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NickCJ
Been quite some time coming but I've finally started putting together plans for a do-it-all bike. The final straw really came this summer when I wanted to do a short tour and had nothing really suited. Even before that though it had been something I'd been considering for over a year. The problem with the bikes I have are not that they're bad but there's none that really fit the utility, commuter, wet-weather, tourer mould too well.
After much back and forth I finally decided to go with something steel and disc equipped, then I spent a few months balking at the high prices of thing like the Equilibrium disc, Straggler, and basically any new frame out there - I tend to just buy second hand usually so this is a weird world - I finally broke and ordered a Kaffenback 2. Largely because the geometry of the XL should fit very well, but also because it's very cheap, and I don't intend to blow a small fortune on this particular bike.
Alongside the Kaffenback, I've ordered a bunch of cheap Planet-X finishing kit, like a 6eur bar, a 12eur seatpost, a pair of Tektro disc brakes for 24eur - I'm sure they're not the best but it gets the project off the ground. Also a few 105 parts from over at CRC in the sale yesterday, the rest I've got already, saddle, cranks, BB, DA 10 speed bar end shifters, Cane Creek single speed brake levers. That leaves just a pair of hubs or a wheelset I need to buy. The reason I've not gone straight in there is I just need to clear out a few things first, I've not actually the space to build it up immediately. Hopefully soonish though.
And so ordering the Kaffenback was Monday. Feeling then quite pleased with myself - all those parts came in cheap, and happy that finally I'm buying a sensible bike and that possibly maybe there'll be some kind of bike consolidation in the future - I decided to head over and peruse pignonfixe.com, and ended up in a place I decided to avoid like the plague. Their equivalent of the 'ebay/craigslist finds' thread is never good for my bank balance and I've long sworn to avoid it. It never ends well. Monday though I felt confident being that I was now in the world of sensible bikes. No need for anything else silly. No need for anything at all. I was sure I'd get out of that thread without buying a thing.
That was a huge mistake. 24 hours later and I now have this:
Perfectly sized Carrera titanium frame, quite possibly the worlds longest 1" Time carbon fork left in existence, a mix 'n match of parts, largely Record Titanium 8 speed. Whoops! That wasn't planned at all. But I can justify it. Kind of. It was a) cheap b) I don't actually need any of the parts on it. The plan is to flip just about everything on there and put on 10 speed parts I already have, at which point it ought to become very bargainous indeed.
And so a quick first few changes this morning, the sooner I can move things along the better:
Carbon seatpost and titanium railed Concor light saddle, position to be dialled in this lunch time. Changed the stem too, the nice carbon one is too short for just about anything I need it for so that has to go. Ironically the one i've changed it for is the same length, but that'll go in time too.
Plan is to change the brakes this afternoon for a 10 speed pair, possibly the crankset too but I'm worried about chainrub there - should I be? Got to rummage around for new cables, if I've got all I need I could even get this done by the weekend.