Took the Crupi to the track yesterday:-

The bike handles great, the rider less so!

Last edited by MickRich393 (2017-04-25 6:54am)

& checked out a park yesterday:-

Last edited by MickRich393 (2017-07-01 4:29am)

ds4real2176 wrote:

Awesome and the new addiction is born!  I'm just amazed at the new school breaks, we were always used to them not working in the 80's and now the new school breaks will throw you over the bars if you aren't careful haha.

Yeah, it's nice to know you can stop if you want to, especially at our age!! Another big difference for me is not having to retighten the headset and stem all the time. Must admit I had little interest in new school bikes beforehand, but now I find myself looking at new school stuff as much as, if not more than old school!! The times they are a-changing!

So I’ve finally got round to changing the wheels on the Crupi. I’ve wanted to replace the generic wheelset since I bought the bike. It came with unbranded alloy rims and a freewheel hub which, tbh, have been fine thus far, holding up well to my on-track efforts, crashes included, but as we all know, it doesn’t take long for us to want an upgrade! In my case, this was mainly being driven (excuse the pun) by the desire to have something with better engagement than the 16t freewheel. My first thought was a White Industries freewheel but these aren’t particularly cheap, so that led me to thinking about spending a little bit more and picking up a secondhand wheelset with a cassette hub, thereby doing away with a freewheel altogether! Before I knew it I was looking at used wheelsets with rims and hubs from a whole host of manufacturers including Sun Ringle, Box, Bombshell, Crupi, Answer, Alienation, GT, Hope, Mavic and Chris King. You name it, I looked at it, but for various reasons, didn’t pull the trigger on anything until last summer when I found a custom set of Bombshell rims on Alienation Bullitt hubs with DT Swiss spokes. Built up by a Canadian bike shop, they were sold to a guy who decided to move up to an OS20 bike, so the Bombshells remained unused until I picked them up on a trip to Canada. They have a few marks from storage and the stickers are missing from the rear rim but otherwise they’re sweet! The seller had swapped out the 16t cog for a 17t version, which wasn’t a big problem as I’d wanted to experiment with gearing anyway. I found a used 47t Rennen chainring on here and decided to give that a whirl since a 47:17 ratio is only slightly higher than the 44:16 I’d been running with. Initial impressions are good, the gearing is not noticeably higher than before, though a bad back has prevents me from giving it a proper workout either on the road or track. Nor is the cassette unduly loud. Instead it has a very understated click, with a nice purr to it.

In fact the biggest impact is not performance-related but an aesthetic one, with the bike now having a red theme to add to the white and gold of the original. There were already a few smidgens of red on the bike and the wheels have helped to bring those out, aided by a red Promax seat post clamp that I also picked up here. There’s no doubting that the bike is now much more bling than the previous setup but I love it. The change of gearing and chain also necessitated moving the wheel back about 10mm. What the longer wheelbase translates to on the track I’ve yet to find out but it makes the bike look leaner!

Anyway, enough blurb, here are some more pics:-

Last edited by MickRich393 (2018-01-27 5:08pm)

78CarlitoBandito wrote:

very nice indeed love the rims ....

Thanks man! Yeah, I love these wheels and the sound the cassette makes too! The only downside is that I’ve lost the white and gold theme found on your Trick Styler!

Hey Baz, how’s it going?

Got a new race number this year, so decided to replace the Box #plate with a used UGP (thanks NORCAL BOYZ) and sticker-bomb the back!

Last edited by MickRich393 (2018-04-25 6:27am)

A few pics from last year!

Last edited by MickRich393 (2019-01-12 1:21am)

Thanks man! It's more than fast enough for this novice!

I've recently made a few changes to the bike, principally swapping out the alloy Sinz forks for some carbon Answer Daggers, which has made the front end a little lighter and as a result, more "chuckable"! Having finally removed one of those annoying, rounded-off hex bolts, I also changed the grips and brake lever.

In the ongoing evolution of the bike, I'm currently looking at changing the stem for something with a shorter reach. Updated pics to follow as and when!

Last edited by MickRich393 (2019-02-19 5:59am)

Got to test the new stem set-up at the track this week and as expected, the steering felt very responsive - I liked it!

Thanks man! Just picked up this Knucklebone crossbar pad for it. Adds an extra bit of red (not to mention an old school flavour) to the front end, which I think balances out the grips. That's my justification for the unnecessary purchase anyway!!

Last edited by MickRich393 (2019-08-10 5:02am)