in message <[email hidden]>, Taka <> (''😉
Quoted message said:Simon Brooke said:in message <[email hidden]>, Tony B
(') said:> You need to look at the Nicolai Nucleon TFR,
bugger... another look at the Nicolai..... how can I be so grown up
and STILL WANT ONE SO BADLY IT HURTS!!!!!! (nearly.)
You are not alone...
Quoted message said:In my defense, I would suggest it stems from an appreciation of the
excellent engineering that the setup represents, but really... it
just looks sooooooo cooooooooool.
You are /not/ alone!
Quoted message said:
£4.5k eh? Hmm....
I think I'll have mine built up with the SL tubing option and a USE
SUB fork, please - after all, what's another £700?
I considered asking to have the headtube built to take a cannondale
lefty or a USE SUB fork. Ultimately I decided to go for a standard
fork since maintenance and parts would be easier to come by.
I'm also considering trying PACE RC31s for long distance rides,
touring France, Spain, etc (some day!).
Seriously, my far-and-away favourite bike is my Cannondale Jekyll,
recently upgraded from a steel-sprung to an air-sprung Lefty. The bike
is wonderful, and I love it to bits. My review of it is here:
<URL:http://www.jasmine.org.uk/dogfood/story/article_10.html>
It's been intensively worked on in the two years since I bought it. The
Shimano XT transmission has been junked in favour of SRAM 9.0; the
Lefty has been upgraded, as above; the saddle, seatpost, pedals and
tyres have all been changed; the handlebars have been rearranged half a
dozen times; bar-ends have been fitted; most recently the front Hayes
disk has been replaced with a Hope Mini. In the next few weeks the
saddle will change again; the remote rear lockout lever, which got
removed quite early in my relationship with the bike, will probably go
back on; and I shall experiment with a totally different tyre set.
Oh - and the bar-bag may go permanently, which will be a major change to
the way I've always set up my bikes. As I'm riding harder it's becoming
more and more of a nuisance.
Most of the things which have changed have changed not because they were
worn out but because I'm tuning and customising the bike to work
for /me/, and because my own riding is changing - and becoming far more
adventurous - as a result of my relationship with this bike. I ride
both further and over more challenging ground.
And my conclusion after all that? Well, germane to you, the SRAM
transmission is definitely both more reliable and more precise than the
Shimano, but deraileur gearing is still a significant weakness in a
bike used hard in challenging conditions.
When I buy another mountain bike, it will certainly have a monoblade
front end. I'm completely sold on the concept that, weight for weight,
one leg is stiffer than two, and stiffness for stiffness, one leg is
lighter. You're also automatically immune from disk eject and repairing
or replacing tubes is (marginally) quicker.
It will also certainly have an enclosed gearbox (Rohloff or similar).
Exposing the most delicate and critical components of the transmission
to the environment simply does not make sense.
Ideally it will have a monoblade backend, too, with the chain running
fully enclosed inside the swing arm, and cartridge hubs so that the
wheels are interchangeable. But thus far no mountain bike manufacturer
is yet that adventurous, and I don't have either the skills or the
money to prototype it.
--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
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