On One Inbred Frame Flex?

[pascoa341]

Hi, thinking of getting an On One Inbred for some expedition cycling and Mtb'ing. I'm wondering how the frame will hold up to heavily loaded panniers? Has anyone used this bike with a heavy load up back (or up front) and noticed any frame flex? It's a hell of a lot cheaper than a similar frame from Thorn, so if it would suffice that would be great .

[TheBrick]

No personal experience here although I'm planning on the same frame to upgrade my bike for exactly they type of riding your describe so will be interested in others stories. I have found people using them online when researching myself.

Search for Pete Jones on crazy guy on a bike, he has one and seems to suggest it works well for him.

[irc]

No personal experience here although I'm planning on the same frame to upgrade my bike for exactly they type of riding your describe so will be interested in others stories. I have found people using them online when researching myself.

Search for Pete Jones on crazy guy on a bike, he has one and seems to suggest it works well for him.

I looked fo Pete Jones's page on his Inbred.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page ... 80290&v=1Z

The downside for me would be the short headtube. Pete has used loads of spacers and an angled stem and the bars are still below the saddle. For roughstuff type touring I think a 29er might be the way to go for me. In fact my Surly LHT is a good fit and has clearance for 700x40mm tyres I might try an off road tour on it. Certainly no problems with frame flex under load. THe BB height is low for true off roading but for tracks and paths it would work.

More expensive than the Inbred though.

[ad441]

I rode an inbred frame round Sikkim & West Bengal for several months earlier this year, worked very well for me with a pretty heavy load front and back. Used a pretty similar set up to that one on crazyguy, but with less spacers, a steeper angled stem and bullhorn style handlebars. I'd certainly recommend it.



There's a bunch of notes about my bike about halfway down this page from my journal.
http://adriancyclingtosikkim.blogspot.com/

[iandriver]

Beware the braking system you want to use, looks like on one are starting to make disc only inbred frames. http://www.on-one-shop.co.uk/?page_id=590 see right at the bottom of the page. I've got an 08 inbred I use for lugging loads with a rigid carbon fork. Not done huge tours on it, but no problems. I'm 6 foot 5 and weight 110 Kilos, it stands up to me fine.

On-one sell 45 degree stems to account for the short head tube, but as pointed out, do look at this.

[pascoa341]

Thanks for all this info, really great. I am also a bit worried about the length of the top tube. My current bikes have a 57 and a 59 top tube and to be honest, I already find the 59 a bit of a stretch. Have you noticed you are hanging on for dear life on your bikes or can you maintain a fairly upright position?

[ad441]

Thanks for all this info, really great. I am also a bit worried about the length of the top tube. My current bikes have a 57 and a 59 top tube and to be honest, I already find the 59 a bit of a stretch. Have you noticed you are hanging on for dear life on your bikes or can you maintain a fairly upright position?

I've got long legs and short arms and found it fine (18" frame with the seat up pretty high).
As for brakes, I've got the older model frame with V-brake mounts, however I used avid BB7 disc brakes and found them great - can't recommend them enough for touring on bad roads with a lot of long, steep descents. But I got some of the older steel inbred forks (off ebay) because they had V-brake mounts which I needed for my front rack.

One thing I'd say is that on one stuff seems to have fairly good re-sale value, so if you found you didn't like the frame you could probably sell it again without too much of a loss - annoyingly I had to buy my frame and forks off ebay for not that far off the price of brand new ones as on one didn't have any in stock at the time. I'm quite envious of all the nice new coloured frames they've been releasing.

[AMC]

My partner's Inbred 29er suffered from serious steering wobble (even at very low speeds) when running 2.00 tyres with front panniers (non-lowrider) in Iceland this year. Only cure was to fit 1.5 tyres & take all the weight out of the front panniers. Proved a real pain altogether, although he loves the bike unladen. Go for a test ride first with all the gear you intend to bring!

[pascoa341]

hmm... could it be that the original inbred suffers less from flex than the other frames. I am getting more and more tempted just to try it out. which racks fit best on the frame seeing that it has some strangely positioned rack mounts.

[ad441]

hmm... could it be that the original inbred suffers less from flex than the other frames. I am getting more and more tempted just to try it out. which racks fit best on the frame seeing that it has some strangely positioned rack mounts.

I used Old Man Mountain Sherpa racks, front and rear, mounted off the brake bosses. They're expensive, but had no problems with them and they gave me clearance to run disc brakes (Avid BB7s, which are superb). I don't think the new Inbred frames have rear v brake mounts anymore (I could be wrong about this) though.

[ad441]

some more detailed photos (when it was still relatively clean)

[pascoa341]

Thanks for the photos! Some more questions: Did you have any issues with your heels hitting the panniers with the Sherpa rack and what size were the rotors on your disc brakes?

[ad441]

Thanks for the photos! Some more questions: Did you have any issues with your heels hitting the panniers with the Sherpa rack and what size were the rotors on your disc brakes?

No problem - I remember spending a lot of time searching the web for photos of similar set-ups when I was building this bike and worrying about whether it would be capable of dealing with Sikkim. There are plenty more photos of the bike in my flickr account.

No issues with heel clearance and I've got size 10 feet. They'd have hit if I'd mounted the panniers right at the front of the rack, but it's long enough that you can slide them back until they clear your heels (unless maybe you've got size 15 feet or something).

Rotors were the standard 160mm and worked fine, even on some very long (approx 2000 metre) descents.

Where are you thinking of going?

[pascoa341]

Cheers, good photos on flickr! I did notice you have two bottles on there. Did you put extra braze ons on, or is it one of those 'you-don't-need-braze-ons-to-put-this-bottle-on' bottle racks? It definitely looks like I'll be heading into the new year on an on-one with Sherpa rack and some 160mm disc brakes (I like the new black colour, but may also see if I can find a decent 2nd hand).

Current travelling plans are not set yet. Hoping for Colombia and Central America, may also be a bit closer to home though, depending on finances. Did you enjoy cycling in India? I hear mixed stories about it?

[ad441]

The older frames came with two sets of bottle mounts, so again better for touring.
(but the new colours are really nice).
I haven't checked ebay lately, but I presume 2nd hand prices might have dropped a bit with all the new ones.

I loved cycling in India, I think people either like India or they don't - it was my third visit (though first cycling), so had a good idea of what to expect. Also I was mostly in the Himalayan foothills which have relatively light traffic and calmer people (thuogh a lot of hills). I did some cycling down on the plains and that's certainly a lot more stressful due to the heat and traffic. On the other hand, while it's chaotic, people on the road tend to be a lot less aggressive than in London... you just have to accept that you give way to anything larger than you.