Current Projects chat and miscellany

Have now kitted out my Planet X 'London Road', with SKS Chromoplastics, Tortec rack, Ortlieb back city rollers, Sparse 'fixed lighting system' lights, Elite cage and even the bell that came with my Canyon. Weighs in at over 12kg without a pannier, but still had it up to 28mph on the commute home last night with one. Great bike - perfect for winter and, with both panniers, this can haul absolutely loads.

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had to make a few little changes to my £275 Wiggle complete. Xt cranks, specialized stem, and a bigger front tyre. I'm absolutely loving it now though, it's easily the best value for money bike I've ever owned.

Love it!

Damn thats awesome. Also available in 650B I see.

How do you rate it? whats the widest tyre you could fit out back?

I think I might have to buy one for some backpacking next year. Screw the Krampus.

That looks great, I just went and checked it out on wiggle, comes in 650b to, bargain!

Yeah, I went for the 29er as I'm not really one for getting airbourne that often and it rolls immensely. I'm sure a 2.5 would fit in the back if not bigger. My only complaint is the stock Hayes brakes are a bit weak, I will probably be changing them at some point.

I've only just seen it and already seriously considering it as i need a proper mtb

The price went way up for a bit but they are £300 at the moment, super bargain.

No large size :(

No any size :(

I'm having a custom frame made, the goal is to have a nice winter fixed commuter and occasional SSCX bike. The builder is recommending 135mm spacing for clearance, but now I'm thinking it might be cool to braze on a derailleur and have a complete franken bike capable of fixed and geared. The only problem is that it seems like such a faff to have to deal with the resulting wider chainline, especially if you want to use track cranks/some track hubs. What should I do?

it seems like such a faff to have to deal with the resulting wider chainline, especially if you want to use track cranks/some track hubs

The chainline won't be a problem if you use track cranks with track hubs, you just have to put a longer axle in the hub, with equal spacing each side the chainline doesn't change.

You could always use road cranks with single chainring in track setup, smaller bcd will help with clearance issues if any, and 3/32 chain is quieter when imperfect chainline. Rear 135mm could set chainstays wider, I could be wrong tho.

This is something I'm perpetually confused about--thanks for clearing it up tester

Now the question is do I go full franken bike and get a derailleur hanger or even vertical dropouts and an eccentric BB?

3/32 chain is quieter when imperfect chainline

Bushingless can be quieter than bushed on bad chainlines, I don't think the difference between 1/8" and 3/32" is anything like as significant as the chain construction.

eccentric BB?

I thought all the cool kids were getting sliding or rocker dropouts rather than EBBs

Yeah, but still you have more chains in 3/32 to choose from. Thanks for the tip.

Found some time to start building my Gios Evolution. Just don't know yet what colour bartape to put on it. Have some white with Gios logo on it but think black might look better. And I need another stem for it (black ITM Eclypse?)

@WimVDD speaking of bar tapes, ( i suggest this for your bike http://www.velosolo.co.uk/cinelliwctape.html )

i did this last night

Toshi leather bar wrap on Nitto B125

Thanks for the tip but don't think the Italian flag or WC-colours would give me relaxing bike rides. ;-)

Nice job you stitched overthere.

definitely white

^^surely the stitching should be on the underside?

It is isn't it.

Look at the shadow on the last picture. The bit not in focus is coming at you.

true... i was assuming they'd be for track so was looking at the drops.
which makes me realise how impractical stitched tape is if you can't ride comfortably on the drops and the tops.

it does look quite classy though!