K2 / Proflex Riders Group
General => Tech Forum => Topic started by: fyrstormer on November 01, 2011, 10:12:06 am
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I bought a new bike. Well, a bike kit. Okay, a bike frame and associated parts; the rest I'll have to buy when my bank account recovers from its shock-induced coma.
It has All-Wheel Drive; as far as I know, it's the only AWD bike ever made that didn't completely suck. It is drop-dead sexy even in its unassembled state. Here, let me show you:
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG4995.jpg)
The gear shown below bolts onto whatever rear wheel I want to use. It has a built-in disengagement clutch so I can turn off the AWD if I don't want to use it.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG4985a.png)
The gear from the previous picture meshes with this one, which spins a driveshaft that passes through the frame and fork to connect to the front wheel.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG4991a.png)
This is a complex flexible and length-adjustable linkage the driveshaft uses to stay connected while the rear suspension moves up and down over bumps.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG4989.jpg)
The driveshaft terminates in this transfer case, where right-angle gears connect to a second driveshaft that runs down the side of the fork to reach the front wheel. There is a second transfer case inside the crown of the fork, to move the driveshaft from the center of the fork to the side so it can run down the right leg, but since that's a sealed unit I can't take any pictures.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG4987a.png)
Here is the front hub and the bottom of the second driveshaft. The front hub has a one-way clutch built into it, so it can spin freely unless it gets stuck, at which point the clutch will close and the whole shebang will leap into action to keep the front wheel spinning so it can claw its way over whatever obstacle is in its path.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG4984a.png)
I kinda wish I had more to say about it besides "hey look, I bought half a bike." Unfortunately, the other half will have to be bought piece by piece and assembled by hand. On the up-side, at least I know I won't have a burdensome amount of money saved any time soon.
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That's cool. Like an encounter with any alien visitor, I'd have to dissect it to fully understand how it functions. I wouldn't kill it though. A schematic of the front drive in the head tube would be appreciated.
I can understand your desire to avoid any unnecessary cash weighing you down.
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Hi
I like the new bike
one little question are those gears on the wheels enclosed to stop grit stones sticks etc getting in and causing the wheels to stop rotating !
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Wow, so they are still making them. I have always wanted one. Especially for snow riding.
Thunderchild
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So what does the whole frame (and fork) weigh in at?
I guess there must be a weight penalty, but it's a great concept.
Col.
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That looks like fun. What a cool project.
Terry
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A schematic of the front drive in the head tube would be appreciated.
The transfer case in the head tube is just a right-angle gear; power comes through the inside of the top-tube, passes through the right-angle gears, and heads down into the interior of the fork crown. From there, a small chain-drive moves the power over to the right leg of the fork, where it runs down through a length-adjustable shaft to the gear that drives the wheel.
one little question are those gears on the wheels enclosed to stop grit stones sticks etc getting in and causing the wheels to stop rotating !
The gears are not enclosed, so that dirt and sand can escape, but the teeth are very close together so it's unlikely any stones would get caught. There isn't even enough room for pea gravel to fit between the teeth; the largest that would fit is a large grain of sand.
Also, the AWD system has a one-way clutch in the front hub, so if the gears did get jammed, the rear wheel would skid but the front wheel would continue to roll. The bike would have to be stopped in order to clean out the gears, but the bike wouldn't flip over because the front wheel would not be jammed at all.
Wow, so they are still making them. I have always wanted one. Especially for snow riding.
They're still assembling them, but they've stopped fabrication of new parts. The mountain bike was always just a test platform for the AWD system, and the final goal was to install it on off-road motorcycles. The system is successful enough in motorcycles that Christini won a DoD contract to manufacture AWD motorcycles for Army special forces, and it's supposedly the first motorcycle ever approved by the DoD for use by US soldiers.
I'm looking forward to riding mine in the snow too, since I've never really been able to ride in the snow before (my 756 is RWD, obviously, and has Michelin Wildgripper Jet tires with zero grip in the white stuff), but I opted to not buy studded tires just yet; they're $120 for a pair, and this bike isn't going to be done in time to ride in the snow anyway, so I might as well spend that $120 on parts necessary to get it up and running first.
So what does the whole frame (and fork) weigh in at?
Based on me standing on the bathroom scale with and without the frame in my hands, the frame weighs 12.5lbs/5.7kg. It sounds like a lot, but remember it also has a White Brothers fork and a Fox Float RL shock integrated into the frame.
The latest info I can find on White Brothers suspension forks benches them at 4.1lbs/1.9kg, a Fox Float RL weighs about .5lb/.2kg, and a Santa Cruz Superlight (single pivot) frame weighs 5.7lbs/2.6kg, for a total of 10.3lbs/4.7kg. That puts the weight of the AWD system itself at 2.2lbs/1kg, which I can compensate for by going to the bathroom before riding. ;)
That looks like fun. What a cool project.
Thanks! That's what I thought. :D
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wow - that is somewhat special. be interstingto see how you get on riding it.
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a 2.2# dump is pretty impressive too!
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They call it a Deuce for a reason. ;)
No, I do not eat buckshot for breakfast. :D
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No, I do not eat buckshot for breakfast. :D
Chuck Norris does, as well as "The most interesting man in the world". ;D ;D
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No, I do not eat buckshot for breakfast. :D
Chuck Norris does, as well as "The most interesting man in the world". ;D ;D
Unlike those two, my intelligence is high enough to be noticeably affected by lead poisoning. ;)
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No, I do not eat buckshot for breakfast. :D
Chuck Norris does, as well as "The most interesting man in the world". ;D ;D
Unlike those two, my intelligence is high enough to be noticeably affected by lead poisoning. ;)
:D :D :D
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I has wheels! Now I just need the tires, tubes, rim tape, and other crap I ordered, and then I can take an update picture. But the important thing is, the AWD really works! :D
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Fyrstormer,
I thought I was done with bike quests for awhile, but now I hear the whispers on the wind of the beginning of a new quest. Any plans on renting it ;)
Also found this limited video on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS4ik9xEijM
Thunderchild
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I found a video showing a cut-away look at the Christini AWD
Find it here: http://www.christinibicycles.com/video/ChristiniCutAway.mov
Thunderchild
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sound only here
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Fyrstormer,
I thought I was done with bike quests for awhile, but now I hear the whispers on the wind of the beginning of a new quest. Any plans on renting it ;)
Also found this limited video on You Tube [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS4ik9xEijM[/url]
Thunderchild
it looks kool, but i highly doubt it's the 17 pounds they say it is in the video on utube. maybe just the frame and fork.
david
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It's definitely not 17lbs, since the frame/fork/AWD system weighs 12.5lbs, but it shouldn't be heavier than my 756 when it's done.
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In other news, The first set of parts purchases showed up over the weekend: both wheels, two sets of inner tubes and tires, two quick-release skewers, a seatpost clamp, a handlebar stem, and three carbon-fiber handlebar stem spacers.
A screw-down steer tube cap also arrived, along with an expandable clamp that grabs hold of the inside of the steer tube to give the cap something to screw into -- but unfortunately the clamp was a bit too big to fit, so I'll probably have to go with a less-elegant solution -- a flanged nut that gets hammered into the steer tube and never comes out again.
That one little snafu aside, though, everything went together nicely. And now...pics!
Here's the rear wheel, fully assembled except for the chain sprockets which will get installed probably early next year. I bought the brake disc for this wheel ahead of time, even though I don't have the brake yet, because the AWD drive gear bolts over top of the brake disc and so it would be incorrectly positioned without a brake disc taking up the appropriate amount of space. I ordered a brake disc with a red carrier to match the frame (which I also did with the quick-release skewers, as you can see in the center), and then I wondered if it would've been better to just get the normal black carrier, but in the end the extra splash of color looks quite nice.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5012.jpg)
Here's the front wheel, fully assembled except for the brake disc. Since I didn't need a brake disc to install the AWD drive gear on the front wheel, and since the brakes will come with discs as part of the package when I get around to buying them, I decided to postpone that purchase and spend my money on parts I have to install now to support other parts in the future, such as the handlebar stem.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5011.jpg)
Here's the handlebar stem and the spacers that lift it up by 20mm. (should be 25mm, but I measured incorrectly and ordered 3x 10mm spacers by mistake.) This stem is one of remarkably few stems that doesn't have clamping bolts sticking off the back of the steer tube. That might not seem terribly important, but people have broken kneecaps in crashes by smacking into the steer tube clamp bolts before, and anyway it looks cleaner without them. This one has an elegant clamp design that uses a fixed-size steer tube hole, with a pair of wedges that are tightened together by a bolt in front of the steer tube, and those wedges jam a shim against the front of the steer tube to provide grip. See, other companies? That wasn't so hard.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5014.jpg)
And here's all the new parts assembled on the frame. Note the black quick-release seatpost clamp to match the red quick-release wheel skewers. I like it when companies make parts that match. Hopefully I'll be able to maintain the color scheme of mostly red and black with silver accents; fortunately those are fairly popular colors these days.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5013.jpg)
So that's that. It's far from finished at this point, but it sure looks good thus far. I have to send back a couple bits and exchange them for other bits, but that's not a significant effort. The next batch of parts will most likely consist of a handlebar, handlebar grips, a seatpost, and a seat. I may also opt to get some pedals even though I have no cranks to put them on, because the same company that made the handlebar stem also makes red and black pedals, and I have a sneaking suspicion the colors will get changed for 2012.
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So who make the stem? I like the way it looks and functions.
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so forgive me for saying but it looks like you have to deflate the rear tire to line the label up with your valve to match the front. sorry, i always notice the little things
david
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So who make the stem? I like the way it looks and functions.
It's made by Crank Brothers, famous for their "eggbeater" pedals. The stem is called the Iodine 2; the Iodine 3 has a carbon-fiber handlebar clamp, but I don't want to take the risk of the clamp breaking under stress. Even a carbon-fiber handlebar will only break off half at a time, but if the clamp lets go I'll instantly implant the steer tube into my sternum.
so forgive me for saying but it looks like you have to deflate the rear tire to line the label up with your valve to match the front. sorry, i always notice the little things
david
The rear wheel was built with last year's version of the same rim. There's no structural difference, but there's also no way to align the labels since the labels are different. I'm just going to remove the labels like I did with my 756.
Anyway, I already served my new-tire penance by cutting off all the little injection-mold bits that were sticking out of the tread. Took an hour per tire. :)
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So who make the stem? I like the way it looks and functions.
It's made by Crank Brothers, famous for their "eggbeater" pedals. The stem is called the Iodine 2; the Iodine 3 has a carbon-fiber handlebar clamp, but I don't want to take the risk of the clamp breaking under stress. Even a carbon-fiber handlebar will only break off half at a time, but if the clamp lets go I'll instantly implant the steer tube into my sternum.
so forgive me for saying but it looks like you have to deflate the rear tire to line the label up with your valve to match the front. sorry, i always notice the little things
david
The rear wheel was built with last year's version of the same rim. There's no structural difference, but there's also no way to align the labels since the labels are different. I'm just going to remove the labels like I did with my 756.
Anyway, I already served my new-tire penance by cutting off all the little injection-mold bits that were sticking out of the tread. Took an hour per tire. :)
sorry, the tire label, not the wheel label
david
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sorry, the tire label, not the wheel label
david
I assume you mean align the tire label with the valve stem -- but the hole for the valve stem is itself positioned opposite the area where the rim is welded together, which the label covers, so if I align the tire label with the valve stem, I will also align it with the wheel label. :D
I don't really care about the alignment of the tire label and the valve stem; the alignment of the tire label and the wheel label is much more obvious to me, and as previously noted I'm just going to remove the wheel labels anyway. Problem solved!
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.... and any prgoress on this?
there is one fully built on ebay BIN $ 25,000 :o with offers.
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.... and any prgoress on this?
there is one fully built on ebay BIN $ 25,000 :o with offers.
HAHAHAHA, I had to look that one up just to laugh. $25,000 for a bicycle! Amazing.
Then again, my dad thought I was nuts when he found out I spent $500 on my Pro-Flex 756 back in 1998. Then I crashed into the side of a moving car, and the bike was strong enough to catapult me over the car instead of crumpling under the strain, at which point the price tag suddenly made sense to him. He still jokes that if I hadn't been distracted at the time of the crash, I probably would've heard the bike sighing with satisfaction at finally seeing some real action.
Anyway, yes, I have made progress. The bike is essentially done now, except for a new front derailleur because the original one suffered a seized cable clamp bolt that essentially required me to destroy the derailleur to remove it. Fortunately www.universalcycles.com (http://www.universalcycles.com) was nice enough to take it back as a defective return, despite my use of lockjaw pliers in a manner almost certainly not approved by SRAM.
Update post is forthcoming.
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Finally some progress on this project. My taxes worked out favorably for 2011, due to working 3 quarters but being taxed like I worked all 4, plus I sold some stuff I never use (word to the wise: titanium tools don't depreciate in value), so I've got enough cash to finish building my bike now. However, I'm not ordering everything at once because I need time to install the parts, step back and look at what I've done so far, and re-evaluate what should come next. I should be done by the end of April at the latest, though. [EDIT: okay, now the first week of May...stupid broken derailleur.]
Since the last time I posted, the following parts have been bought and installed: carbon-fiber handlebars, a height- and angle-adjustable carbon-fiber seatpost (they're all adjustable, but it's worth mentioning why the part exists at all), a seat, handlebar end-grips (to give me a couple different positions to rest my hands in while riding), a front brake disc to match the rear one I got last fall, a control lever to engage and disengage the AWD clutch, and a water bottle holder and tire pump. Most of this stuff actually arrived Wednesday evening (a few hours before I posted this), but before I went nuts installing all of it, I had to go for a ride on my old bike -- to test this:
My new cyclometer; an all-in-one speedometer, tachometer, odometer, timer, and clock.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5159.jpg)
I used to have a cyclometer on my old bike, but I stopped using it after I replaced the front fork; I would've had to buy a new sensor mount for the new fork because the old sensor mount was glued to the old fork, and then the computer mount on the handlebar cracked in half, and then I lost the sensor. So, to hell with it. The sensor was hardwired to the computer, and the wire was way too long, so the only way I could feed it down the fork without having it flop around was to wind the wire around the front brake cable. What a pain in the ass. I honestly didn't miss it much, because I don't ride just so I can look at numbers, but it's nice to have the numbers available for later contemplation.
The new cyclometer is a big step up. It can remember info for two different bikes, so I only need one computer for both bikes, and the sensor is wireless so I don't have any stupid little dangling wire to deal with, and the screen is backlit, and the computer mount actually lets me attach it to the handlebar stem so the screen is centered instead of off to one side, and and and and....
Speaking of numbers, my test ride was 6.8 miles long, taking a total of 35 minutes, at an average speed of 12mph and a top speed of 23mph. I can go faster, but not at a sustained pace, and a nice downhill slope comes in handy. It's interesting to see those numbers again; those were my stats in college too, almost exactly 10 years ago. My uphill speed seems to have improved slightly, though.
...right, about all those new parts. Pics!
The new seat, seatpost, and Formula-1-style single taillight. (yeah yeah, all two-wheeled vehicles have single taillights, that's not the point. =P )
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5148.jpg)
The new handlebars, endgrips, and inner clamps for the handgrips that I haven't bought yet. (the endgrips double as outer clamps for the handgrips.) Clamp-on handgrips might seem like some cheesy pseudo-motocross gimmick, but when the brake levers and gear shifters are trapped on the handlebar and you can't get the handgrips off, suddenly the ability to remove the handgrips by loosening a couple bolts makes a lot more sense. Also, since the time-tested method for removing the old stretch-on handgrips was to slice them with a razor blade and throw them away, the clamp-on kind is also a lot less wasteful; the clamp-on handgrips on my old bike are about ten years old and still going strong.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5149.jpg)
The new front brake disc. Nothing to explain here, but on the rear wheel the inner part of the disc is covered by a large gear, so this is a nice opportunity to admire the pretty red finish.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5151.jpg)
A closeup of the handlebar endgrips. A lot of mountain bikes don't have them, and a lot of mountain bikers think they're a waste of time -- and that's certainly true for most endgrips -- but I like having the option to change my hand position from time to time. Cane Creek's design is the best by a long shot; they're designed so your wrists are centered directly over the ends of the handlebar, so you don't have to reach forward to use them. I have an older version of these on my old bike as well, and once I tried them I didn't bother to try any other design ever again. I should probably buy a spare set in case they're ever discontinued.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5155.jpg)
...and now I have to split the post because the forum says it's too long to post in a single shot.
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...aaand we're back. ;D
The little blue-and-black thing just above the AWD driveshaft is the control lever for the AWD clutch. For some reason, the company that built the bike included a super-cheap gearshift as the control lever; seriously, it looked like they ran over to Wal Mart and bought the cheapest thing in the bicycle section. I didn't like it at all, so I looked around online until I found something more elegant that looked like it would work. This is actually a lever designed to lock-out a suspension fork so it won't squish around when the rider doesn't want it to; lucky me, it has the exact amount of movement necessary to operate the AWD clutch on my bike too. I win!
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5153.jpg)
In the previous picture you might have glimpsed a neon-green...thing...and wondered what it was. It's the new water bottle holder. You may ask: "Why? Why did I put a bright green-and-white bottle holder on a subdued red-and-black bike? It's the exact opposite of the established color scheme!" Precisely.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5152.jpg)
It's beginning to look like a real bike now. Lots of parts are still missing, but at least the "bones" are all there.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5146.jpg)
Next up are the brakes, and the gear shifters will bolt directly to the brake levers (yay for businesses cooperating with each other!), and then I'll have to put the bike into...um, a car bigger than my RX-8...and take it to the bike shop to have the crankset bearings fitted. Older designs used a single-piece bearing assembly with an integrated spindle, so there was never any chance the bearings could be misaligned. In the past few years though, with the goal of improving crank stiffness, all the bike-parts companies have made the spindles larger, which means there's no room for the bearings anymore, so they have to sit outside the frame of the bike in two separate pods that require professional tools to align properly. (misaligned crank bearings waste a LOT of energy -- MY energy.) Bah. But once that's done, I ought to be able to carry on with installing all the other parts on my own.
Progress!
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Quote "In the previous picture you might have glimpsed a neon-green...thing...and wondered what it was. It's the new water bottle holder. You may ask: "Why?...."
Yes I did, and sorry to offend you but despite your explanation, I still can't cope with your choice of colour...........But hey, each to their own! <GRIN>
Maybe you should recommend your new AWD shifter to the manufacturer of the bike as an improvement?
Col.
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Think of the bottle holder like a bright red necktie with a dark blue suit.
Anyway, I doubt there's much point in recommending the AWD lockout control to them, since they're not making the bike anymore. I'm glad to see they plan to keep making spare parts available indefinitely, though.
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In other news, now that the bike parts companies have jumped on the 2-chainring bandwagon, I can finally outfit my 2-chainring Pro-Flex properly. I picked up an 8-speed 11-32 cassette to drop the granny-gear ratio a bit, and a 26-tooth small chainring to reduce the size of the jump from the big chainring a bit. I also scored an XT front derailleur to match my XT rear derailleur, and when that gets installed, it will mean the last original part on my Pro-Flex will have been replaced.
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The bike is done.
Well, let me qualify that: the bike is fully assembled -- all the parts are installed, and it's adjusted enough to be rideable. But I don't suppose it's done, and it may never be, since I never really stop fiddling with anything I own, especially if I had the opportunity to assemble it in the first place.
Enough said. On to the pics.
I mentioned in my previous post that I'd have to take the bike to a shop to have the crank bearings installed. Here's a closeup of the part in question -- the silver bit between the frame and the crank arm.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5234b.png)
Hope disc brakes are some of the prettiest bike parts I've ever seen.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5232.jpg)
Busiest rear hub ever. The AWD drive gear adds a lot of extra complexity. Also, another opportunity to admire the Hope disc brakes, this one featuring a custom-ground adaptor that took me over an hour to grind down to the necessary size.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5233.jpg)
Cable routing: not just for IT geeks. If they look a little tangled, that's because they are; part of cable routing on bikes is looping the cables around each other to keep them from flapping around. It takes a bit of practice to get them so they get in each other's way just enough, without pulling on each other when the handlebars turn.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5236.jpg)
A view from "inside" the "cockpit".
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5237.jpg)
I've mentioned I like the way Hope brakes look, right? Here's one of the brake levers close-up; it looks like it belongs on a motorcycle. Also featured is the AWD clutch control, which is technically mounted in an inverted position -- I tried to mount it the proper way, with the control pointing back toward the rider, but there was exactly ONE position it could be in without interfering with the brake or the shifter, and it was impossible to adjust too. So, I moved it. It still works quite well in this position. And lastly, the grips are really comfortable to hold, and they bolt onto the handlebar so they can be removed by loosening a screw instead of having to cut them off and replace them.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5238.jpg)
Here's a complete view of the RWD drivetrain, front-to-back. At the front you can see the front derailleur which I had to replace because the cable clamp bolt seized and broke off when I loosened and re-tightened it too many times while adjusting the shifter cable. Fortunately the bike shop accepted it as a defective return and exchanged it for a new one for the cost of shipping. I put anti-seize grease on the new one to avoid that problem happening again; so far, so good.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5239.jpg)
Here's a closeup of the crankset and associated parts. This is a perfect example of the sort of mixing-and-matching I love being able to do. I have a Shimano XT crankset with Blackspire gears, a Salsa bash-ring to protect the gears from impact (and my pants from chain oil), an SRAM derailleur, a Connex chain, and generic bolts holding the gears in place. The only reason the bike parts companies haven't made everything super-proprietary is because people like me insist on only buying inter-compatible parts. Viva la free market!
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5242.jpg)
And lastly, the lovely red-and-black pedals I was hoping would still be in-stock when I got around to buying them...and they were! I have an older version of these pedals on my old bike, and they work great. I'm a little unsure about the plastic inner pieces, but...oh well, the pedals are completely disassemblable, so I should be able to replace the plastic parts if they ever break.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5243.jpg)
In all its glory.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y186/deusexaethera/bikes/CIMG5244.jpg)
What a project this turned out to be. I bought the frame last August and just finished assembling everything now. Man, oh man. But, it's done, and if it lasts as long as my old bike has, then it's money very well spent.
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Excellent, well done on completing it!
all up weight?
I'll let you off the weight of the bottle cage! <GRIN>
I've still got two Oz's in pieces that are very slowly being built!
Col.
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is it just me or are those .jpg photos corrupted? the top 13 or so is fine but then it goes all weird :(
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There's only 10 photos in my most recent post. ???
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Excellent, well done on completing it!
all up weight?
I'll let you off the weight of the bottle cage! <GRIN>
I've still got two Oz's in pieces that are very slowly being built!
Col.
According to my bathroom scale (with me holding the bike minus me not holding the bike), it weighs 31.6lbs / 14.3kg. That's about 1.6lbs / 725g higher than my Pro-Flex, which is not bad at all considering all the extra parts in the AWD system. No doubt the air shocks help a lot with reducing weight.
Interestingly, despite being heavier and still single-pivot like my Pro-Flex, it's also about 0.5mph faster than my Pro-Flex over several miles of mixed terrain, given a similar level of exertion.
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how does the drive for the front wheel hook up to the bevel gear that sits in the head tube?
.... I was thinking about this and wonder why they did not use a hydrualic drive system?
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There are bevel gears bolted to both wheels. The rear bevel gear drives a shaft that runs through the interior of the frame. There is an extendable shaft where the rear suspension connects to the main triangle of the frame, a 90-degree transfer case inside the headtube, and a small chain-drive inside the crown of the fork.
They probably didn't use a hydraulic drive for three reasons:
1) Hydraulics always leak eventually, and they don't work properly if there's ANY air in the system at all;
2) The sudden engagement of the hydraulic drive when one wheel starts slipping would cause a massive pressure surge in the pressurized line that transfers power from the back wheel to the front wheel;
3) Most hydraulic fluid is denser than hollow aluminum.
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oh how I want one of these bikes for snow riding. Nice build!
Thunderchild ]-
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very very cool
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In other news, I replaced the 170mm cranks on my 756 with 175mm cranks, and the ride is much improved. I bought the 170mm cranks when I upgraded from square-taper to ISIS, thinking the 5mm smaller radius wouldn't matter. I was wrong. 3% more torque helps a lot.
If anyone else wants to pick up an ISIS crank for their bike, there are some FSA Alpha-Drives for sale on eBay at $45 per set. Those are the ones I got; they look nice.
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So, there are NO forums online for Christini bikes. Not even subsections of general-bike-stuff forums. There's a forum for 14+ year old bikes made by a company that doesn't exist anymore, but not for my new bike. Disappointing.
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So, there are NO forums online for Christini bikes. Not even subsections of general-bike-stuff forums. There's a forum for 14+ year old bikes made by a company that doesn't exist anymore, but not for my new bike. Disappointing.
So start one! <GRIN>
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I thought about it, but I don't have the hardware to host a forum, and Christini doesn't seem interested in doing it themselves.
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..... there was one of these on ebay a few months back and was umming and ahhing whether to bid - the top tube of 620 mm seems to be a bit too long - my bikes have 600 +/- 10 mm TT so didn't bid in the end. it went for very little money - kinda regret it now ...... and then later turns out the seller of that bike bought my Whyte PRST 1 .... small ebay world