Cherubim Pista

Ironically or sadly enough, the first components I bothered to acquire/dig up were a pair of Shimano R600 shifters from eBay and my trust set of Nitto M106 bars...

So, the question next is wheels. I have, really fortunately, a pair of silver Royce track hubs from a previous build that I can re-use. The question really what rims to use. I’m looking for silver rims: the default non-Japanese non-old fashioned choices are probably the HPlusSon pairing of TB14 or Archetype. The new Velocity Quill doesn’t appear to be widely available yet. What I’m curious about are other made-in-Taiwan OEM rims that may actually be pretty darn good but I have no awareness about.

Kinlin XC-279 can be had in silver, wide, moderately deep, cheap and stiff.

+1 on the Kinlin rims. Really strong/stiff rims. I got mine from racotec.de

Thanks, totally forgot about Kinlin! I'll wander down to my bike shop and see which brand of rims they can source and/or recommend to build beyond the above options.

Meanwhile, Cherubim have told me they can get hold of one of those Cherubim-branded Nitto Pearl stems for me:

It's not a red vending machine in terms of coolness, but I'll take it. Fortunately there was a Cherubim bike on CycleEXIF today for me to get an idea of what it (the stem) looks like:

http://www.cycleexif.com/sprinkle-angel-dust-cherubim-r2

And also the polished lugs...

That bike is so nice! Stem is very cool as well. When do you expect this frame to arrive?

Badass fade on the stays dude. BAD.

I've been fantasizing about V dark red into saffron yellow fades, and seeing the Cherubim red faded has galvanised me.

I always try to keep track of the field, but newish summary of alloy rims:

http://dcrwheels.co.uk/custom-wheelsets/which-rim/

and an older (3 years) summary from Fairwheel:

http://blog.fairwheelbikes.com/reviews-and-testing/alloy-rim-roundup/

I remembered that I need a 24-28 rim combo to match my hubs in silver so that rules out all the HPlusSon rims and makes one of the Kinlins the clear option.

So finding any silver rims that have a 24 hole drilling was harder than I thought. My LBS only had the Kinlin rims in black, but before ordering from Europe I contacted David Hunt at DCR Wheels to see what he had. And then he reminded me that he had his own Taiwan-sourced rimset:

23mm external width, 18mm internal width, 23.5mm deep, 430g

A new project of mine is offering alloy rims as well as carbon and hubs. They are a really good all round rim with a nice finish. They have come out of a factory in Taiwan, capable of working with 6066-T6 alloy – naturally stronger than the traditional 6061 used in most rims. They do have a welded joint and can take a tubeless tyre. The spoke beds have been tested to over 300kgf, which is a very key feature for me, it means I can run tensions high to keep the wheels stiff and strong and the spokes reliable. Sapim spokes love high tensions, some rims, do not. There are no decals on this rim. I will, potentially, be offering them in the future. However for now they are a plain, shot blasted and anodised finish; understated quality.

That'll do, that'll do nicely...

David from DCR is a great guy and his wheel builds are faultless. Already have two from him and awaiting a third set. Highly recommended and his advice was right every time.
And that is one damn fine Cherubim, mega jealous! Can't wait to see it built. T

Amen to that, David is really great and his website is such a treasure trove of information. A right proper nerd (like myself) could spend a lot of time on there!

I dropped by the Donhou workshop to pick up my hubs to be re-used for the new set of wheels...

And then dropped them off under the Nagasawas and Makinos of SBC Cycles!

The parts collection continues...

Fabric bar tape, Campagnolo Centaur BB, Ultegra 6800 front brake (I guess I get marked down for having a brake and a non-silver caliper at that, but damn, Ultegra 6800...)

NITTO!

So it seems that my British hubs and Italian saddle (Concor) are so far the only successful rebellion against a "standard" Japanese build.

There are a million bigger problems in the UK at the moment and I've been struggling to get excited about this over the last couple of days, but the frame has arrived and is now awaiting a customs payment before delivery can commence.

I expect the chromed lugs could be a bit love-it-or-leave-it and so far I'm still not 100% convinced myself (I'm around "seven out of ten"), but it is a Cherubim staple and "it seemed like a good idea at the time".

Japanese mobile phone preview photo:

I've never been a fan of chrome lugs, but I think it looks good on this and it's gonna look really good with the silver finishing kit. Too bad you are not fully excited about it!

I'll wait for the full build, I'll fully admit to being unexcited about everything over the last few days.

Those chrome lugs are spot on with that frame color.

The build is slowly coming together at SBC...

https://instagram.com/p/BHaMEe0DnHV/

... but it turns out I got sent the wrong chainring so now it's at least 3-4 days of waiting for a Sugino 75 48T to turn up.

Oh well........

Full build spoiler on there profile ;)

Dat seat-tube cluster

Full build spoiler on there profile ;)

From the perspective of that photo, I think considerable saddle/seatpost tweaking might be required. I always forget how relatively short the rails on the Concor saddle are!

Any updates?

So the bike was built up in last August and ridden for a couple of months. I went road tripping around Texas during the American election and on returning to London, things were wetter, greyer and colder than ever. `the last thing I felt like doing was riding it and the Cherubim was put away for winter. Free from that new bike honeymoon euphoria, I had time to reflect on what really worked and didn’t.

I never really got on with the original cockpit: Nitto M106 Chinook bars and those Shimano levers. I guess I’m used to the more modern flat bar-to-lever transitions and anything that was ‘period/locale’ correct just didn’t feel right. Plus I couldn’t quite get to the levers while riding in the drops. And I just never got on with the Kashimax and Concor saddles that I tried for the position that i needed.

I couldn’t find decently priced Campy Record single speed levers and I guess the ‘purity’ of the build had already been compromised by the Ultra 6800 front brake and the Royce wheel set (yeah, but what a compromise), so last week, I broke down and went with what I knew: TRP RRL levers and a flatter Regal-E Urban Performance saddle.

Several observations about the frame. Some of the little ornamental decorative details are probably quite marmite, but I’m firmly in the love camp. If chromed lugs and hearts and Cherubim angels aren’t your thing, well it’s not my problem. More so than any of my bikes, this feels more of an elaborate object; I normally don’t give a shit but this is the one bike that doesn’t get locked up or ridden when wet. Fortunately, there are already a couple of tiny scratches from when I did lock it up and ride it in the rain, so I’m over it. The paint is rich and lustrous but not super durable I think. I like the black hex/crossthatch fade a lot.

I rebuilt the cockpit today, put on the new saddle, tweaked the fit positioning and took it for a shakedown ride this afternoon. The sun was out, finally!.

So even though it’s made out of Kaisei 8630, the bike is heavier than most of my stable, probably missing the benefit of a carbon fork. And because I’m riding with clips, straps and sneakers, as opposed to my usual Look pedals and stiff-soled cycling shoes, the power transfer and acceleration is more muted and restrained. But once the bike is up to speed, especially with the updated components, it is basically the smoothest ride in my stable. It’s hard to describe in words, it doesn’t glide over the road but it seems to flow through it. The boys at SBC Cycles seem to pick up on this when they build it up, the first thing they asked me after my first ride was something like “it was really smooth right?”.

I can ride and brake in the drops quite comfortably now. It’s plenty responsive (I have other bikes with steeper angles) and I think I can safely say after the equipment change, I’m liking the experience a lot more. I always forget that it usually takes me many months, if not years, to finally tweak everything to my satisfaction on a particular frame. My favourite ride is my Donhou road bike and I’ve been fiddling away on that thing for almost 5 years now. I guess the Cherubim is only at the start of that process. If there is a question now, it is how much more ‘aggressive’ I get with my positioning on the frame and whether I want to switch to clipless pedals.

Probably the most fun I had was on the shakedown ride, going through Old Street roundabout when a fellow bike nerd called David pulled up next to me and we got into a wide-ranging conversation all the way down to Holborn. We talked about keirin racing, the frame building course he took with Mark Reilly, London builders and cycling across the length of Japan. The sun was shining, the days are getting longer and warmer, the Cherubim felt a lot better and I was having a discussion about fillet brazing, lugged bottom brackets and Japanese vending machines with an enthusiastic stranger while we glided through the traffic. Things were definitely looking up.

Bravo sir

Bravo! Wonderful frame. Flying over to Japan end od June...shall not walk into this shop EVER! :)