Post by flipnidaho on May 28, 2008 6:27:22 GMT 8
I finally got to take the Wanga on it's maiden yesterday. We did a 26 mile road ride (we forgot our ID's so we couldn't get into Timberland) that included The Wall and some back roads from Timberland to Marikina Heights.
It took a few minutes of adjusting the seat angle, height, and setback to get it to my liking since the Wanga is a little bit shorter than the 19" Ionic I was riding but after about 1 hour of riding, the position felt natural (even though I'm running a shorter fork than what the Wanga is designed for). The Wanga's cockpit was very similar to my 575 however so it felt natural after a bit (it normally takes me a few weeks to get used to a new position).
I also had to make some chain length adjustments to the sliders to be able to run dingle.
Obviously, the bike is a little bit heavier than the Ti frame that it replaced but since the components swapped over (specially the wheels), the bike still accelerated crisply and climbed well. It has different qualities than the bike it replaced but that is to be expected. It's a little stiffer than the Ti bike but also less compliant in the rough stuff. I really like the top of the top tube cable routing as it gets the cable guides out of my knee's way which is VERY important since I do most of my climbing off the saddle and on my Ionic, my knees frequently hit the cable guides (enough to draw blood) when I'm really swaying the bike back and forth.
In looking at the mtbr posts about the Wanga, I was super concerned with the sliders slipping but they held tight even under the steepest part of The Wall. Neither SJ nor I could make it slip so it passed that test with flying colors. I also credit this to the setup by the wrenches at All Terra. They've had some Wanga's pass through their allens so they knew what they were doing (and probably knew the type of climbing SJ and I will put the bike through)... I ran the road gear on the way home (36X16) and it didn't slip on the climbs in Marikina Heights either.
There was some squealing with the V's and I attribute this to the way the brake studs are attached to the frame. A bit of loctite and some proper tightening of the stud mounting bolts should quiet them nicely.
Highlights of the frame design is the massive tire clearance, the sliders which allow me to run geared, single or dingle and the clean lines of steel. The only thing I would change would be a shorter head tube to allow me to run a 100mm+ fork without choppering the front end out too much...
I'm leaving this bike in the PI and I can already tell that she'll be a fun rig. We were supposed to give her the dirty maiden today but because of the rain, it's been postponed until tomorrow morning...
Make sure the brake stud mounting unit's bolts are loctited and torqued to spec...
Yes, it's still a dingle...
No slippage up The Wall beneath me or SJ which is what I was worried about it...
Thanks to Agu for the quick hookup with a replacement frame and thanks to All Terra for the quick turnaround on the build! You guys rock!
It took a few minutes of adjusting the seat angle, height, and setback to get it to my liking since the Wanga is a little bit shorter than the 19" Ionic I was riding but after about 1 hour of riding, the position felt natural (even though I'm running a shorter fork than what the Wanga is designed for). The Wanga's cockpit was very similar to my 575 however so it felt natural after a bit (it normally takes me a few weeks to get used to a new position).
I also had to make some chain length adjustments to the sliders to be able to run dingle.
Obviously, the bike is a little bit heavier than the Ti frame that it replaced but since the components swapped over (specially the wheels), the bike still accelerated crisply and climbed well. It has different qualities than the bike it replaced but that is to be expected. It's a little stiffer than the Ti bike but also less compliant in the rough stuff. I really like the top of the top tube cable routing as it gets the cable guides out of my knee's way which is VERY important since I do most of my climbing off the saddle and on my Ionic, my knees frequently hit the cable guides (enough to draw blood) when I'm really swaying the bike back and forth.
In looking at the mtbr posts about the Wanga, I was super concerned with the sliders slipping but they held tight even under the steepest part of The Wall. Neither SJ nor I could make it slip so it passed that test with flying colors. I also credit this to the setup by the wrenches at All Terra. They've had some Wanga's pass through their allens so they knew what they were doing (and probably knew the type of climbing SJ and I will put the bike through)... I ran the road gear on the way home (36X16) and it didn't slip on the climbs in Marikina Heights either.
There was some squealing with the V's and I attribute this to the way the brake studs are attached to the frame. A bit of loctite and some proper tightening of the stud mounting bolts should quiet them nicely.
Highlights of the frame design is the massive tire clearance, the sliders which allow me to run geared, single or dingle and the clean lines of steel. The only thing I would change would be a shorter head tube to allow me to run a 100mm+ fork without choppering the front end out too much...
I'm leaving this bike in the PI and I can already tell that she'll be a fun rig. We were supposed to give her the dirty maiden today but because of the rain, it's been postponed until tomorrow morning...
Make sure the brake stud mounting unit's bolts are loctited and torqued to spec...
Yes, it's still a dingle...
No slippage up The Wall beneath me or SJ which is what I was worried about it...
Thanks to Agu for the quick hookup with a replacement frame and thanks to All Terra for the quick turnaround on the build! You guys rock!