hifiandmtb
Sphincter beanie
Enduro-BMX-MTB-FTW.
AM Waltly Ti Hardtail
- Thread starter beeb
- Start date
Cardy George
Piercing rural members since 1981
What do you think of the P321 hubs?
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
Now, I really like them.
Originally the rear hub used to gradually lose all it's oil, but when I got the new Microspline driver it had an improved seal fitted and so-far so good.
With the updated seal, I'd buy again. They're light, quiet, and high-engagement. I like them.
wkkie
It's Not Easy Being Green
Is that the white seal rather than the orange?
Cardy George
Piercing rural members since 1981
Good to hear. I'm in research mode for some new hoops and they're available on every wheel building site I've seen so far. Plus they come in orange
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
That's the one.
wkkie
It's Not Easy Being Green
Good to know. Still have to install mine. I'm guessing the old just rips off and stretch the new one over?That's the one.
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
Presume so, it was already installed on the new driver.
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
Still much cheaper than a locally built frame (not begrudging local prices though). Frame looks good, keen to see a PYR when complete - just call it a gravel bike so as to not enrage the natives!
hifiandmtb
Sphincter beanie
I reckon 5 x 700ml would be possible.
Calvin27
Eats Squid
Yeah a very relaxed light gravel bike!
I did my looksy around as usual. in the end a lot of factors came into play. My choices were:
- Bastion. Ok not fooling anyone here....
- Curve. Wanted $4k for a frameset that they openly admit comes from china (likely the same factory). The kicker was that their current frame the belgie was advertised as internal routing only if you run di2. For mec it goes outside, insanity.
- Bossi was looking the goods at$3500 for a frameset (incl fork) but they are much too road orientated and the stack was way too low for my liking.
- Had a local guy bikepro who was doing a full build for $5.5k with fit. Almost went with that but did the numbers and figured I could save a solid $1200 giving the Waltly a shot and this thread made me do it.
- Lynksy looked good at $4k, which is about $4800 landed fully built. However they only have internal routing for their full on gravel bike. The road bike with external routing was going for about $4k landed incl taxes etc, but the partial outer housing design wasn't boding well with me.
- Ribble GCR Ti was good but the 105 spec was a bit low (lyra rotors fml) and a few other things that needed changing which made it not worthwhile.
- Nearly pulled te trigger on kinesis but once again their frames too aggressive.
My Waltly build came in at $3900 all inclusive. A huge part of the saving was not having to go through the expensive customs process. Even with the groupset it was cheaper to break apart the set and buy separately due to the upfront costs of the customs fees. Thankfully my frame is only worth $100usd by waltly's account haha!
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
Righto, so obviously the whole COVID situation has really put a bit of a crimp on getting out riding this thing. But I have managed to do some urban (exercise) rides, and more recently have set the frame with a rigid fork on a smart trainer to keep the legs turning over during winter/lockdown. So not as many MTB km's as I'd like, but have still been spending a bit of time in the saddle.
So why does this lead to an update? Well, not going to lie (and it's probably pretty obvious by now anyway...) my brain isn't very good at switching off or being contented with the good of what I have. So I have been pondering, "What if I was to design this again? What would I have done differently?" Well, I'm sure you can see where this is heading so safe to say my little MTB family will be expecting a new sibling in the not too distant future.
So what's the plan with this frame? Well, firstly, this baby ain't getting sold... It's a comfy cruiser, and will probably just get a lighter build put together on it sometime in the future so I can go and do some solo ride XC-ish km's without having to swap out tyres and crap to keep it enjoyable (I'm a bit of a weight weenie, so hauling around the heavyish DHF/Aggressor tyres on smooth trails isn't fun IMO).
Mostly I'm happy with it, but I did stuff up a couple of things with it in the design phase. First and foremost - the curvy top-tube. Yep, it looks purdy, but no it isn't really practical if trying to ride Blue or "Black Diamond" (sic) trails. On flat ground if I stand over the bike the family jewels will be lightly resting on the top tube. Now I'm pretty sure we can all work out why that's not a good scenario if you happen to slip off the pedals on rocky terrain, or hang up on a step-up or any similar type scenario! So new design criteria #1, loooooow top tube!
Second item on the list is - Flex. Safe to say the ride quality of this frame is super, super supple. I wouldn't describe it as "noodly", but it really has quite a bit of flex in it (It is also worth mentioning that I am roughly 93kg kitted up and 6'2" so am no featherweight rider). For flatter, fairly smooth trails it actually works really well as you don't need to be all that precise so you get a real magic carpet ride feel that actually feels a lot more like riding a short travel dually than a hardtail. The downside is there's a lot of lateral flex, which makes the steering quite unresponsive and a little vague when trying to do quick changes of direction or really rip round a good berm. So design criteria #2 is, less lateral flex. I plan to use a much wider but ovalised (thinner vertically) top-tube, and thicker wall-thickness tube in the downtube (possibly with a more angular tube profile) to provide a bit more front-end lateral stiffness, but try to keep the vertical compliance this frame has.
Third item on the list is a range of geo tweaks. I experimented with this frame with bringing the BB up quite a bit (up ~10mm from my previous 29er hardtail), and while it's great for avoiding potential pedal strikes (I now have what feels like heaps of clearance compared to what felt like constant near misses and breaks in pedalling to avoid rocks on the previous bike) it unfortunately doesn't make for a great handling feel on descents as you feel higher up than the 10mm difference would suggest. Turns out the marketing was right on that one. Fortunately I've had some improvement in fitness and technique (who'd have thought I'd ever get to say that!), so pedal strikes are less of an issue for me now and the new frame will end up with its BB somewhere between the drop of this frame and the bike that preceded it (but nearer the latter). Another seemingly insignificant thing that I have noticed with this frame is with the super-steep seat angle, but surprisingly not with the seat post extended. Post extended seated pedalling mostly feels fine (and is handy for steep fireroad climbs), but I have noticed repeatedly when the post is dropped the seat feels more 'in the way' when trying to hang off the back of the bike. So part of the design tweaks will be to keep the steep effective STA, but use a forward offset slacker actual STA to help move the seat forward when the seat post is set in the lowered position. Steep but slack - got it? I also plan to slack the front out about -0.5 degree as things get a bit nervous on the handling front when hitting G-outs and high-load berms and the head angle steepens as the fork dives under load.
I haven't sorted out every last millimeter and degree yet, but I did get a feel for what I'm planning aesthetically. Did a bit of a bodge up from the previous plan in Photoshop and this is what I'm feeling will be the go: (I also plan to change to full internal routing for the dropper cable, but didn't bother drawing that in...)
I'll sort my dimensions out over the weekend then let the intercontinental e-mails commence!
So why does this lead to an update? Well, not going to lie (and it's probably pretty obvious by now anyway...) my brain isn't very good at switching off or being contented with the good of what I have. So I have been pondering, "What if I was to design this again? What would I have done differently?" Well, I'm sure you can see where this is heading so safe to say my little MTB family will be expecting a new sibling in the not too distant future.
So what's the plan with this frame? Well, firstly, this baby ain't getting sold... It's a comfy cruiser, and will probably just get a lighter build put together on it sometime in the future so I can go and do some solo ride XC-ish km's without having to swap out tyres and crap to keep it enjoyable (I'm a bit of a weight weenie, so hauling around the heavyish DHF/Aggressor tyres on smooth trails isn't fun IMO).
Mostly I'm happy with it, but I did stuff up a couple of things with it in the design phase. First and foremost - the curvy top-tube. Yep, it looks purdy, but no it isn't really practical if trying to ride Blue or "Black Diamond" (sic) trails. On flat ground if I stand over the bike the family jewels will be lightly resting on the top tube. Now I'm pretty sure we can all work out why that's not a good scenario if you happen to slip off the pedals on rocky terrain, or hang up on a step-up or any similar type scenario! So new design criteria #1, loooooow top tube!
Second item on the list is - Flex. Safe to say the ride quality of this frame is super, super supple. I wouldn't describe it as "noodly", but it really has quite a bit of flex in it (It is also worth mentioning that I am roughly 93kg kitted up and 6'2" so am no featherweight rider). For flatter, fairly smooth trails it actually works really well as you don't need to be all that precise so you get a real magic carpet ride feel that actually feels a lot more like riding a short travel dually than a hardtail. The downside is there's a lot of lateral flex, which makes the steering quite unresponsive and a little vague when trying to do quick changes of direction or really rip round a good berm. So design criteria #2 is, less lateral flex. I plan to use a much wider but ovalised (thinner vertically) top-tube, and thicker wall-thickness tube in the downtube (possibly with a more angular tube profile) to provide a bit more front-end lateral stiffness, but try to keep the vertical compliance this frame has.
Third item on the list is a range of geo tweaks. I experimented with this frame with bringing the BB up quite a bit (up ~10mm from my previous 29er hardtail), and while it's great for avoiding potential pedal strikes (I now have what feels like heaps of clearance compared to what felt like constant near misses and breaks in pedalling to avoid rocks on the previous bike) it unfortunately doesn't make for a great handling feel on descents as you feel higher up than the 10mm difference would suggest. Turns out the marketing was right on that one. Fortunately I've had some improvement in fitness and technique (who'd have thought I'd ever get to say that!), so pedal strikes are less of an issue for me now and the new frame will end up with its BB somewhere between the drop of this frame and the bike that preceded it (but nearer the latter). Another seemingly insignificant thing that I have noticed with this frame is with the super-steep seat angle, but surprisingly not with the seat post extended. Post extended seated pedalling mostly feels fine (and is handy for steep fireroad climbs), but I have noticed repeatedly when the post is dropped the seat feels more 'in the way' when trying to hang off the back of the bike. So part of the design tweaks will be to keep the steep effective STA, but use a forward offset slacker actual STA to help move the seat forward when the seat post is set in the lowered position. Steep but slack - got it?
I also plan to slack the front out about -0.5 degree as things get a bit nervous on the handling front when hitting G-outs and high-load berms and the head angle steepens as the fork dives under load.I haven't sorted out every last millimeter and degree yet, but I did get a feel for what I'm planning aesthetically. Did a bit of a bodge up from the previous plan in Photoshop and this is what I'm feeling will be the go: (I also plan to change to full internal routing for the dropper cable, but didn't bother drawing that in...)
I'll sort my dimensions out over the weekend then let the intercontinental e-mails commence!
Oddjob
Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
We should form the the N+1 support group.Righto, so obviously the whole COVID situation has really put a bit of a crimp on getting out riding this thing. But I have managed to do some urban (exercise) rides, and more recently have set the frame with a rigid fork on a smart trainer to keep the legs turning over during winter/lockdown. So not as many MTB km's as I'd like, but have still been spending a bit of time in the saddle.
So why does this lead to an update? Well, not going to lie (and it's probably pretty obvious by now anyway...) my brain isn't very good at switching off or being contented with the good of what I have. So I have been pondering, "What if I was to design this again? What would I have done differently?" Well, I'm sure you can see where this is heading so safe to say my little MTB family will be expecting a new sibling in the not too distant future.
So what's the plan with this frame? Well, firstly, this baby ain't getting sold... It's a comfy cruiser, and will probably just get a lighter build put together on it sometime in the future so I can go and do some solo ride XC-ish km's without having to swap out tyres and crap to keep it enjoyable (I'm a bit of a weight weenie, so hauling around the heavyish DHF/Aggressor tyres on smooth trails isn't fun IMO).
Mostly I'm happy with it, but I did stuff up a couple of things with it in the design phase. First and foremost - the curvy top-tube. Yep, it looks purdy, but no it isn't really practical if trying to ride Blue or "Black Diamond" (sic) trails. On flat ground if I stand over the bike the family jewels will be lightly resting on the top tube. Now I'm pretty sure we can all work out why that's not a good scenario if you happen to slip off the pedals on rocky terrain, or hang up on a step-up or any similar type scenario! So new design criteria #1, loooooow top tube!
Second item on the list is - Flex. Safe to say the ride quality of this frame is super, super supple. I wouldn't describe it as "noodly", but it really has quite a bit of flex in it (It is also worth mentioning that I am roughly 93kg kitted up and 6'2" so am no featherweight rider). For flatter, fairly smooth trails it actually works really well as you don't need to be all that precise so you get a real magic carpet ride feel that actually feels a lot more like riding a short travel dually than a hardtail. The downside is there's a lot of lateral flex, which makes the steering quite unresponsive and a little vague when trying to do quick changes of direction or really rip round a good berm. So design criteria #2 is, less lateral flex. I plan to use a much wider but ovalised (thinner vertically) top-tube, and thicker wall-thickness tube in the downtube (possibly with a more angular tube profile) to provide a bit more front-end lateral stiffness, but try to keep the vertical compliance this frame has.
Third item on the list is a range of geo tweaks. I experimented with this frame with bringing the BB up quite a bit (up ~10mm from my previous 29er hardtail), and while it's great for avoiding potential pedal strikes (I now have what feels like heaps of clearance compared to what felt like constant near misses and breaks in pedalling to avoid rocks on the previous bike) it unfortunately doesn't make for a great handling feel on descents as you feel higher up than the 10mm difference would suggest. Turns out the marketing was right on that one. Fortunately I've had some improvement in fitness and technique (who'd have thought I'd ever get to say that!), so pedal strikes are less of an issue for me now and the new frame will end up with its BB somewhere between the drop of this frame and the bike that preceded it (but nearer the latter). Another seemingly insignificant thing that I have noticed with this frame is with the super-steep seat angle, but surprisingly not with the seat post extended. Post extended seated pedalling mostly feels fine (and is handy for steep fireroad climbs), but I have noticed repeatedly when the post is dropped the seat feels more 'in the way' when trying to hang off the back of the bike. So part of the design tweaks will be to keep the steep effective STA, but use a forward offset slacker actual STA to help move the seat forward when the seat post is set in the lowered position. Steep but slack - got it?I also plan to slack the front out about -0.5 degree as things get a bit nervous on the handling front when hitting G-outs and high-load berms and the head angle steepens as the fork dives under load.
I haven't sorted out every last millimeter and degree yet, but I did get a feel for what I'm planning aesthetically. Did a bit of a bodge up from the previous plan in Photoshop and this is what I'm feeling will be the go: (I also plan to change to full internal routing for the dropper cable, but didn't bother drawing that in...)
View attachment 362967
I'll sort my dimensions out over the weekend then let the intercontinental e-mails commence!
I also plan to slack the front out about -0.5 degree as things get a bit nervous on the handling front when hitting G-outs and high-load berms and the head angle steepens as the fork dives under load.Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
Funnily enough, I have always on-sold my dual suspension frames. It seems to be hardtail I end up collecting. This will be #3 and no plans of getting rid of any. The things are so bloody versatile, these Waltlys are just fine-tuning the geometry I get the most fun from.
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
Haha, e-mails are bouncing back and forth at the moment. Couldn't get the wider top-tube as it was confusing them (or at least my description/drawing was) how to weld it at the seat-tube end, so they just said it was "unworkable". I also can't get the subtle double-bend in the top-tube I had hoped for due to "mould restriction", which is fine. Internal routing for the dropper is nearly sorted, but I will put up an update when the design is complete.
beeb
Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
Haha, e-mails are bouncing back and forth at the moment. Couldn't get the wider top-tube as it was confusing them (or at least my description/drawing was) how to weld it at the seat-tube end, so they just said it was "unworkable". I also can't get the subtle double-bend in the top-tube I had hoped for due to "mould restrictions", which is fine. Internal routing for the dropper is nearly sorted, but I will put up an update when the design is complete.
So are you just planning to go for a straight top tube which intersects the seat tube at a lower height to reduce the standover? Then increase the seat tube length above the top tube intersection and have a nifty brace? I imagine that at 6'2 even with a 150mm dropper you'll need a fair bit of tube hanging out.
Like this
Like this