Hi, I'm Thomas, or Tom if I want to sound cool. I'm one of the three co-founders of Massacan.
Of the three, I am the one who rides the least off road but the one who spends the most time on the asphalt.
I'm also the one with the most pronounced taste for niche gear of improbable origin.
But hey, enough about me, let's talk about this bad boy, shall we?
For this "different" flatbar assembly, I had two imperatives in mind:
1- Build a fun city bike to ride in all weather and road conditions
2- Have a bike fitted with boutique parts from little-known European brands
I present to you the result…
The frameset
This is a Fissa with standard geometry in size M/54 and Ultraviolet color.
Being the usual unsatisfied guy I am, I asked our frame builder to make a few adjustments.
First of all, the bottom bracket is T47.
With a 24 mm bottom bracket axle like on Miche or Shimano cranksets, BSA cups allow you to put in well-sized 6805 bearings to avoid premature wear.
With a 28.99mm diameter SRAM DUB axle with BSA cups, you can only put bearings with tiny balls that will wear out prematurely.
By switching to T47, you can now use standard 6806 bearings which are very robust and durable.
It's not me who says it, it's Hambini . And Hambini gives, in general, pretty good advices, and not only when he recommends banging your hairdresser.
On the special request side, I also asked our frame builder not to put an opening in the right seatstay. I wasn't planning on using a Gates belt on this project.
Finally, my Fissa is fitted with a disc brake fork.
Yes, it's iconoclastic for a track bike, but hey, I am known for braking b***s as much as codes, and, for a city bike that may ride in all weathers, I find it totally suitable.
And I do what I want actually.
The drivetrain
So I have selected some SRAM Force D2 cranks in 167.5mm length.
They're made out of carbon, they have sparkles, and the length is great, being a tad shorter than my road cranks.
But hey, these are road cranks precisely, and so to put a track chainring in and have the right chainline, it was necessary to mount a dedicated spider. So it is a Raketa Track Aero Spider .
This part attaches to your right crank via the specific SRAM interface and is held in place by 8 screws.
Then, you can install the 144 BCD chainring of your choice. Well, I didn't have to look far, I installed a 47-tooth Raketa Supersport chainring.
Raketa, if you don't know, is a very small brand of Russian origin that moved to the Czech Republic a few years ago.
Everything is produced in-house from CNC machined aluminum.
These are not just anodized parts for show, but components with minimal tolerances that are very high-performance and robust.
The Dutch team sprint team won gold and set ra new Olympic record at the Paris Olympics on their bikes equipped with the brand's cranksets.
And yes, if you want to buy a monobloc crankset in BCD 200 for your Tracklocross steed (lol) they are the guys you have to get in touch with !
On the left side, I installed a preload adjuster from Cane Creek. It is made of anodized aluminum and advantageously replaces the plastic model originally installed.
Behind, there is a Raketa titanium sprocket (well yeah why not) in Lilac color and with 15 teeth.
In between, the highly regarded Izumi Super Toughness chain provides the link and transmits the stratospheric power (no) of my two thighs to the rear wheel.
The wheelset
I wanted tires that were a bit on the wide side. Well, by wide, I mean wide for a track bike. No need to fit 45 mm tires here.
Fissa is not a tracklocross. Far from it. In reality there are some rather particular technical constraints.
Basically, if you want to put really big tires, you have to lengthen the chainstays.
But we like dynamic and responsive bikes, so clearly that was not an option.
Alternatively, you can widen your bottom bracket shell to 85.5mm instead of 68mm, and therefore increase the gap between the chainstays insertions, but you then risk having your right crank or chainring hitting the chainstay.
In short, we pushed it to the max without touching the length of the bases, nor their spacing, and we find ourselves with room for 35 mm tires. Not bad huh ?
You remember, in my prerequisites, I wanted a bike that was fast on smooth tarmac and comfortable on big cobblestones.
Well, I thought that 32 mm was a very good middle ground.
So I fitted Hutchinson Challengers and they do the job really well!
The thing is, there weren't many fixed gear wheelsets available that had a front wheel with an external width around 32mm.
So we had to do a custom assembly.
The hubs come from Mack Hubs . This is also a very small structure located in Poland.
The possibilities for customization are endless. I obviously took the opportunity to have the Massacan logo engraved as well as some colored stripes to match the graphics of the bike.
The fit & finish and the smoothness of the bearings are amazing.
The hubs are paired with Light Bicycle rims in a UD glossy finish.
The profile is 45 mm and the external width is… 32 mm. Yup!
These rims are naturally tubeless and hooked. Yes I care about my teeth.
If you are motivated, you can even ask them for a blind drilling, a bit like Mavic and their Fore technology and therefore, do without rim tape.
I felt sorry for my wheel builder and therefore opted for a cross drilling and the good old tubeless rim tape.
Braking
From the beginning, you will probably have noticed that each element was not the result of chance but rather that each square centimeter of this bike had been thought out and considered.
Well, guess what, it was the cockpit that gave me the most trouble.
Basically I wanted a hydraulic disc brake with minimal exposed hose.
That was quite a bit more complicated than I initially thought.
The handlebar is a FSA KFX carbon handlebar. It has the particularity of having an internal routing for the cables and hoses.
The stem is a Deda Superbox DCR, also designed to hide unsightly hoses. The length is 100 mm and the angle is 8°.
As for the brake lever, it was a tough one. In the end, to my great dismay, I found a lever with a vertical master cylinder on Aliexpress.
It's not for lack of looking for an alternative, but unfortunately, I haven't found anything similar and as well integrated.
The finish is excellent though, the feel is really nice and precise. Being designed to work with mineral oil, I was able to pair it with a Shimano Ultegra R8000 caliper which works brilliantly !
I am really very happy with this solution which is both discreet, not ugly and effective.
In conclusion
It took me almost 9 months to assemble this bike.
Well, I took my time and carefully chose each element.
It was actually funny. There was a bit of stress when some components took longer than expected to arrive in particular.
But hey, I loved every step of the process and I really feel like I have a unique bike. In my eyes it is perfect and 100% what I envisioned.
I really enjoyed dealing with the guys at Raketa Components and Mack Hubs. They are great people !
Fissa is indeed a lively and responsive bike. By leaving the possibility of putting a disc fork or a belt opening on it, we really wanted to offer a bike that suits you. A bike that is as playful as it is practical.
The fixed gear world being what it is, with a little digging you can end up with a pretty crazy level of customization.
Afterwards, was it worth the efforts?
It depends on what you are looking for.
First of all, I am not addressing the question of price.
So I think you have part of the answer, lol !
And beyond that, for example, we work with Miche who produces ultra-high quality components for a much more affordable overall price.
For example, we released a carbon wheelset in collaboration with them which offers an absolutely unbeatable quality/price ratio.
So really, it doesn't really matter what bottle you drink as long as you get drunk!
Contact us to discuss your project and ride a Fissa, it's a fantastic bike either being in a standard configuration or an all out custom build !
Bisou.
