New News and New Bike

January 18, 2015

New News and New Bike;

First, the new news ...... Since the first of the year, I have been unable to post any photos on my blog, and have been getting more and more frustrated by it. I actually started up a new blog at a new domain only to find that it would not accept my old I.E. browser. Well .....hmm ....... for a while now ...... in fact, since the first of the year, I've been noticing this addition to my toolbar about installing the "new" Firefox browser. Seeing as how I never had the "old" Firefox browser, I paid no attention to it. I should have. Staying with the old Internet Explorer was the cause of all of my problems. After updating to the "new" Firefox, it seems as though all of my problems with this and other websites seem to be solved. So, let's get on with the nitty gritty shall we and get to the important stuff.

New Bike;

There has been a while now that I have been looking a Fat Bikes as a viable alternative to my missing mountain bike, and maybe a little more. Still, I have most of my bases covered, and my latest addition, my CX4 gravel bike has been just a wonderful addition to my stable of bikes. I did, in the past year, have an opportunity to ride a couple of the oversize tire Fatbikes and found myself coming away from the experience with a grin on my face. The only thing I really couldn't justify was the price. I felt that starting at $2,000 dollars was a bit of a reach for a retired gentleman on Social Security, so even though I enjoyed riding them, I just more or less put them out of my mind. Out of sight, out of mind .... or something like that. They kept nagging at me. After a year's worth of looking around I had noticed the large assortment of Fatbikes on the Bikes Direct website and got to looking and comparing them with other brands. They were not only comparable, but they were looking better all the time. My thoughts on bikes and brand names are this, and while you may not share my thoughts, I have found them to be pretty accurate. A; The names on the bike frames only have to do with the frame itself, nothing more. B;  The complete bike is a collection of purchased parts and components assembled onto the frame. C;  Virtually all bike frames are made in the Orient somewhere, regardless of the name on the frame, usually by only a handful of manufacturers, who make frames for many prominent and/or lesser known bicycle companies. Only a handful of custom manufacturers make a small number of one-off bikes in this country today. Most of those are long lead time waits before you actually get your bike. No Fatbikes are made in this country. D; The company who makes the bike I was looking at also makes frames for several well known brands, as well as their own name in other parts of the World. So, taking all this into consideration, looking into frame materials that I felt I wanted, (6061 TIG welded aluminum alloy) as well as looking for components that I favored, I decided that I would save a bundle by choosing the Motobecane Boris X-9 Fatbike. While I look at something of this nature to be somewhat of a novelty, and honestly could not see a huge use for it, I felt that at a price of under $800 dollars I could justify the expense and the idea of owning one. I have never used a mail order service to order a bicycle before, always buying from my local bike shop. I had many trepidations about this purchase. I needn't had. It was totally painless. Bikes Direct was true to their word, and even though they had none in stock, and I had to order pre-paid, the bike was shipped on time, (even a couple weeks earlier)  and arrived via U.P.S. one day after they notified me they had shipped. 

 After opening the box, this is what it looked like inside. well packed and carefully packaged against damage.

Laying the box on it's side and sliding it out was an easy task, then I placed it on top of the box to see what I had.

First item on my list was to install the front wheel. Lifting it up out of the box was a pleasant surprise as I found it much lighter than I had expected. After the wheel was installed, I could lean it up against the garage door where I could install the handlebars, seat post, and hook up the front brake. Virtually everything else was installed and with the exception of the brakes, properly adjusted. I did go over every fastener with a wrench and torque wrench making sure of proper tightening. I found nothing out of adjustment, or improperly assembled. 

All the rest of the assembly process involved removal of the packaging and looking it all over. I found the workmanship to be on par with any, and I repeat, any bicycle made today, even the high dollar brands. I probably wouldn't have chosen a high gloss finish if I was custom building, but I can live with it. The components are Sram throughout, and all the same off road family. X-9 rear derailleur, X-7 shifters and front derailleur, X-5 crank, X-100 bottom bracket, and a 1030 cassette. All in all, a very nice component package. I do like Sram products. Spokes are heavy duty 14 gauge stainless. All in all a very nice bike. I was duly impressed. There were several nice features that I also liked that really don't make the bike any better or worse for what it needs to do, but it was nice of them to include. 

 A pretty metal head badge in the original style.

 As well as a matching seatpost badge with a "circa 1923" on it, denoting the beginning of the original company. Motobecane is now owned exclusively by Kinesis Industry, whose main frame factory is in Guangzhow China, and bicycle assembly plant across the channel in Taiwan. They purchased the rights to the name along with some others when the original companies went broke. Motobecane U.S.A is now an American company, based in the Houston Texas area. They are the importers of this brand of bikes. I think a little tax games going on, but it works for me.

 One of the features on the bike that was a surprise was the extra braze on mounts on the fork. The fork itself is a cromoly unit. A triple mount that will hold Salsa Anything cages, or double bolt water bottles or a front rack. There are also braze on mounts in the back for a rear rack. This would indeed make a good expedition bike. Even with the cromoly front fork, the weight of the bike sans pedals was right at 32 pounds. Reasonable for this type of bike.

 The rest of the bike was exactly as advertised, with Vee Rubber tires 4X26", rims with big lightening holes, and they even include some bright yellow rim strips in case I got tired of the red. Brakes are top of the line Avid mechanical units which I like a lot. I did find their sizing recommendations to be a little on the small size. I got the "Large" even though it was recommended for 6"0" to 6"3", and it was fine. I would not have wanted the medium. The extra large probably would have been alright too. I am just about a quarter inch under 6 feet. So, all in all, this looked like a very good purchase, and I was very pleased with the whole process, as well as the bike itself.