Black Mountain Cycles: Road Review

[yetitotheheady]

[QUOTE=vav;1308503]Here is mine almost finished.

Yes, that is going to be cool. Thanks for the pics. The hardest thing to photograph with the cross frame is the actual color. Its kind of a rootbeer brown, its fantastic in person, especially in the sunlight. It has a lot more metallic fleck in it than you can see in the photos. see and this

[yetitotheheady]

Originally Posted by beeatnik

But, Vav, you didn't write 2000 words of copy on your bike. Did you have to pay retail for it?

I keed. I keed.

Love the gravel bikas.

Is this 2000 words comment directed at me? I can't tell. I have a sense of humor but its hard to tell with posts on a forum. Either way, I'm a bit of a bike nerd and thought people would enjoy the full story on this forum. For the record my review was a hair over 1200 words long

[fourflys]

great looking bike and Mike is awesome, always good to see a fellow BMC owner! I plan on a road version at some point, but for now I have the Cross with Rock n' Roads...

[yetitotheheady]

[QUOTE=fourflys;1309238]great looking bike and Mike is awesome, always good to see a fellow BMC owner! I plan on a road version at some point, but for now I have the Cross with Rock n' Roads...

Hey fourflys I pretty sure I was reading a thread about that D2R2 ride where you mention Black Mountain Cycles. That's what got the ball rolling. So thank you.

[GRAVELBIKE]

Nice write-up. I really enjoy my Black Mountain. Like you said, Mike is a pleasure to work/deal with.

[yetitotheheady]

Originally Posted by GRAVELBIKE

Nice write-up. I really enjoy my Black Mountain. Like you said, Mike is a pleasure to work/deal with.

GravelBike I have no doubt looked at your blog several times when deciding to build up my B.M.C. road frame. You wrote up a great review that helped push me towards this frame. So thank you.

[GRAVELBIKE]

Originally Posted by yetitotheheady

GravelBike I have no doubt looked at your blog several times when deciding to build up my B.M.C. road frame. You wrote up a great review that helped push me towards this frame. So thank you.

My pleasure. The BMC frames are worth every penny.

[beeatnik]

Originally Posted by yetitotheheady

Is this 2000 words comment directed at me? I can't tell. I have a sense of humor but its hard to tell with posts on a forum. Either way, I'm a bit of a bike nerd and thought people would enjoy the full story on this forum. For the record my review was a hair over 1200 words long

Just teasing, yo. When I first read the review it sounded a little like copy from a bike catalog. It's obvious, tho, you're stoked on the bike. I'm a verbose individual myself and I love dense consumer reviews. So, awesome job on the build and thanks for breaking down the complete process. Bike looks awesome.

[GRAVELBIKE]

Dang, I'm a slacker. My review was only 554 words.

[beeatnik]

Dig the review and blog. I'm loving this gravel bike bidness and I've got one on the way. And I'm more excited about the gravel bike than I was about my last race frame ("world's lightest"). The ebb and flow of riding...

[yetitotheheady]

Originally Posted by beeatnik

Dig the review and blog. I'm loving this gravel bike bidness and I've got one on the way. And I'm more excited about the gravel bike than I was about my last race frame ("world's lightest"). The ebb and flow of riding...

What are you building up?

[swithouski]

anyone know what type of steel BMC uses? seems like 4130 crmo? if so, how would you compare the ride quality to say a surly pacer/cross check which uses the same tubing?

I also currently have a handsome xoxo which is reynolds 631, curious how it might compare to that. I'm really interested in the BMC frames.

[GRAVELBIKE]

Originally Posted by swithouski

anyone know what type of steel BMC uses? seems like 4130 crmo? if so, how would you compare the ride quality to say a surly pacer/cross check which uses the same tubing?

I also currently have a handsome xoxo which is reynolds 631, curious how it might compare to that. I'm really interested in the BMC frames.

From my review:

Black Mountain Cycles’ frames are TIG-welded in Taiwan from custom drawn and butted chrome-moly steel tubing, and heat treated after welding. Top and down tubes are 28.6mm and 31.8mm diameter, respectively, and both tubes have 0.8mm/0.5mm/0.8mm wall thicknesses.

[yetitotheheady]

http://www.founderland.com.tw/en/dtc100162s.htm

Is the actual manufacture of the tubesets. I found out that several companies use their tubing because they are willing to work with small batch orders too. Now defunct kogswell used them. For the other bike nerds I dug up an old forum posting discussing tubsets where founderland is mentioned.

The biggest difference between Surly frames and Black Mountain Cycles frames is Surly does not use heat treated tubes, they are also thicker gauged and thus heavier. I'm pretty sure a 56cm pacer frame is 1/2lb heavier than a 56cm B.M.C road frame.

I still like surly products, very versatile, and that Handsome Cycles XOXO was on my radar for a while too.

[fourflys]

I guess the tubes are covered above, but I'll add this... Mike Varley has worked in the industry for a number years on everything from the California Masis to the Haro Mary bikes that were huge hit (he designed those I'm told), so he knows what he should use... and from talking personally with Mike at his shop In Point Reyes you can tell he designed this bike with everything he wanted in it for a bike he's want to ride... I know he also made many trips overseas to ensure everything was as it should be... all of that is what made me buy a BMC. I have no doubt a Surly is a great bike, but I don't think they can compare to what went into a BMC even if they're made in the same country...

If you haven't read through his blog you really should...

BTW- I'm sure the model he's having handmade in San Fran is going to great, but I'm not sure it'll be any better than what he's already selling...