The BB and the camera arrived this week on the slow boat (plane?) from Hong Kong. The boom is really on with these cheap websites, and it shows just how hard it is for the local bike shops to keep up. I mean a ceramic CNC’d bottom bracket for $50? It’s just not going to happen. However, where bike shops will stay afloat is in expertise. There are parts to building and maintaining a bike that I cannot do myself, and I am more than happy to pay for the experience of the local mechanics (e.g. the incredible job done by the boys at Gateshead cycles getting my 29er ready for the 24h last year).
That aside I was keen to get the bits unboxed and check them out. The Unknown Rider has already had some experience with his Mini DV, but I was keen to try it on a smoother surface (albeit not that much smoother). I ended up going for the top tube, and the results are below.
The bottom bracket came nicely packaged in an original box. No way to prove the bearings are indeed ceramic (apart from the tick on the box and the printing on the cartridge), but it spins as smooth as butter. Installed as simply as you’d expect, and came with a few spacers to get the Q-factor right.
This gives you an idea of size. This has a few mounting options, but for the moment it’s on the track bike head tube. I might play with another mount for the roadie as well as a helmet mount for off-road shenanigans.
The camera mount on the head tube. Also note the race wheels, I’m sick of these gathering dust in the shed, so tonight they’re coming out to play.
So that’s it for now. More video tweaks to come; I’m keen to try to overlay the Garmin data which I’ve seen on other sites. I’m also playing with the video angle to try to catch more of the track (rather than just random sky and the riders arse in front of me). I’ll post up more as they’re edited. If the links are broken, then it’s probably just the music heavies coming down on me for reposting copyrighted songs, but it sounds alot better than the raw audio of me literally red-lining and dying.
is there any animosity from the local shop guys when you buy something via mail order and get them to fit it, even though they are getting the service fee?
Not really. Although saying that, I can do most things at home now. Rossco and I have built up quite an arsenal of speciality tools. The bike shops know the score, and for every person that buys stuff online, five more still go in and pay (the sometimes ridiculous) retail. Also sometimes there’s the ‘I must have it for this afternoon’ mentality where I’ll just go in and pay whatever I need to.
If I am pushing the line by asking a shop to fit stuff that I have bought online, then I will pay ‘corkage’. I’ll take a bottle of wine in for the shop owner.
Some bike shops will charge “corkage” I know two wheel industries charge a 30% surcharge for parts supplied by the owner. Only fair I guess. Nowhere near the disparity in bikes as there is cars. Brand new M3 in the US $60k Australia $165000!!!!!