Falco Bike Design Diary -- jersey and bibs out...

[elviento]

Here is my second Falco bike, proto-2.

As promised, I made the following changes:

1. went UD;
2. got some graphics;
3. revised the brake cable exit;

I did the graphics myself, and had the decals printed out. These are the thin type decals that need some low weight baking at 80 degrees. One hickup was the trouble I had finding the color I wanted. Nobody seemed to make RGB 0:255:255 (a bright turquoise). The closest printing color apparently is Pantone 306, which turned out not too bad I suppose.

The weight:
Frame is about 35g heavier than Proto-1 at around 930g. Total bike weight is at 13lbs w/o pedals. OK for now.

The ride:
Brake cable works flawlessly now. Ride is very nice just like the first one. I have been trying to make up my mind on the amount of compliance in the fork. While a comfortable ride is tempting, I still miss the super solid feel of a VXRS fork. Therefore, I am sending the fork mould back with a slightly wider crown and less curve in the fork legs, which based on my calculations should stiffen the fork noticeably. Fingers crossed. Weight penalty should be around 15g but I am OK with that.

Testing:
Testing was done a few weeks back. We used the usual EN standards plus 20% in most cases. The fatigue test was done at double the EN standard. The numbers are generally in line with the past models built in this factory. I went a bit too far on the asymmetric left stay, which is slightly on the mushy side. Hence some tweaks in the mould will be in order.

As I said before, if I liked the bike I will consider making this commercial and let more people ride it. Well, suffice to say that I have gotten a lot of encouragements in the past couple of months so I will do it. I sent the moderators an email asking whether this is permitted but haven't heard back.

A lot of other things happened in the interim, but so much for words, here are the pics.

[jamr1]

Great job and a great read!
After all of this work, time, money, etc. why would you not sell it. Added pleasure and satisfaction seeing something you worked hard at being enjoyed by others. And of coarse profits to offset costs.

Unfortunately, unless you spend more $ for new molds you have only the 53cm to offer.
So, sell a lot of 53's and put the $ back into the project for more molds.

[Fourthbook]

Congrats Binny! Making great progress. I'd love to see more detailed pics when you get the chance. (For some reason unknown to technophobic me the color of the current pics comes thru badly distorted). I'm especially interested in how you've handled the cable routing...

Cheers,

John

[lcoolb]

Congrats on the new improved prototype. Bit difficult to judge how it looks, somehow your pics show up color inverted. Can you try to post them again please?

[elviento]

Some more pics snapped in my living room using some cheapo ebay level lights etc. Enjoy

[elviento]

Here is a side shot with chain in the big ring.

Problems I have with this include:

1. A rip in the saddle -- easily solved but a bigger issue is the topper clamps need to accommodate carbon saddle rails;
2. 400g pedals, ouch!!!
3. Rear shifting cable at the RD needs to be 20mm longer. Pretty silly mistake to cut it short. But I ran out of Campy cables that night (need to get some monster rolls from Gore);
4. Still need to plug the cavity which was left there for Di2;
5. wheel change is a bit finicky, espcially if you run 25mm tires;
6. Athena front der -- mostly weight and cosmetics. Works flawlessly;
7. Misplaced my little bag of cable end caps. So not a very pro installation job;
8. Graphics still have some inconsistencies due to the improvisation of the painter (blue strip ends on seatstay are square but on chainstays are round);
9. downtube may not be the best location for the Falco Head sticker.

Harsh critiques and constructive suggestions (or shameless compliments:-)) welcome.

[HarryS]

I applaud your effort and love the documentation of the process, but I hate the graphics. The cheesy font really undermines all the hard work you've spent on the frame.

I think one of the best things about a custom frame would be the ability to have it devoid of any advertising.

[elviento]

No worries on the front der. I am still doing fatigue tests and impact tests on new ones from the revised moulds. So I just threw on the frame whatever I had handy.

As for advertising, it's for myself so I will be OK with that. As for the Bora and Deda letters, ... i guess they are Deda and Campy's graphics. Re the graphics, I thought white on black is generally considered a classic and not a very flamboyant scheme to begin with?

[grnrcr]

Hate to sound harsh but your font choice is really bad. Cheap looking to say the least. Hire a graphic designer then you will see demand soar. I love all the features on this frame, but the graphics seriously made me cringe.

[elviento]

No worries on the harshness. Criticism leads to improvement and it often takes a lot of character to say that. Thanks for your thought just the same.

Hate to sound harsh but your font choice is really bad. Cheap looking to say the least. Hire a graphic designer then you will see demand soar. I love all the features on this frame, but the graphics seriously made me cringe.

[Fourthbook]

Can you elaborate a bit on the internal cable routing: cost, weight, shifting/braking performance, maintenance/replacement of cables implications as well as any effect on structural integrity of the frame caused by the various routing holes?

How is your topper working versus off-the-shelf versions (Tune, Woodman, etc.)?

I echo the dislike of the graphics. Maybe pick a frame w/graphics you most admire and pattern yours after it...

[BrianAllan]

Harsh critiques and constructive suggestions (or shameless compliments:-)) welcome.

First of all, this is such an interesting project. Keep up the good work. Please don't let me comments detract from the work you've done so far:

The graphics package is absolutely hideous. The words strewn across the tubes don't make sense. Hideous font aside, I understand your use of "Falco". I'm actually a big fan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVikZ8Oe_XA&ob=av2e

But SPIKE and PEREGRINE as well? It doesn't "read". I have to turn my head sideway sjust to read PEREGRINE - a word that doesn't exactly roll of the tongue. You have 3 words on the bike that are all competing for attention, not to mention the BORA logos on the wheels. It's to much contrast.

From an aesthetics stand-point I'm just confused. you've spent countless hours obsessing over the design of this bike in terms of its materials, construction, aero-dynamics. But then it looks like you opened MS paint and found a font on par with Comic Sans for your graphics.

I'd be happy to help you design something else, or refer you or something. I just can't appreciate your design anymore because i can't see past those graphics. Sorry to be so blunt!

[cmdr199212]

f'n beautiful. the headtube looks.. odd. I guess its the little bulge for the di2 holes (?)

[mrfish]

Agree re. decals. Some ideas:

Maybe try a simpler blocky sans serif font a bit like Pinarello's or Baum's. I like the blue stripes. Also think about pointy ends. Maybe some more of those? or maybe some contrasting orange a la Gulf racing colours? You could also try white if you don't like orange.

Then if you must put 'Peregrine' on the bike, put it in small letters in a contrasting script font like on the Bike Tart's Baum, or in the same Pinarello type font.

And if you must put something on the fork, maybe copy the 1980s style Columbus vertical oval with cut out letters so that you see the letters down the fork from the front. That might look good with a blue oval, or use really small blue letters and put the name across the crown.

I'm sure the next iteration will be an improvement. Just steer clear of the Colnago C59 where they spoil a very nice and classy colour scheme by adding that horrible headset system sticker on the top tube. Simpler = better!

[prendrefeu]

Hire a graphic designer.