ryanlovesyou

Its surprising that with all the people here who read BikeSnob, no one has mentioned Mission Bicycles today. Does anyone know what the component spec would be? All I can see is the tires, seat, and wheels on the website. It seems like a pretty interesting concept.

1fluffhead

Frame Tig welded chromoly frame (50, 53, 55, 57, 60, 62cm)
Rim Velocity Deep-V Hubs Formula track sealed-cartridge bearing
Frame Tig welded chromoly frame
Spokes Dt Swiss Brakes
Tektro road caliper brake
Crank Origin 46t track crankset
Bottom bracket Shimano UN-54
Chain KMC 1/2 x 1/8
Cog 16tooth steel cog
Seatpost 27.2 Alloy micro-adjust post
Seat Odyssey Mike Aitken saddle
Tire Vittoria Rubino 700 x 23c
Grips Oury MTB grip or Grip tape
Handlebar Alloy riser/ track drop-bar
Stem 1-1/8 threadless alloy stem
Headset 1-1/8 sealed threadless headset
Pedals Wellgo platform pedal
Bottom Bracket 68mm shell
Seatpost 27.2
Weight (frame) 4.3lb size 56cm
Rear Dropout 120mm

https://missionbicycle.com/specs

mugatu

He seemed to cover everything pretty thoroughly in the article, so I don't have much to say about it. It's another small startup company making niche bikes for more than I'd prefer to pay. Seems like most of the people here would rather be the one's they talk about building stuff up on their own. If you take the time to post on a forum regularly about your ss/fg, you probably aren't the kind of customer they're targeting (not wanting to deal with building up your own bike, or upgrading a stock bike.)

vasracer

Mission bicycles look like the Swobo Sanchez but only with a $350 mark up. There is nothing really that makes it stand out and nothing that puts it in the $900 or so dollar range.

Igneous Faction

That stem... ugh...

vasracer

Seriously who runs a 1 1/8" threadless quill stem?!?!?! If they wanted a quill stick with a 1" threaded, if they wanted a 1 1/8" they should have gone threadless. Look at the pictures on the website and it shows a threaded headset, then look at the specs and it it says 1 1/8" threadless headset and threadless stem.
Misinformation??? Maybe.

Cynikal 

Click the image

"This is the prototype frame, the frames we will be using have an 1 1/8 headtube with an 1 1/8 threadless fork. You can choose drop bars instead of risers and pick the color of the frame, wheels, seat, and grips. "

It's the caption on the flicker photo.

vasracer

I see thank you for the clarification.

Aeroplane

$900 for a straight-gauge frame with no-name parts. KUSTOM KOLORS! Somebody finally admitted that that's all we really want.

metaljim

i liked john prolly's comment on the flickr pic of the bike.

bonechilling

My thoughts exactly.

This is very clearly the same Maxway frame as the IRO Mark V. A complete IRO build is like $550, right? It's crazy that they think that they can charge $950 for this. Oh, and the **** about the "slippery slope" on bikesnob is absolutely ****ing incredible. I can't believe they'd saying something so stupid.

Anyone who buys this is seriously just a ****ing idiot.

thequickfix

Damn, beat me to it.

If you look at the respective geometry charts, you will notice that they even have the same format.

command-C, command-V...

wolfbrother

"It's a slippery slope. A fender eyelet here, a brake mount there, and pretty soon you'll end up with with 27 gears, lazy-boy geometry, and both of your Docker pant flaps pinned down by reflective yellow ankle bracelets. You can always toss a seat post mount or clip on fender if you're really in trouble."

Bike snob hit it right on the head with this interview. He didn't even have to make one comment to say exactly what he wanted to say.

bonechilling

Yeah, I could tell just by looking at it, then I went to the IRO website and my suspicions were confirmed. It's pretty hilarious that they just copy-n-pasted that ****, though.

zacker

Hello, I'm Zack from Mission Bicycles.

It is no secret the Mission Bicycle is built on an IRO frame. It is also no secret that the majority of US bike manufacturers source their frames from Tawain.

For everyone questioning why the Mission Bicycle cost $350+ more than the other stock fixies, here is a retail part cost break down:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...8Ypr0raMAYqBFg

Swobo Sanchez
Retail part value: $537
Bike retail: $600

Bianchi Pista
Retail part value: $565.9
Bike retail: $550

Mission Bicycle
Retail part value: $996
Bike retail: $950

All numbers behind the spreadsheet are publicly available through google searching. I encourage you to try to debunk them. I'd also be happy to answer any other questions regarding the Mission Bicycle.

mander

That was right where they lost me too.

zacker

For it's worth that was an attempt at a joke. I apologize to anyone insulted, it was a little invective and apparently too deadpan in context of our other more serious responses.

marqueemoon

You are getting less of a wholesale discount than the Bianchis of the world. I get that, and there's nothing wrong with passing those costs along to the consumer. Retail on the wheels is going to be the biggest chunk of the difference, but not everyone likes Deep Vs.

Customization options are a way to add value, but haven't most of us seen our share of powdercoated Pistas? How many bikes have you seen posted on the internet where the owner says "It's finished"? Messing with the bike is part of the fun, and most upgraders don't keep a spreadsheet of their planned upgrades and how much it's going to cost. Those who do upgrade up front will generally throw the new stock parts (usually wheels) immediately up on craigslist, make their $100 or whatever and put that towards new parts. The assumption here appears to be that the target market wants the Formula/Deep V wheels and just want to whip out a credit card, select the color on a dropdown menu, pay a few more bucks, and be done with it.

I think the "blank slate" premise for this bike is more like paint-by-numbers. Most people willing to drop $950 up front on a fixed gear bike already fancy themselves artists or creative types. You may sell a few of these to the I-need-a-bike-to-match-my-Dunks crowd, but they will be on to the next trend very soon.

Oh, and the stem is really ugly. I realize that is a prototype bike, but that is a seriously nasty looking stem.

Aeroplane

Yo zacker,

According to your interview (or somebody's interview) with bikesnob, your frames are straight-gauge cromo. Why not go double-butted? Even the IRO is double-butted. Just curious.

zacker

Our assumption is the folks who buy the MB for the most part don't want to bother being their own bike mechanic. I realize for most of you this isn't the case, which probably puts you outside our 'target market'.

Aeroplane: Fair question. We are going with IRO frames, which despite internet rumour's are not double butted. The benefits of double-butted-ness for city riding are a bit dubious (lighter weight, less durable). In general IRO frames seem to have a better opinion than the double butted frames you get on a stock Pista: https://www.bikeforums.net/archive/in...p/t-71622.html

Moto74

Zacker - I think most people, myself included, have a problem with the $950 price tag not because of the quality of the parts involved but because the bike is a cookie cutter bike. It looks like a great bike but if I were to spend 950 on a bike, I'd want it to be customized with my own stuff.

My first SS bike was a cheap Motobecane SS MTB I bought off eBay. I ended up replacing a lot of parts, and yeah, that started to get a little costly but it was fun customizing my bike. So much fun in fact, I purchased an IRO Jamie Roy frame and started to build it up. While the price totaled about 900 for everything from brake cables (yeah I have brakes, so what? ) to wheels and I have a sense of pride because it's MY bike...meaning I bought the parts that I wanted and that sets it apart from any other Jamie Roy out there. With the Mission bike, you get a pretty decent bike, BUT everyone else gets the exact same bike. For noobs like myself, that doesn't really matter but noobs also aren't going to spend close to 1K on their 1st bike...at least I hope not. People who ARE willing to spend a lot on a new SS/FG bike certainly aren't going to buy something that's mass produced. That might work for roadies but I think the SS/FG culture is pretty different.

zacker

Exactly. I think this is the source of a lot of the $950, wuhhh!!?? angst. My only response is to say that I don't think most existing SS/FG folks would probably want our bike on account of their mechanic skills and the joy they get out of building up something themselves -- and that's just fine, go forth and prosper.

But at the same time I don't want folks to get the impression we're trying to rip folks off. We really do believe the price point is fair and in line with the market.

(also, fwiw the stem on the prototype is pretty ugly is not what we will be shipping with. MB's will have a 1 1/8 headtube with an 1 1/8 threadless fork, and a good quality nice looking stem. )

dutret

Since(with the exception of deepVs) the parts are of the same quality as the generic ones on all those other bikes doesn't that just mean you made poor choices when specing it or have insufficient volume to really be selling your own bike?

zacker

Well -- here is our problem. The parts we've specc'ed we really believe *are* better quality parts than the competition, but you're right, it won't matter if they aren't recognized as any better. In this way we are 'splitting the difference'.

mathletics

On the plus side, this will make it even easier to spot the kids who don't fix their own flats which will save me a ton of time on passing judgment.

Edit: The specs say formula but the spreadsheet says dimension. Also, Sora brakes? If you're selling Shimano stuff, at least go 105 or don't bother with brakes. Maybe you could sell gloves? I hear glove braking is about to be huge with the hipsters.