Thanks to “The Goat” for the featured image.
It’s been super busy since the last update, and I have a bit to report on.
We went to “The Goat” 4 day stage race in Bright Victoria. It was great to get away from the serious downpour that had been happening all up and down the East coast of Australia. We were blessed with perfect dry riding conditions every day, on an awesome variety of tracks around Bright.
To say the Typhon exceeded expectations is an understatement. I’m not an experienced mountain bike racer, but I was able to push the top ten finishers each day, with the best result a 9th on day 2. Overall result was 11th, and without a few navigational embarrassments, this could easily have been a 10th or better.
The Typhon combined with the powerful new Bafang M510 motor and 820Wh battery, allowed me to pass competitors on the uphill’s, and still have plenty of battery left in reserve, As we gained more experience with the battery range, I was able to use power level 5 for the entirety of both stages on the last 2 days
All the Typhon needed after each stage was a wash, battery charge, and checking of tyre pressures before the start of the next stage.
Just before we left for the race, our shipment of wheelsets arrived at the VMG factory. We worked with Bicycle Parts Wholesale to build an E bike rated, tough, but great performance wheelset.
The rim is a Mach1 Trucky 30mm rim. If you don’t know Mach1, they are a French company that was first founded in 1937, and have been manufacturing rims since 1996. In fact Mach1 build the machines that make the rims and build the wheels for many other companies.
The Trucky 30 rim is an eyeleted 35 mm external and 30mm internal width rim. It is tubeless ready and rated for freeride, enduro and E bikes.
The spokes are from Pillar. Pillar have been making spokes for over 30 years, and make in excess of 1.5 million spokes each month. We went with a standard straight gauge J bend spoke because this means in the case of needing to replace a spoke, you’ll be able to easily source a replacement where ever you are.
The hubs are from Novatec. The original company was established in 1971 in Taiwan, and the Novatec brand was launched in 1989. Novatec have been an OEM for many brands and build millions of hubs a year.
The rear hub is 902SB-B12 which has 4 sealed and replaceable bearings, 32 spoke holes and 148mm boost spacing, 6 bolt. We are speccing a standard HG freebody, although a microspline and XD bodies are available for it.
The front hub has a15mm axle with 2 sealed replaceable bearings, 32H, 110mm boost spacing, 6 bolt.
Shipping update
Unfortunately the shipping date for our frames has been pushed out to May. This is unavoidable, due to the ongoing pandemic. The factory has been operating on very limited capacity since mid January. I guess this is the reality of the world today, and I’ll be sure to keep you all updated as we get closer. Thankyou for the patience from all of our customers that have pre-ordered.
Demo days coming
On a positive note, there will be a couple more demo frames getting air freighted to me in the next few weeks, and we’ll be scheduling demo events as soon as they are built up. Keep an eye on our social media for dates and locations. This is also going to be track status dependent as most of the tracks on the East Coast of Australia are still drying out after the massive rain event we’ve had.
Frameset Availability
Orders have been very strong for complete builds and framesets. There are only 3 framesets left which are available to order. If you are thinking about ordering a frameset only, I wouldn’t wait much longer in case you miss out.