Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

So ordered the Trek 920 at work and it really is so much better in the flesh than in the pics. Surprisingly light without the racks too. 12.5kg with racks. Handles nicely, but it was too long for my T-rex arms.
In the past two weeks, 5 people have come to look at it. Two ordered. 1 larger and 1 smaller, and a guy today is about to push the button to do a massive 4000mile tour on it.
Totally stumped at all the interest.

I agree, saw it in person, and the colour is so much better.

The finish is really nice and everything feels crisp! Just to make things more awesome, I'd just add an SP dynamo and light up all the things!
All the functional freaks have come out of hibernation. Either been pushing that or a CDF/TDF on them.
GENESIS ALL THE THINGS!

Put the Big Apple on it, I dare you.

Basil Memories are about £15 upwards. I had to redrill the arms on mine but otherwise its fine.

Progress with my functional runabout, really looking forward to my broken foot healing and getting back out and about on this, it was a joy to ride pre rack and guards, I'm hoping the new additions don't detract from that. Borrowed the 28c Paselas from my hetchins but these are a bit neat clearance wise with the guards and after fitting them I noticed they rolled a lot slower than the gp4000s they replaced.

Any suggestions for 25c tan walls with good puncture protection, that roll well ish?

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Clement Strada LGG.

The Palsea might felt slow cause you got a fucking rack on.

Na this is pre-rack pre broken foot.

Those tyres are actually affordable, whenever you suggest tyres I expect £50 a piece, are they good then? Do they measure true or big/small? Will 25 be 25?

Exactly as the claimed size, once you stretch them out of course.

I got the 60tpi which so far felt better than the Panaracer, too early to tell though.

Just got myself a Gamoh porteur. It comes with a QR axle mounting plate, but the instructions makes reference to an axle mount being available separately (no idea where from...).
It's a nice rack but you'll probably find you need to bend the fork crown mount. I did and I've read other people had the same issue.

Cracking, cheers for the tips! I'll email Minoura and see what they say.
I'm gonna put mini-v brakes on too, so I'm sure the crown mount will need some fiddling for sure :)

I had the gamoh rack a few years back and found it ok. It's price reflects it's quality and that it's very flexy too....not what's wanted from a rack unless you really are only gonna put fuck all on it! Got a Soma one now and it's night and day.

Indeed, the staggering number of mount required doesn't help it either.

Won a new croix de fer frameset on ebay this weekend (not this one). So so excited.

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Had the benefit that I could fit it onto the weirdly placed eyelets on my forks, looked very carefully at the soma/VO offerings and I didn't feel I could justify a new pair of forks at the same time. Maybe once I decide a front/porteur rack is exactly what I want.
Certainly seems a nice way to carry things!

Sneak peek:

Very interesting news from Rawland.
http://ravn.rawlandcycles.com/
and here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/rcog

Recently Jan Heine wrote also (maybe no coincidence) an interesting article about smooth rolling 26" wheels;
https://janheine.wordpress.com/

One of the biggest benefit is simply the rims can be strong and light at the same time.

The Mavic XM719 in 26" weight as much as the H+Son Archetype while being stronger and wider.

Even lighter with disc brakes, ZTR Crest is a mere 340g in 26" which is lighter than the lightest 700c rims brake wheel out there.

So after years of riding a bike with big wheels off road, they're switching to smaller?

How controversial.

I suppose we somehow need to find an application for the huge deficit of 26" parts we'll soon be left with.

After years of riding bicycle with skinny 23mm tyres, triple chainset, side pull brakes, etc.

And now the industries is catching up (Shimano centerpull, 27mm tyres, compact crankset).

There's an article in this month's bicycle quarterly too (Jan's publication) about their idea of an 'enduro all road bike' using the above 'travel bike' prototype/custom thing.

Can see the appeal right now. It's 16-22c, sunny and I'm stuck in a house 30km from a huge national park/mountains with 3 screaming children...

.

Cyclists pedal much more than they brake, so we designed the Ravn around pedaling and responsiveness, not braking.

Hope its not bad form to post mine here now its a rolling project.
Got a snap that isnt in a dingy corridor or against grubby wall.
88cm bb to saddle give or take. 2.3 tyres, 50mm bb drop, xc717 and 221 rims so will be looking for some wider ones in time.. bar drop looks bigger than it is - photo is on a slope or sutin'?
Still need to get that old BB out...

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