Good response from Cy there. Shame he even needed to make an appearance though.

Any news on the Solaris Max?

Not a bug, just an observation- I can’t use the forum at work anymore due to the header being fixed when scrolling. Watermark background isn’t helping either. It’s not very incognito :(

These to me are ugly.. the lines don’t flow, the linkages are not compact and I can’t quite work out the suspension action.

The Rocket? Classic straight lines & compact linkage. Lovely.

..but it’s a completely subjective and a personal opinion.

Intense used to be a boutique brand, much like Santa Cruz.
Can’t believe what’s happened to the brand over the years. Seems to have really devalued.
I guess it’s as a result of not doing well in DH and having a weak team and the historic wonky frames.

Bikes look great though and the price is very competitive.

Just noticed this…

Dan has hired a full time welder and a painter, and the company’s Matlock facility has increased its floor space significantly…entirely UK-manufactured frame

Commendable! Well done Dan. Makes the price more understandable. They managed to do what Cy struggled with. Hopefully they can make it work.

As above, don’t think Sick Bike Co were offender, just joining in.

Hard to tell with them sometimes.. especially online :P

I did find a pic of a baby blue one on a German website earlier but it seems to have disappeared.

Is that not the pic in OP?

When are they available?

They are available right now in limited numbers (if you’re signed up to the newsletter). Order yours now and you’ll get it next week if you snag the first one. If you don’t, you can order you Rocket anyway and we will deliver it first week of April.

Is there an XL size?

Yes

Looking forward to the Solaris update. Credit card poised if the update follows suit. I just hope there’s a more exciting colour than Black and Silver. It’s a toy not a white goods item.

Still not a fan of the water bottle mounts though. How do they work in real life? Would a full bottle not bend a traditional cage, especially as the bikes designed for some raduro ?

Frame Warranty. Due to our low manufacturing standards we offer a two year Manufacturer’s Fault’s Warranty with every frame.

That’s what it sounds like to me when offering only 2 years on such an expensive product.

Presumably these frames are made in a generic Asian warehouse that build other Ti/steel frames, you’d think they could match their lifetime warranty.

Either way, love the way it looks and wish Stanton all the best. Big fan!

What’s the autobox like on these? Or is manual the best choice?

Thinking about it, I’ve never done anything but park and surf at polzy. its only 40 mins from home so I dont tend to hang around.

Lovely when it’s warm and nice weather, so no wonder you haven’t been tempted. That’s a week in a year probability.

Plus if you’re local you must be spoilt for choice anyway.

I’ve been to a few on that list.. and Yes, Bournemouth is the best the UK has to offer..(?)

Jam Bo, love that place. Chips at the Galleon after a surf.

The sites running an expired SSL (ran out end of Jan) which is a bit amateur. So yes, site is currently unsecure. Will ping them an email.

Also, Singular entered a partnership with Wheelsport, a German company a few years ago. This explains lack of postage to UK and Euro prices.

Alison said; “To ensure the ongoing prosperity and health of the company, Singular has now entered a partnership with the owner of long time Singular dealer Frank Dressler in Weselberg, Germany. Frank and his team will take on responsibility for storage, fulfilment, logistics and admin. Sam will continue to do all frame design, customer service, sales and marketing. This will mean much smoother supply of stock and better service for our customers.”

I suppose the play lateral & vertical could cause some damage to the headtube, potentially leading to it ovalizing the headtube or damaging the fork?

Other issues are the headset collapsing mid ride and locking up mid turn, etc. Could cause a nasty crash (especially with traffic, being a Brompton and all).

Plus turning the headset cups to dust so requiring a whole new headset?

I had the exact same question for Cotic.
Paul got back to me with a blank response..

Thanks for your interest in the SolarisMAX. We have medium frames coming into stock in mid to late March.

If you sign up to the newsletter you’ll here about when they arrive and any updates first.

So they aren’t giving anything away. I fully expect an updated version though, especially after the large Soul updates, plus I hate the current colours. Fingers crossed!

Southerdownhill.com – first bike forum I was part of. Lots of fond memories. The they changed the name to Ride.io along with forum changes and died a death.

Whyte T129 SCR Works ’15.

Best bike I’ve owned. It did a little bit of everything well. Wish I didn’t sell it. I had a T129 ’17 for a while, but it did nothing for me. Slightly geo & spec changes ruined it for me. Would buy this back in a heartbeat.

(I know it should only be one, but it’s so close that it needs to be included).

Stooge Mk1/2.

First Rigid & SS bike. It opened my eyes to what’s possible and what you can get away with. It was like a big BMX and it was ace. I also had a Mk2 and would love another.

Here you go Simon-

Looks odd, have you got the bearing in the right way round? Looks like the ramping is the wrong way round. It take it out and flip it over. The cup and crown race are flush, so can’t be that.

They’re great, the recent radavist review sums the bike up really well. It’s never going to be the best downhill nor is it going to be an amazing xc race bike but it will do everything pretty damn well.

The bike seems to have neutral geo, which means it’s okay at everything. Seems good to me. Currently running a Whyte 529, which is slacker and longer. Wondering if i’d miss it..

Either way, 18Bikes are doing them for £570 or £600 with a hope headset (drop Simon and email). Very tempted.

What are peoples thoughts on these bikes?
Looks nice as an all round frame; xc loops to some bigger days in wales.

If you’re changing forks too, consider this:

MRP Better Boost

No re-dishing required (unlike the Hope kit for the front)

I wont be (trusty Pike & Hope Hoops) but good to know it exists!

I’ve just spoken to Hope about how it works and you dont need to modify the wheel or chain line in any way.
There’s a spacer that sits behind the freehub body moving the cassette to the correct position and spacers for the non-drive side.
I’m ordering one today, well chuffed that i can keep my trusty Hope wheels!

Cheers Matt!
I’m looking at new frames but they all seem to being going boost. I’ve got a nice set of Pro4 Enduros that I didn’t want to sell, so this solves the issue. Ordered the kit and can now go frame hunting :D !

You’ll have the Specialized lawyers on your case shortly!
I imagine they’ll force you to have it lasered due to copyright.. 8O

If you are serious about it and want to invest a little bit of time or money, setup a site for your business and extensively whitehat SEO the term(s).
Given the low competition for the term, it won’t take much effort to make it disappear to several pages+.

If you need any help, drop me an email.

Just found the story too. Not nice.

I don’t think it should be an issues- if you take the number & road name in isolation it shows the story, but if you search number, road name & postcode it doesn’t show the story. I would think the majority who search the address would either search on postcode only or postcode & number/road name. It should be okay.

Also agree that it would seem odd for a 12 year old story to impact business relations.

I am so relived you won’t buy our frames.
That’s my nightmare from now on.

It’s a fair point, especially looking at how their threads end up 8O

Debacle?

Yeah.. noticed that Rorschach. You were even factual in the gearbox thread about the warranty! What’s your problem with them?

Give the guys a break. Let them come on an answer questions posed.
Sick Bicycle co, the brand STW loves to hate or hates to love?

See their warranty info HERE

I’ve just seen their ’18 frame plan-

We needed a way to manage production, to manage waiting times and let customers have a fair chance of receiving their product. Copying the Streetwear industry we decided that a drop system was the most manageable and fair. We will build our frames, paint and box them up. The first Friday of the month at 11am GMT we will make them live on our webstore

Sounds interesting to me. Look forward to seeing what other ideas they come up with. Certainly bringing something new and different to the bike scene. I assume the monthly drops will be hardtails though, as they are easier to work on- just put some geometry together, vs. FS bikes with shock and pivot placement alongside suspension schematics and leverage ratios (etc).

Jan drop is the Gnarcaccist (as per their kickstarter campaign), though I can see that they’ve hit an issue with longer seat tubes for bigger sizes. Wonder how the problem will manifest through the year, as different frames will require (some) different tubes therefore having to source small order of tubes monthly. Interesting problem to have. Maybe their designs will be partially driven by tube availability? That said, Bryan Jackson is welding the frames who I guess is experiences in stock handling. Would be interesting to hear Jordans take on this.

Simonloco- their FS frame looks interesting, especially the geometry. Reminds me of the geometron. The bit I’m interesting in is this-

Carbon swingarm manufactured in England

I wonder who’s doing the work for them.. Swingarms are pretty complex and countless manufacturers (large and small) have stuck to Alu and steel swingarms/rear traingles to overcome woes with carbon, despite Carbon front triangles. Some pretty talented carbon experts out there that could do it though, such as Swarf.

Jordan from Sick has been on a couple threads-
Gearbox Bike
Welding

Make of that what you will.

I’d quite like to hear Jordan & co on here to talk more about some of the technical points above, without STW/Sick taking it off track.
Jordan mentioned that STW isn’t their target market, appears the UK isn’t either. Mostly US based traffic to their website, but I’d still like to hear from them.

They’ve grown on me, especially after listening to their podcast. I wish them all the best. Might even go to the popup shop if the guys are there as it sounds like it will be run by others?

/rant.

I commuted this road for 18 months everyday.
What you can’t see is the mess of roundabouts and junctions that you need to navigate before this. As a cyclist it’s easy to annoy people by doing the right thing there due to the number of lanes and slow progress on a bike, particularly when taking position two to stay safe. There’s an awfully designed dual use cycle/pedestrian pass around there but it’s dangerous. I’ve been abused there and had a car park on my wheel at the lights.

Colchester generally has a serious lack of usable cycling infrastructure. Not a safe place to cycle once you throw in the 50mph roads.

I’m looking at one too.
Love the facts that you can swap the BB out. £900 to upgrade to a Pinion further down the line too.
The Enduro frame looks to be ideal..
Steven has offered me a test ride near Lewes. Might be worth asking about that.

Olsen Enduro or XC carbon frame.
Made in the UK with semi-customizable geometry. http://olsenbicycles.com/
£1,000 on Indigogo at the moment..

Short of searching each individual brand website, there’s also this:
https://www.moredirt.com/events/demo-days

Check the woods behind Nationwide.. :wink:

“Just been keeping an eye on their feed”

..as I find some of the stuff they’re doing quite interesting.

I would say the OP posted because he’s not seen a fillet brazed frame finished in this way before and it looks unsuaul. It’s not the smooth finish we see leave other builders (ala. Deamon, English, etc.) regularly. Given some of the gaps and pitting, he’s querying whether this is normal. It’s a forum, where else would he ask? Chances are he hasn’t got any engineering/frame building friends, so this would be a logical place to ask.

Don’t take it to heart Jordan, this is after all the internetz (and STW at that :P ). You can’t please everyone.

[Just downloading the podcast for the drive home- come highly recommended..]

That Sick is not only ugly, but as Ben pointed out, the gaps and pitting would possibly worry me.
Rear of that frame doesn’t look particularly straight in the first image either, but could be the angle.

Deamon Frameworks.. now that’s how you braze & finish it.

But it’s okay..

Sick Bikes core values are maximum ultraboost plus juice+ 32

I bought a Burgtec stem recently (from STW actually) and after not receiving it for 2 weeks I contacted the seller. He check MH tracking and it had said that it was lost, so seller starts the claim route. Low and behold a few days later my stem arrives repackaged in a MH bag. I wonder if they chased the driver and he came clean..

I like the idea of us sending parcels to your (full of expensive things..).

Also, did you not get a funny look from the staff at the shop you dropped the parcel at? Surely they would have seen the address is (probably) a 5 minute walk away..

Agreed, I just see a lot of sadness. It’s to be expected though, given what he’s been through. Strikes me as someone who takes out his sadness/emotions in his acting.

This might be utter rubbish, but there’s a ‘body language’ analysis of one of his interviews. There’s another one that’s better, but can’t find it right now.

I hope he gets the help he needs!