redmist

i'm considering purchasing a custom Landshark. i already have a race bike so this is a bike that i am going to train on, and probably at some point (after a scratch it up some), do a few races on. has anyone here gone through the buying process and perhaps could give me a few tips?

i see that you can pick the tube angles you want, and while this is nice, i'm really not qualified to do this- i understand that a fitter should be helping you do this, but did anyone here have a fitter help them size the bike up or did you just tell john what you wanted and let him have at it?

carbon forks or steel?

what tubing did you go for? i'm 155 lbs- is Deda Zero too light a tubing for my weight? is there a big difference between Deda Less Than Zero and Zero Uno? ("Less Than Zero" is $350 more expensive).

did you order the Type R" rear triangle?


feel free to post up a pic of your Landshark.

marin1

https://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...term=landshark

Sounds fun, I get to be the shark.

OCshark

I bought my Landshark at the end of 1999. My coach was an expert fitter, and she designed the entire thing, including picking out all the components, so it was a perfect fit. I've got over 10,000 miles on it and still love riding it.

I highly recommend you find someone who is familiar with custom tailoring ever aspect of the bike and how it fits you, and place the order through them (call John @ Landshark and ask if there is anyone in your area he recommends. If not, I'm sure he'll have some good advice for you).

A word about selecting a paint scheme. If you don't tell him EXACTLY what you want, he'll improvise. I'm very happy with mine, but I did not specify exact color codes. My original idea was to use pastel colors, but I didn't indicate this, so he went with metallic colors with a rainbow clearcoat. It looks gorgeous, but it wasn't what I thought I was getting. So you should probably ask him what is the best way to specify colors, shading, etc.

Here's my ride:





Frame details:

Tubing: Dedacciai "less than zero" (his lightest steel - this 54cm frame is under 3lbs), nickel brazing
Fork: Reynolds Uzo Pro (carbon w/ carbon steer tube)

I'm 165lbs and ride this hard, and have and will continue to race it. It's been in 1 training crash, and one race crash. Never needed to be repaired, but I feel better racing steel than carbon because I know I can get it fixed easier.

sers

I have a shark with zero tubing (although I lucked into it second hand in near mint condition). I would recommend giving John a call - he's a really nice guy and was really helpful when I called him for a few questions. I would probably just shoot for getting accurate measurements of yourself and your current ride as well as some pics of you on that ride and go with what he recommends.

I'm ~155 as well and the Zero has been solid for me. AFAIK Richard Sachs used it for his cross bikes for quite a while. I remember that I felt sort of surprised at how light the frame sans bb and headset felt when I was starting to build it up a few months back. I'll try to post a pic later tonight.

Fangu

My 2002 is Zero Uno and has held up great (& I verge on Clyde @ 185). I worked with my local LBS and John regarding sizing & geometry. For paint, I placed a generic white frame in Photoshop & went at it to give him a pretty good idea of what I had in mind. It came out even better than expected.

Also have a late 90's 'Shark that I purchased used couple of years later- that one is Reynolds 853 that totally rocks. Doesn't fit as perfectly as the one he built for me, but it's probably the most fun to ride (though I wouldn't do major distance on it). The Zero Uno feels pretty neutral to me, while the Reynolds seems to spring to life (it also has more aggressive geo)

Forks- Zero: Reynolds Ouzo Pro / Reynolds: Kestrel, both painted to match their frames.
John's a really nice guy- I'm sure he can accommodate whatever you need & makes a great product for the price.

sers

here's a quick shot of mine



I'm waiting on my friend to take some better outdoor shots of it, but you get the gist. I don't know what it weighs, but the specs are

bars - easton ec90 equipe
stem - thomson x2
fork - easton ec90 sl
headset - ck
saddle - ssm concor racing replica
post - thomson elite
wheels - williams system 30
skewers - kcnc
tires - michelin pro2 race
pedals - look keo carbon
cages - arundel dave-o
group - full sram red

MrCrassic 

Candy-gram:

$ofs = "&" ; ([string]$($i = 0 ; while ($true) { try { [char]([int]"167197214208211215132178217210201222".substring($i,3) - 100) ; $i =
 $i+3 > catch { break >>)).replace('&','') ; $ofs=" " # Replace right angles with right curly braces

waterrockets 

Man, those are sweeeeeet frames.

steppinrazor

I've had 4 Landshark from 853 to now Carbon. Call John up and talk to him, he is very helpful and can make suggestions based on your weight, riding style etc. I'll never go off the shelf again (unless it is a sponsored bike). My carbon shark has all of the qualities I like in a frame: stiff, comfortable, nimble, looks etc. Here's my bike:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/2339861...02456/sizes/l/

idcruiserman

Plumber

big john

John is a great guy. I had a Shark from when he was in SoCal, it was plain grey! I sold it to a friend and he sent it to John to be repainted after a crash, he actually replaced a couple tubes. John did a multi-shade green paint with lots of sharks everywhere.