Urbanus Magnus

UPDATED 07/03/12: Now with pictures! I've had the O8 CX700 for nearly 9 months now, and so have put it through its paces by now. That's about 1000kms of mixed onroad/offorad/singletrack with tweaking, tuning, and general fettling in appropriate proportions. The Good: 1. Big Wonkin' Tires. There are quite a few things this bike has going for it, not least of which includes the capacity for large tires. I've concluded that you can shoehorn a 29x2.3 with fenders in there if you wanted. The 51mm (2.1in nominal) wide CST Critters have been a good fit so far. There is room for maybe 2.3in tires w/fenders, or 2.4 without.   2. A Nice Fork Design. I have had a good experience with the straight bladed fork that came standard with the frame. I know many people dislike them, because of the 'harsher ride' they supposedly give, or for their non-traditional look. Well, I can say that the ride certainly didn't feel "harsh" when riding road with 23...

I wanted to see how fast this bicycle would go when it had on more road-oriented tyres, so I pulled off the hulking CST Critters and pumped up my discount Nashbar buys - the now-discontinued "Transition" line of tyres. They are basic commuter/ touring tyres, with a 35mm tread. I picked them up after I had a terrible streak of annoying tire flats on crummy $5 rubber. These Nashbar models feature a layer of kevlar protection, just under the tread; it works - no flats to date, and these year-olds have been tried on >350kms of glass-covered city streets. I give the thumbs up to Nashbar for this one, but I have a sneaking suspicion these are re-branded Panaracer models (if one looks carefully, it has a  "Panasonic" hidden on it). The rear tire is the Nashbar, the front is a 23mm Hutchinson road offering... Anyway, they are a ton faster than any bulbous mountain tire could be, as anyone should expect. I'd say average rolling resistance for its width, due to t...

All is well on the bike front, and I've now made it up to the 200km mark. I know, not a lot of riding in three weeks, but I've been completing the final push of school into exams (I finished my Chemistry exam today, yay! Only physics left, which is tomorrow). The tires are wearing well enough, but the compound of the CST Critters is fairly soft, so even gravel skids have worn the rear tread down a *weensy bit*. Just enough so that the "herringbone" pattern imprinted on each of the knobs is barely visible. The Herringbone pattern is wearing away quickly... the skid spots are worse than the above picture. So far, here's what I'm liking: - Off road handling - On road handling! - Overall weight - Load Capability - Comfortable seat/steam/handlebar height and position - Top Tube length is good - Rolling resistance ( Speed!) - Gear range (it hasn't been changed from before ) After about 125km offroad (light trails, gravel, a bit of chip seal road...

Well, I now have to wait a few weeks longer to get hold of that cx700 frame - a mix up during shipping meant I got the wrong size frame; 50cm as opposed to my order of 56cm. Oh well. Such is life in Moscow. Erm, Toronto. I meant Toronto. I give 'er the run down when that frame arrives. Wish me luck!

I had been looking at frames for a while, when I stumbled upon this: Credit where credit is due: Picture stolen from <www.team-bicycle.webpowered.com> That, my friends is the new Cx700 frame offered by Origin 8. From what I've heard, it is pretty awesome. Here are some of the highlights: - Triple Butted steel - ~5.6 lbs, frame +  fork - Canti/V-brakes or  Disks - 2.1 in tyres in 700c size - this is what I'd be willing to call a "29er"! - All the touring braze-ons you'd ever need Don't get me wrong - this is by no means an endorsement/promotion for Origin 8; I just happen to love the idea of a go-anywhere, do-everything frame. This is one of the first  frames I've seen that can be full touring/cyclocross/road or offroad with just a change of tyres, other than the Surly Karate Monkey (can be finiggled into "light touring" mode), the Salsa Fargo (an off-road tourer), or the Rawland Drakkar frameset (like a more off-road version of ...