dikiw@mmintl.UUCP (Diki Wozniak) (12/31/85)
I have been reading net.bicycle for more than a year and while aluminum bikes have been discussed some, there are enough questions unanswered that I believe it is worth keeping the discussion on the net and not moving it to mail. It seems that it is potentially of interest to everyone. Meaning that more and more companies are building them and your next bike could be aluminum, if you prefer. (Unlike the topic of Cateye Solar bike computers, which has been discussed ad nauseum) Ouch, that BIC always burns me when I turn the flame up. :-) Anyway, I went for it this fall and bought an aluminum frame. I seem to have quite different interests than most people on the net. My "road bike" is a specialized stumpjumper, circa 1984. The aluminum bike is a S.E. Racing "P.K. Ripper". For those of you not familiar with the P.K. it is a 20" (wheel size) BMX bike. The bike is a little lighter than a chrome moly bike of the same type, but seems a whole lot stiffer. The top tube for instance is a ovalized rectangular shape about the size of my wrist! I really like this bike. I previously owned a Redline Proline. The P.K. seems quicker (faster geometry), lighter and stronger. I've done a couple of 2 to 3 foot drops (vertical) and the 5 spoke plastic Tuff Wheels soak up the shock. I can see no signs of the paint cracking or other things that would make me nervious about durability. I ride the bike alot, and like to fly all over the place. It survived a weekend of empty swimming pool madness with only a scratched decal. It has solid chrome moly cranks which are cheap ($14.00), strong, and HEAVY. I would like to replace them with tubular chromemoly cranks (or perhaps the Cook brothers forged alloy ones) I had flite cranks on my Redline, they seemed almost as heavy as the solid ones. Any advice by netters on this. The graphite seat post has also withstood all this abuse, so I would give it a thrash approved rating. So ride gnarly and get rad.... Aloha