Zerode bikes

masterdooh

Not sure if anyone has seen these bikes before but an interesting concept that's for sure

http://www.zerode.co.nz/index.php

nicklouse

looks very much like a nicolai. just a high pivot point single pivot.

cooldad

Guy at Swinley had one a few weekends ago - he was being sponsored by them.
Had a quick spin,interesting - very heavy (although I ride a light XC bike so have nothing to compare it against.).
The shifting pattern is also opposite to normal Shinmano style (like rapid rise).

Certainly looked different though.

cooldad

Was this bit that got most people's attention.

kdawg74

looks good but gearbox a bit high, some guy was riding one at the canadian dh open at crankworx this weekend.

Frodo1095

The Zerode was designed by a pair of NZ'ers, the brother of Rob Metz runs the local Santa Cruz dealership where I get all my bits and bobs from.
They are an awesome looking bike and very well engineered.
There are a couple of kiwis racing them over in the states at the moment.

They are also in the process of creating a trail version which should be very interesting.

supersonic

This approach has been tried many times before. It doesn't work. It does not eliminate bob.

wobbem

Here's the one we saw in Swindley, very nice bloke , wanted eveyone to give it a go.

cooldad

@Wobbem that was the one - we were there at the same time. Some of the bikes and people lying around was our group.

tom_howard

it looks the same basic design as a GT IT-1, (crank powers a hub gear, (nexus, alfine, rohloff etc,) which is directly attached to the rear hub) just with more modern dh orientated geometry.

the design doesnt eliminate bob, but the sus remains incredibly active whilst pedalling through the rough stuff and because the rear of the bike is light (well, relatively speaking ) cornering is ace and it changes direction very quickly for a heavy bike.

Be interesting to compare the two for drag as the IT1 is sluggish to get going, but only for the first 50 yrds or so, after that you dont notice it.

to the guys that saw the bike, what rear hub was he running?

masterdooh

I really love the idea of the alfine and similar and even better when its not part of the wheel.

cooldad

His next step was to replace the wheels, which had got a bit bent, with a fixed hub on the back as the Alfine includes the freewheel.

tom_howard

yeah, same as my IT1 (though its a nexus 'gearbox') reason i asked about the hub is it cant be easy finding a fixie hub, with a disc mount, with a 150x12 axle as its impossibe for me, my rear axle is 150x20mm(!)

wobbem

cooldad wrote:

@Wobbem that was the one - we were there at the same time. Some of the bikes and people lying around was our group.

Yer silly tw*t I was with your group, the bloke with the goatie & black 29er
Sorry only notice his dented rim, didn't note his hub.

cooldad

Aaaaah right silly tw4t indeed - didn’t realise you were on here – must be one of the few I know your real name not screen name.

UH DH

Dragging this thread up again.

I saw the Zerode in action out in Morzine, and had a nice long chat with the guy who designed it. Now, I currently run a GT IT-1, but have just placed a pre-order on one of the next bunch of Zerode frames coming into the country. I know well the issues the IT-1 had. Stuff like chain tensioners, bike-specific hubs, custom parts and all that. Having looked over the Zerode, they've identified and fixed pretty much every single flaw the IT-1 had. Even the tensioning system is pretty damn near perfect.

As to what rear hub goes with the bike, it requires a standard 12mm axled 150mm hub, and a singlespeed conversion kit. Dead easy to do.

In theory, the bikes should be in the uk end of this month, so I'm sure I'll be able to tell you how it's working. As it stands though, it looks beautiful and I can't wait to get my hands on it.