Mad Fiber Road Wheels

On May 5, 2:52*am, Chalo wrote:
Art Harris wrote:

Would you ride on these wheels?

See:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9pjSP97PNc

Nope.

I'd put them on a cargo trailer, though. *If they were free, that is,
and if they took clinchers, and if I weren't going too far off the
beaten path.

Chalo

Damn, I was hoping for a road test, I suspected though the tub thing
would cause a stir.

On May 4, 6:32*pm, Tºm Shermªn™ °_° ""twshermanREMOVE\"@THI
$southslope.net" wrote:
On 5/4/2011 11:03 AM, Jay Beattie wrote:
* [...]

I've had bad luck with Wheelsmith spokes[...]

Be aware the current Wheelsmith spokes are now made at the northwest
corner of 64th Street and Florist Avenue (Havenwoods), using completely
different equipment (Asahi’s) and methods (e.g. drawing instead of
grinding to produce butted spokes) under new ownership (Hayes Bicycle
Group), so the experience with older Wheelsmith spokes should *not* be
used to judge current production.

Now I recall you mentioning that in the past. No disrespect to the
new management (or the old management, for that matter). Bless them
for making something in the United States. -- Jay Beattie.

Chalo wrote:
Art Harris wrote:

Would you ride on these wheels?

See:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9pjSP97PNc

Nope.

I'd put them on a cargo trailer, though. If they were free, that is,
and if they took clinchers, and if I weren't going too far off the
beaten path.

Chalo

Chalo,
But, they have no upper weight limit! You could test that for them!
Kerry

Jay Beattie wrote:
They are really good at slicing squirrels. BTW, Leonard likes them.http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/...ike-tech-mad-f...

Ric and his brother had the Wheelsmith bicycle shop behind PAB back in
the day and then started the Wheelsmith pre-fab wheel and spoke
operation and then went to FSA. *He's undoubtedly a smart guy and can
make a product. *The problem I have is that I didn't like his other
products. I've had bad luck with Wheelsmith spokes, and *FSA wheels
were garbage (for anyone over 150lbs), as was most of their early
components including ISIS BBs and cranks. The MadFiber wheels are made
in Seattle and use White Industries freehub bodies, so I would assume
QC is top notch. And they are not sold as bargain products like FSA.
I just don't know if I could get over that feeling of impending doom
caused by the whispiness of the ribbon spokes. -- Jay Beattie.


I've always ridden 36 spoke wheels. In the rare event that a spoke
breaks, I make it home without a problem. I'm sure any failure on a
Mad Fiber wheel would be much more memorable! Oh and there's also a
slight price difference!

I'm familiar with Wheelsmith, but didn't know they were located behind
PAB. BTW, I still have my PAB Italian made Columbus SL road frame from
1984.

Art Harris

On May 5, 4:09*am, Art Harris wrote:
Jay Beattie wrote:
They are really good at slicing squirrels. BTW, Leonard likes them.http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/...ike-tech-mad-f...

Ric and his brother had the Wheelsmith bicycle shop behind PAB back in
the day and then started the Wheelsmith pre-fab wheel and spoke
operation and then went to FSA. *He's undoubtedly a smart guy and can
make a product. *The problem I have is that I didn't like his other
products. I've had bad luck with Wheelsmith spokes, and *FSA wheels
were garbage (for anyone over 150lbs), as was most of their early
components including ISIS BBs and cranks. The MadFiber wheels are made
in Seattle and use White Industries freehub bodies, so I would assume
QC is top notch. And they are not sold as bargain products like FSA.
I just don't know if I could get over that feeling of impending doom
caused by the whispiness of the ribbon spokes. -- Jay Beattie.

I've always ridden 36 spoke wheels. In the rare event that a spoke
breaks, I make it home without a problem. I'm sure any failure on a
Mad Fiber wheel would be much more memorable! Oh and there's also a
slight price difference!

I'm familiar with Wheelsmith, but didn't know they were located behind
PAB. BTW, I still have my PAB Italian made Columbus SL road frame from
1984.

"Behind" meaning over on Alma a few blocks away -- IIRC, if you went
out the back door of PAB and kind of went to your left, it was walking
distance. It was a garage, and there were racks of old bikes out front
-- Hetchins, Singers , etc. -- all sorts of olde tyme stuff with odd
derailleurs. It was like a bike museum, and IMO, kind of creepy, but
the shop had a great selection of arcane stuff. PAB was the super-
store back then with Ritchey as the house builder and Avocet just
coming on line and walls filled with Campy. I used to break Campy
cranks and go there and pick a new crank arm off the wall. They had
all the sizes on peg racks. Then they went catalog and started
selling the frames, rollers, etc. I had a pair of their rollers with
the "sintered" bearings. We called them the Paris Roubaix rollers.
You didn't need a fan or mag since they had so much inherent drag and
rumbled like crazy. -- Jay Beattie.

Art Harris wrote:
Would you ride on these wheels?

See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9pjSP97PNc

Art Harris

What happens when the rider ahead kicks up a stone which hits a carbon
ribbon spoke, close enough to the rim so it can't twist or flex out of
the way?

Dave Lehnen

On 5/5/2011 9:36 AM, Jay Beattie wrote:
On May 5, 4:09 am, Art wrote:
Jay Beattie wrote:
They are really good at slicing squirrels. BTW, Leonard likes them.http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/...ike-tech-mad-f...

Ric and his brother had the Wheelsmith bicycle shop behind PAB back in
the day and then started the Wheelsmith pre-fab wheel and spoke
operation and then went to FSA. He's undoubtedly a smart guy and can
make a product. The problem I have is that I didn't like his other
products. I've had bad luck with Wheelsmith spokes, and FSA wheels
were garbage (for anyone over 150lbs), as was most of their early
components including ISIS BBs and cranks. The MadFiber wheels are made
in Seattle and use White Industries freehub bodies, so I would assume
QC is top notch. And they are not sold as bargain products like FSA.
I just don't know if I could get over that feeling of impending doom
caused by the whispiness of the ribbon spokes. -- Jay Beattie.

I've always ridden 36 spoke wheels. In the rare event that a spoke
breaks, I make it home without a problem. I'm sure any failure on a
Mad Fiber wheel would be much more memorable! Oh and there's also a
slight price difference!

I'm familiar with Wheelsmith, but didn't know they were located behind
PAB. BTW, I still have my PAB Italian made Columbus SL road frame from
1984.

"Behind" meaning over on Alma a few blocks away -- IIRC, if you went
out the back door of PAB and kind of went to your left, it was walking
distance. It was a garage, and there were racks of old bikes out front
-- Hetchins, Singers , etc. -- all sorts of olde tyme stuff with odd
derailleurs. It was like a bike museum, and IMO, kind of creepy, but
the shop had a great selection of arcane stuff. PAB was the super-
store back then with Ritchey as the house builder and Avocet just
coming on line and walls filled with Campy. I used to break Campy
cranks and go there and pick a new crank arm off the wall. They had
all the sizes on peg racks. Then they went catalog and started
selling the frames, rollers, etc. I had a pair of their rollers with
the "sintered" bearings. We called them the Paris Roubaix rollers.
You didn't need a fan or mag since they had so much inherent drag and
rumbled like crazy. -- Jay Beattie.

Now there is just a generic looking sign [1] that says "Sun Components"
on a side gate of a large industrial building.

[1]
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=43.127473,-87.99357&num=1&t=h&sll=43.128089,-87.992088&sspn=0.003758,0.010568&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll= 43.126598,-87.995853&spn=0.001879,0.005284&z=18&layer=c&cbll= 43.126848,-87.995752&panoid=9yRetMLdNTprgZc5TMaZqQ&cbp=12,26. 46,,1,7.29.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

On Thu, 05 May 2011 09:26:59 -0700, Dave Lehnen couldnae haud thur wheesht
ony mair an' gied us this:

Art Harris wrote:
Would you ride on these wheels?

See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9pjSP97PNc

Art Harris

What happens when the rider ahead kicks up a stone which hits a carbon
ribbon spoke, close enough to the rim so it can't twist or flex out of
the way?

Dave Lehnen

The carbon ribbon will slice through the stone so cleanly that you can
see your reflection in each half.



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Perpetual Calendar - http://www.1r5.net