I feel that these capture the color as best as I am going to be able to with a camera. All three colors have a fine metallic that adds a nice shimmer and depth that is challenging to capture with a camera.
The down tube logo needs to shrink just a smidge to fit well on the smaller sizes.
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Thanks for reading, happy Friday, and have a great extended weekend. Get out there and ride, take a moment, hell more than a moment and remember how and why we here in the U.S.A. have the freedom to ride and play the way we do, thank all of the men who are serving, have served in any way and have given their lives to preserve this treasure that we have.
I am pretty happy with the way this lighting arrangement captured the high and low-lights of the yellow. All three colors: Red, Blue and Yellow have a fantastic fine metallic that borders on pearl. The catch is how hard it is to capture and communicate that through a computer screen.
Now back to getting the decal art sorted out.
It is a tough job, but somebody has to do it. I believe there is an added element to products that are tested by their designers, a level of commitment, that they demand firsthand feedback. I will be getting plenty of outside feedback as well, but there is something inherently good about being willing to push your own designs. There are plenty of products out there including bikes that have never actually been used by the guys selling them. Here at Ocean Air, I will be testing everything we produce under our own label.
If you were wondering, today's test was light load and softish fat tires to see if I could induce shimmy. I was ale to get it to oscillate a few times, but it would settle right back down on its own, and that is a good thing.
Also of note, it has been scientifically proven that red shirts will not only help you go faster, but be more attractive and possibly feel stronger too. The best part is that I still have plenty of said shirts available to satiate the incredible market demand.
The bikes in this size range, 56 and smaller, will be constructed with 8/5/8 double butted tube sets to provide a lively, yet secure ride for a combined rider/bike/load total up to 240 lbs or so. It by no means rides stiff, but things could get a little disconcerting if one were to push the load to the outer boundaries. The sweet spot for total load is probably close to 190 lbs
On to the detailing. There is plenty of room around the current 38mm tires, and tires up to 42mm and appropriate fenders will not be a problem.
I was able to capture some better shots of the detailing on the light wiring provisions: Fork wire guides Upper DT port and lower ST port.
All sizes will have the rear brake cable routed along the top tube at 6 o'clock. This will work just as well as any location on the tube for most, but will play well with a frame bag should the rider choose one. The weight of the bag will not cause any loading or friction on the exposed run of cable, and thus no binding of the brake movement.
I rode the bike around a bit this morning, and other than being small for me, it was a everything I hoped for. Handling was smooth, with or without hands on the bar, no shimmy, comfortable etc. etc.
As for the two-tone color scheme? lets just say it is a wonderful way to demo the red and yellow options, and a lesson in the level of direction and clarity needed when coordinating the color for future runs.
The next step is getting the components swapped out, fenders installed and the bike back under a rider for a couple weeks of commuting and after work rides.
I have been able to put close to 100 miles or so on Rambler No.1, with lots of climbing and descending with varied loads. Everything with regard to handling has exceeded my expectations based on design and theory. With the long chain stays and low trail, it flies down hill like a missile. I was able to push the limits of my personal comfort zone at multiple points of the descent on the back side of Sulphur Mtn. For clarity it is a drop of 1400 feet over 4 miles, all twisty and some grades as high as 15%, needles to say there are some opportunities to push the limits. Cornering was precise and mindless, the bike was an extension of my body.
The Paul Racers pared to the Sram levers were the best brake set up I have ever used. The range of modulation is wide and precise, stopping power was easy to fine tune, and there was no fade or degradation at any point. The oddest part was that I could stop on a dime in the pavement, but it was hard if not impossible to initiate a skid, this is probably a good thing. The bonus was how easy they are to set up. I know people tend to squirm a the price of Paul brakes, but I will have a hard time going back to other brakes.
Shimmy is the unintended harmonic oscillation of the entire bike, and an issue that often comes up with this style of bike, particularly on the larger bikes with light tube sets. My first round build up of the two bikes was intended to give shimmy every chance it could to show up (within safe reason). The bike is what it is, 62cm with 9/6/9 tube set, I built it up with a King headset and my floppiest handlebar bag. loaded with random gear and a sloshing 1l bottle of water the shimmy never came. Only when riding with no hands and tapping the bar would it oscillate a few times and stop. Rambler No.3 had similar results, by my uncoached tester. It is a size 56 with 8/5/8 frame tubes and a Cane Creel 110 headset. At one point there was what he described as a little shake, he naturally loosened his grip and the shimmy stopped immediately, and did not return. While shimmy is and will remain a bit of a mystery as to its exact cause, I excited with the initial results of my testing.
I am pretty happy with the outcome of my design. It worked equally well for me at my experience level and a rider out for his first time on a true road bike. I have seen it debated that bikes with a low trail geometry require some sort of mystic skill level to handle well, and in my experience this is just not true. Saturday proved that again. The ride was double that of what my friend had ever done. He was able to maintain the pace of the group, handle the bike well, with day trip load, on a bike he had never ridden, not even that style of bike, and he had a blast. I my mind this is pretty solid proof that the bike worked as it should. Frosting on the cake is that he was not sore at all the next day, and I attribute that to a good fit and tubing spec. He was on the 56, with 8/5/8 DB tubes, and rider plus load was around 180lbs. He is naturally inclined to a high cadence, and even with long 175mm cranks there were no issues.
In the coming weeks I will be shifting the builds around a bit, to test different aspects of the bikes as well as confirm component figment for different brands, models etc. I will share detailed reports as I move through the process.
One area of detailing that keeps coming up is the provisions for light wiring. There are wire guides on the right fork leg to accommodate safe wire routing from the connection point of a dynamo hub to the top of the fork.
There are also reinforced wire ports at the top of the down tube and the back of the down tube just above the bottom bracket. I feel this should allow plenty of options for wiring up head and tail lights to the dynamo hub should you choose that as a lighting option.
Thanks for reading, and stay posted, the reports will be come more quickly.
The weather was perfect, warm not hot, light breezes and not a cloud in the sky. The hills had some green thanks to the recent late season rains. And the dirt conditions were perfect. There is an 8 mile warm up on the Ventura river trail before we set into the work of the 10 miles or so of dirt road climbing through the cattle ranches and countryside. While only about 1/5 of the mileage, this is where we spent the largest percentage of the time.
Here is a shot of the whole group;
Here is Mike F rocking the Trek I had converted to 650b a few months back with some downhill pedals and sanuk sandal shoes. With a low gear ratio of 40/32 he was still leading the pack throughout the whole day.
The fog was well offshore, obscuring the islands, but there were still full panoramic views of the entire Santa Clara and Ventura river valleys.
With the time spent on the dirt, the road sections went pretty fast by comparison.
For me the ride had a few highlights. First and foremost was sharing the loop with friends. I have done this ride a bunch alone over the years, and hands down it is better with a few buddies. Everybody had a good time, not too much suffering on the steep sections and the closest thing we had to a mechanical was a couple of slow tire leaks that needed topping up along the way, and Errin hit some gum. A giant Thank You to all who were able to come out for the ride. I am looking forward to doing this again soon.
Mike's trek was flawless, not a squeak or rattle on a bike that has seen months of use since I restored it for him. My Rambler No1 met and exceeded all of my performance expectations, both climbing and descending. My friend Aaron was on Rambler No3. He had never ridden it before that morning, never ridden a bike with drop bars, never ridden more than 30 miles or so and surely not with 4K feet of total climbing and two wicked fast twisty descents. He was able to hold strong with all of us, the whole time, excepting a slight bonk, but that was right before our planned lunch stop. While riding a bike of my own design and having it go well was rewarding, having it go that well for your friend is far greater.
Wiring port for internal routing of lighting wires. Crown mounted rack bosses. Tons of room around the Jack Brown 33mm tires. The Paul Racer brakes are so freaking awesome.
On a side note, I went with the SRAM brake levers on this build. After years of wrestling with Shimano and Tektro levers, these things practically set up themselves. The cables just floated through the routing ports without even having to twist, fiddle and hold a flashlight in your teeth to find the little hole. I really like these.
I am really stoked after a couple of quick rides. It is everything I expected. There will be a bit of refinement on things like bridge and boss locations, but only a few mm, nothing that makes you scratch you head and go back to the drawing board. The colors are fantastic. Today number 3 and 4 are on their way. Next build is No.3, then number 2. It is going to be a crazy weekend.
Stay tuned, way more pictures to come.