Battle Mistresses

Cobalt

Cobalt

Platinum Member
Joined
Dec 23, 1998
Messages
17,904
Ok, I have been studying the various versions of production mistresses. I am going to line them up in order of heaviest/most massive to lightest.

1 - FFBM - 0.315" sabre ground widest blade
2 - FBM LE - 0.315" Flat Ground widest blade
3 - FBM CG -0.22 - 0.24" corrugated bevel grind wider than SHBM
4 - SHBM - 0.26" Flat Ground
5 - Ergo-BM - 0.25 - Flat Ground not as wide as SHBM
6 - ZTBM - 0.187 - Sabre Ground Wider than Ergo-BM
7 - TMBM - 0.170 - Sabre Ground same width as Ergo-BM

I know I did not include the FBM SE and the Proto FBM's, but both were limited runs that were sized differently than the others so they did not fit into the categories. If I had to include these I would put the Proto just under the FFBM and I would put the SE just above the SHBM.

So the best compromise is right in the middle as the SHBM. The best chopper should be the FFBM and the best light brus/fighter should be the Terror Monkey or the ZTBM. The ZTBM having a clip point might penetrate better, but they are close.

Anyway, just putting down what I was thinking. Did I miss any factory runs? If so feel free to add.
 
J85909266 said:
Would it be possible to post a picture of them all together?
Click to expand...

It would but not right now. Maybe later today, when I have some time to. I don't have a terror monkey though. I sold my only one for dirt cheap a year ago.
 
I agree with you on the use's of the BM's.

Need to get me one of the does all SHBM's one day.

Thanks for getting all the info together:thumbup:
 
You left out the Basic 9.

I think it would be the lightest but the ballance would be fairly far forward.

I just got a ZTBM and I like the feel quite a bit. I'm going to have to do some testing. I'll see how it stacks up against Ban's Anorexic FBM.
 
I'm heading to the wine country today and I'm going to beat on a CGFBM.

Then I'm going to get my race wheels back from a guy in Napa and go ride no-compromise sew-ups on no-compromise Lew/Reynolds wheels; up some no-compromise 4-5 mile hills :thumbup: :p
 
Tony G said:
I'm heading to the wine country today and I'm going to beat on a CGFBM.

Then I'm going to get my race wheels back from a guy in Napa and go ride no-compromise sew-ups on no-compromise Lew/Reynolds wheels; up some no-compromise 4-5 mile hills :thumbup: :p
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Actually you should have gotten a no compromise Cold Steel knife, that way when it breaks, there is no compromise, that would be just like your sew ups. :D

But I agree with you about reynolds (Clinchers). If I could only find a good deal on them. I refuse to pay retail for anything and especially wheels.
 
wash said:
You left out the Basic 9.

I think it would be the lightest but the ballance would be fairly far forward.

I just got a ZTBM and I like the feel quite a bit. I'm going to have to do some testing. I'll see how it stacks up against Ban's Anorexic FBM.
Click to expand...

well the Basic 9 is not officially a BM, but we all know it really is:D a resi handled BM. Should have called it the RESBM
 
thanks for the info cobalt, leave it to you to have more mistress's than anybody :thumbup::cool:



.
 
Cobalt this is true.

I raced for about 15 years and did about 14 road races a year on the average. I did all but one of those races on sew-ups and got just one flat.

Yes that is right! In the one time trial that I didn't use sew-up wheels, I was riding clinchers and flatted:mad:.

That ain't no cold steel story.
 
Tony G said:
Cobalt this is true.

I raced for about 15 years and did about 14 road races a year on the average. I did all but one of those races on sew-ups and got just one flat.

Yes that is right! In the one time trial that I didn't use sew-up wheels, I was riding clinchers and flatted:mad:.

That ain't no cold steel story.
Click to expand...


I road raced for one and a half years on clinchers and never got a flat during a race. I raced Mtb's for several years with clinchers and the only flats I got were when I had WTB tires, because they sucked at pinch flat resistance. Of course when I raced BMX, I never got pinch flats and when I did DH racing I got a few, but that is unavoidable.

The technology of clincher wheels has come to the point that the difference in weight is miniscule compared to the trouble "IF" you have to fix a flat. I know so many people that have tubulars, that say if they have to fix it they will be there a while and then they will be worried around corners.

To each his own I guess. You may be right and you may be wrong. But fo me the ease of switching tires and and the lower cost of tubes has me sold on them.

The article below is from this link.
http://raceathlete.typepad.com/raceathlete/2007/07/top-10-ways-to-.html

6. Race on Tubular tires, also known as "sew-ups"

When I was a young buck in college I actually got into a bit of serious cycling and raced for a while. It wasn’t long before I realized that all of the fast guys rode on Tubular tires. Tubbies as I like to call them differ from clinchers in that they don't have beads. Instead, the two edges of the tire are sewn together around the inner tube. Tubulars are used on special rims, and are held on to the rims by glue. Tubulars used to be fairly common on high-performance bicycles, but these days they are an endangered species on most bikes.

However there is still an “Old School” hardcore group of athletes that swear by them. They point to the fact that the pros on tour ride them as well as the top triathletes at Kona. They say they are faster because they can be pumped up to a higher pressure, and that they handle better. This is all well and true until you flat.

You may recall the famous moment from a few years ago during the Kona Ironman World Championships when Norman Stadler threw his bike around like a used tissue after his second flat. Why? Because he couldn’t remove his tubular tire from his rim.

Tubular tire are almost impossible to change in a race situation. That’s part of the reason the boys on the tour don’t change them. They just swap wheels.

Worse yet, if you actually do manage to change a tubular tire while racing you’ll live the rest of the race in constant terror. Back in the day when I raced I had a tubular roll off the rim on a sharp bend. It was bloody hot and the glue that holds the tire to the rim got soft and let go. I spent the next two weeks silently screaming in the shower as my body was tapestry of road rash.

If you truly want to save seconds by riding tubular like a pro, you better be prepared to crash like a pro and/or throw your bike around in disgust with the best of best.

Another article:http://www.ultracycling.com/equipment/wheels.html

As for SHBM's well, you don't even own an SHBM, need I say more:D
 
Cobalt said:
..
... They point to the fact that the pros on tour ride them as well as the top triathletes at Kona. They say they are faster because they can be pumped up to a higher pressure, and that they handle better. This is all well and true ....
Click to expand...

That is all that was said there that is relevant. But he forgot that they are lighter and safer when they do go flat.

These are race wheels and the only thing that counts is to win or place in the lead group. A flat on any wheel is the end of the race; unless you ride Crits where they give you a free lap. In that case with a sew-up you can actually ride to the pit area and change a wheel. With clinchers you are taking you life in you hands riding them flat.

I don't own a SHBM because some guy I know (that I have helped from time to time) sold his user and didn't ask me first.:p
 
Cobalt said:


You may recall the famous moment from a few years ago during the Kona Ironman World Championships when Norman Stadler threw his bike around like a used tissue after his second flat. Why? Because he couldn’t remove his tubular tire from his rim.

Tubular tire are almost impossible to change in a race situation. That’s part of the reason the boys on the tour don’t change them. They just swap wheels.

Worse yet, if you actually do manage to change a tubular tire while racing you’ll live the rest of the race in constant terror. Back in the day when I raced I had a tubular roll off the rim on a sharp bend. It was bloody hot and the glue that holds the tire to the rim got soft and let go. I spent the next two weeks silently screaming in the shower as my body was tapestry of road rash.


As for SHBM's well, you don't even own an SHBM, need I say more:D
Click to expand...


No, the above is more relevant. I have seen the vision of wheel throwing quite often, when it comes to tubulars.

I would agree with the weight issue, sewups are lighter and faster (higher psi and all). But when they do flat, they are much harder to fix on the road if not impossible. And I truly don't want that hasle.
 
Tony G said:

I don't own a SHBM because some guy I know (that I have helped from time to time) sold his user and didn't ask me first.:p
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ouch! Hey, there has been 3-4 who have been asking me about that user for a long time. I wanted to be fair. The next user I sell is for you, ok?
 
Cobalt said:
ouch! Hey, there has been 3-4 who have been asking me about that user for a long time. I wanted to be fair. The next user I sell is for you, ok?
Click to expand...


Hey I wouldn't buy one from you now anyway.

Why would I give up such good material to bring up on you just for a knife? Knives come and knives go but this will be with us for years:thumbup::p
 
Cobalt said:
1 - FFBM - 0.315" sabre ground widest blade
2 - FBM LE - 0.315" Flat Ground widest blade
3 - FBM CG -0.22 - 0.24" corrugated bevel grind wider than SHBM
4 - SHBM - 0.26" Flat Ground
5 - Ergo-BM - 0.25 - Flat Ground not as wide as SHBM
6 - ZTBM - 0.187 - Sabre Ground Wider than Ergo-BM
7 - TMBM - 0.170 - Sabre Ground same width as Ergo-BM
Click to expand...


Well, I have 1 through 5 now, but I haven't handled the Fattie yet. I once had a ZTBM, but it was just too thin for my tastes and I sold it. I've never handled a TMBM.

The SHBM is a great blade for that ONE knife. But if I'm carrying a smaller utility blade and a chopper, I still like the CG or the SE for my go-to blade. Just a little more material and thus a little more momentum for chopping. Hopefully, someone out in the wilderness will pry the SE out of my cold, dead hands when I'm about 95. That was the first knife I bought at Blade the year I got the HOG nod, so it has some added significance as well.

Okay, now that I've had my say, ya'll can go back to harping about bikes. Is it always this way when you two get together? I'll bet poor old KAAK needs earplugs.

Bikemen.jpg
 
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