Tribute to DT Swiss - and other things
Northridge
Posts: 26
How old are your wheels?
My rear end is a Mavic 717, DT 240, DT 1.8-2.0 spokes + alloy nips and was built in 2005.
I have just noticed that four adjacent (theyre together, not spread around the rim) nipples are broken above the rim eyelet: one half has sheared away revealing the entire thread.
Obviously I dont know when they broke; I havent ridden offroad (light xc) for two years and since then only use the bike for shopping, but it must have been in the last year or so, but even so thats a pretty good track record for stupid-light alloy components.
So how old are yours?
Just curious:
I live in nowheresville, Brasil, and have just seen a pair of CBros Cobalts: my golly theyre light but my basic impression was "Look at me! Look at me!" (the rider speaking, not the wheels). Is this form over function or do they really work?
He also had Alligator alloy rotors - very "stylish". I tried Stans alloys rotors years ago and they were crap and he stopped making them, so have Alligator sorted it out?
My rear end is a Mavic 717, DT 240, DT 1.8-2.0 spokes + alloy nips and was built in 2005.
I have just noticed that four adjacent (theyre together, not spread around the rim) nipples are broken above the rim eyelet: one half has sheared away revealing the entire thread.
Obviously I dont know when they broke; I havent ridden offroad (light xc) for two years and since then only use the bike for shopping, but it must have been in the last year or so, but even so thats a pretty good track record for stupid-light alloy components.
So how old are yours?
Just curious:
I live in nowheresville, Brasil, and have just seen a pair of CBros Cobalts: my golly theyre light but my basic impression was "Look at me! Look at me!" (the rider speaking, not the wheels). Is this form over function or do they really work?
He also had Alligator alloy rotors - very "stylish". I tried Stans alloys rotors years ago and they were crap and he stopped making them, so have Alligator sorted it out?
0
Comments
-
Cobalts - guys here in the centre of the universe have problems getting spares so I would avoid. IMO form over function.
Again alloy rotors, unless you mean the spider, sound like a pointless idea.I don't do smileys.
There is no secret ingredient - Kung Fu Panda
London Calling on Facebook
Parktools0 -
Mine are Rolf Dolomite discs (2001). Still like them.0
-
The back wheel in the Carrera is 1991, I think. The front wheel's a relatively recent Mavic, no older than 2000Uncompromising extremist0
-
Got an old Rockhopper with Mountain Exage hubs from '88. Still going strong.I don't do smileys.
There is no secret ingredient - Kung Fu Panda
London Calling on Facebook
Parktools0 -
Exage! Yay - somebody who must be as old as me!
I had Exage on my Marin Bear Valley SE, matte black weird type of paint that was impossible to clean, with gold decals.
I was on a forced lay-over in the UK at the end of the 80's and within the space of 3 months bought a Peugot "mountainbike" from Halfords, a guady yellow Hard Rock with rubber rims from a real bike shop and then the Marin. Exage was ugly, clumsy and today it would make all you toddlers and kids laugh, but back then it was the Ds Bs.
About those Cobalts: he brought them over from the US in his baggage, so is without warranty or backup: lets just hope they hold up or there`ll be tears before bedtime.
And the alu rotors: does anybody have any that really work, in wet and dry, or do they go paper-thin after 24 hours?
The rest of this post is oldguy reminiscence, a bit of Portuguese bike history, so don´t bother to read on if you´re not interested.
I took the Marin with me to Portugal but quickly swopped the frame for a C'dale something-800 (blue-black fade with horizontal BMX-type rear dropouts) and mail-ordered the first Pace fork - the one with the hollow curved tube rear brace.
A short time later I was at my LBS (Brasilian Calois and other wannabees) when up walked a guy who stopped dead in his tracks and said "Where did you get that fork? Nobody should have that fork - I´ve only this minute signed the contract to import them!" That guy (any Portuguese reading this will know it´s Antonio Malvar) went on to become one of the pivotal characters in the mountain bike scene, importing Magura, Kona, Merlin (the Rob Vandermark Ti's, not the UK version) and other exotica, and then helping to bring over two rounds of the XC World Cup and creating (among other events) the Garmin Trans-Portugal which still runs today I believe.
Shortly after that encounter and at the same shop I met the Dutch importer of Giant, trying to sell the carbon-tubed alloy-lugged models and I remember sitting outside the shop in the blazing sun watching uncured resin oozing out from one of the joints. Not a great marketing ploy, I thought, but Giant went on the be the biggest seller in Portugal for a number of years.
As soon as I saw a Merlin Ti I junked the ´Dale, and later had an S-Works M4 FSR, a carbon Fuel and the carbon NRS which I have to this day here in Brasil but only use for shopping runs: the dear old thing creaks and cracks even more than my tired old body, but still draws admiring glances for its clean and simple lines even from the trendy younger generation - you know, the ones who think they invented the mountain bike and know nothing of clunkers, motorcycle brake levers, and Uncles Tom and Gary - with their Sparks and Scalpels and other hi-tech hoo-ha.
So there you are, a bit of history for those of you who bothered to read on. Sorry, but I did warn you. Perhaps Admin could create a new forum category: "Old guys going on and on about they were "pioneers" etc".0 -
Oldguy reminiscence - it also has Biopace chainset, Girvin Flexstem and Mint Sauce stickers. Sh1t to ride though TBH.
The kids of today don't know how easy they have it.I don't do smileys.
There is no secret ingredient - Kung Fu Panda
London Calling on Facebook
Parktools0 -
Flexstems
Mine wasn't a girvin one, think it was a tioga maybe... It did nothing at all, til the polymer wore out, which happened pretty much instantly... Then it rattled like a mad thing and meant the bars weren't meaningfully connected to the bike. Awesum! The main impact it had, was being jaggier than a normal stem when I smashed my balls into it. And since i was 15, I approached every step, rock or ditch by charging at it full speed then stopping dead and smashing my balls.
Kids don't know they're born eh.Uncompromising extremist0 -
-
You know what scares me about "kids today"? They are the adults of tomorrow!
Thank goodness I wont be around to see it.
Memory Lane:
The first Cannondale suspension with a single-pivot rear spring and a Flexstem, the Trek with three rubber donuts as a spring and no rebound control, giving Henrik Djernis Proflex a quick feel at a World Cup and discovering that the "elastomers" were actually solid plastic ......
I and two friends - all of us in our 40s then - ordered Merlin Ti frames, which arrived in the same box: one of them came too big and the guy loved it so much he hung it on his kitchen wall and ordered another!
We then got into a race to hit the 9.0kg ideal - this is pre-rear-sus days of course: I got to 9.3 (you know, 10 dollars for a Ti bolt to shave off 10 grams, Grafton cranks - one arm of which I snapped. those teeny Grafton levers pulling Campagnolo OR cantis, Answer supalite bar, Italian Ti BB - seriously - you had to have been there to understand.
None of us hit 9kg dead but we all spent stupid amounts of money and time trying.
My biggest feat was being able to keep upright using 1.7 IRC Geo Claws: it was liking "tigers on Vaseline" as David Bowie once sang.
The one bit of memorabilia that I dearly wish I had kept: my Specialized FSX carbon legged fork (the Judy-based version) with a retro-fit Englund air cartridge. I gave it away - admittedly to a very worthy soon-to-be-big teen racer - but golly, that was a lovely bit of kit.
Oh well.........
Thanks for joining in guys - lets hear some more.0
