calstar 

Yao Ming, ex-NBA all pro, 7'6", 340(+-). Nice looking design, anyone know who built it? I know the photo angle accentuates the size/scle, but nevertheless that is a big bike!

thanks, Brian


https://i.imgur.com/6FP9d.jpg

Stealthammer

Gunnar Bicycles



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Stealthammer

Scooper

It's a custom built Gunnar Rockhound MTB frame with 29" wheels built with True Temper OX. The fork was made by Vicious Cycles.

Live Wire 

Yao must really like to do wheelies.

unterhausen

the Waltworks rant about this bike was a good read

calstar 

Yes indeed. Thanks for the link, my initial response was obviously incorrect as far as the design, always great to learn from another perspective.

Brian

unterhausen

it's certainly worth discussing. I wonder if he ever used it much

Scooper

All I got out of Walt's rant is that he'd have done it differently and some of the reasons he would have done so. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

tuz

Yeah hard to tell how it would actually ride by looking at a picture. On the road it's probably okay. But those chaintays do look quite short, and I don't get what the crossed top tubes try to achieve.

unterhausen

I think they had to do something to keep that huge front triangle from racking. The crossed top tubes might not have been the best thing, but it does reduce the bending moment on the head tube. As Walt notes, the steerer could be a problem anyway.

I do think the chainstays are too short, maybe not 200mm short though. I hate climbing hills enough without doing wheelies. That bike has to be a wheelie machine.

Scooper

It would be interesting to know what input Yao Ming and/or the Gunnar dealer fitting him had into the design. I know from personal experience that Waterford typically solicits lots of customer input when designing custom frames; their stock geometry charts are fairly conventional.

ftwelder

hysterical.

MassiveD

The rear end geometry is odd, unless there is something in particular we don't know about. I am also anti set-back seat posts, though they have their place. A 2.5 inch tube would be 8 times stiffer, and the dude isn't even that heavy. I was near that at one point when I toured without difficulty on 1.125 downtube, the old oversize.

Andrew R Stewart 

MassiveD- Yes there was a time that 1" down tubes were the standard here in the USA... That just goes to show that we work with what we have.

One of the issues with very tall/long bikes is that the leverage is so much greater. A tall skinny guy flexes a bike more then a small stocky guy.

Here's a shot of a 70+ cm frame I built back in 1985. It took a lot to get my boss to use my suggestions of a straight gauge thick wall down tube and a custom machined steerer, also of thicker wall then usual. These days i'd go about this completely different. Andy.

unterhausen

I guess if you count Huffys, they had 1" downtubes. But the standard size DT is 1 1/8", just ask Klein, he patented bigger tubes after getting the idea from one of his professors. My tandem was the first bike I ever built with OS tubing, the DT on that is 1 1/4 using Reynolds 531 tandem tubing that was available back in the early '80s.

Andrew R Stewart 

Most of the USA production used 1" main frame tubes at one time. Schwinn, Columbia, Murray, Huffy, Ross to name the biggies. Granted most of their bikes were targeting the recreational rider. Cruisers, kids bikes and 3-speeds. But each company had a "lightweight" line with 10 gears too that used the same frame tubes. But then the old guys already knew this. Andy.

unterhausen

I'm old. I guess I always considered the bikes with 1" downtubes to be bike-like-objects since even the cheapest bikes worth owning were built with what is now called "standard" size tubing.

Andrew R Stewart 

Eric- My post is part of my never ending attempt to base discussions with the history of how things are done at that time and how things evolve but then the old is forgotten. In enough time the current design standards (OS and XLOS tubes, sloping top tubes, ect) will be also forgotten. Until some stick in the mud guy, like me, mentions that people used to think the new bikes that were able to coast were an unfair advantage... Smiles, Andy.

Charles Ramsey

Does anyone know if the frame Cannondale built for Shaq is still in use?

Scooper

That's Doctor Shaq now. He earned his PhD in education last Saturday at Barry University in Miami.

tuz

Regarding the Gunnar. I figured they wanted to strengthen the large front triangle with the crossed top tubes, but it seems they are weakening it? Having those tubes land in the middle of the unsupported seat and head tubes would increase the bending moment? (plus the seat tube is smaller dia then the tubes mitred to it, can't be good) The crossing does create smaller triangles, but not were it's needed I'd say.

Talking of smaller DTs. I'm working on a 1937 CCM... it has a 1-1/16 DT and ST. Serious wtf moment...