By blackmountaincycles,
Filed under: Uncategorized
Colors. I’ve spent a lot of time in meetings trying to decide colors for an entire production year of frames. Production runs of 10,000, 20,000 of an individual model. It’s the same process choosing colors for runs of 50 frames: who’s the customer, what colors are in style, what colors will be in style in one year, and then pick something you can live with for the next year.
Or you throw the dice and hope it works out. In the case of the first run of cross frames, I picked the brown/root beer and orange. In the first production, orange kicked root beer’s ass, but root beer came back strong. Strong enough that now that I have more orange frames and new gray frames coming folks are saying they really like the root beer. Maybe it’ll be back with the third production run.
Orange and gray. Those are the colors of the frames that were shipped from Taiwan just four days ago. I’m anticipating mid-December arrival. Geometry is unchanged. Ride quality and specifications are the same. Price is unchanged at $595. There are a couple of minor revisions: seatstay braze-ons for rack mounting, dedicated 130mm rear hub spacing, reinforced machined headtube, and a 65cm frame size in addition to the 50cm, 53cm, 56cm, 59cm, and 62cm frames. Because of the larger size on the 65, I increased the tubing wall thickness of the top and down tubes to 0.9/0.6/0.9 and because of that change, the frame isn’t heat-treated which will mean that the 65 will be priced $50 less than the other heat-treated sizes at $545.
As I get more details on arrival, I’ll post it here. For now, here are a couple of teaser shots for the gray and orange. Thanks for reading.
(What’s playing: Louis Prima Pennies From Heaven)
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I'm a sucker for 'root beer' especially when it looks 'bronzy'
Nice frames, Mike!
Brian in Mammoth
I really like my root beer colored bike especially with the small flecks of color in the paint (pictures just don't do it justice!). That gray look like a winner as far as I can tell, good job on your color choices.
I like the grey. It's got a purposeful, semi-industrial vibe.
Looks great. Why the move to 130mm spacing?
nicholas
130 because everyone I built was with road hubs and a 130 hubs will always fit better in 130 spacing.
Oh! Nice gray. I had a Trek in gray for a short while that was quite nice, as far as looks go, and it was darker in hue like this.
Very tempting! Maybe I need a single speed in gray…..
What, no disc mounts? (just kidding)
Are these the new colors for the road frame as well?
Jason,
This order was for cross frames only. I still have an okay supply of road frames in orange with one each 50, 59, and 62 in champagne.
I appreciate the info, thanks Mike. Thought for a second I would have to decided between orange or the new gray for the road frame =)
What is the top tube length on the new 65cm?
Thanks,
Mike, Do you have any details on the 65 geometry? Thanks!
Rather, *Chinese* script logos.
Japanese would be 自転車 not 自行車.
If it is part of the deal, is it going to be the contrasting white instead of black, as before?
Are the Japanese script top tube logos going to be on the production frames as well as those two samples?
(please say no, please say no)
Those two are production frames. All frames have the Chinese characters in white under the clear coat.
When is the expected arrival?
Third paragraph, third sentence – mid-December. It all is in the hands of how fast the boat gets across the Pacific and how quickly they move through customs.
Oh well….that's unfortunate.
I don't dig the Chinese script–aside from the why? question, graphically it is a pretty generic font, unlike your WTB/Potts style font on the downtube. I can understand putting it under the clear, but why make it stand out even more by having it in white instead of black?
Dah, I still love the frames though….I just need to find a good sticker.
A small sticker will cover it. I'm not offended if folks don't like it. I like it and it's there to recognize where the frame was made and to say thanks to my friends in Taiwan who helped make the frames.
What are the tube diameters? Looks like 28.6 top and 31.8 down? love the grey paint BTW.
thanks
Yes, 28.6 top and seat tube (bulged to 30.0 at tt/st junction) and 31.8 down tube.
So what does the script say? For those of us who don't read Chinese…
It reads "Black Mountain Cycles," or as close to "cycles" as possible.
Any concerns with putting a 135mm hub in the new 130mm spacing? I have but one 130mm hub wheelset, but many at 135mm…
135 into 130 spacing is not recommended. Do you use multiple wheels in the same frame often? I would suggest converting and redishing your favorite one(s) to 130 if you want to fit it into one of the new frames. Or if you ride a 62cm size, I still do have a couple of the root beer frames with 132.5 spacing.
Hei Shan (Black Mountain)
Zi Xing Che (bicycle)
Although here in Taiwan, jiao ta che (foot push vehicle) would be more common.