Giant bowery evolution

So I'm aware that this isn't as extreme as most of the projects on here but I'm still finding my way. Back in 2009 I was apprehensive to say the least about parking my CAAD9 in central London every day so I bought this Giant. I was originally going to ride fixed but never did. I liked the sugino messenger chainset (though 130 mm bcd! Grr) and the paint and that was it.

After a move back to Norwich via Sydney and Munich I found myself staring at this last summer, I was feeling unsatisfied and taking a photo from the wrong side. It hadn't been used for 5 years apart from one 50 mile ride in 2014 when I ended up riding fixed for 10 miles because that's how long it took the freewheel to unstick itself.

Due to changed circumstances I'm now riding this 20 miles a day on country roads year round and this obviously requires an upgrade program. The fork was rigid, the tyres old, the track bars just plain uncomfortable over the terrible road surfaces. Onwards and upwards then.

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By the way here's how giant says it should have looked when I got it. The Alex rims to their credit have proved fairly indestructible.

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Plan? Could be interesting

Cheap carbon fork and some compact road bars will make it more comfy

(Hear me out, this is going to get better) So my hand was first forced when I broke a thumb on a pothole on my way home on my first day at work, getting too casual. I knew that I had to have some flat bars. After looking at all the options too many times I eventually became exhausted and desperate and just bought some alu Deda Neros. I found after having removed my old bars that it wasn't straightforward to get the old brakes and hoods onto these bars. However I work in an education environment in the country and these seemed appropriate for prodding both cows and youngsters out of the way. When someone senior commented on whether this was a safe arrangement for my brake levers I was forced to change again. In the end I went for sram tt500 brake levers, seen on my commute on a frosty morning by the bull sign.

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Sadly the more I changed the more I could see that this was a fairly old bike and not really up to winter country riding. The chain had never been changed and the freewheel was beginning to make odd noises. Sadly my sugino chain ring was also well and truly blunted and 130 mm bcd didn't give me the most options. I decided to change all 3 at once so went for an izumi 1/8 track chain, velosolo.co.uk chain ring and white industries freewheel. Since then I've added some Surly chain tugs (this photo is more recent). In fact the old dicta freewheel had sort of joined the hub and ruined the thread. Luckily it was a flip flop so I turned it over and attached the white to that side.

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So things had quickly developed spending-wise but I can't change much at once as this is my transport Monday to Friday and my time is limited, I'd cleaned the bike and found a silver coloured section behind the chain which I'd assumed was black and spent big on the white industries freewheel after reading what Charlie the Bikemonger had to say about them. I then got alcohol poisoning and had to cycle twelve miles home through freezing temperatures from the train station. Every vibration shook me nauseous. I resolved to never let this happen again so took the plunge on some carbon the next day in the ribble sale while in bed sipping water. Deda superleggaro seatpost and 3k carbon fork. Highly doubt these carbon components are designed for these conditions but attached to this rigid frame on these awful roads they really make a huge difference.

This project is massively ad-hoc so looks like a load of components forced together rather than some of the beautiful work on here.
Next are new wheels and brakes and have been toying with Sugino 75 dd whether it's noticeably superior or not (Any thoughts on that appreciated).

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The workbench

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Good work bringing this back to life! Your saddle position looks odd, very far forward. Are you compensating for the long reach of the bullhorns? Better to get some risers or compact drops in that case and move the saddle back a bit.

i'd say an inline post and some risers should do the trick if you want to keep the frame. also, 75dd looks real nice and you'll definitely feel the difference after square taper (even i felt it back in the day when i migrated to integrated). price wise there might be cheaper alternatives (sram s300 or omnium) but go for them if you can instead of upgrading every now and then. that way you'll only have to spend once

@hma @russmeyer Thanks for the advice. I changed to a Brookes saddle and will consider the seatpost and bars once my new excellights are built up. Ordered the deda cortissimo stem as well which could be interesting. Maybe I'll replace all the black stuff once I see it with the new wheels (not the fork, never going back to Alu on metal fork).

Frame is never gonna be as beautiful as most but it's a project so I'm going to finish it.

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Level that saddle - there's no way that can be comfortable on your wrists/arms/arse

I'm learning a lot!

Yeah not really sure bull horns were the best choice, as said up thread risers may be best to relieve some pressure from your broken thumb, not sure that bull horns would change your position much from the drops (if anything they will stretch you out further). glad you've sorted the cable routing as that would've been my next bit of advise!

next as said by others would be to level the saddle and maybe replace it with something that suits the bike more.

Your rear brake cable looks very tight at the back, could do with the cable outer being an inch longer

seeing that last pic, you could do the following:

• keep seatpost, send the saddle a bit (~0.5cm) further back
  
• lower saddle by ~1.5cm and level it
  
• buy deda streetissimo bars
  
• slamdatstem
  
• if happy with position, chop steerer
  
  

imo, a cortissimo stem would seriously mess up the front end (both looks and functionality-wise). by keeping the stem, steering properties would stay the same and adding the streetissimo would get your hands to the same height as with the ton of spacers you have (hence the slammage).

also, a really personal opinion: silver rims won't look as good as black ones as the frame is not that classic-looking.

#internetbikefit

+1, all of this.

Gonna try to ride this out tomorrow and see how it feels, looks crazy ugly but not more ugly than before. Thanks for the tip on the streetissimo/slamdatstem. Seen they are cheap on Ribble who claim these bars are the fashion in Paris. Always fancied myself as a sophisticated type so why not.

Yeah silver rims are not ideal and won't go with all the black stuff but I've got silver hubs and never seen them look good with black spokes and rims (maybe I'm wrong?)

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