My Fats

I-ROBOT

Active member
Hi gang,
I've been really busy lately and haven't been on for a while

My wicked is a 1987 model SN 87777
I shortened the chainstays a little when I built it.
It's on its third paint job
Originally, it had a white main triangle with red / blue harlequin stays and box-crown fork

It then became my silicon-bronze TIG brazing test frame. I TIG brazed new water bottle bosses, chin gusset, top tube cable guides, and fender mounts to see if this might be a viable process.

I repaired several cracked chin gussets using a combination of TIG welding to repair the crack and then laying a bead of silicon bronze over the weld to temper it and to create a smooth transition from the head tube to the chin gusset.

I built a plain-jane unicrown fork for it then and had it painted all black with no decals. I rode it like that for about 4 years until it was obvious that the Somerville shop was going under. I then had Mike Flanigan shoot it with the infamous dusky rose color that seems to be either loved or hated. I also had him do cleared-over decals and it looks great. He painted the box-crown fork and my Mag 21 that's on my TI bike. I got decals for the Mag 21 and put them on after it was painted and everyone thought I had some sort of one-off Rockshox.

I'll post some pix of the TI bike and tell you all about that one next time.
Happy trails
Scott "I-Robot" Bengtson
Fat City Somerville chief welder 1987 - 1994
 

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fat-tony

Moderator
Staff member
love the wicked

Dude:

Nice bike! Pretty cool to look at a personal ride the actual welder built. Love hearring your stories from the day.
 

MikeyNYC

Member
Scott,

Very nice bike and great to hear the history! What kind of stem is that??

Please show us the Box Crown fork and your Ti bike!!!

Off topic-Did you make Box Crown forks as well? What's the story with them? Why the box? What's the box made of, is it hollow...? I've always wondered what was under that paint on my beloved Box Crown fork!
 

colker

Well-known member
Scott,

Very nice bike and great to hear the history! What kind of stem is that??

Please show us the Box Crown fork and your Ti bike!!!

Off topic-Did you make Box Crown forks as well? What's the story with them? Why the box? What's the box made of, is it hollow...? I've always wondered what was under that paint on my beloved Box Crown fork!

post and stem look like ird.
 

I-ROBOT

Active member
Hi Guys
Thanks for the kind words. I'm so glad there are so many folks out there still enjoying what we crafted.

To answer Flavio's questions
The "box" portion of the box crown fork is actually aircraft grade 4130 chrome-moly 1" square tube (hollow). I want to say that it's 0.035" (0.5mm) thick, but I don't remember for sure. I do still have my box crown fork. It is retired from riding since I don't want to break it. It has Tange Prestige fork blades and a Columbus steerer tube. The Columbus steerer is unique in that it has interior rifleing (rifling? - like a gun barrel) in the area where the fork crown attaches for added strength and rigidity. I did not add gussets to the fork when it was repainted to match the present color. There are no decals on the fork. Sorry, it is not for sale.

The seatpost is indeed an IRD. I had actually forgotten who made it until I saw the email and said "Oh yeah".

I built the handlebar stem at Fat City. We did make stems early on, but didn't sell a lot of them. We mostly made customs for ourselves and the guys and gals on the race teams. We couldn't really compete price-wise with the other guys that concentrated on stems like Salsa.

I'll post up my TI bike next

Keep the questions and comments coming, I'll try to answer as best as I can remember.
The weather's getting nicer - finally
Scott
 

colker

Well-known member
i have an 18in wicked as well.. rode it on sunday and it's such a great bike on technical steps while staying mellow while pedaling. i have an ibis mojo which feels faster and more nervous(it has susp. forks) but when it comes to clearing stuff the wicked is the one.
tell me: what difference do you feel from the wicked to the ti? the ti has the yo eddy geom. w/ shorter cstays, longer top tube and a shorter rake fork.. what's the result?
 
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