar then I cannot move it (the cog) by leg force alone (indeed I can usually only remove once been on a while with a drift and a hammer!).
For now you could try tightening as hard as possible and avoiding "back pedal braking" - all the time you are pedalling forward you are tightening it further.
On balnace however I would be nervous of riding it AT ALL with that hub.
This is all opinion only: it is your safety at stake. Check with a professional!

blorg

Cog came off there while in motion over the weekend. Skid stops had been performed immediately previous I am afraid. Cog unscrewing was not a particularly disastrous occurrence mind, just lost propulsive force. I do run brakes of course so wasn't relying on the chain for that.

Rotafixed the cog back on as tight as I could, maybe this will be tighter than previously with the chainwhip/cycling up hills (threads for the cog are OK; lockring threads are stripped.) I am going to try my best to NOT skid stop and use my brakes from now on although am thinking of getting new wheels in the next few months

@meagain- apologies if you already know this but skid stops are really more about technique than strength, you get the back wheel slightly off the ground and it's not really so much the strength of your legs locking so much as the back wheel reimpacting with the ground that has the effect; but it is certainly a "jerky" thing, similar to what you reference with a hammer- if anything is likely to unscrew the cog it would be that I reckon. Simply slowing the bike gradually through back-resistance is unlikely to have the same effect I reckon.

meagain

"...but it is certainly a "jerky" thing, similar to what you reference with a hammer- if anything is likely to unscrew the cog it would be that I reckon. Simply slowing the bike gradually through back-resistance is unlikely to have the same effect I reckon."

That makes sense! If the wheel is "stationary" as it rejoins the ground then the leverage will on impact I guess be greater than any gradual "back-resistance". A sudden shock (as with a hammer) will free stuff that constant pressure won't.

If I were sourcing new hubs likely to have a hard life I'd go I think for the 6-bolt cogs onto disc rotor mounts. SHOULD be both more difficult to move accidentally yet easier to remove when necessary.

intim8ed

I've just bought a bowery to replace an older fixed. I had exactly the same 'slipping' when applying back pressure to the pedals.
I bought it from my LBS so took it straight back. They checked it over. The lockring and cog were fine, as were the bottom bracket and cranks which they removed and reassembled. Tried it without the chain tensioners it comes with and haven't had the problem since. The mechanic reckoned the tensioners were poor and were actually causing the problem. :?

blorg

I don't know how chain tensioners could cause this problem- they just tug the axle backwards. Anyone have any idea if this could be true?

Interesting that so many people are having the issue though.

meagain

"The mechanic reckoned the tensioners were poor and were actually causing the problem."

I'd just love to hear his explanation as to HOW!

snowman1080

I also had the same problem. Aswell as the bottom bracket being completely knackerd after about 100 miles. In the end the bike was stolen. And I thank (whover you believe) for that. Now I ride eLemond Fillmore SS. And its worlds better than the Bowery.

Used to think the Bowery was good. Untill I got the Lemond.

ridgerider

Just put together a Bowery and spotted a possible answer...when the lockring was tighened up, it was not touching the cog. My LBS took them both off, added some spacers to push the cog out along the hub by a couple of mille, which was enough for the lockring to tighen up against it. Job done.

bikerdude67

Guys, I saw one of these yesterday for the first time and almost purchased it on the spot. While I understand the " bike snobbery" reluctance to buy a Giant, these things are really striking.

I say give one a go. it won't be the last 800 bucks you ever have in your life!! Avoid the forum " paralysis by over- analysis" and buy something, ride it and enjoy cycling for what it is.

If it had a different sticker on it, ( Pearson, Fixie, Inc, etc) and it was a grand more, everybody would be falling over themselves to buy it.

I have noticed some cyclists are a marketer's dream. Tell a decent story, attach a rider's testimonial to something, be "radical" and charge like hell. Who really cares about the country of manufacturer for a bike?? The majority of bikes these days are made in Taiwan. Why does that make things any different?

Buy something. Ride it.

Bikerdude 67 rides:

GarethPJ

Couldn't agree more brand snobbery among cyclists is stronger than almost any other social group.

As for the Bowery it seems a bit silly comparing it to the Fillmore. The Lemond costs about 33% more than the Giant.

epicyclo

Sorry to resurrect this thread after so long, but I was ogling a Pinarello in a shop in Oz the other day, and it looks very similar to the Giant Bowery frame. I didn't have a Bowery there to compare them side by side, but it looks like the same frame tubing, just a better finishing job.

The Pinarello frame was 3 times what I paid for a complete Bowery the week before.

Anyone know for sure either way if the Pinarello is actually sourced from Giant?

http://www.pinarello.com/eng/lungavita_422.php

BTW the Bowery has a brilliant power delivery, but is less supple than my Fuji Track. I'd pick the Bowery if it was a one bike rule.

It's good the fashionistas don't like the looks

blorg

Looks very different to me, geometry is completely different as well as lots of other details (diameter of seat tubes, reinforced track ends, lack of bottle cage bosses, lack of headtube flaring, etc.)





Pinarello certainly has frames made in Asia and Giant makes most of the bikes in the world including many for other manufacturers so it is certainly possible...

epicyclo

blorg wrote:

Looks very different to me, geometry is completely different as well as lots of other details (diameter of seat tubes, reinforced track ends, lack of bottle cage bosses, lack of headtube flaring, etc.)...

Pinarello certainly has frames made in Asia and Giant makes most of the bikes in the world including many for other manufacturers so it is certainly possible...

I'm pretty sure the front triangle is very similar. The profile of the tubes looks very close. The welds are better finished. The seat posts both looked the same diameter to me, but I couldn't pull out my trusty callipers to check

There is some flare to the head tube of the Pinarello. To me it looked the same as the Giants but without the parallel bits at the ends. I've worked on a lot of Giants in my time in the shop and I'm convinced this bike has the Giant look - but better presented.

Anyhow it's a really good looking bike in my opinion.

blorg

Whoops- meant the diameter of the seat stays, not the seat tube... It would be unlikely I could tell that from a photo Looks like a nice bike all right but unlikely to be worth 3x the Bowery. Cranks are the same anyway.

It is amazing what a name can do.

socrates

Dont worry about what is cool among the hipster fixies. Go for what you like, fits well and is comfortable. After all It is your bike.

blorg

I'm thinking of trying to add some mudguards to my Bowery. Was considering getting the Giant Defy full-length type, they have a clever way of getting around the brakes. Anyone have any experience with putting on guards? Someone mentioned they got something on with P-Clips? I tried Mr Crud but they won't fit with 700x25c Gatorskins and I don't really want to go down to 23s on the back (have a 23 on the front.)