BP88

Just put on the Thomson stem/seatpost and Deda lowrider bars.

BP88

Here are a couple of better pics of my bike above; last night it was too dark outside to take a decent picture.

Stem is a Thomson X2 70mm, bars are Deda CronoNero Lowrider 40cm, and I did a mediocre job taping them with Deda Mistrel bar tape.

TejanoTrackie 

Had a wonderful 25 mile country ride today. Found this neat strap-on water bottle cage that is easy to install/remove w/o tools and won't damage the frame finish. The seat bag has a spare tube, Red Zeppelin CO2 inflator with spare cartridge, 3Wrencho tool and flat plastic tire iron set with several glueless patches in case I get more than one flat or mess up changing the tube. The RB-02 bars are awesomely comfortable, and the Flite saddle was comfy wearing my bib shorts with padded chamois. I think the gearing and riding position is perfect as is, so now I can just enjoy it.

PeDDeR27

Another picture of mine.

Charlie_Zulu

I finally received my 51cm Pake 7005 series aluminum frameset from the nice UPS girl. I will be posting pictures and a full review soon. For now, I must say that the frame has a nice aesthetic to my eye. The headtube is beautifully machined and tapers perfectly with the carbon fork. I was able to install my cane creek 41mm integrated headset without any hassle. All decals are on top of the clearcoat. The uncut fork is 640g. Cut, 545g. The frame including the replaceable dropouts is 1510g. Wheelbase at minimum is 948mm. the BB height is just about 29cm with 23mm tires.

Scrodzilla

Of the UPS girl?

TejanoTrackie 

vw02

rofl if referring to the UPS girl the whole post. "frame has a nice aesthetic to my eye"

Scrodzilla

Pinkbullet3

Rereading the post with that in mind completely changes everything... o_o

Charlie_Zulu

Here are some photos of the pake aluminum. Sadly, no photos of the UPS girl. I am strongly considering removing the decals. The headtube decal does not lie flat given that the machined headtube has concave sides. The crankset pictured clears the chainstays by less than 1mm, I may need a longer BB spindle in order to have a correct chainline. It was originally a road crankset in very bad condition so I resurfaced it and ground off the extra tabs. I'm planning on finishing the build with a 49 tooth FSA chainring. Track gearing will be 49 / 15.

calbob76

oh god I think I am going to get one of the pakes. please tell me how it rides when you get it all together

Charlie_Zulu

Yes. I will be racing at my local velodrome this summer on this bike. It is a 333m concrete outdoor so I was not concerned about the relatively low BB. Many more pictures and a full review will come once I can order the chainring. I have ridden other 7 series aluminum frames with carbon forks before but never one with tubes of such a large diameter. The downtube appears 2" in diameter, woah. I realized while building it up that in order to avoid damaging the dropouts (which only have the stainless steel on the outside) one must use a cone wrench to hold the locknuts in place while fastening the axle bolts. Otherwise premature wear of the paint and aluminum may occur, I think.

I would like to add that the geometry of this bike is well suited to those who prefer a short reach. I had considered a Leader, but realized that the long top tubes don't suit my body well. My 51cm frame has a TT of 528mm, perfect with a 105mm stem and medium reach bars. But beware! the 53cm has a sloping TT. All other sized do not, at least given the info on the geo chart.

hamfoh

sexy. I wonder why its Pake branded instead of Soma. I see that "P" and I think "economy" normally but that frame is very nice looking.

TejanoTrackie 

You don't have to do this if a) you use plenty of grease on the axle threads and b) tighten the right and left sides sequentially by first just snugging the right nut, then the left nut, then further tighten the right, then the left, then really tighten the right only. Also, make sure the nut washers are not binding on the nuts. Finally, use locknuts with serrations on them that grip the dropouts when tightened.

Charlie_Zulu

Hey, thanks for the tip TT. These Paul hubs use bolts to secure the rear wheel axle to the dropouts and they use a sort of integrated washer that ensures that the outer portion of the dropouts do not receive any friction from tightening the bolt.

Regarding the decals. I would keep them all if they were applied correctly. The fact that the shaped headtube does not receive the flat sticker kills it for me. I believe the frameset is of very good quality for the price and I would show my pride in the brand if they had put just a bit more effort into it. Having said that, I can't think of a reasonable alternative given the low MSRP.

Pic not related.

Sherblock

Anyone else see a problem with the above pic? Looks to me as if the chainring won't fit.

Charlie_Zulu

I was also doubtful when I put torque on the crank bolt. I still expect to have to install a new BB with a longer spindle. Perhaps 110mm instead of 107mm. However I did mock it up with a 53 tooth chainring just to check the clearance. It was very close, but cleared the chainstay. Perhaps the flex generated from pedaling would cause the ring or spider to make contact if I wanted to use that arrangement but the longer spindle I'm planning makes this irrelevant. The crankset I chose will make a narrow enough tread or Q factor despite the longer spindle.

Very excited about racing this machine.

cc700

It's branding. this frame is too newjack and impractical for soma. soma makes bikes that are sensibly updated from good heritage... and they are all steel.

the french 75 makes more sense as a pake. they got this one right.

that said i'm not all that impressed and feel like you could do better with a dodici or a https://airwalkfixed.blogspot.com/200...set-116kg.html

Charlie_Zulu

What makes you say that this frame is impractical? I has typical track geometry, not unlike the Rush. It also costed me significantly less than the "Elite lightest Frameset" you linked to in addition to having replaceable dropout inserts.

I was also considering the lowest end aluminum Dolan for my track racing bike. However the cost was prohibitive.

cc700

have you ridden an aluminum track bike on the street before? i'd take a rush any day. i don't mean practical in a 'cost efficiency' sense, i mean in a 'best bike to ride on city streets' sense.

this may fight it out with an entry dolan on the track just fine. but that's not a good reason to call it a soma...

this bike doesn't have the 'vintage' appeal of a soma. i'm not saying a more expensive frame is more practical or less practical or that this bike is or isn't a good value, i'm saying steel = soma and aluminum therefore does not.

Charlie_Zulu

I strongly agree with your opinion regarding the branding of this product. It is no soma. I bought this bike as a track racing machine so the comfort on the road is irrelevant to me personally.

hamfoh

weird I never knew Soma's name had that much prestige

EpicSchwinn

That Pake sure looks good. A lot better than I would've guessed from the photos on their website - they could've done a better job on those. I had a similar issue running a Shimano 600 crankset on my Rush. It has a little more clearance for the crank itself but I clear by less than a millimeter with a 53t chainring.

Charlie_Zulu

What length of BB spindle did you use? I am performing an experiment using a 144 BCD road crankset for a track bike. Determining the correct chainline will require some careful measurements on my part.