SE Bikes Lager ss/fixie

[rickpaulos]

Needs a bit of work.
SE branded seat, one seat rail is popped out of the plastic saddle body. Those are very hard to re-insert.
Welds a bit on the ugh side.
"Cromo Seat Tube", so the rest of the bike is gas pipe?
The tires really do ride nice. So smooth.
KMC K-8A chain, interesting shape.
MSRP $699!

 

[rickpaulos]

I took the bike apart today.

frame & fork weight 9 pounds. That's heavy for what claims to be a good bike.
heavier than expected wheels.
Really poor spokes. black & rusty.
bb trashed.
several of the hex cap bolts were buggered. Had to hammer the hex wrenches in to get a grip.
seat cut apart and metal rails tossed in the recycle bin.
I'll be changing to flat bars so the fixie bars will go to the local coop.
pedals weren't in tight but no visible thread damage.

Decals in fair condition. Some peeling up around the edges.
Scores of chips in the paint. Most are rather rusty so my guess is the bike has been sitting out for a couple of years since the abuse ended.
Bubbles of rust in the paint around the vent holes.
Cleaned with 409 then some 800 wet sanding on the fork to get the worst bits cleaned up. Not looking very good. Wet 800 should bring out a shine but this is looking sanded and flat. Maybe a clear coat will help.
An off color. More like a lipstick red. I may send the fork with the wife to go fingernail paint shopping.
I've been wanting a real copper plated bike, this just isn't a good enough bike to justify that expense.
New powder coat would be too much as well.

At a msrp of $695 this bike was way over priced. More like a $395 bike.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

It's probably Hi-Ten steel. Most of those cheapo Fixie/ss bikes are, like Pure Fix and State. I'm not saying 600 is cheap, but by the eyes of the companies and the hardcores[BikeForum users], it is. When it comes to these bikes, that's about low/mid. The pricer bikes tend to use better steel, like Reventon and Engine 11.

 

[rickpaulos]

The more I work on this bike, the worse my impression of it gets.

Those WTB Thick Slick tires are 650 grams each. That's very heavy. Like cheap walmart knobby mountain bike tire heavy.
The wheels are very heavy. The black spokes are overly tight and rusting. Should be replaced but not for this bike. I've said white tires are the worst, well black spokes are the worst. The mystery meat day at the school cafeteria. You never know what is under the covering and it's rarely good.

Rear brake mount is too high. A standard shorty brake caliper won't reach.
Parts getting changed. Bars, stem, seat, brake levers, brake calipers. cables.

I took the single freewheel off for service. Surprisingly it came off rather easily. This bike was not "Ridden hard and put away wet", more like abused and neglected starting on the drawing board, then the factory and finally the previous owners.

Here is one of the rear hub cones. The hub had 3/16" balls and one lock nut wasn't tight so the cone turned in and got too tight and destroyed the cones. When I pulled the wheel off I could not turn the axle by hand. Typical of walmart bikes designed to wear out in 500 miles.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

Sad. SE Bijes sell a ton of bikes to a lot of kids for a bunch of money. I hope everything isn't built to this standard. Thickslicks are also very popular, perhaps the weight is actually by design, thick is right in the name. Maybe it's a durability thing for urban riding

 

[JA331]

The thick slicks have a thick inner layer to prevent punctures. I have them on two 29” bikes and wouldn’t say they are heavy for the type of tire they are. In comparison a duro 26” cruiser tire is close to 1kg or even more. The thickslicks handle and roll great too.

 

[rickpaulos]

rebuild done.

27.9 pounds
new chain. Upped the freewheel from an 18t to 19t.

rides downwind fine. The 20-30 gusts are a problem going into the wind. A couple of miles and I'm not going to miss it.