Interesting read of the below pez 'toolbox' article this morning which is basically a press release for "broken bones bicycle company".
I post this here because there is commentary in the pez article about the weight of a bike vs. stiffness/performance. It also refers to the term 'weenie'. It started to irritate me when I realized they were applying the technical jargon to explain the "design process" and performance of their painted FM015 frames that are actually quite passe in the generic chinese carbon game.

"Our bikes aren’t exactly heavy but in our design process we put an emphasis on ride quality over weight savings. Our mission was to create a race bike that could go very fast but not just in a straight line and not just on a smooth road."

If I am wrong and they have developed their own mold and layup process that happens to look exactly like a hong-fu I will apologize and take this down. Not trying to hate on anyone's big idea and I think the frames coming out of china are great (I have owned several). But let's call a spade a spade? You designed the Michael Ball paint job on a $500 frame anyone can order. Why not go for a more obscure open mold like other companies have done?

Pez Article


Broken Bones Facebook Photos

Josh is a dumbass. Sorry, he just is.

He's promoting his own company, with a poor name. Wrote a PEZ article to fake it too. Nice job Josh... write your own article as PR for your own company ? Nice.
With a logo ripped off an 80's hair band/corpo rock logo.
And claiming that his bike is his own design.

Just like Ritte claimed their Bosberg was their own design, when it isn't - that too is just an open mould with a paintjob.

At least Ritte has more marketing intelligence. Who the f*ck would want to buy a bike named "BROKEN BONES" ?
And has Josh done any market analysis at all? No. If he did, the name wouldn't be what it is and the offerings wouldn't be so limited.

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Exp001

That "article" is such a mess. Would be embarrassed to have that on my website.

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2013 Wilier Cento1 SR || 2009 Ridley Crossbow || 2011 Yeti AS-R 5 Carbon

What a stroke. Notice how he never articulates how his bike will make anyone a better cyclist.

I thought it was a spoof article at first, sadly it wasn't.

Eh.... Dang. Just an FYI, but I was never told about the story, never asked about the content.

Fairly obvious to me that simple physics does exist. And the more obvious fact would be that because a bike is heavy doesn't automaticlaly equate to better ride characteristics any more than all bikes at or under 15 pounds are automatically lacking...


I just left a note with the owner at Pez...

Apologies...

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charles@pezcyclingnews.com

Remove it?

Aside from the author dissing weight weenies - the people, the bikes, the board, maybe some proofreading would have been in order.

Perhaps he meant 2.5% rather than .25% ? But what's a factor of 10 error among friends?

"At 15 pounds, handling gets very sketchy and durability suffers"? Really? But add a pound to the frame and the handling magically fixes itself out?

If you can ignore the BS, he does have a point. Adding 1 lb to a frame doesn't make that much difference on a climb. His example of losing 5 lbs adding .25% to speed (not time) is about right. Most people don't do climbs big enough for that 5 lbs to make a significant difference, and they probably have more than 5 lbs to lose on their body. OTOH, some of us are already at minimum body weight and do races where 1 lb makes a difference in finishing position and 5 lbs is a number of positions.

Beside that once bit of semi-truth, it's a poorly written piece, the company name is dumb, and passing off generic chinese stuff as "designed" is lame. But sadly not that uncommon, even from much bigger names.

Edited my post.




The story is pulled from the site (the link may work for a while as the words are still on the server).


Guys I agree with a lot of what you're saying...

There are loads of bikes at or below 15 pounds that handle extremely well, perform extremely well and weight in and of it's self (or adding weight) doesnt equal a gain...

At the point Pez can clarify the bikes origin / design / R&D etc and verify it's performance relative to the field, you may well see the Broken Bones Bike at Pez again. It will not be reviewed by it's companies owner for publication at Pez.

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charles@pezcyclingnews.com

edited.

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charles@pezcyclingnews.com

Well done, Charles.

On steep climbs it's nearly all power to weight. So if you and your bike weigh 180lbs, then 5 lbs is 2.8%. 2.5% is the correct figure.

The FM015 shouldn't be heavy anyway. I have the FM028 in 3k clear and it's 1050g.

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formerly rruff...

I have an S (51cm) and it was exactly 1250 gr before I cut the seat mast.
The fork that came with it was 399 gr before cutting, but a lot of weight is in the steerer tube, I cut off 50 grams

I have to say I do like the frameset a lot, I weigh <130 pounds, I don't notice stiffness much, but I have noticed how well it steers through corners at speed.