Friday, February 27, 2009

Milwaukee Orange One

Before everyone goes and gets up in arms as to why I am not riding the MKE S700 prototype let me explain what is going on. The S700 has held up incredibly well so far. It has seen some of the bigger gaps that have been done on fixed gears and even did well in some alleycats; the bike is solid as a rock. However, we have had to make some drastic changes to the small geometry because it is a little bit cumbersome for me to do some tricks on due to the length of the bike.

The next set of small S700s have been shortened up quite a bit. The front end of the bike has been shortened almost 30 mm which will accommodate a larger range of riders and make the front up far more responsive especially with the steep 74.5 HTA. The original prototypes had a very long rear requiring a good bit of muscle to the get the bike off the ground even though it wheelied like a dream. The next round of bikes have a shorter seat stay and steeper seat tube this way we can slam the back wheel in much further. These changes should make the bike jump off the ground on its own accord. I am very excited for the next set of rides and you all should be too.



Keep in mind that Drew at Milwaukee has taken on a daunting task of accommodating a lot of different styles of riding. The first set of prototypes were a very well educated guess, but still require some changes. There are tons of riders testing these bikes from all different disciplines and once this bike hits the streets it is going to make some waves.

I wanted to get back into some techy stuff, that I found difficult on the S700, so Drew set me over an Orange One. Another benefit of riding this bike is that I can compare what I like about the small “traditional” fixed gears to the S700 tank. I hooked this whip up last night.

Frame: Milwaukee Orange One 53cm in Blue Flake
Fork: Milwaukee S700 form w/o brake mounts - You want this fork! It is made to accommodate 700c tires without that ugly gap between the crown and wheel. It makes any stock bike barspinnable.
Stem: Thomson Elite 50mm 0*
Headset: Chris King NoThreadSet
Seatpost: Thomson Setback Silver
Seat: Charge Stool
Bottom Bracket: FSA 48 spline Euro Pro
Cranks: Profile Racing 165mm
Sprocket: Profile 42t Imperial
Pedals: Odyssey Twisted
Straps: MKS Doubles w/ Dimension toe clips
Chain: KMC Kool Chain
Front Wheel: Profile Hub to a Salsa Delgado Cross rim with a 35c Bontrager Galaxy
Rear Wheel: 15t Profile cog on a Profile Fixed/Free Hub to Velocity Deep V's protected by a 32c Bontrager Hardcase

This bike was fun to ride last night. Thanks Drew!


4 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the great review and input into making this frame happen. I am actually getting one of the protos in small and your review is making my purchase a bit questionable at this point. How tall are you? I'm about 5feet 8in tall with normal limbs and ride a 60/62 cockpit on my cutter at this time. I'm trying to get the long 59 tt to accommodate a 62 cockpit via a short 26mm stem and 0 offset seatpost. Hope I can get this this going but having read this review I contemplate waiting for the production small. Maybe I'll ride this proto small until the production comes out.

T-bone said...

I suggest waiting. Patience is virtue.

Anonymous said...

will you see me your prototype frame?

Anonymous said...

that was supposed to say sell. I live like 30 minutes from Sicklerville...dying for a new frame.