I woke up feeling crappy again this morning so I didn’t go walking and slept for another 2 hours before work instead.
This afternoon the new Octane One Zircus 2022 frame arrived and I started building it for my son to ride:
My son has decided that he wants the straight forks on there not the suspension ones that I have (RST Dirt Forks) as they are way lighter and he only rides it at the BMX track and pump track so there is no need for suspension!
When I fitted the forks I found that the top headset bearing doesn’t fit into the head tube properly even though it is exactly the same headset and frame as my jump bike! I have emailed Wiggle support to see if they can recommend a headset that will fit better as I am not happy with the way the headset fits!
I will wait and see what Wiggle say but the top of the head tube did seem a little small when I pulled the frame out of the box so I may need to pull the forks and headset back out and measure the hole to see how big it is. The bottom bearing fits really snugly so not sure why the top bearing is not fitting? I am going to stop building the frame just in case I have to send it back. I have just received an email from Wiggle saying that they will get back to me in the next 24hrs so let’s see.
I have given him the bars and stem from my 4X bike so when I get the Swytch Kit I will have to sort a new stem and bars for that. I am thinking that I want to replace the Gusset Open Prison bars and gusset stem that I bought last week for some new 35mm bars and a 35mm stem as they are stronger and lighter and look better too so I can then use the open prison bars on the 4X bike with the Swytch kit. I am actually happy that my son wanted the straight forks as it means that I have the RST Dirt forks to go on the 4X bike 🙂
While I have been waiting to get the new bike sorted I have been looking at the Jump bike gearing and I think that I got the gearing wrong on the Octane that I have. I seem to remember that it was because the smallest chain ring that fits on the cranks that are on the bike was a 34t. Looking at the chart below the closest to the 52.84 roll out of a 36×16 on my cruiser is 32×16 or 34×17 and I think that I am currently running a 34×16 which is a 55.82 rollout!
I have just counted and I am indeed running a 34×16 so I need to get a 17t freewheel for my Halo back wheel at some point to get the correct gearing. I have also been looking at the Airdrop fade builds and they come with a 28t front chain ring a a 32×14 comes out at a 52.42 rollout as well so that would work if I decide to go that route 🙂