Amen !MotoMark said:3. Bottom bracket design. Isis stinks. External bearings are dumb. Show an external bearing setup to any non-cycling engineer or mechanic and they will tell you external bearings are just dumb, dumb, dumb. Solution? It's a custom frame right? Get a BB shell that can actually house bearings that will stand up to some abuse. www.oversizebb.com. I went through 4 ISIS BB in 1.5 years. This MEGATECH is still perfectly smooth after a year with LOTS of tough offroad miles + torque associated with SS only use. Especially shocking when I pulled it apart and BB shell had lots of crud in it. Is this solution: Weird? yes. Obsolete already? Maybe. Works? Absolutely!
Brand old Wily All mountain 29'er SS porn
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Brad built me up this bike almost a year ago. I have pretty much ridden this bike exclusively for the past year. Brad was willing to do everything I wanted which on paper was borderline bizarre when viewed individually. But I digress- it all adds up in the result.
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Why's it special?
1. Well the sliding rear dropouts were special a year ago. But I still like them. A LOT. No issues and I think they are elegant.
2. Hardtail designed around a 4" BW1.0 with 29" wheels. 2.9" headtube. Tandem downtube for stiffness. I ride like a jackass and I have NEVER been over the bars on this thing. I asked for slowish handling and it's perfect, have to work it a lil bit in the tight singletrack which is A-OK with me because it absolutely rails the downhills with no nervous twitchiness. He absolutely nailed my "out of spec" handling request. Me so happy.
3. Bottom bracket design. Isis stinks. External bearings are dumb. Show an external bearing setup to any non-cycling engineer or mechanic and they will tell you external bearings are just dumb, dumb, dumb. Solution? It's a custom frame right? Get a BB shell that can actually house bearings that will stand up to some abuse. www.oversizebb.com. I went through 4 ISIS BB in 1.5 years. This MEGATECH is still perfectly smooth after a year with LOTS of tough offroad miles + torque associated with SS only use. Especially shocking when I pulled it apart and BB shell had lots of crud in it. Is this solution: Weird? yes. Obsolete already? Maybe. Works? Absolutely!
4. Sloping downtube. 25" top tube 17" seatube. Lots of exposed seatpost = softtail feel + zero maintenance.
Why is it one year later and why is the paint new? I cracked the disc brake side chainstay/droput weld. Clearly braking force induced. Sad, sad day when I discovered that... Brad was good about taking the bike back and discussing options. We decided to weld in a brace to eliminate the seatstay/chainstay flex that contributed to the crack. I won't lie; the return took much longer than I had hoped, but a lot of that was due to the leadtimes at Spectrum Powderworks. I did upgraded paint the first time around and Brad honored/ate the cost to get me a similar value paintjob (hopefully Spectrum helped him on that). There is a reason people wait the ridiculous leadtimes for Spectrum's work. STUNNING.
Mostly I want to thank Brad who is still a small builder who will do whatever he can to make things right. Again he made me a frame that any number of manufacturers would probably say there is NO market for and he absolutely nailed it. The geometry is so right it makes me hate everything else I throw a leg over.
It's easy to gush over a new bike when it's perfect and shiny new, but I think it's much more telling to see what a builder does when something goes wrong and he has to spend whatever margin he made to make everything right again. It seems the Wily buzz on this board has died with so many more options out there, but please keep Wily in mind- Brad is a super classy guy and he truly excels at getting you the most out of the "full custom" option.
Why's it special?
1. Well the sliding rear dropouts were special a year ago. But I still like them. A LOT. No issues and I think they are elegant.
2. Hardtail designed around a 4" BW1.0 with 29" wheels. 2.9" headtube. Tandem downtube for stiffness. I ride like a jackass and I have NEVER been over the bars on this thing. I asked for slowish handling and it's perfect, have to work it a lil bit in the tight singletrack which is A-OK with me because it absolutely rails the downhills with no nervous twitchiness. He absolutely nailed my "out of spec" handling request. Me so happy.
3. Bottom bracket design. Isis stinks. External bearings are dumb. Show an external bearing setup to any non-cycling engineer or mechanic and they will tell you external bearings are just dumb, dumb, dumb. Solution? It's a custom frame right? Get a BB shell that can actually house bearings that will stand up to some abuse. www.oversizebb.com. I went through 4 ISIS BB in 1.5 years. This MEGATECH is still perfectly smooth after a year with LOTS of tough offroad miles + torque associated with SS only use. Especially shocking when I pulled it apart and BB shell had lots of crud in it. Is this solution: Weird? yes. Obsolete already? Maybe. Works? Absolutely!
4. Sloping downtube. 25" top tube 17" seatube. Lots of exposed seatpost = softtail feel + zero maintenance.
Why is it one year later and why is the paint new? I cracked the disc brake side chainstay/droput weld. Clearly braking force induced. Sad, sad day when I discovered that... Brad was good about taking the bike back and discussing options. We decided to weld in a brace to eliminate the seatstay/chainstay flex that contributed to the crack. I won't lie; the return took much longer than I had hoped, but a lot of that was due to the leadtimes at Spectrum Powderworks. I did upgraded paint the first time around and Brad honored/ate the cost to get me a similar value paintjob (hopefully Spectrum helped him on that). There is a reason people wait the ridiculous leadtimes for Spectrum's work. STUNNING.
Mostly I want to thank Brad who is still a small builder who will do whatever he can to make things right. Again he made me a frame that any number of manufacturers would probably say there is NO market for and he absolutely nailed it. The geometry is so right it makes me hate everything else I throw a leg over.
It's easy to gush over a new bike when it's perfect and shiny new, but I think it's much more telling to see what a builder does when something goes wrong and he has to spend whatever margin he made to make everything right again. It seems the Wily buzz on this board has died with so many more options out there, but please keep Wily in mind- Brad is a super classy guy and he truly excels at getting you the most out of the "full custom" option.
