Friday, January 30, 2009

Dah Shinin'

I'm pretty late to the game on this, but it's pretty awesome that Profile has been posting those "How This Is Made" entries. The newest is on the Gas pedals, which might confuse some people since they're not poured into a mold. ("Wait, you can make pedals out of METAL?") It at least gives you some idea why they're so expensive.

It's good to see how bikes and bike parts are made. FBM has been particularly great at posting photos of the production process. They're proud of what they do, and rightly so. And it just feels better when you can see a frame before its been painted and stickered. Even if you can't see anything specific.

I'd give almost anything for several other brands to post similar blog entries: "Here we are poring over the latest Taiwanese catalog. Here we are picking our next line. Here we are calling the factory to finalize our choices. Here we are vociferously discussing the new hot 'colorways'."

•••••••••••••

What is this, the '90s? The '80s?

A couple days ago I saw this Nigel Sylvester bike check. Chrome rims, bars, forks. OK. Taking that whole "shinin'" thing a bit too literally, but hey. Why not? After all, Hanson Little already had the full-chrome Mystic setup—which he told me he'd send a photo of a long time ago. Lies!

Then today I saw this:


Yep, that's a fully chromed Kink Farside, complete with skinwall tires.

A long time ago, a chrome bike was as pro as it got. I'm talking back in the mid-'80s. Then after a while it was all a bit too much—for department-store bikes only. Then you couldn't even GET chrome. It was bad for the environment, bad for the metal, bad for the eyes.

Guess we've come full circle.

Again.

•••••••••••••


52 comments:

J Reid said...

I won't front. I Love the chrome.

Anonymous said...

I like the look of chrome...as long as it's not the entire bike, then it just looks bad in my opinion. I am tempted to polish my hubs and rebuild my wheels with stainless spokes though...

J Reid said...

I don't like the skinwalls.
to whom does this bike belong?

Anonymous said...

I love snafu!

Anonymous said...

Profile is shit. Their cranks design stayed as shit as it ever was like 3o years ago save from some small shitty 'improvements' here and there.

It took them more than 2 decades to come up with something as stupidly obvious the flush bolts.

The 48 splined system is a FLAWED design. That is why other cranks have pinchbolts, to compensate for the tolerance needed when you put the crank arms on. The Twombolt's patented design also is an innovation that solves this problem

I am sure Profile use trained chimpanzees as their engineers/designers because all of their products are CRAP, EXPENSIVE, SHINY PIECES OF SHIT.

Odyssey/G-SPOrT > profile.

Anonymous said...

hi my name is jasper i'm from michigan thats my chrome bike you can look at some better pics of it at http://bmxmuseum.com/ thanks i had to stript some parts with oven clean and polish them cause no one sold polished.

Anonymous said...

Those are Odyssey Tanwalls Russ!!!

Calling them skinwalls would be an insult, haha.

-Nuno

Anonymous said...

I'm actually more of a "gum wall" man myself.

Anonymous said...

Those fork legs on nigel's ride look so damn skinny, are they really mirracos?

Anonymous said...

http://i41.tinypic.com/30126x5.jpg

Should've posted this on the one about the Snafu sprocket, but nobody would see it there...

nate said...

I'd lie if I said I wasn't physically arroused when I saw that chrome bike. Sometimes I miss the chrome, but sometimes I don't. But the point is that you go so long without seeing something like that and it kind of takes your breath away for a second.

Then again, I'm old and curmudgeonly. So don't listen to anything I have to say.

Russ said...

skinwalls > tanwalls

I have a skinwall Comp III on the front of my Trail Boss, and it's the best tire ever.

(Sorry, Nuno.)

Anonymous said...

Is that a senior pivotal on the kink? Looks gross enough to be...

Unknown said...

Yeah Wombolts are way better than Profiles, unless you ride BMX bikes. But outside of that yeah wombolts all the way. I definitely see how splines are flawed too, you should call every auto maker in the last 100 years and tell them to use pinchbolts on a 4 sided axle to drive the car.

Anonymous said...

It works on cars-great, good for them..I had 2 sets of profiles both sets got loose every day and 1 got so bad the arm started slipping around the spindle..

Anonymous said...

tube(dot)spacer(dot)com

The "problem" with wombolts is almost always because the person set them up wrong.

The same can be said about profiles or any other splined crank. The tube spacer is there for a (very simple if you have a brain) reason.

What reason is that? To prevent the wobble that develops when they can't be tightened all the way.

Still having a problem? Kill yourself.

Anonymous said...

I had the tube spacer in there..I had an ample amount of arm on the spindle,they were greased,I had threadlock on the bolts..I still had to carry a wrench with me to ride..

I no longer have a problem-because I now have cranks with pinchbolts.They dont even get loose.ever.fuck splines..

Anonymous said...

*Thes problems have been solved by Wombolts and Hollowbites as the sides of the spindle and sprocket bosses hole are machined post heat treated/welded/forged and are nicely butted against the sprocket surface to avoid any chain/sprocket alignment*

And good luck in finding the right thickness of spacers to solve these problems on Profile cranks.

Kids these days are too idiotic to see how shitty their expensive shite bikes are. Throw yourselves into a very deep pit.

Anonymous said...

Anybody feel like trading me some Twombolts for my Profiles? I hate running Profile cranks...

Anonymous said...

yo, is the dude seriously comparing wombolts to profiles?

really?

obviously i cant use my limited sample size of experience to represent all of bmx. but 5 people snapping wombolts and know of firsthand of many others who did the same means im never buying them.

profiles are too expensive however. and that bolt gets squeezed when you fuck up grinds.

powerbites all the way.

Anonymous said...

if any of you retards have a problem with your Profile cranks it is most certainly user-error. Take your bike to a bike shop so a professional can set it up correctly.

And here is a bit of reasoning behind the 30yr history of their splined bb. IT WORKS!

Anonymous said...

i've ran five or six sets of profiles over the years and i never had "profile wobble". i replace them when i give an old pair away, if i want a new color or something. the only people i've ever seen bitch about "profile wobble" are the ones who really don't know what they are doing. the tube spacer makes a huge difference...and you're doing something wrong if it "gets all fucked up"...as for flush bolts, who needs them? they just look smoother.

Anonymous said...

They also make it possible to remove the bolt after you hit the arm on something. You know, when you actually ride them?

Anonymous said...

oh piss off, the lot of you.

Anonymous said...

on another note, i just got undian for my last verification word, and login for this one. wild

Unknown said...

Wombolts went what, 6 months before needing a redesign because half of them broke? Profiles are on 30 years now? Powerbites creak like an old door, other than that I suppose they are ok. I'm sure Wombolts are great if you are 110 pounds and only ride foot tall ledges and 5 foot mini ramps, but those of us who actually ride will stick with our profiles.

Anonymous said...

it's interesting that given the current trend toward being "green" that chrome plate in bmx is making a comeback.
the chrome itself isn't bad it's the baths of hexavalent chromic acid and the improper disposal or spills that is such bad news.
and for old guys it brings back bad memories of trying to spray paint on top of chrome, since it seemed like chrome was the only option for a period of time. at least in the midwest...

Anonymous said...

if we all listed the cranks we've seen snap due to whatever, we would be reading all day. the only cranks i have ever broken was the shadow torrid crank, the the crank arm like..sheard in half, in the middle of the arm.

but i have never installed a crank improperly. or used hammers.
nor have i ever owned a set of profiles, or wombolts, and i never will.

Anonymous said...

The problem with Profile cranks and every crank like that is that it relies on just the crank bolts to hold the arms in place side-to-side and up-and-down. it's really too much to ask two 10mm bolts to do. The up-and-down forces from landing jumps and just pedaling are going to loosen the crank bolts unless they are torqued down and loc-tited. If the bottom bracket is not spaced properly this puts a side-load on the bearings as well.

With a pinch bolt setup the crank bolts simply keep everything located and the pinch bolts do all the holding work, and any sliding fit tolerance is taken up by tightening the pinch bolt.

The 48 spline setup would work better and not eventually wear out if it were a press-fit. You'd use the bolt to press the arm on and use a crank-puller to take it off.

The reason 48 splines work in automotive applications is because they are not recieving abrupt torsional loads in both directions. There is usually just continous power in one direction, the spline interface is not being rocked back and forth. This is why Profile cranks loosen up and eventually become un-useable, that and owners too lazy to tighten them up on a regular basis.

bk said...

owned a few sets of profiles, installed correctly, blah blah. always get the wobble after a few months.

broke wombolts, what else is new.

primo has always done me well, but solid bitch cranks are next on my list.

Anonymous said...

My Profiles were used for quite a while before I got them about 5 months ago. Still no wobble and they seem fine, I just don't like them. They flex (I have a ding in my CS from that...) and the spindle bosses aren't thick enough around the bolt heads. The left one got bashed in by the last owner. I had to file that, file the washer, then hammer in the washer so I could use flush bolts.

Anonymous said...

my promise still stands russ: you will see more of the chrome mystic this year than you ever wanted. i'm sorry i don't have any photos of the bike on it's own right now, but hopefully by summer i'll have provided enough evidence to win your forgiveness.

keep calling me out if you must, i can stand the heat!

Anonymous said...

They flex (I have a ding in my CS from that...)

Wrong cranks for you, then. Run squarer arms -- and shorter, if you can stand it.

I land flat a lot, always with my feet in the same position, and I found some fractures in the chrome on my Profiles from flexing the same way every time. Made me nervous. So I switched them out for some DK Social 170s -- catalog arms, I know, but it was an experiment.

I've run them for about a year now, and there's no wobble, no visible stress marks, nothing. They're surprisingly well-crafted (wraparound on both ends, burly bosses, great welds), and they're really stiff.

Try 'em. They're cheap.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous@8:33: I know they're the wrong cranks for me. I wanna get Twombolts eventually. I just can't afford to get some new cranks, hence I'm still running the Profiles. They didn't cost me much though, so I don't have a lot to complain about.

Unknown said...

Yeah why ride flexy cranks, just buy Twombolts they will just snap instead, making it easier to decide when to replace them. If I didn't happen to have profiles I got a few years ago and was in the market, I would probably go for either the Eclats or Solids, why would you bother with anything else?

Anonymous said...

Beau: I'd go with the Eclats if I knew that they had a warranty. I can't seem to find out whether they do or not. I sure as hell am not spending $180 on cranks without knowing if they have a warranty.

Anonymous said...

your clothes, give them to me.

Anonymous said...

If your Profile Cranks have developed the so called "Profile Wobble", there's a simple solution, that requires a bit of simple forethought as well as actually reading the instructions that came with the cranks when you bought them.

Step 1. Save your reciept and warranty card. Put in in your top dresser drawer, for instance.

Step 2. If you notice this wobble, or you're having problems with your cranks loosening up, call Profile and arrange to exchange them.

The end result is you have a new set of arms and all it cost you was postage. The only thing Profile asks of you is proof of purchase.

Not that complicated, is it?

The fact is, modern street riding is going to damage any set of cranks eventually. Inspect your shit before you ride.

Anonymous said...

i read through the article it doesn't even mention cranks anywhere in it you people are wild so much passion over bmx cranks wow!!

Anonymous said...

I like my chrome profiles almost as much as I like chromed out bikes. That Kink would look better with gold rims, Mad Dog style.

Anonymous said...

"counter rotational loosening"

cant say ive ever heard of it

book search, google search came up with nothing mate. find me a link or explain it yourself. is that fancy term for jiggling it about and it gets loose?

quit with the appeals to authority and actually explain yourself.

youve yet to adequately explain how a design that performs well in the automotive applications is so woefully inadequate.

if you as the engineer you claim to be, looks at profiles and despairs, take the time and help your fellow bmxers and explain to us why you are right in a civil manner instead of calling us retards etc.otherwise then you clearly dont want to help us and your arguments against profiles are most likely rooted in some juvenile objection rather than intelligent engineering analysis of their design.

i simply find it hard to believe that bmx can cause parts to fail where a racing car does not?

seriously im interested in knowing. fine im a retard, but what does that make you if you really wont explain this to me, O wise one?

Unknown said...

I'm sure jumping a 4 stair is much worse than dumping a transbrake at 6,500 RPM and pulling the front end of the car 2 feet off the ground. Keep in mind that is 3 splined connections holding up in that scenario, the front of the driveshaft and either side of differential (which are normally 31-35 splines) This guy is right, the only reason profile hasn't needed to change their design in 30 years is because it is so bad, and everyone rides them for the sole reason that they can't find anything else.

Anonymous said...

Profile's biggest sin is that all their parts BUT the cranks are insanely overpriced. The cranks are pretty reasonably priced. I know people who have had the same sets for more than 10 years so the reliability isn't too much of an issue for most people.

Anyone who is really convinced that Profile is shite obviously hasn't spent time installing a 1 piece crank, bending it, then jumping down the same steps with the cranks the opposite way to bend them back. Or do a pedal picker both ways to bend them back. At 12.00 each, you could buy more than 10 pairs of Odyssey Excaliburs for what a pair of GT or Profile or Redline 3 pieces would cost you. this was a tragically common scenario bitd.

Russ said...

I went through a particularly bad summer where I broke something like three Profile arms. Having never been one to send in warranty cards, I wound up throwing them all out and getting a set of 41Thermals. Had no problem with them (except the bolts constantly got loose—like, really loose). Got Wombolts when they first came out, broke my first set like everyone else. The second pair, a set of neon yellow ones, is still going strong.

Seems to me that Profile Race cranks are better left to racers, but obviously there are a ton of people who run them with no problems.

Anonymous said...

I said got to the library. Do you really think all the published engineering literature in the world can be accessed through the Internet?

This is what I was talking about, people are too dumb and thick to think that all the world's literature can be found in Google. You are as dumb as a pile of rocks.

Find engineering books about fasteners. The last time I checked there were at least 3 engineering books that mentioned this.

Also look up on welding deformation and it affects on tolerances, HAZ,
coupling interfaces, splined interfaces and the affect of
cumulative tolerances.

I don't have to explain myself and prove to you the established science and physics of the engineering world in a copule of paragraphs if you are too dumb to open a printed book.

Why do I have to waste my time at the expense of people's ignorance?

Anonymous said...

Also you dumb fucks that spewing the more than 30 years bullshite haven't thought don't have the mental capacity to distinguish between a FLAWED design and nonfunctional design.

Read what I wrote some posts up. 1" threaded headsets were a flawed design. So they were used on bicycles for more than a hundred years, and continue to be used today even though they are crap.

So by your definition they are a competent design only because they are used for more than 100 years and millions of bicycles?

Also a lot of people are too dumbfucked to think that freestyle riders subject their cranks to forces similar to interfaces on a cars steering column and axles.

If you think that's the case, YOU'RE
DUMB.

Yeah cars jump with a long lever sticking out of their splined interfaced axle and land on ramps repeatedly and get banged from 3 to 6 feet on this lever on occasion.

YOU ARE REALLY AS DUMB A PILE OF ROCKS.

Anonymous said...

this guy above me needs a friend wow chill out bro glad you got a degree sweet but man smoke some weed and chill mud boogers use these splined axles and a steal 15x14 bart wheel with 44 inch boogers weighs a ton on top of what a booger weighs and if your telling me that you don't start and stop a hundred times with 1000 ft pounds of torque and that i put more torque than that on my cranks your crazy

G.S.GUCCILIFE said...

Anonymous above...some punctuation please!

Anonymous said...

"I said got to the library. Do you really think all the published engineering literature in the world can be accessed through the Internet?"

what so you mean my local library, which serves the needs of a normal ommunity will have an esoteric tome on engineering and google wont? engage your brain mate.

have you ever been onto google books? pretty much every recomended text will be on there.

or at least give me a name of a book so i can download it.

dont be such a condescending little shit.

Anonymous said...

Splined axles on race cars don't loosen because of the way they are attached. There's usually a castle nut, and the shaft has a hole across it for a cotter pin. If they were attached with a bolt and an aluminum washer, they would loosen up, and the splines would get chewed right before the wheel falls of. In many automotive applications the tolerance is tighter, requiring the parts to be pressed together, so this limits the ability for it to rock back and forth. Also there are spline interfaces on cars that have a pinch bolt.

Most of all forces are just not the same. Analysing this doesn't take a degree just common sense. Ther is not part of a car that is having a 150lb. load dropped on it from 3 to 10 feet, that load acting in opposite directions on one shaft and being imparted by two levers 180mm long. If something with an engineering degree does want to do a stress analysis on that scenario, I'd love to read it.

Anonymous said...

@bman
Leave google alone. It's overrated. The very first web page brought up at Ask.com was a Patentstorm.us page. And a patent to help Marine drives that have two counter-rotating surfacing propellers. I'm just going to jump in the middle here...

In one aspect of the invention, simple, effective retaining structure is provided for holding the propeller-bearing-supporting spool in the horizontal bore of the torpedo fixed for non-rotation in each of the opposite rotational directions of the counter-rotating propellers. This prevents ROTATIONAL LOOSENING of the spool in each of the rotational directions as the propellers strike and pierce the surface of the water.

I'm no engineer so I don't know for sure what the fuck it means(maybe we need a retaining bolt to go through the bottom bracket shell and into the tube spacer to keep it from turning?) , but it does exist. I'm sure you could find more at the library if you wanted.

Cars and bikes are different, their subjected forces are different, and their production tolerances are different. I sure as fuck wouldn't run a hollow 3/8th axle on my car(or on my bike, but that's not the point.)

In my opinion, Profiles are good cranks for the money and Twombolts are good if you're real smooth. I'm running a pair of 175mm Powerbites that I got used and have been running for about five years . I'd like some longer cranks, but don't have the money. So I might just run them until they break.

Anonymous said...

OK Bman. Three of the books that I want you to read that sufficiently cover this topic and for you to make a connection with Profile crank design and manufacturing derived flaws. But I doubt you would be able to.

Yes I remember the terms as I did 5 years ago. You have to read it all to come across the terms because books don't have the search button.

Selection and Use of Engineering Materials, Butterworths

Standard Handbook of Fastening and Joining, Third Edition, Parmley

Machinery's Handbook, Industrial Press

YOU MADE ME CLIMB UP MY DARK AND DUSTY SPIDER RIDDEN ATTIC WITH A TORCHLIGHT JUST SO I CAN POST IN HERE TO WRITE UP ENGINEERING BOOK TITLES AT THE EXPENSE OF YOUR INCOMPETENCE.

FUCK YOU.