Paconi "kid carrier" touring build, now 1x10 commuter, now 1x10 gravel bike.

So, in a few weeks we are expecting our first child. This alone is exciting / scary, but as my wife and I both love riding, it also gives me an excuse to start building up another bike, dedicated to rad dad duties so my Space Horse can stay as my commuter and everything else bike. Initially I wanted a Bullitt cargo bike, but the size, cost and lack of transportability kind of put me off of it. It'd be great for short trips around town, but not if we went away anywhere with bikes. I know that our kid can't go on a bike for quite a while (~9 months), but this hasn't stopped me from starting this build. The plan is a steel tourer running 1x9 with a Yepp Mini front mounted child seat, front basket, full mudguards and flat pedals.

Anyway, starting going through parts to get the build going.

Stuff I have:
• Australian built Paconi steel touring frame with threaded forks / headset, rack mounts, canti / v-brake posts (on its way in the post)
• Salsa steel quill stem (90°)
• Tokyo Bike town bars (stolen from the now dead Cannondale Rack)
• Brooks B17 Team Pro
• Tektro v-brakes (may have to run canti's because of narrow spacing)
• Shimano 9 speed 11-32 cassette
• Shimano 9 speed Sora rear derailleur
• Giant TCX wheel set
• Wipperman Connex 9 speed chain
• Ofmega Mistral track cranks
• Jet Black flat MTB pedals
• Tektro FL750 brake levers (in the post)

Two issues I might have is that the track cranks are 144bcd, and the smallest chainring is 42t and canti's don't have the stopping power that I really want. The forks aren't original, so might be able to run it as a mullet (v-brake on front, canti on rear).

Stuff I need:

• Yepp mini kids seat
• Powdercoat for the frame (it's pretty ratty)
• Tyres / tubes (something 32c +)
• Mudguards (probably silver Velo Orange)
• 9 speed Shimano trigger shifter
• Grips. Considering going for cork grips or something like the Ergon cork grips or PDW Whiskey Grips. Not Champs or Oury.
• Spur Cycle bell
• Randonneur front rack (probably Velo Orange) to zip tie basket to
• Basket - Wald or similar
• Velo Orange Moderniste bottle cages
• Seat post (depending on frame)
• Rear reflector / light for mudguard. I just like the aesthetics of them on rear mudguards.
• Double leg kickstand

I'm kind of basing it colour and build wise on this, minus the fact I'm not building a cycle truck.

And more inspiration...

As you said your kid ain't gonna be riding in the yepp till he/she can hold her head up... Probs more like 4-5 months, then you have the helmet fitting problem... I went through the same thing then had to wait before we could get out and about!
If you go down the cargo bike route I'd think about retro fitting an iso-fix on to the rack then clipping a car seat in and out. something like this:

1 Attachment

This one : http://www.dutchbikebits.com/steco-baby-mee-universal-child-seat-carrier

Then forget about the yepp mini and fire straight to the maximum of your kid is looking like they might be a biggun (mine was only in the mini for abt 2 months).

Yepp recommends ~9 months old for the mini, so at this stage I'm looking at least August next year before they can go on it. My friend runs a bike shop that has a range of kids helmets, and he has two kids of his own, so I have him as a good source of information.

I'd love to get a cargo bike, but they're just too expensive, and I wouldn't trust a trailer or anything like that behind me on the road. Maybe on off-road / car free roads.

Build one of these!

Ha! That's a bit out of my range of bicycle construction.

Double.

Stem, saddle and bars.

Crankset. Sadly the drive side has a gouge in it from a dropped chain.

Pedals, derailleur, wheelset and brakes.

I would reccomend getting a double at the least. In my experience of child 'portaging' the extra weight in relation to your centre of gravity really affects how much effort you can put in. You will have real trouble mashing cranks whilst sitting down, and standing up is a no go, for me at least. There is also the fact that carrying around the best thing you ever made can be incredibly stressful/tiring (traffic, descents etc...) and I think you will be grateful for a wider spread.

I really rate the Yepp seat. My boy loves it.

Word of warning though, you will have knee clearance issues. There's a reason you mostly see these mounted on dutch bikes. It works on my old rigid MTB but I have to ride knees out. I would recommend mocking it up on the bike before building it up for real.

Very good point - I had one on my 62cm Surly LHT and it was a bit of a nightmare. Swapped handle bars to Albatross and that helped with child head clearance but the knees out riding was a pain in the arse for anything more than a jaunt to the shops.

Yeah, I've heard that about the Yepp Mini's. I have shorter legs than torso, but hopefully it's not going to be a huge issue.

I really rate the Yepp seat. My boy loves it.

Word of warning though, you will have knee clearance issues. There's a reason you mostly see these mounted on dutch bikes. It works on my old rigid MTB but I have to ride knees out. I would recommend mocking it up on the bike before building it up for real

This x lots.

Knees out pedalling has been something i've tolerated across 2 bikes, my partner gets on fine on her sit up & beg ridgeback, but impossible on her 456 mtb. Position is everything with the Yepp Mini.

P.s. looking forward to seeing the build progress here :)

I wouldn't trust a trailer or anything like that behind me on the road.

Why not? We went this route for our son because:

1. You can get a buggy that converts to a trailer (or the other way round) so we only have 1 item instead of two and space is a premuim
   
2. Either of us can tow the trailer with a hitch on two bikes
   
3. You can ride into town/shop/park/wherever, lock up your bike and you've got the little 'un in a buggy all ready to go
   
4. We can go out in any weather and baby will be dry and warm. We didn't think it was fair to expect him to put up with the weather just because we fancied a ride
   
5. He can sleep comfortably in it
   
   

There are downsides too, most notably that it adds a lot of drag but I'm not winning any races with my son on board (not winning any races anyway)!

Generally drivers are much better around bike-and-trailer than they are around just me on the bike.

I don't like the idea of having something being towed behind me that isn't that visible, even with a flag etc.

Anyway, umming and ahhing about going with a 7 speed SRAM X3 shifter, rear derailleur and S300 (I think) crankset and buying a new 12-32 cassette as I have all of this, or going with Shimano 9 speed and buying shifters and MTB crankset. The only thing is the SRAM stuff is black and I want silver. Silly, I know. The SRAM is 110bcd as well, so I can go a lot lower than the track cranks.

Double.

Picked up the frame and forks last night. Was a fun trip home, with a few strange looks from passerbys.

Such aero!

Started making sure stuff fit tonight. The v-brakes work on the fork, even with the narrower spacing. Just had to play around with the spacers and swap to Kool Stop salmon slimline pads (which I planned to do anyway). Took out all the screws from the rack mounts on the frame and fork and bottle cage mounts. They all came out reasonably smoothly, so that was a bonus.

As for the frame itself, the paint has seen some better days. Lots of surface rust, paint chips and one little dent on the side of the top tube. Might try and fill that in before when I get it powdercoated. I also want to trace the decals, redraw them and get some new vinyl ones cut. I'll get some photos up soon.

Was thinking about the groupset some more today as well. I think I'm going to run the SRAM X3 7 speed shifter and derailleur I already have, buy a new 12-32t cassette, front derailleur, left shifter and try and find an old silver Shimano MTB triple. I also need a top pull derailleur and SRAM X3 / X4 are pretty easy to find. I'll keep the other Shimano stuff (derailleur and cassette) for another project.

Couple of photos of the frame.