burritogod

Has anyone heard of this company before? I am looking to get a new bike, preferably single speed, and I stumbled across their site.

I know I want a steel frame (check) but I would like to see what more learned bikers on this forum have to say. According to the "about" page: "The frame for the bike is built by a leading frame manufacturing company renowned for their steel frames who produce frames for many major bicycle companies."

So has anyone seen these? Ridden one? Spots anything pro/con in the images? I posted earlier in this forum about seeking a simple, relatively inexpensive commuter and this thing seems to fit the bill.

Wisdom of the biking crowd, do your thing!

Thanks in advance.

AEO

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...&highlight=oso

I wouldn't say it's a bad bike, but adding a front caliper brake would be the first thing I'd do with it...

Winter76

That's got to be the worst sales video I've ever seen.

burritogod

My thoughts exactly! I emailed Shane and asked him if he would be willing to put one on pre-ship. If not, I can always take it down to Palo Alto Bicycles and have them work it on for me.

philkratz

here are some pics of my oso bike. I would just like to say I'm SUPER pleased with mine all the components are good quality and it's a very fun bike to ride. It's super light weight also. You will see in the pics that i changed the cranks to a silver set which i personally like better than the black ones. but nothing needs to be changed on this bike out of the box. just minor adjustments which is normal on any bike right out of a box. this is a great bike for any one who just wants to zip around town or ride some serious distance. it's very versatile and low mantenence. Most importantly FUN!

astroman

there's a review on bike commuter or commute by bike, one of them...

metalchef87

bikecommuters.com has a review of the bike...they liked it for the most part, but it definitely has its flaws....starting with the ******** sales video!

Big_e

I must say, I like the looks of it. Thanks for posting that website burritogod and thanks AEO for posting that old thread. I'll have to order one to add to my stable. I've kinda-halfway been looking at single speeds and this may be it.
Ernest

JimJimex

+1

From the coasting action in the video, it's not a fixie but a single speed freewheel.
and Freewheel + No Brake? what was the designer thinking?!! or are they trying to cut cost?

AEO

it's a coaster brake for the rear.
but no matter how strong the rear brake is, all the stopping power comes from a front brake

joninkrakow

Not when ya ain't got one. ;-)

My personal curiosity is can one put an IGH on this guy. :-D

-Jon

paulwwalters

It looks like a good candidate for an IGH and roller brake rear, with a caliper on the front. You'd have to get the shifter on somehow.

laredoshane

You can add a Tectro front brake to the Osobike for an additional $38. The best place to buy an Osobike is on Ebay.

laredoshane

The "flaws" discussed on bike commuter are all unfounded. The biggest flaw acording to them is that the chain is out of alignment. I have shown the bike to several bike dealars and they all say the chain looks fine. I have the bike they tested and just rode it 15 miles this morning. The chain is fine. Of all the bikes I have sold so far, nobody as every reported a chain comming off, or any problems with the chain. Also the chain is a KMC model z-51RB. The RB stands for rust buster, which means it doesn't rust.

shelato12771

Several bike dealers; care to name any? Did any of them measure anything on the bike? The bike's been out for less than a year; nobody's had any problems YET. More simply put, please answer the following question:

The chainline on an OSO Bike is off by 9.5 mm - True or False?

Assume that there are only two possible answers; one is "True," and the other is "False."

Doing a conversion and accepting the risks involved with such a deviation on your own machine is one thing; selling a new bike with that kind of a chainline deviation is charlatanistic. Mind you, I am READY AND WAITING to LOVE the idea of the OSO Bike. Please tell me (and everyone) that the answer to the above question is "False." If the chainline really is that far off, you owe it to your potential customers to open up each of your boxes from Taiwan and deal with those BBs individually before sending them off to people. Or at least knock the price of a new BB + installation off the cost of the bike.

laredoshane

True, the one I measured with a measuring tape was off about 9mm. When you change gears on a bike with gears the chain is off by more than that. That amounts to being off by about one degree, or less than the width of your little finger over a distance of about 16 inches. Note that chain sproket teeth are ground of at angles on both sides. This is to accomodate the chain hitting the sprokets at angles that are slightly off from 90 degrees. Note also that bike chains have give in them from side to side. So although it would have been better for the chain to be dead on center, it is no big deal if it is off slightly. As far as I can guess, and from what people have told me it means that the chain will wear out faster. Maybe it will last 9000 miles instead of 1000 miles. I tried to find some test results of chain lifes at different angles but I couldn't find any, and there may not be any. So the idea that the chian will wear out faster is just speculation.

The people I have pointed this out to that say it is fine are:
Mike, owner of Probike in Laredo,
Augie, co owner of Cylomania in Laredo,
Bernie, co owner of Cylomania in Laredo.
Flora, representative from Maxway Cycles in Taiwan.

So this is my Yes/No question to you Shelato12771: Do you have any test results on how fast a bike chain will wear out when it is off by one degree vs. one that is dead on?

Shane

rotharpunc

whether its true or not, people WANT a straight chainline, even if its not really a big deal, because its what they have been told they are supposed to have on a single speed bike. If its fact or myth that it causes premature wear, I do not know. I do know on a fixed gear a chainline off by 1 degree can cause you to loose the chain, but that isn't the issue here. You guys should have done better marketing research on this, because word of mouth can spread quickly and give you a bad name undeservedly if that is the case. otherwise, cool looking bikes.

shelato12771

My answer is no.

A couple of points:

- It would be fabulous if nearly a centimetre worth of chainline variation would cause a chain to last nine times as long as a straight chain. If that's the case, I need to re-space the wheel on my own conversion. I know what you meant, but I couldn't resist...

- Having to replace a chain more frequently is hardly the issue. The issue here is that a POTENTIAL chain-throw on a coaster-bike that has no front brake could POSSIBLY be deadly (have to disagree with rotharpunc here). To say that "the fact that it hasn't happened yet" = "it is not a problem" is irresponsible at best. By this logic, I could say that the fact that I've never crashed a bicycle (at least in my adult life, though I've probably jinxed myself now) means that I will not do so and no longer need to wear a helmet, because the potential for crashing is not a problem. Or even the fact that I've never been in an auto accident means that I do not need to wear a seatbelt. These are choices I have to make for my own sake; building a bike that has the (maybe even miniscule) potential to fail in this way and then marketing it to velophiles and maybe Joe-Schmoe new cyclists alike, all while insisting that the chainline issue of which you are aware is not a problem, is just plain negligence. I'm sorry to come off as high-and-mighty here, but it bothers me (and others) that you are willing to take such a risk.

We both know (I hope) that best practices dictate that a singlespeed chainline should be no more than a millimetre or two off. I'm sure that neither Mike, nor Augie, nor Bernie would allow such a machine out of their shops with their names attached to them (and I suspect that Flora merely sold you bikes built to your spec; if not, you oughta have a talk with her). I'm sorry that you may still have a significant portion of your 120 skewed chainline bikes to unload, but please at least include a disclaimer or throw in the hand brake or something. The bike LOOKS as cool as all get-out, and I'm sure it rides like a champ. Best wishes (believe it or not).

laredoshane

Shelato12771,
According to your reasoning, we should eliminate all bikes with gears, because everytime you change gears you are throwing the chain out of alignment and therefor run the risk of throwing a chain.

shelato12771

Bikes with gears have brakes that do not depend on the chain. And you are being disingenuous. I'm out of this one. Last word's yours if you want it - I'm pretty sure I've made my point, and I'm pretty sure that you know I'm right.

phatfree

I agree that if you have a bike that uses a coaster brake as it's primary means of stopping the chainline should be laser straight. A single speed coaster brake bike with a chainline deviation of 9.5mm should come with another brake standard, not optional.

Thetank

Answers like these are quite honestly the reason your bike doesn't get any respect in the bike community. You're being told that a single speed bike requires a straight chainline due to safety issues and you think it has to do with premature chain wear. A chain costs less than $15 for a bike like this, a brake is $30, how much do you think you're standing to lose when one of your customers crashes and sues the pants off you for not being able to stop? Will it be worth your smug and self righteous answers? instead you should be listening to your potential customer's concerns like some of the other bike suppliers in this forum.

You have a great idea built around a frame that is being reviewed as very stiff and is built to a decent quality so do yourself a favor and start listening to what people have to say . . . at least the ones that don't live in your hometown cause clearly they're just being your friend and don't want to hurt your feelings by giving you an honest opinion.

Thetank

This is also another concern that was brought up by a forum member here where he noted how there is no room to adjust chain tension whatsoever with this setup. you're being told a little chain deviation is fine because geared road bikes deal with this, but how do you explain the lack of adjustment here to a bike that has no other means of adjusting its chain tension?

rotharpunc

shouldn't that brake arm braze on have the screw in the front of the slot while the wheel is in that position? that looks like very poor engineering.

laredoshane

That's a picture of the prototype. Only the first bike is like that. All the Others are diferent. The little brazed on slot has been moved back a little. If you go to the website and look at the pictures, you will see the new one.
Shane