jeremygrant.com

this was a post in response to the question “is the dawes sst AL a good lockup/beaterbike”

i just stripped, repainted, and rebuilt a 48 cm dawes sst al for the gf… its a replacement. here’s some pics since the ones on bikes direct are glamour shots and not RTL.

shipping handlers were good, recieved in 3(!) days

only blem = sheared tooth on the alloy formula lockring. can i get a replacement?

the decals are under clearcoat (bikeforums said otherwise) bummer
welds are rougher than i thought. dropouts take inserts

takes a paint job good… a little tight in spots and weird tube shaping on the chain stays. bars suck ok. the saddle is cheaper but better then the black/grey one that comes with the kilo. save me the comments on bike fit… its a chicks bike. one of the first upgrades will be a carbon blade fork.

cranks are low end fsa’s, an upgrade from the heavy truative cranks. chain is a cheap 1/8 chain… replace it.

i wasn’t impressed with the tektro levers so i replaced them — cheap. the stem is cheaper than what bd.com shows. the top cap on the headset is PLASTIC!!! and does not feel right when assembling… kind of stands out to me like a sore thumb on an otherwise perfectly ok parts package.

brakes are good. welds needed some smoothing out.

notice those rack mounts? no tapped holes at the dropout kinda odd. cable hangers are brazed on the side of the tt. and yeah i know i missed a spot on the brake bridge…

that freewheel is loud comapred to a shimano. wheelset is solid. if they radial laced the front it would have been cool.

depending on what you consider a beater this could be a good beater. what are you using it for?
i could build something piece by piece for cheaper and it would be more solid because some of the components are low low end. but as a complete i think the dawes sst AL stands out. i even contemplated buying one for myself for parts and the frame simply because its a cheap good looking aluminum frame that could take a beating and save me some worry on rust… we compared a bunch of bikes and after settling on either the se lager, messenger, or dawes sst al the dawes stood out as the best value in the bunch. her requirements were fixed/free with brakes, lightweight and under $400

i’d replace the cog and lockring. the cog is a cheap pressed steel one. i think the frame looks real good just wire brushed down and clearcoated, or white but we didnt take that route. purp ftw.

working on the frame it kind of reminds me of cannondale or concept (with brazeons) or a typical al racing frame. the pic below shows some detail in the tube shaping. i dont really like the downtube. or the top tube. seems to be built for strength without a slick aesthetic you are used to finding on an os aluminum tube frame. i tried using montana gold paint instead of krylon this time and i am impressed, i recommend montana, its heavy duty and comes in a lot of colors. i used 3-4 coats “better times” with 4-5 clear coats

Henry Blodget’s latest Atlantic article, Why Wall Street Always Blows It, channels Jeremy Grantham in describing our inability to prevent future economic crises:

So what can we learn from all this? In the words of [Grantham]: “We will learn an enormous amount in a very short time, quite a bit in the medium term, and absolutely nothing in the long term.”

From bikes

diy sticker/paint concept

Atif Shamin, a student at Carleton University in Canada has figured out a way of reducing a mobile device’s power consumption by replacing all of the internal wires and PCBs of a device with an antenna. This enables a wireless connection between a micro-antenna embedded within the circuits of the chip. Pretty cool, someone please hire this kid to hack electric cars.

Carleton University Engineering via Phone Alley via MAKE

wait for it…

dawes sst al coming soon…