Would it possible to make a billet aluminum rim? If it is, would it be better for weight to strength ratio? Do companies do it already?

No, it'd probably be weaker, heavier and a ****TON more expensive.

Billets have a grain (tires at 100+ PSI require a lot of strength, a billet may shear off along the braking surface), and extruded rims can be double wall (try machining that). Plus, unless you came up with some clever way to get a 29"/700, 26", 24", 20", 16" and 12" out of the same billet, there would be an insane amount of waste.

Aside: Back in the day Keith Bontrager used to take 40h tandem 700c rims, split them and then roll them down to make beefy 32h 26" MTB rims. Whatever fabrication skills you may have, you're never going to touch that.

E: Crap, this is the Scrod thread. Sorry man, hope you're already in SD and this blows over.

Boo :(

FYI, The cost of a Colassi Rambler Track is $350 for frame, $66 for fork, and $150 shipping to California with a +5% upcharge if you pay by paypal.

Pretty expensive.

bleh. i'll wait

hello fg/ss riders,

I have a problem with fitting tyres on rims. I've swapped tyres many times, but I've never seen tyres as annoying as my Vittoria Zaffiro...

Does anyone have experience with installing Vittoria's tyres? Are they all very painful to install, or is it just me with an unlucky combination of rims and tyres? Thanks.

That's really not unreasonable for a Columbus Zona frame. Think about the price of a Gazzetta for comparison, which is made of 4130 (and coincidentally, made by Colossi).

Are you asking me or asking anyone?

There's an entire forum - as well as a dedicated thread for asking general questions.

Completely true, but some of us have high end Italian tastes and Origin8 (at best) budgets.

To get Colossi's custom Niteo frame it costs $825 for the filet brazed frame with triple triangle, and $225 for a Columbus max fork then $150 for shipping. This is all with custom geometry. So $1200 bucks for a custom frame does not seem too bad to me.

Exactly. Colossi does some nice work too.

You know, you're totally right. And to be honest if I had to choose between the Cinelli or Colossi, I'd probably choose the Colossi every time.

This makes sense.

Sorry Scrod, I should've addressed my question directly to you :D

I'll grab a few tyre levers tomorrow and try to fit the tyres again with dish detergent or lubricants. Let's see how that will work.

Tire levers are for removing tires, not installing them. If you're having that much trouble, buy a tire bead jack.

So I also just asked how much the Al Colossione is and its only $360 with $150 bucks shipping. If that is their retail price, their wholesale price must be like ~$200. Can't believe Superb is selling them for $700. You can also get it with the carbon fork instead of the steel one for the same price.

Excatly, especially after considering a bulk wholesale discount and consolidated freight.

confession: i use my lever to put the last bit of tire back on when fixing a flat :innocent:

I have too. I've also pinched the **** out of tubes by doing so.

I've never heard of one of these before. Do you mind clarifying how to use it and why?

Can you recommend a decent chain tensioner for a single speed mountain bike conversion (1991 Rockhopper Comp) with vertical drop outs. Been using it with a magic gear but that gets old quickly when the chain stretches and stars popping off.

Obvioulsy.

That happened once with my old wheels, now that i know the power of saliva i probably wont have to use the lever anymore though

i wish there was a more portable version of the bead jack

They all do the same thing but the Problem Solvers chain tensioner is one of the best ones, IMO.

There is:

http://www.sjscycles.com/supersize/27539.jpg