June 24, 2014

On-One Pickenflick

Alright, now that I have had time to adjust position and put in some miles, I am ready to lift the curtain and reveal my new cyclocross bike, my primary race rig for the 2014 season. After spending much of last season adjusting to the BARON, I  finally decided it just wasn't the right fit for my racing needs. It was a beautiful and lightweight steel racing machine, but something about the geometry and position compared to my Independent Fabrication Planet X made for never really feeling quite right. At the end of the season I knew I would be looking for a new race machine to pilot for 2014 (and hopefully to an even better season).

As many cyclocross racers know, last year was a big revolution in the CX world as the UCI and bike manufacturers finally embraced disc brakes in a big way, and the results on disc-equipped bikes kept rolling in. I have been riding a winter/commuter with cable-driven Avid BB7 brakes for a few years, so I knew about the benefits and downsides of the systems: improved braking performance under all weather conditions, more clearance for fenders (or mud!), as well as issues like increased weight and brake noise due to the pad tolerances. The weight issue was originally a deal-breaker for me, since I (like many racers) didn't see a need for the increased brake strength. After the news of many adventurous disc-adopters having braking issues at the 2012/13 US nationals, I figured it would definitely be a few years before I would try to race on a disc setup. This all started to change right before (and during) race season in 2013. Shimano and SRAM were both launching hydraulic systems for CX use (modifying the successful systems they offer to the mountain bike crowds to work with drop-bars and road shifters). These systems would cut weight from a full-length cable-driven system and offer better modulation and rotor-pad clearance. With these changes, racers were noticing that they could brake later, and as such be faster around the course than a lighter canti-equipped bike.

Back to my bike hunt, I was now thinking that disc brakes might be an option. I began by looking into the common bikes, but after all my experience with steel bikes, I knew that I preferred that ride-quality to the harsher efficiency that I experienced with aluminum frames. Carbon bikes are definitely the best way to get a lightweight machine, and I started looking in this route. After some research and reading of reviews, I became interested in the On-One Dirty-Disco - a no-fuss frame from a company that has been doing the direct-to-customer deal for a number of years. On-One is part of the Planet-X family and distributed in the US out of Portland (something nice to know as it means they are close if I need anything). As I did more research on the bikes, I came across the blog of a Mr Alan Dorrington (CrossJunkie) who races for Planet-X/On-One over in England. Reading the blog, I came across the prototype titanium bike that On-One was developing. Immediately I became intrigued in this bike, the Pickenflick. It seemed to check all the boxes for a bike that would excel in the racing conditions we face out here in the Pacific Northwest (mud!). It features a lightweight titanium frame, massive clearance, and shaped tubing to aid in power-delivery as well as portaging.

Now that I was thoroughly interested, I began searching for more information on this machine. Due to the relatively small production run and recency of its release, there was surprisingly little online about the bike. After pouring over the CrossJunkie blog more, I reached out the the folks at Planet-X USA for more information. Brandon, their head of customer service, was great to deal with and we began discussing a custom Di2 bike they had built up for SeaOtter earlier this year. I met Brandon when they came up for the Evergreen Bike Alliance event at Duthie Hill. We talked more about the company, racing, and their line-up (which also includes Titus Titanium bikes) We hadn't finalized everything on the Pickenflick, so I couldn't ride away with it that day, however it arrived nicely boxed up just a few days later (see my earlier teaser post to see the awesome packing job).
I have now done some sizing adjustments and a few little trail rides around my house to get the bike fitted out and sort out any other quirks. While I haven't had a chance to put it through any all-out racing experience, I have laid out some power to get a feel for how the Pickenflick will handle the racing this Fall/Winter. Needless to say, I am very happy with everything. The massive chainstays transfer the power without any needless flex, though the chainstay/seatstays still absorb some of the bumps just as you expect from a steel or titanium bike. The head-tube is sculpted beautifully to handle the custom full-carbon tapered fork (which has plenty of clearance for any kind of mud I can throw at it). The top-tube is nicely ovalized to reduce pressure on your shoulder during portage (nicely tested with a few series of stairs I run up on my CX training route). The down-tube is also sculpted to enhance front-end stiffness and aid in pick-up, much like Specialized does on their Crux bikes.

The bike offers bottle mounts for 2 bottles (good for longer training rides), however it is aimed at race performance and so it skips add-ons like fender and rack mounts (who wants those on a race bike anyhow!). On-One designed the bike around a mountain bike 2x crankset, however the 36/46 on my bike fits without issue (so there is no reason to be alarmed by that notice). Mr. Dorrington said he uses the lower gearing for some of the longer trail-race events that are held in England, but some users might be interested in that gear spread to give the bike a double-duty use as a light mountain bike. Enough of me rambling on, lets check out the bike:
 Close-up of the welds (all done by hand) and the sculpted head-tube and down-tube junction.
 Clearance to spare in the rear and clean routing for the hydraulic lines.
 Sculpted head-tube and the massive clearance on the full-carbon fork.
 Good clearance around the chainstays and stiffening bridge.
 Rear brake mount and support truss to aid in braking performance of the rear end.
 Slick cable routing on the front fork keeps the lines out of harm's way.
The Shimano R785 brake/shifter features a taller body, roughly the same size as the Dura-Ace 7800 shifters (although with better ergonomics).

 Now I just need to keep riding this machine and enjoying it. The R785 Di2 Ultegra system is great (I enjoyed Di2 so much in the past that I have both of my road bikes running the 10-speed version, and so far the new 11-speed is equally amazing) and offers precision shifting without the worry about missing the timing or shifting under load. The system is coupled to Shimano's 160mm ice-tech rotors, which have proven to brake smoothly and reliably in the face of all the conditions I have put them through so far (and due to the hydraulic system, no ting-ting of rotor contact on the pads under hard sprinting or climbing). My bike is rolling on a set of DT Swiss 29er wheels, and though they are a tad overbuilt for CX racing, they are very stiff and responsive, allowing quick acceleration and steering response. I plan to put more miles on this machine quickly and should have a nice follow-up before CX season, but right now I see no reason to not grab one of these immediately if you are looking for a new race machine for the years ahead.

2 comments:

crossjunkie said...

Only just came across your write up - glad the blog info was of some use. Still loving my Pickenflick and looking forward to some of those long trail rides you mentioned now the cx season is almost done here. Alan

Unknown said...

Tried to fit the new ultegra r8000 crank. Ive had major chainline issues,the chain hits the crank arms. What crank are you using?