(Typical) building my girlfriend a bike thread.

Naturally my girlfriend didnt want a bike she was quite happy living her life how it was/is. Over the past few months ive tried to convince her otherwise.
since buying her a rapha bottle (cus it was in the sale and in one of her favourite colours) we've now gone from "i dont even want a bike" to "i wont be riding it in london its too scary" to "i wont ride it unless its pink".

So im attempting to 1 up amey and building a bike not around a bike part but around a fancy pants rapha bottle.

A Frame came along on here conveniently located, and conveniently cheap.

A raleigh "gemini 18" frame set, from the limited info available on google about this frame it seems to be an early hybrid type, it has clearance for big 700c tyres (probably upto around 42c I guess) and so thats what it will get. hopefully gumwalls!

At the moment I have.

1. A bottle
   
2. A bottle cage (my research shows that this should save us 2 pages worth of bottle cage discussion)
   
3. A frameset
   
4. A headset (i actually have 2 i'll see which i prefer)
   
5. A set of canti brakes (help me ive never set these up before)
   
6. bars, a few options, probably some sweept back town bars, whatever she finds comfy.
   
7. A can of Spray.bike in a soft pink or "suprebe" as their site lists it.
   
   

So the project begins, I collected the frame a while back, it looks pretty good, 531 tubing so its not a total bag of shit. ironically though having started the build around a bottle it doesn't have bottle cage mounts. So opinions on the best way to clamp a cage on will be appreciated.

If you paint it anyways, can you not get one brazed on?

Sounds like a cool project! Re the bottlecage mounts, you could build a rear mounted bottle cage holder like this: https://www.lfgss.com/comments/13602338/

Don't worry, there's always the potential for 34 pages of argument about bar tape if you really want to 1 up amey.

If you're going to paint it, I'd go for getting some bottle bosses put in from someone like this especially for £20
Alternatively Topeak do something like this:

But it's not pretty

i have a similar project on the go that also has no bottle cage mounts (old Peugeot step-through frame, though without the +1 of building it around a bidon..)

i'm looking at a few options:

1) allows you to attach it to most finishing kit spots
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SKS-Adapter-bottle-water-plastic/dp/B0045HY85M

2) attaches to down tube or seat tube
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SKS-Adapter-Anywhere-Topcage-11231/dp/B0144NTZOU/

3) with the right saddle, you can go all TT and stick one of these cheap frames behind your (her) bum
https://www.amazon.co.uk/IGEMY-Bicycle-Double-Bottle-Adapter/dp/B01M8Q9F91/

4) you could get the frame drilled for mounts

incidentally, if you're looking for swept bars, i just removed one from my project - i'll try get pics and dimensions for you if you're interested

I think i'm going to get it drilled, its just placement thats the issue, naturally I would put them on the Downtube but it has a frame pump boss/stop/hanger(?) and so i'd like to also buy a frame pump for it (and if it doesn't seem too complicated) spray it to match the frame for extra matchy matchy points.

@ootinni thanks, i have a couple of options for bars in the parts bin. but if you're giving them away i'm definitely interested, the ones i have now have quite a bit of rise and i reckon this will look better a bit flatter.

@Sig_Arlecchino rear mount is out of the question as I don't think it'll be as easy for her in use and also saddlebags and stuff can be attached there if we ever need them

Thanks for all the reccomendations guys, but they are all rather unsightly the Velo orange clips might be my best option as then i can play around with placement.

Or I should stop pussyfooting around it and just decide where its going and make her live with the consequences.

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No bar tape in the plans atm, grips and mtb style levers.

@snottyotter is the go-to guy for all canti related questions

Unless hes passed out, face down on a table (ofcourse)

I dont necessarily have any questions yet, im going to use a fork mounted cable stop to reduce judder (though as i found out on the weekend this will mean drilling the crown as it currently only has a mudguard mount.

Effort

Did a bit of prep on the frame and forks over the weekend, I'm really impatient which would be one of the reasons why i probably wont end up having cage bosses added.

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Yes but the reward for that effort is having brakes that apparently dont feel like a sack of shit.

Bring it to Walton on Thames and I will put some nutserts in the frame.

Cage bosses are mostly nutserts of one type or another rather than brazed in fittings.

Are they available in 700c? Thought they were 26 or 650 for some reason.

Exactly. 650b

I was clueless with cantis until I read Sheldon's anachronistic article on them, seems to pretty much have all you need to know.

I mean the article looks pretty hefty but give yourself 20 minutes to understand it and you'll be flying over the bars with sweet sweet high mechanical advantage

Also my old Raleigh Randonneur uses one of those headset hangers (although it's not pressed steel like @PhilDAS suggestion) and it's totally fine with the 90kgs of bike + me + touring load going down 20% inclines.

Enlighten yourself with Sheldon and be gone with worries of ye olde fabled cable judder

650b yo

My answer, even then, would be avoid cantis, and don't drink all day without eating.

Yeah but the cantis are in place for 700c, i'm guessing there isnt enough movement to make them 650, also i think that sould actually reduce the clearance on the frame in this case as the frame is dimpled on the chainstays.

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Well i did not know they were a thing, but they also would not work

Why wouldn't they