Planet X Tempest

Any owners care to share their experiences? On paper, it’s making me curious about Ti.

Plenty of reactions and feedback here …

PSA – PX Tempest Rival 1 for £1299

My advice would be to steer well clear of the Planet X Tempest. I bought a Tempest v3 frame-only with the intention of building up into a gravel/adventure bike to my own spec. Seems there’s a reason they’re cheap: the rear brake mount is not accurately aligned, which means the rotor rubs on the caliper. No joy getting a refund or replacement out of Planet X and my dream build has ended in a nightmare.

Hello Mr Monk. I’m doing a bit of work with Planet X right now.

Can you give me your sales order number so I can look into this.

Our frames are actually made at same factory as most other UK brands, Stooge, Sonder, Ribble.

Mistakes can happen of course, in production and in customer service.

I’d like to see what’s happened here.

Cheers.

Love mine. Comfy, fast, nice looking.

100 mile road rides, 40-50 mile South Downs/ New Forest ‘gravel’ rides, no problem.

Chopped in a gravel bike sand a road bike for this and it’s the ideal ‘one bike’ for anything an mtb is too much for.

Not a Tempest but I bought a Pickenflick about 6 months ago and I’m very pleased with it. No issues with QC or customer service and it rides beautifully.

I really like mine. And I really don’t like road bikes and my old Boardman Cross bike has probably done about 300 miles in 7 years! I bought the Tempest specifically to ride the Lon Las Cymru C2C (in two weeks..eek!) and I expected it to be a good tool for that job.

Riding it tho is brilliant. Yesterday me and a mate rode some old school XC singletrack (slippy as hell!) on the standard tyres. Felt like riding a 90s MTB again. So much fun. It’s good on the road as well, really comfortable on the crappy pot-holed mess of roads we have round here and way more fun in the dirt than I expected.

I’d like to get some 650b wheels and more treaded tyres when I get back. For a 15 min ride to the local woods, an hour playing on some easy singletrack and then a blast home it’s perfect.

Oh and Hydro’s make a massive difference over cable discs.

What’s putting me off the Planet X builds is the fact that (I believe) the wheels aren’t tubeless ready. I could be wrong though?

I’ve had a number of planet x and on one bikes in the past and not had one problem, I’m currently torn on a full Monty or London road but waiting on more details of the new sportive type bike I have seen somewhere on the net that’s coming at some point

What’s putting me off the Planet X builds is the fact that (I believe) the wheels aren’t tubeless ready. I could be wrong though?

hmmm

Will check

I’m currently torn on a full Monty or London road but waiting on more details of the new sportive type bike I have seen somewhere on the net that’s coming at some point

This one?

https://www.planetx.co.uk/news/products/q/date/2019/05/23/long-distance-hypertourer-sample

What’s putting me off the Planet X builds is the fact that (I believe) the wheels aren’t tubeless ready. I could be wrong though?

They are if you follow what they say on this link:

https://www.fulcrumwheels.com/en/technologies/cyclocross-wheels-technologies/2-way-fit-ready-road

Basically they say only use Schwalbe tubeless products.

Ah yes that’s the one, when’s it planned for out of interest

As a side note, apologises in advance brant I’ve just had the Px email basically saying the London and the full monty *sl if that makes much difference* are essentially the same but quotes the FM as being shorter, now I thought as the angles were similar and looking at the geo charts the LR looks shorter, also sizing for medium is Fm 5’9 to 5’11 and Lr 5’7 to 5’11 am I missing something as I was swaying towards the Lr as at 5,9 I’m middle of range rather than bottom of range, now I’m confused ta

Ah yes that’s the one, when’s it planned for out of interest

Christmas

As a side note, apologises in advance brant I’ve just had the Px email basically saying the London and the full monty *sl if that makes much difference* are essentially the same but quotes the FM as being shorter, now I thought as the angles were similar and looking at the geo charts the LR looks shorter, also sizing for medium is Fm 5’9 to 5’11 and Lr 5’7 to 5’11 am I missing something as I was swaying towards the Lr as at 5,9 I’m middle of range rather than bottom of range, now I’m confused ta

Yeah – I write that most days.

Buy the one you like the look of most. There’s so little in them.

I was sure I had the longer/shorter the right way round.

Yeah. I was wrong there.

Oh man.

Tempest looks ace on paper.. Nothing really matches it for price and spec.
I’ve had a few PX / OO bikes and they have all been excellent, my current hardtail is a longterm Scandal.
I recently had a Bish Bash Bosh and it was excellent in all areas when I upgraded the wheels to tubeless Hunts.
I’m sure if you find a genuine manufacturing or assembly fault with it, Brant will help you out. I’ve never had an issue with PX / OO customer support, although a little slow sometimes.
Get some 99p socks while you’re there.

And how the wheels know if they’re Schwalbe beads sitting on them is beyond me. If they’ve got a tubeless hook/bead profile then any quality tubeless tyre should be fine. So they’re tubeless ready but Fulcrum are getting a bit of cash from Schwalbe 😉

I’m sure if you find a genuine manufacturing or assembly fault with it, Brant will help you out. I’ve never had an issue with PX / OO customer support, although a little slow sometimes.

I do have chapter and verse and video about the poster up there who said he had an issue, but trying to get to the bottom of it with him first.

And how the wheels know if they’re Schwalbe beads sitting on them is beyond me. If they’ve got a tubeless hook/bead profile then any quality tubeless tyre should be fine. So they’re tubeless ready but Fulcrum are getting a bit of cash from Schwalbe 😉

I could not condone anything other than what’s specified by the manufacturers as it might injure a child’s face or a baby robin.

I could not condone anything other than what’s specified by the manufacturers as it might injure a child’s face or a baby robin.

It’s a shame you can’t confirm they are tlr in your specs copy Brant.

I found that link when I bought the bike originally. I happen to have a set of Schwalbe G ones so I’m going to give it a go today. Expect much swearing and high pressure stans adorning the walls…

Looking forward to hearing how you get on Alex.

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WPFULR700DDRP/fulcrum-racing-700-disc-centrelock-clincher-wheelset-with-drp

Now detailed in the wheel content.
Will be in wheel content on bikes from early next week.

But yeah.

And that “li” needs sorting too.

Great stuff thanks Brant.

brant

I’m currently torn on a full Monty or London road but waiting on more details of the new sportive type bike I have seen somewhere on the net that’s coming at some point

This one?

https://www.planetx.co.uk/news/products/q/date/2019/05/23/long-distance-hypertourer-sample

That looks good, but keep the internally routed cables.

Internal routing looks nice, but is a total PITA.

Internal routing is bab , external all day long, my 35mm schwalbe marathon tyres would be nice if they fit seems odd it quotes 34mm clearance with guards but cant have It all and they probably will fit I’d guess. Oh and don’t bother with tt bosses for a feed bag thing mine have straps on anyway, but I do like a set on the underside of the down tube as I like to keep a pump there out of the way 😉

35mm would fit I think. The supplied tyres are 40mm and there is loads of space. Especially in the rear.

I didn’t get to tubeless testing today as it’s about 400 degrees C in my wooden outbuilding! I think the stars might combust. Or I would trying to seat the tyres.

I did test fit my bike packing kit tho

Felt good riding up and down the road. Ask me after the end of the trip tho!

Right tubeless done

Set of pre-loved G-ones. Here’s what I learned

– the tape that’s fitted as standard you can use as tubeless tape. The front tyre went straight up without changing the tape.
– we did swap the rear tape out as we couldn’t get the tyre to bead. But new tape didn’t fix it either! So we stuck a tube in, beaded it and then it was fine.
– Quite a bit of stans was leaking out of the sidewalls
– Used some spare Mavic Tubeless valves (with the o ring) and these seemed to work fine.

Did have a compressor so it’s a bit easier. Left them all day and they had gone flat. Will ride on them tomorrow and stick a bit more stans in, if required.

Even though it’s an absolute bargain, judging by the Planet X email today, damned Brexit might push one out of my budget for this year.

@alex I think they’re going flat because the P(erformance) series G-Ones aren’t TLE so have porous sidewalls.

Interesting. The front one didn’t leak any sealant at all. The rear did the first time we beaded it with sealant in but then it seemed okay. Guess we’ll see how we get on this week.

@mickyfinn – seems you’re right. I stuck in some Stan’s ‘race’ sealant to see if it makes a difference. If not, back to tubes! They definitely roll way better than the supplied ones. And they were free so I’m not complaining…

Yeah Alex I’ve got a couple of pairs sitting there as just in case spares. Wish they could be ran tubeless but I’ve always failed with them.
Schwalbe have a handy chart listing all the variations.
https://www.schwalbe.com/en/offroad-reader/schwalbe-g-one-allround.html

Cheers @mickyfinn – useful link.

With the Stan’s race I added this morning they’ve stayed up since 9am. I’ll go for a ride this evening. I will however be carrying two tubes and a big pump!

i built a tempest frame up bout three months ago. really like it. cheapest ti frame by far, but also had a lot of features that suited me that other more expensive frames didn’t have.just back from a tour of Transylvania. i like the way it handles, coping well with both road and mtb trails. so far i highly recommend it. i have 3 tinbred bikes of various sizes , all ancient now but still doing a job either for lending to bike less friends or using with cx wheels. can’t fault any of them

Will 700x45s fit ? (depending in tyre/ rim combo obviously)

Hi Brant,

I am a proud owner a Planet X Tempest V3 since 2019. It is very well looked after. But after reading journeymonk’s comment here about “the rear brake mount is not accurately aligned, which means the rotor rubs on the caliper”.

It has reminded me that I have been struggling to stop the rear disc caliper pads rubbing despite having tried every method suggested on the internet. Loosening the caliper frame mount 25 start bolts then engaging the rear brake then re-tightening.

To confirm I still have the issue, I have tried another two sets of wheels, the Fulcrum Racing 5 DB, and now the FFWS F3A DB 700c wheels.I am wondering with the flat mount adapters used for mounting the calipers, that there would be enough play to resolve the issue by loosening, then repositioning the caliper until the rubbing stops.

Brant (or anyone else that is experiencing this problem) please could you help, as all I want is to fix this problem on my lovely Tempest V3. Could it be that the rear flat mount welded bosses for the disc brake caliper mount are misaligned? I have not yet spoken to Planet X about it but suspect it is just out of warranty.

thanks,

Brant has left the (planet x) building