Ruben Alcantara's T-1 Bike with Fly parts.

Dec 15, 2005

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 36508 times

Ruben Alcantara rides a signature 20.8" T-1 frame with parts from FlyBikes. We know Ruben is pretty picky on the set up he runs so we zoomed in on his bike in Prague. The products he ran at the world's probably just made it in the FlyBikes catalog and that's how it works. The riders test the sample products first before production is started. Ruben likes his bike to work well but he doesn't care about any scratches on his bike and doesn't take his bike apart when he travels.

The Spaniard usually brakes with one finger but switches to two when they don't work any good. The rim he ran in Czech was black but it was the only drilled rim that Fly had at the moment. Chrome works well but Fly is working on a new rim that should work good without being too blingbling. The crossing spokes is a way to make the wheels stronger and also the rim itself isn't that light. It's got thicker material to make them stronger, something that's needed to make up for the holes (that do save weight).

His brake lugs aren't welded on in an angle, something he believed in a few years ago. The rear cassette hub (with sealed bearings) has a low flange and everything is trimmed to save weight. His frame has a 74.5 degree head tube angle and of course a Spanish BB. The new cranks have been taking ages for an unknown reason but Ruben ran them for a month, landed hard a couple of times and they're holding up. Ruben is really happy with the way his signature tires came out. They used something different than the regular nylon which makes them better. They're working on new sizes too. On the question how much his bike weighs

, Ruben said that he wants to keep his bike light but not super, super light. It gets to a point where it feels good to him and he knows he can make it lighter but he won't. We couldn't discover the secret tailwhip button anywhere on his bike. Maybe you can find it for us.

BdJ