Silca brand

Back by popular demand, the general all-things Road forum!

Moderator: robbosmans

Karvalo
Posts: 3441
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 6:40 pm

by Karvalo

MrMagura wrote:
Sun May 12, 2019 8:38 pm
Ended up fixing a $450 Silca SuperPista Hiro right out of the box, as they come with design flaws that makes them not work as claimed,
What specifically?

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com



MrMagura
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:38 pm

by MrMagura

Karvalo wrote:
Sun May 12, 2019 9:51 pm
MrMagura wrote:
Sun May 12, 2019 8:38 pm
Ended up fixing a $450 Silca SuperPista Hiro right out of the box, as they come with design flaws that makes them not work as claimed,
What specifically?
They had not tested the design, so the magnetic dock that initially was made for their regular presta chuck, didn't work.
The handle was full of edges that had not been deburred.
The hose was a piece of fancy looking braided brake hose, that was a unsuitable for the purpose as possible, as it's rather stiff, and can't be twisted at all, so all rotational alignment of the chuck, was done by a swivel, that also didn't make it any more useful, and as they use the schrader chuck as an adapter for the Hiro presta chuck, the chuck + adapters was brutally heavy, guaranteed to destroy anything it would get near to, in case it should pop off.
The piston had so big tolerances, that the pump would bund in the upper end of the stroke.

So I:
Machined the magnetic dock.
Machined the chuck to accept direct connection to the hose, made a regular armed rubber hose assembly.
Made a piston ring that actually fitted
Deburred the handle

....and now it works, as long as the manometer doesn't fail as well, which also seems to be an issue.
The chuck catches the dock by itself, just by putting the hose over the top of the handle, and it doesn't bind in the top of the stroke anymore.
The chuck assembly is approximately half the initial weight, and the hose is easy to work with.
So far I haven't tested the precision of the manometer, but that's to come.

User avatar
petert123
Posts: 90
Joined: Tue Nov 13, 2018 1:02 pm
Location: London, UK

by petert123

I echo many comments about Silca, in this and other threads, might seem more expensive but the pumps in particular last, plus you can get spares.

I recently serviced my 30-year Silca pump with new rubber washer, hose etc.. and it's as good as it ever was.

When I purchased the pump all those years ago I'd never heard of Silca, it just seemed well made, it probably was a little dearer than what was also in the shop at the time (I don't remember) - it's one of those happy accidents that I picked-up a good one.

mattr
Posts: 4671
Joined: Fri May 25, 2007 6:43 pm
Location: The Grim North.

by mattr

It's a completely different company, in a completely different country. THe only common thing is the name.

MikeD
Posts: 1000
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2014 9:55 pm

by MikeD

mattr wrote:It's a completely different company, in a completely different country. THe only common thing is the name.
Yet don't they still support the old product? Aren't seals/gaskets still available? The push on chuck now has a replacement gasket that is made of a more durable rubber.

mattr
Posts: 4671
Joined: Fri May 25, 2007 6:43 pm
Location: The Grim North.

by mattr

No idea. IIRC, the current owner bought the whole lot from the previous owner, so i'd guess they still have the inventory, molds etc etc
My Silca was binned after a couple of decades service and replaced with a rennkompressor.
Not because i couldn't get spares, or it didn't work, but because it looked like it'd been in a serious accident. Several serious accidents.

1415chris
Posts: 1433
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 8:59 am
Location: Surrey UK

by 1415chris

I have never had experience with Silca pumps, neither the new or old. But I have couple of small things from them and find them very well though through products. Take their rubberised valve extenders, speedshield and speed balance, and I really like their Hiro chuck, which I use with Lezyne CNC pump.
But I can understand that when something sucks, it just sucks ;)

MrMagura
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:38 pm

by MrMagura

The Hiro chuck is a copy of the Hirame, just more expensive, and less user friendly.
As for the rest, that they have a couple of periferic products that are fine, does not make up for screwing over people.

joshatsilca
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2019 4:52 pm

by joshatsilca

I'll jump in here with a few things.
First, we are guilty of offending MrMagura on a previous thread where he had an issue and my comments made it sound like 'user error' rather than an issue with the product. We honestly are not 100% sure what the core issue was, but MrMagura has modified his pump to his preferences and I'm anxious to learn more. In the mean time, he is clearly unhappy with our brand and service and we are working to understand how we could have communicated more effectively. This is in no way the norm for our brand and we are working hard to ensure that we continue to grow and do better every day.

Now, history of the new SILCA. The old SILCA died officially in 2013, but the death started in 1999 with the EU and the Euro. The strength of Italian cycling had always been the very cheap currently with made Italian items very affordable to import for the rest of the world, particularly into the US. With the move to the Euro Italy saw massive inflation over a 2 year period which made it very hard to export, similiarly Chinca joined the WTO around this time and the global pump and tool market began to consolidate to just a few factories in China by the mid 2000's..

I was the original technical director for Zipp wheels during this time and knew Claudio, the owner of SILCA very well.. we sold Zipp to SRAM in 2008 and in 2013 I heard from Claudio that SILCA was bankrupt, was being taken over the by the Italian governmnet and that he had terminal cancer. Not wanting the brand to die, and thinking that we could do some really cool product, I left my SRAM/Zipp life and went to Italy to buy the company, only to find that there really wasn't anything left other than the trademark. So I bought the trademark and in December 2013 started with a new laptop and a trademark. Since then we've engnineered and tooled replacement parts for ~90% of SILCA wear parts and have designed new products to use these parts, the upside being that you can put a modern gasket in a 40 year old pump and have it work better than new!

We stabilized the supply chain, buying leather washers and brass components from the same Italian vendors that SILCA had since the 1940's.. we also designed all new pumps around these parts, first the Ultimate pump and now a host of others, many of which are manufactured or assembled in the US. Of course, along the way we've made mistakes, we try not to, but when you innovate it happens.. we had the option to take the brand to one of the 2 companies that make all the brands or do it ourselves and we did it ourselves which is not the cheapest or easiest path, but allows for the fastest and broadest innovation. For 99% of our customers, this has been a win and for some others like MrMagura we clearly could have, should have done better. Ultimately, we make polarizing products.. we are innovative and expensive, but in just 4 years have really moved markets in some notable ways while also contributing considerably to the technical education side of things wth the SILCA blog and MarginalGainsPodcast. We are now consultants to half the ProTour teams, most all the hour record attempts, work with a number of the tire manufacturers to help teams develop better tire and pressure strategies, innovated the category of portable torque which has now been widely copied and we try to communicate with our customers on forums like this one as we find real value in it despite the occassional difficulty.

Any questions, please let me know
Josh
Owner of SILCA
Check out my Tech Blog: https://blog.silca.cc
Stories of the Tech behind the Tech: https://marginalgainspodcast.cc

iheartbianchi
Posts: 680
Joined: Sun Mar 24, 2019 9:17 am

by iheartbianchi

joshatsilca wrote:
Tue May 14, 2019 4:36 am
I'll jump in here with a few things.
Hey Josh,

That's a very interesting (and touching) story about how you ended up taking over SILCA and saving the brand. Been a long-time roadie and love all things Italian, despite their quirks and the pain in the *** factor :P

I'm stuck out here in Korea for the time being, but if it makes you feel any better SILCA has a stellar reputation out here as a premium (well more luxury) maker of tools and accessories. Myself and a couple of others exclusively carry around the SILCA T-ratchet / torque kit which I carry around in my SILCA folding pouch, which, while expensive, always draws a crowd when I pull it out to adjust things on my bike! The SILCA co2 nozzle is also really cool.

Sorry all for plugging this product, but this, along with some really cool cycling socks, have been my best cycling related purchase (bar none) in the past 2 years. It's just so much more convenient than carrying around a standard folding tool (without torque) or a mini-torque wrench (without the ratchet). Only downside is, it doesn't accomodate a large enough nut to remove a road pedal (not that you'd really need it on the road, but when I transport my bike by car I always remove the pedals).

https://www.bikeradar.com/news/silca-t- ... -hands-on/


I don't want to get into the floor pump debate, but I do hope you sort those issues out.

Best of luck and I hope you continue to make great products.
Bianchi Oltre XR4
Celeste Matte
Campy SR 11spd mechanical
Bora Ultra 50 tubs
Viseon 5D / stock bits and parts

Bianchi Specialissima Pantani Edition
Campy R 12spd mechanical
Fulcrum Racing Speed 35 tubs
FSA / Deda bits and parts

AnkitS
Posts: 1456
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:03 am
Location: Santa Cruz, CA

by AnkitS

joshatsilca wrote:
Tue May 14, 2019 4:36 am
Any questions, please let me know
Hey Josh,
Why were the blog posts about the 105% rule and tire pressures taken down off of your website?
Also, is the silica latex tube actually just a rebranded Vittoria like some claim it to be?

1415chris
Posts: 1433
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 8:59 am
Location: Surrey UK

by 1415chris

Silca has aluminium valve vs brass on Vittoria inner tube. I'm not sure if there is any difference in latex composition.

MrMagura
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:38 pm

by MrMagura

joshatsilca wrote:
Tue May 14, 2019 4:36 am
I'll jump in here with a few things.
First, we are guilty of offending MrMagura on a previous thread where he had an issue and my comments made it sound like 'user error' rather than an issue with the product. We honestly are not 100% sure what the core issue was, but MrMagura has modified his pump to his preferences and I'm anxious to learn more. In the mean time, he is clearly unhappy with our brand and service and we are working to understand how we could have communicated more effectively. This is in no way the norm for our brand and we are working hard to ensure that we continue to grow and do better every day.

Any questions, please let me know
Josh
Feel free to post the video I sent your support here, and see if you can find anybody who would support that it's working as advertised.
I can't repeat the setup, as I gave the hose away, so requests for different angles, light, and so forth, sorry.

This was just one of the issues, but that it's binding in the top of the stroke, due to piston tolerances, others have reported as well.
That you can't twist the hose, and have to rely on swivels that turn poorly (pretty much all pneumatic swivels turn poorlu, so not a Silca manufacturing issue, but a design flaw), making it slow and cumbersome to work with.
Leaving sharp edges on the handle, I think you can have a walk to your warehose, and confirm by yourself.

If anybody in my organisation had spent 18 month on testing, and brought something like that to the market, he'd get an interview withiout coffee.

As I stated earlier, free R&D is not much to my liking, but feel free to make me an offer, and I'll show you how to make your product work.

User avatar
nickf
Posts: 1427
Joined: Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:34 pm

by nickf

icantaffordcycling wrote:
Tue May 14, 2019 5:29 am
joshatsilca wrote:
Tue May 14, 2019 4:36 am
Any questions, please let me know
Hey Josh,
Why were the blog posts about the 105% rule and tire pressures taken down off of your website?
Also, is the silica latex tube actually just a rebranded Vittoria like some claim it to be?
From their website.

"SILCA has partnered with Vittoria to create the highest quality, lowest rolling resistance, finest riding inner tube, sized for modern clincher tire setups."

joshatsilca
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2019 4:52 pm

by joshatsilca

nickf wrote:
Tue May 14, 2019 1:57 pm
icantaffordcycling wrote:
Tue May 14, 2019 5:29 am
joshatsilca wrote:
Tue May 14, 2019 4:36 am
Any questions, please let me know
Hey Josh,
Why were the blog posts about the 105% rule and tire pressures taken down off of your website?
Also, is the silica latex tube actually just a rebranded Vittoria like some claim it to be?
From their website.

"SILCA has partnered with Vittoria to create the highest quality, lowest rolling resistance, finest riding inner tube, sized for modern clincher tire setups."
Vittoria makes the tubes using our aluminum valve stems at 42mm length. The vittoria latex is by far the class of the field today, especially now that it has some graphene in it and loses air at a fraction the rate of previous tubes of this type.
Owner of SILCA
Check out my Tech Blog: https://blog.silca.cc
Stories of the Tech behind the Tech: https://marginalgainspodcast.cc

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com



Post Reply