cc700

no.

also, god damnit, i was hoping to be the first kilo on zipps... but then i put them on the road bike and fell in love.

xkillemallx16

does it make sense to upgrade to zipps for 2 grand?

jk.

it really depends on your needs. the wt5 and tt are completely different beasts

rkd350z

I like that red TT

UCF Eric

Red TT looks really pretty.

Cross posted from the SS/FG thread

hamfoh

just ordered a stripped version of the white splash yesterday, and apparently they're really close as it's expected to be here tomorrow (had to pay tax though :/). thinking wheels and pedals are going to be the first things to go. I'd like something pretty too Do you guys use online or the LBS for your FG upgrades

calv

Both, if you have a good LBS, you can buy a few things there. But for the most part, online has the better deals.

UCF Eric

Personally I'd pay the price difference and have that personal connection with people who know me and that I can ask questions to and get an honest answer.

hamfoh

crappy camera phone pic, will update it with a better one soon.

Mercier Kilo TT "Stipper Edition". Seems a little small on me, the site said if you're a 58 to go 55, I'm a 56 so I went 53.. oh well, live and learn.

every LBS wanted $80 to finish putting it together and 3-5 days (wtf), so took it to my local hipster/fixie store and had them put it together in 30 minutes for $50. Made me realize I need to learn how to do this stuff already. I heard the spokes when I got on it to ride it to my truck (only 30 yards or so away). I swear I could hear the spokes, hopefully it was just a lack of air they put in the tires.

yummygooey

What do you mean hear the spokes? Like hear them popping/pinging? That happens when a wheel isn't properly tensioned/relieved.

hamfoh

yeah I'll have to recreate the sound later, but I swear I heard a ping when I got on it.

yummygooey

It's happened to me before. It should be fine, unless your spokes are incredibly undertensioned.

hamfoh

how would I know for sure that's the case?

yummygooey

I'm definitely no expert at this, as I just started learning how to true and tension wheels at my co-op. Take it back to your LBS. Or:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html#seating

Or wait for someone else to chime in.

For what it's worth, my lady's Kilo has never been touched by a truing stand or spoke wrench and both wheels are still perfectly true.

Leukybear 

$50!?!?! to set up a track bike out of the box w/o servicing the wheels? Ridiculous from my standpoint.... if it was a road bike, that would be reasonable....

Scrodzilla

Or the first time a wheel is ridden on after tensioning/truing.

cc700

if someone charges less than 50 to set up a bike they're either clueless and have no idea what they're doing, or they're doing it with some way of skirting liability and service if something isn't done properly, like when you find out they cut the steerer tube too tall they'll charge you another 50 just to fix it. at least, for most urban areas where 50 dollars won't get you more than a couple meals.

either way, you don't want someone setting up a bike for 50 dollars.

that may sound like a lot of money to some people but labor is expensive. it's why bikes direct bikes are cheap, and it's why i have so many damn tools.

Scrodzilla

hamfoh - if your "local hipster/fixie store" took 30 minutes to assemble your bike, it wasn't done right.

Also, you do realize that you can't just waltz into a bike shop and have them build your bike on the spot while you wait, right? Chances are there are a whole bunch of work orders scheduled beforehand and no tech worth his salt (myself included) is going to just drop what they're doing and push scheduled repairs to the side because someone's internet purchase needs immediate attention.

cc700

hey scrod, i just spent three hundred dollars! not at your store though. i want to spend way less than going rate for you to assemble my **** and i want you to drop EVERYTHING and do it right now. also, 80 dollars is way too much to do what i'm asking. 50 dollars is still more than i'd like to give you.




seriously, it's like this. a bike comparable to the kilo tt will likely cost around 600 dollars at a local store. a fuji feather at performance bike is not what i'm talking about, so don't everyone yap and whine about some ****ty bike that's on clearance for 450 and is almost as nice as a kilo or has better hubs or whatever. that's not what i'm talking about. i'm talking about wanting good service and a bike as nice as a kilo, which will run 600 dollars or so.

if you don't have 600 dollars, you don't have 600 dollars. No fault there. it's not dumb that you're being a cheap, broke *******; it's dumb that you're being stupid about it.

yummygooey

Well, BD bikes come 90% assembled. It doesn't take that long for a competent mechanic to tighten a few bolts, does it? Or does a professional assembly entail more than that? Seriously curious here.

It took me 2 hours to assemble everything on my TET from scratch, but I felt like I was moving pretty slow.

Squirrelli

This.

And experience.

cc700

any shop mechanic who thinks excellence is something other than a movie starring keanu reeves is going to spend at least an hour on any ****ty mail order bike to make sure everything's torqued and chased and lubed properly.

they're not going to just tighten a few bolts and hand it off to the customer with a "good luck" and pocket the twenty the customer shells out for such a ragtag skeevy job.

or they will, because some shops are made for that. the local fixie coop cool kid hangout probably isn't worried about business sense or longevity or customer satisfaction beyond getting everyone 'stoked' on their new 'collabo' with 'asstread pedal straps' and 'shepard fairey.'

but no, a real mechanic will reassemble that 90% and then finish the 10% so the bike is 100% safe, 100% correct, and 100% not going to kill you when you hit a pebble around a turn on a descent.

then again, that obviously wasn't what this kid wanted.

which is why he shouldn't have gone to a good shop.

honestly, any shop that has the time to just forget their current work orders and throw together a bike that you bring in mailordered in a box is not a shop that cares about how much you'll enjoy that bike.
that, or they are in business for something completely different.

i wanted a king headset knocked into my cannondale and i went to the good shop and had them make up a work order to switch out the headsets, install my new fork, and get the bike set up with a new stem. they wanted 80 dollars to do this and it would have taken about three days.

i decided that wasn't what i wanted, because i didn't need them to install my fork, i just needed a headset knocked in. so i went to a non-profit used bike organization that has a shop. that shop did it for 20 bucks while i waited... but they did it because they figured 'why not' and they had the time, and twenty dollars is fine while they had some time to work on it. they are not in business to make sure my headset is installed properly, they're in business to offer community service hours to local youth. it just so happens that i trust them to install the headset properly.

having a headset knocked in is a little different from having a complete bike assembled and set up, but the principle is that you should have reasonable expectations. expecting a bike shop to get your bike from zero to 100% for the price you'd pay a co op to essentially give you the use of their tools for an hour is stupid.

also, 80 dollars to set up a bike is cheap. even without derailleurs, 80 bucks is a very reasonable rate for getting a bike together.

Squirrelli

Support your local co-op!

cc700

then put a bird on it

Squirrelli

Pretty much how it works over here.

On a more serious note, I think it is better to spend $80 at a bike co-op taen a shop. Sure, you get the professional works done from their mechanics but co-op mechanics are not shabby neither. Most of them worked at a pro shop at one point or another and decided that sort of environment is not what they want. At least this is the case for the guys in my co-op. Plus, with that $80, it would get you like 7ish hours of work, including hands-on work and guidance from mechanics. It's much better that way, IMHO. What do I know, I'm just a squirrel.

ohnoitsvincent

Does anyone know whether the cog on the Stripper is 3/32 or 1/8?