Prototype 456 EBB Alfine

Picked this up second hand from a fella who used it as a SS but never got around to building with this set up.

After talking to Brant who told me the chrome was cheap and nasty I decided to clean it up – pretty much every method I tried (foil/coke/wire wool etc) didn’t work well enough.

And the thought of trying to get into every nook and cranny meant it went to the powder coaters where it was prepped, 2 packed and then powdercoated for 100 yoyo (a bargain in ireland), the job is excellent, with only one small tear on it.

Most of the random items come from my old inbred, the wheels were built up for me (Finally moved to UST, squidgy tyres are a little odd, but I don’t want to have to faff fixing punctures), the fork was being used on a classic blur which I liked but I didn’t see the point of using the phaons on the 456 when with a quick swop the correct length forks would be on both bikes). Love BB7’s so it was easy to spec them, and it’s another part of the simple set up and forget about it that I wanted throughout the bike, will get around to speccing a 160 on the back but for the moment I’m fine with the 203.

Went out for a quick spin doing some shopping around town, it’s totally silent bumping over stuff. The pick up is instant and very impressive, downshifting took me 5-10mins to get used to as you have to back off a little. Gearing is a tad too low for around town (32:20) but as it’s a mountain bike thats good.

Carver BB with the plastic sheath doo dah and Ti bolt.

The pimpy bit, decals for the bike are on the way ( On-One 12345678)

With thanks to:
Robin Seymour – building
Tallaght powder coating
Coventry Cycle Centre – answering a million and 1 questions I had about the alfine, postage and packing.

very nice, is that a white chain?

No, it’s a whipperman anti rust chain (more minimum effort), I didn’t realise it would be so silver, I was aiming for a all over dark coulor scheme.

Was going to hammerite the frame originally (the orignal grey hammer finish), but couldn’t find anywhere that has images, so in the powder coaters I went for a non-stick pan type finish but with a bit more sparkle. He has 1000’s of colours and was keen to start blending and fading for me (he does a lot of motorbikes and stuff).

i think the white / silver chain works.

Looks nice.

Nice looking bike, very understated. Taya do those galvanized chains for urban and town use, I’ve got one on one of my singlespeeds, cost me seven squids. I’ve got one of the inbred 567 prototypes, which has slidey dropouts, and I’ve toyed with the idea of putting on an Alfine or a Sturmey eight-speed, and getting an ISCG mount brazed on to take a Hammerschmitt. As mine is laquered bare steel, repainting isn’t too much of an issue. I’ll wait and see how the Hammerschmitt system develops, but it’s an appealing idea.

very nice restoration job there, like it a lot.

Looks v. nice.
Where did you get your Carver EBB from? & how do you rate it?

Oh and What Ti bolt? 🙂

I had thought about getting the excess cable guides removed and fitting some for the ALfine cable routing, but costs and wanting the bike quick were against that, maybe something for the future. The hammersmidcht thing doesn’t appeal, if I wanted more gears for that cost I would have gotten a Rolhoff.

The EBB came with the frame, the fella got it direct from carver I think, as I know he was talking to them over buggering up the last bolt which is where the Ti one came from (as I recall).

Nice to know I got the overall look right, now I just hope it copes with the crappy weather we get over here.

I like a lot. Good work.

well done. i run an alfine on a regular slidey inbred and have been pleased with the results.