T50 seat advice needed

Rampa

Rampa

Guru
One day I will upgrade my seat. But for those with an original seat, I gained a few inches by simply reversing the seat mounting plate 180. That puts those little arms in the front, and lets the seat go back 4 or more inches. Extra benefit is that it lowers it too. Nice high BB! ;)
I did have to cut the stays a bit shorter to get a proper layback. Interestingly the Kickstarter T50 had a longer strut assembly. The later ones (like my yellow bike) are shorter above the welded crosspiece (I ended up with a second Kickstarter green frame that was still boxed).

@Mark I would love to see your seat-back mounting point.
 
rx7mark

rx7mark

Guru
Rampa said:
It's still the same? I thought you might have changed it. I'll go see. :)
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Yes still the same, except the handlebars and controls. See thread titled "T50 with road controls" for those changes.

Very happy with the bike in this configuration, I must be I haven't changed anything for a while.

Mark
 
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Rampa

Rampa

Guru
Thanks! :)

I ended up putting road 1 by 11 on my yellow one. Went with inverted bullhorns and Sensah brifters. So far, so good!
 
Rampa

Rampa

Guru
I'm liking the bullhorns pretty well. My hand position is like riding on the hoods on an upright bike, but also can have quite a bit of position variability. Not sure it's any better for holding on to, but I like not having the shifter hanging below the bar like my other setup.

I only have one brifter to worry about, and it's the rear. So it gets less force applied to it. It shifts really nicely. Bonus with the single lever double-tap system is that it will not be fumbly with gloves come winter. It would even be easy to use with mittens. :)

The key lever that makes the shift is reinforced plastic, and I did see one video where someone broke the plastic bit on the left brifter. But it seemed to be they were using a low-leverage front derailleur that was need of grease.
 
R

rowenusmc1

New Member
T50-1.jpg It is zip tied in place for now, but it feels like it might work out. Need to raise the front of the seat an inch or two. Old seat off my Corsa.
 
rx7mark

rx7mark

Guru
Frank Costantini said:
Is a chainstay extension available for the T50? I would like to try one, if it is.
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I actually checked into having a custom longer chainstay built by a bike frame fabricator located here in Seattle for the T50. It was very feasible, but would require them to create a welding jig, that would have been expensive for a single chainstay. They told me they could make the tool so that the chainstay length could be adjusted to the user specs in 1/2 inch increments prior to starting the fabrication. The hardware used on the chainstay is very common to the MTB bikes with rear suspension so was not an issue, and they could make the chainstay from the same aluminum used on the T50, which does not require heat treatment after welding, which was good for them. Would have cost me $500-600 for a single chainstay, but that price could have come down to approx. $200 if we could get an order for 10 or more. This was without paint, as they send out for all their paint work.

When I started a thread on this topic, I only got one other interested T50 owner, so I did not pursue this. And now for other reasons, I am building a Silvio for travel which I can get longer chainstays for, so less urgent for me. I ended up moving my Thor seat back on my T50 almost 5 inches which works for me to solve this problem, but is a compromise, as it changes the balance on the bike by reducing the weight on the front tire, especially with the 34 degree seat angle I am using. This results in more difficulty starting on a hill, and it can get a little squirrely if I hit a bump during cornering. But I am used to it now, and it has never caused a real issue or fall.

Mark
 
bhave

bhave

Member
I recently bought the larger seat pad from Ventisit with the 3cm thickness as recommended on this thread. Holy wow! It's like a I have a totally different bike. I used to dread riding my T-50. Now it's a rocket!
 
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