Lucifer Fork: Highend performance MUni, half the price.

General
1

Hey,

Shortly, you may be able to get a low end fork to fit your high end wheel hopes. Not being able to shell out the $1000+ that a high end ride would set me back, I waited on a frame to come from Tiawan via The UK Source that would fit a Profile/Gazz set up. I started riding again in September after a 11 year hiayatus- and now am on my 2nd rim, hub and 3rd set of cranks. This last set of cranks began to die on a road trip to Memphis. Pounding cranks back on when you’re 300 miles away from home is not fun; it was time to bite the bullet and buy a Profile.

The fork is what Rodger at the UK Source calles a “Nimbus II” (after a frame that bears no resembalance to it’s predisessor)- but looks like a Devil’s fork- I’ll call it the ‘Lucifer’ (name like that has sex appeal, ya know? I’ll leave the Nimbus for young wizards and the like). I’m not sure what they are going to end up costing- but I susspect it will be less than $60- maybe a good deal less. As you may have seen, the fork has a pronounced barb at the crown, which is reputed to be a cozy place to rest your foot; I wouldn’t know about that- but it does look hell-a-cool. More importantly, it will acomodate a 3" Gazzoloddi with little less than 1 cm clearance on each side. This will meen occasional ‘Ping!’'s from stones picked up by the tread- but if you get a tall enough fork you should be able safely vise the down tubes and get a little more room. As is, is ok. There is oooodles of room for a tire like, say… a Fireball (if you can lay your hands on one). The frame is nice and stiff and hasn’t allowed even a hint of wheel rub- and this is with the 28" frame. Weight considerations aside, I actualy prefer the way it responds compared to the Hunter or Wilder.

I wedd to this an Alex DX 32 rim- at half the cost of the Doublwide and only a very margenal difference in pinch flat resistance, a no brainer. The Alex is acutaly made from a harder aluminum alloy that reputes a greater resistance to developing flat spots, features a CNC machined breaking serface- and is lighter. Add the $40 saved going with this rim over the Sun to the the frame choice, and your pocket book is heavyer by at least $400.

Untill the doctor cuts me loose, I won’t be able to post a proper performance review; however (much to my detriment) I have put a couple hours urban riding in. While the added weight of the Profile and Gazzoloddi is not negligable, the volume of the tire more than makes up for this in the hop, and I sure feel better having the high volume tire under me on the way back down a flight of steps (the benifits and cons of this set up have been well address elseware, nuff said). I can’t let the Dyno Fireball neer the Lucifer untill my head’s screwed back on straight- when it is, I’ll let you know if it was worth the deal with the Devil.

So, a parital cost break down:

3 x 24" Gazzoloddi: $45
Alex DX 32 rim: $40
Nokian Downhill tube: $9
Profile Hub and Cranks: $315
Viscount Sadle: $20
United Seat Post: $9
Seat Post Clamp: $4
Odyssey Twist Pro Pedals: $24
Frame: ??? $50 ???
Spokes and Wheel build: ???

Maybe around the mid to high $500’s to put yourself on a serviceable 3" Profile/Gazz wheel, with the ability to upgrade componants later as you see fit. For my pocket book, this was the way to go.

Check out more photo’s in the Unicyclist.com Gallery, here:

My Pimp New Ride

Christopher

2

That’s a pretty nice looking ride. What the hell is that Viscount brick doing on it, though? I like the Nimbus II frame a lot, my friend just got some from Roger at unicycle.uk, and they seem like great frames for what you pay for them. I’m gonna get a Monty/Profile/NimbusII trials combo once unicycle.com gets the frame in stock. Just so other people know, the 24" NII fits a 24x3 gazz very nicely, the 28" frame isn’t really necessary.

Ben

3

The Miyata seats weren’t in stock ($20 more) and I had a ride schedualed; I also have another wheel that will benifit from the seat when I upgrade (I’v also developed my link arm on this sadle, and have yet to change old habits…). The frame size was an -oversite- by the vendor; while I don’t think the 28" was neccessary, either, it will provide some buffer to the crown weld if I vise the down tubes. Still, you might consider the 26"- how does yours do in gumbo-mudding conditions? I’d rather not have a build-up at the crown…

Christopher

4

Looks nice. I’m hoping to get the Nimbus here shortly.
My ride will consist of this:
NimbusII frame
carbon fibre/air miyata
Monty tire/rim
Profile cranks + hubs
havent decided on pedals yet.

5

Another good reason for the Viscount seat is to match those yellow pedals. Then again I have made no secret about the fact that I like colorful things.

This looks like much less than 1cm clearance on each side of the tire…more like 1mm. Those posts are begging for you to ride it one footed. Go ahead, Chris…all the kids are doing it. Your mom won’t find out.

Cool looking ride all around. Too bad you can’t get the Miyata in Canary yellow.

6

you can get the Roach in canary yellow,as for the frame “its cool” but i have already been tainted by HI-TECH uni frames

7

Just taken delivery of my own Nimbus II frame on Saturday. I had it customised with brake bosses to fit a 24" rim. Decked out in red powder coat with red and black HS33 brakes it looks a treat. All I need to top it off is a set of red Miyata bumpers for by air saddle and it’s done.

At £29 for the frame plus a bit for the bosses to be added its an absolute steal. I can happily try much harder terrain knowing that if I break or bend the frame it isn’t going to cost much to replace. I’d have to break an awful lot of Nimbus II’s to justify the cost of going for a more expensive frame.

If I can ever get my PC and and firewall to accept the Gallerys download scripting I’ll post up some pictures.

8

Re: Lucifer Fork: Highend performance MUni, half the price.

“Noel.Holland” <Noel.Holland.2sbky@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in
message news:Noel.Holland.2sbky@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> Just taken delivery of my own Nimbus II frame on Saturday. I had it
> customised with brake bosses to fit a 24" rim. Decked out in red powder
> coat with red and black HS33 brakes it looks a treat. All I need to top
> it off is a set of red Miyata bumpers for by air saddle and it’s done.
>
> At £29 for the frame plus a bit for the bosses to be added its an
> absolute steal. I can happily try much harder terrain knowing that if I
> break or bend the frame it isn’t going to cost much to replace. I’d have
> to break an awful lot of Nimbus II’s to justify the cost of going for a
> more expensive frame.
>

Who did you get to add the bosses & powder coat and how much did that cost?
Are these standard V brake bosses?

Would adding bosses for a 700c rim get in the way of a fat 26" tyre in the
same frame?

Would bosses for a 26" rim and for a 700c rim (moving the brakes to the
right place when changing the wheel) get in the way of each other, and is
there any other solution I could use for this purpose (ie. very adjustable v
brakes?)

Do I need a brake booster or is the frame with bosses added fine on its own?

cheers,

Joe

9

Answers to Joes questions on Brake Mounting

We’ve strayed off the merits of the Nimbus II and into brake questions so I’ve opened a new thread to answer Joes questions.

> Who did you get to add the bosses & powder coat and how
> much did that cost?

Roger Davies sorted it all out for me. Just told him what my ideas were and he fixed it all.

>Are these standard V brake bosses?

Yes, but I’ve had the plate that secure the canti springs removed. I don’t need it for Maguras and it just gets in the way when mounting the Gazz. I had a look at various options for vbrakes and canti’s but quickly decided that Magura rim brakes offer a simplicity of design and mounting you just can’t beat. It takes me 2 secs to remove my brakes and 3 secs to remount them (rebuilt them for dual quick release) No fiddling about with wires and springs or having to adjust when remounting.

>Would adding bosses for a 700c rim get in the way of a fat 26" >tyre in the
>same frame?

No idea, but highly likely. One idea I thought on recently though is that Maguras can swivel 360 deg in their mount. Meaning you could use the mounting unit upside down and have the brake bosses above the brake instead of below. This might permit you to mount the brakes normally for a large wheel then swivel them around and hang them below the brake boss to work on a smaller wheel. Or have two sets of brake bosses, the top set to hang down from and the lower set to mount above.
Haven’t done the measurements but it should be possible. Obviously this wouldn’t be an option for vbrakes or canti’s.

>Would bosses for a 26" rim and for a 700c rim (moving the >brakes to the
>right place when changing the wheel) get in the way of each >other, and is
>there any other solution I could use for this purpose (ie. very >adjustable v
>brakes?)

Again, No idea, haven’t looked at this problem and don’t know the measurements.

>Do I need a brake booster or is the frame with bosses added >fine on its own?

I worried about this myself. the Maguras have a large lug that is supposed to fit inside of the frame to prevent the brake splaying out when applied. I worried at first that the lug would interfere with the tyre wall. The solution would be to mount the lug to the outside of the frame and use a brake booster to tie the two brake units together and prevent them splaying out. Unfortunately the standard Magura plate doesn’t fit over a 3 inch tyre. Roger D offered to design and build me a carbon fibre brake booster big enough to get over the top of a Gazz. But when the final frame arrived it turned out that there was about 3 to 4 mill clearance on each lug when mounted inside of the frame so a brake booster wasn’t needed.
As to whether the frame is stiff enough or you should add a brake booster to improve the bite of the brakes, don’t worry about it. The last thing you want are brakes that perform too well. You only want the brakes to slow the wheel to bring the unicycle under control, not stop it. Have brakes that perform too well and you reduce the region between having control of the wheel and snatching causing a face plant. Tested the brakes in Richmond Park on Saturday. There aren’t any real hills there but there are a few small but steep slopes around 45 deg. Normally I’d be hanging on for dear life putting back pedal pressure on like crazy and gripping the seat front to stop the uni from sliding out from under. Now i just put a bit of pressure on the brakes and choose my line, no fuss, no stress and no stumbling around the office on a Monday morning becuase I over stress my legs again.

For anyone who’s interested, my new Nimbus II frame with brakes will be with me at the BJC and your all welcome to try it out there. Now i’ve found a PC which can send images to the forum I’ll post some photos of the brake mounts and brakes so that you can see for yourself.

Oh, and my spare sets of Magura Brakes are still available if anyone wants to buy them.

10

Oh XXXX, I meant to put the previous post in a new thread but it seems I hit the wrong button. To quote the Fast Show - Bugger.

11

Re: Lucifer Fork: Highend performance MUni, half the price.

Joe wrote:
> Would bosses for a 26" rim and for a 700c rim (moving the brakes to the
right place when changing the wheel) get in the way of each other, and is
there any other solution I could use for this purpose (ie. very adjustable v
brakes?)

How about 26" facing forward and 700c facing back - then just reverse the
frame when you change your wheel.

Leo White