Klein Pulse Pro - $350 Good Deal???

[neo_pop_71]

Dang, how'd I miss that one? I actively search the East Coast for Smorgasbord, Spooky, and Spot bikes or frames... that one slipped past my radar. A cult following has developed for the early 90's Yeti killer hardtail, the A.R.C., it was made from the same Easton tubing and had the same riveted cable guides on the opposite side of the top tube. The Spooky Darkside is their tribute to the A.R.C. and they sold a lot of frames even with the $1,200-$1,500 price point ! (Ouch!!!)

Now for the warning... go read up on the Darkside on MTBR, 3.5/5 chili peppers... totally a bike that is loved or hated and a brand/co. (i.e. customer service/backing their product) that gets almost no love!

http://www.mtbr.com/cat/bikes/frameset/ ... 19crx.aspx

As any Dos Equis Team owner on here can attest, the 7000 series aluminum is notorious for cracking, so you need to do double duty inspecting for cracks in the tubing and welds.

Good luck, I hope it works out!

[rbonif]

I just picked it up and am pretty excited to build this one up. I am thinking of putting a 9 speed xtr drivetrain on her and possibly some spinergy wheels.

[vpc66]

OH YEA! Spinergy Spox was the wheelset that I had the hots for when I built my Cuda because the shop owner I bought my frame from had use them for a time. I change my mind when he told me the spokes snap easy and the hubs have issues. So he built my wheelset with King classic hubs and DT revolution spokes lace to Bontrager rims ...strength and less weight than the Spinergy. But if you go for them, they are cool and give a bike a look, hope it was just talk and they work for you !

[neo_pop_71]

Hold up Vinny, you negative Nelly, I have used SPOX wheels for years without issue! F*ck it, SPOX are great and I can't say enough good things about them, I have 26" mountain sets and 700c road sets... not a single issue to date and I'm a Clydesdale!!! Now, I'm not taking anything away from your King hubs and DT set up, I'd love to have some, but that custom wheelset cost more than many second hand Cudas!

All that is a side note Big V., Ron did not specify SPOX, he only stated Spinergy wheels... as I have no faith in carbon fiber... especially 15+ year old carbon fiber wheels... Ron, what Spinergy wheels are you talking about going on the Spooky?

If you are talking about the Spinergy Rev-X carbon blade wheels, please Google search "Spinergy Failure"

Please keep in mind that the image I've attached is very mild with little carnage. I watched a set of Rev-X literally go away in front of me (back in the day) during a Clydesdale NORBA race. I was coming up on a lapped rider, he was riding an AMP B-4 with Rev-X wheels (both the B-4 & Rev-X are intended for light weight riders) and this guy was easily 250 pounds. His front got crossed up with the rear in a divot... "Creek" "Ping" "Pop" and the derailleur snapped as his B-4 looked like a soggy noodle... "Crack" "Crack" "Crack" and his rear Rev-X gave way under the lateral pressure and he and the bike balled up into a mess. I stirred hard right and did a bunny hop over his front wheel and continued on. When I came back around on my next lap the med-techs were scratching their heads as to whether or not to pull out the broken carbon blade that had impaled his thigh. Yes, he was plus size and way too big to be riding that set up but that's the way it was and everyone did that... so, be aware that a used set of Rev-X wheels that gave been "sitting for years" may have been stressed to catastrophic failure potential by some chubby dude that had no business riding them in the first place. To that I add, for the last 10 years every "Fixie" kid has wanted a carbon wheel on his "whip" so keep that in mind too!

[rbonif]

those were the ones. I am glad i asked as I am, close to 200 lbs (i like t say pure muscle to those that never saw me).

Part of me is relieved as no I don't have to spend $300 - 400 on those.

The more I spec out this bike the more interested I am in the Klein that started this thread. The xtr brakes alone are going to run me close to $100

BTW their is a spooky junebug frame on EBAY ending soon...seems a tad pricey though and a beautiful spot frame.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131132561346?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Spot-Brand-17-I ... 2c7dd54a10

[vpc66]

But " D " the spokes on Spox are made out of carbon and to my knowledge ...now I never HAD a set but I was told they could and have ( the bike shop owner ) snap while riding plus have read things about them on the internet.... BUT .... I did write that so he would know there were stories about them and at the end wish luck. I am sure not every item on one of those DO NOT BUY LIST will have the issues folks claim, as you have been lucky with yours and remember my wheelset...folks cry about revolution spokes plus my set has alloy nips and Ti skewers, and god forbid radial lace spokes on king hubs..Everything folks cry about and I wanted the rear to have the non-drive side radial but TED ( shop owner ) refuse to do that...All these years later and they are still tight and true.
By the way, show pic's if you have any of your rides with the spox...just because I chicken out of using them does not mean I lost my love for their looks !

[neo_pop_71]

Hola Cudaheads,

Ron, I'm glad you said something too, I would hate to see you dump some serious dough into a wheelset that could wreck your grill... especially since you used to be a model, right? I know how you want to trick out the build and there options to do so without changing your build too much nor blowin' up your wallet. In keeping with your XTR build, check out this set:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Shimano ... 338bb717c0

I'm piecing together some missing parts for a set of Magura hydraulic rim brakes, this selling has a few pieces I need, I happened onto this XTR wheelset while checking out his other goodies. The guy has some seriously nice components! Ultimate Machine Company titanium stuff... who has that NOS since the company has been gone for 15 years?!!!

Vinny, the spokes on the SPOX wheels are PBO, a composite vinyl material that is flexible. Spinergy is still around, they are about 45 minutes south of me in the beach city Carlsbad. I've been on the phone a few times with their tech, they still stock replacement spokes. The knock against them was the special tire wrenches and the PBO spokes at that time were $5 (last I checked they were up to $7) as opposed to $1 for a stainless spoke. I had a PBO spoke break on me in a cyclocross race, it was no different than a broken stainless spoke. In both cases the wheel hung in for a while before starting to develop a wobble as it was going out of true; both were on the rear so I simply opened caliper and rode with only a front brake. As far as bikes with SPOX, here is my Area 51 cyclocross bike that I used to race, now it's a parts bike for hitting up the coffeehouse or runs around neighborhood. You're a light weight guy, you should have no troubles with a set of SPOX. If you do go after some, try to land a set of M1 SPOX, M2 are good too, but the M1 were the race line series and cost twice what the M2 were going for... like a $999 and $499 in the late 90's.

[vpc66]

Very COOL !

[rbonif]

that is such a cool bike and that name is awesome.

I saw those rims doing my search. I decided to go a little new school on the rims and just pulled the trigger on some ceramin cross max. I think they come in under 1600g and I really wanted a black and white rim to go woth this frame.

[neo_pop_71]

that is such a cool bike and that name is awesome.

I saw those rims doing my search. I decided to go a little new school on the rims and just pulled the trigger on some ceramin cross max. I think they come in under 1600g and I really wanted a black and white rim to go woth this frame.

Nice call on the Cross Max wheels! My buddy is a svelte 150 pound racer, to this day he still swears by Cross Max wheels and that's all he races on. The strength to weight ratio is better than amy other set of wheels based on the abuse he generates. I wish I had his lungs, his stamina, and his speed! I won't even ride with him anymore because I know I'm getting dropped, gotta salvage some pride! The guy is hard core, he has climbed half of the 8 great peaks in the world. For his full training session on Sunday mornings he climbs Mt. San Antonio (aka Mt. Baldy), it's a full day with 3 different trails to the summit with 10,000 foot elevation gain. He does 3 mini sessions each week consisting of an 8 mile trail run with 4,000 foot elevation gain in about an hour (not counting the decent back to the trailhead), it's a trail raced every year since 1965 called "Run To The Top" that ends at the summit of 10,064 feet.

Thanks! That Area 51 is pretty special, it was a custom one off CX bike that I bought from the racer who commissioned the build. All the AREA 51 bikes were built to be an affordable in to the track market, all the frames were track frames. That is to say, all but mine, mine is the only cyclocross frame as it was custom ordered from John Knox himself. It is basically the same as the track frames, but mine was custom built using long horizontal Campagnolo dropouts. Each and every frame was built by John Knox around 1999/2000 using NOS Columbus tubing (Aelle with Thron stays) supplied by Euro-Asia Imports. They supplied John with 50 to 75 sets of tubing and he developed the name, graphics, and paint colors. Eventually, as all good things must end, AREA 51 slipped away into history. The story doesn’t end there, Euro-Asia original interest/plan to build affordable track frames would come full circle, hence the modern BAREKNUCKLE track frame is an extension of AREA 51. The two projects only share frame purpose, as BAREKNUCKLE frames are built in Italy and John Knox has basically disappeared. If you have some free time and want to see some amazing stuff, check out E.A.I. site, there's a link below:

http://www.euroasiaimports.com/

For example... go to "frames" and then go to "road" and there you can pick out a NOS Cinelli Supercorsa frameset in any one of 12 color options. Who on the planet has that??? E.A.I. does and so much more, it's goes so far beyond NOS, it's like paradise for the C&V crowd! They even have NOS vintage Campagnolo bike shop tools sets with every Campy tool, your choice of English, French, or Italian specific. I heard they made a few Campy sets available last year to preferred customers, they were reported to have offered them at the 1988 original sale price of $10,000.00. I'd hate to think what the current asking price is on one of those Campy tool sets... OUCH!!!