“I got this I.R.O. Jamie Roy frame last summer. It came without a fork, needed a 1 1/8” size. I bought a plastic Winwood fork for it rode it a bit, but wasn’t entirely happy with it, mainly because of the fork. The ride was pretty harsh, and the Winwood fork didn’t have room for fenders or even for a medium width tire.
Recently, I came upon a closeout deal on some NOS Rock Shox Indy forks, not the latest technology but unusually light for suspension forks. I decided to try one on the I.R.O. The frame was built for 622 mm (700c) wheels, while the Rock Shox for was designed for 559 mm (26" mtb size) wheels. However, the frame was also designed for a tight clearance fork, while the Rock Shox has tons of clearance. Thus, the smaller wheel size and the taller fork pretty much cancel one another out. As a result, the geometry is pretty mainstream, even though the bike looks a bit funny. It handles just fine, and it’s a lot more comfortable.
The whole bike weighs just a bit over 20 pounds, with no exotic lighweight parts aside from a recycled Merlin titanium handlebar."
Sheldon wasn’t a jackass because he wasn’t trying to fit in. He just did shit because he liked it or it was functional for him. Said jackasses are stripping the shit out of sick ass road bikes and smashing the brazes off to make a sweet fixay, thus fucking shit up.
While putting a suspended 26er fork on an IRO is DEF jackass, since he has explained his GOOD reasons for doing so, it makes it not jackass, and essentially tarck.
Although, nothing can really ever be tarck because we are haters. See pic for reference.
How could he have started modern FGFS with a “fixie” frame? Track end IROs obviously came out when the trend was solidly established.
Anyway, that bike is gross. I love the fact that Sheldon was never afraid to build such utterly hideous mongrels. Thanks for posting it.
The May quote just made me watch some Top Gear… Thanks, I guess.
P.s. to those who are too lazy to torr… buy Top Gear, many (most?) episodes are online as full length flash vids. Just google video search top gear season x episode y. You’ll soon see which sites have the full length videos.
I have 9 seasons on my hard drive, and I only ever watch the one where they drive old mate’s Enzo. It is my favourite episode for three reasons: The bit where he walks away and gets into his helicopter to the intro of Money, the Jaguar flogging the Zonda, and where Clarkson discovers the Enzo’s steering wheel has a ‘race’ button. RACE!?!?
