Tababa's bikes

I have seen a few of these x's bikes threads and they seem like a good idea. My bikes and bike collection in general is ever evolving, but I wouldn't get around to making a proper project thread for each one, so I think I will post up my current bikes, what they are about, what I like about them and don't, and update as time goes on. It might also help me to get my thought processes about each one down so I don't forget ideas I've had about changes etc.

My bikes are mostly pretty cheap, with emphasis on value and functionality for their given task, but I do I have some silly foibles, such as hating to pay more for an item due to its colour. This has led to a white Rando on my town bike, white shifters on my road bike and yellow bars on my mtb...

For the last few years I have had 4 bikes; road, track(town fixed/beater), touring/audax and mtb. I was going to post up some pictures of the previous incarnations, but they have been through too many and I can't be bothered sifting through the old photos, so here we go with the present stable.

First, foremost, favourite and most ridden is my repaired Vivalo fixed. I got it from NJS export for "cheap" (which is about £280 with shipping), with dents and "impacted headtube and downtube" but still usable according to them, in hindsight this seems a bit silly, but the frame was a very special size 57/53 and so was irresistible to a confirmed t-rex like me. When I received it, the damage was worse than advertised, fork was bent and headtube had cracks that went all the way through and were visible on the inside of the steerer tube. NJS export were amazing though, a few emails later they were sending me a more expensive Eimei, with no real damage and they were picking up the shipping too, all with many effusive apologies. While the frame was on its way to me, I took the Vivalo to Neil Orrell who's shop is just 5 mins ride away from my house. I was expecting a quote that was probably worth more than the frame, but when he offered to replace top and head tubes + lugs in 631 for £60 I jumped at the chance. When I received the Eimei it was inevitably not as nice a fit, but was very shiny and cool, so I rode it for a few weeks then sold for £300, which is the price NJS were asking without shipping. In the end I got an awesome half NJS frame for £40 or so in a size close to what I would get if I ordered a custom everyday fixed bike.

Here she is in current guise, combined cost of the rest of the components is maybe £150 at most:

Next up is my newest frame, Barry Chick built 653 Shorter, which is essentially an audax bike, but I might try to use it for lightweight touring at some point. It has rear rack mounts, but not front so might get an axle mounted rack or something for it if I do that. It is very light though, frame is 1700g and fork 680g so would be very careful to go light if using it to tour. It is a joy to ride, and at 59/56 at least nods towards the long ST and short TT I look for. Current set up is very much temporary, needs some new mudguards, a rear rack that fits better, and maybe in the spring a new groupset as the current Sora bits are very tired after bouncing about my bikes for 3/4 years.

Third is my soulless but fast road bike. Weighs 7.4kg which is far lighter than any bike I've owned before, it feels like a rocket and have got it dialled in nicely now. Total build cost me around £500 or so, think I've done OK on a speed/price ratio, although I prefer riding at it to looking at it.

Finally my MTB, this is my only OTP purchase, and not much has changed over the years apart from seatpost, bars, pedals and tyres. I have a new frame ready which is a bit longer as I feel this one is a bit twitchy when really going fast and is also a little limited by the 120mm coil fork. This might be a bit of a long term one as the new frame can take 650b and up to a 150mm fork, but would need to save a bit for that.

I've always got a ton of plans in my head for other projects, and got some frames and things knocking about which I either need to embrace or let go, hopefully this thread will help me make decisions on these things.