Purple stuff

20.5cm but I'm not planning to sell them atm that is unless there's a mutually beneficial swap & sell for sth interesting...

Cheers, will keep this updated. I'm a touring newbie, never set up cantilever brakes and don't know much about panniers etc so I'll be thankful for input and ideas from the forum hivemind :)

such as?

Don't have anything specific in mind, like I said, I'm not planning to sell them atm but if a good opportunity comes up I might part with them.
p.s. they're at my parents place atm anyway, so I won't be using or trading them within the next 1-2 months. I'll post here when I'm in the market for a dealio.

I picked up the Bottecchia today and rode it home for 20km through woods on some trails, on gravel and tarmac. It felt so nice that I rode another 10k when I arrived at home. Excuse the hideous saddle, that's how I got it.

3 Attachments

Looks glorious, wish I was there!

Took it out for another evening round on various surfaces. The 37c tyres are eye opening. It's so much fun to ride in the woods on trails and I'm really impressed by it's climbing abilities. Bought a classic black flite today to replace the fugly and horribly uncomfortable saddle. Couple more pics

4 Attachments

looks lovely!

Threw on an interim flite

better pic. Obv, the flite looks miles better than the previous saddle but I still think it's a little bit to slim for this bike. Might swap it with a turbo from one of my trackbikes, would probably be mutually benefical.

1 Attachment

Bought some cheap yellow grips as an interim solution before I'll convert it to drop bars.

1 Attachment

Had my doubts initially but I'm starting to like the look

2 Attachments

The Concorde is so smooth and I'm starting to appreciate the riser bars more and more when commuting in the summer heat. It's a pity that I have to put it up for sale due to lack of space :/

4 Attachments

After a long search, I finally found a reasonably priced 111mm 120/70 campa spindle to get a proper chainline with track cranks without having to change the french BB threading on the vanhaelen. This means that I can put on my spare starfish cranks. Recently, there was a bike on saadl with a starfish chainring combo that I really liked. Since I already have a classy looking version of the cranks on the Gitane, i would like to go for something different on the vanhaelen. Any recommendations for a chainring like that? Must be 130bcd, preferably 3/32 and 50-53t. Black might look cool as well... Thanks in advance!

3 Attachments

Yeh that does look cool! I guess you'd want to search for an 'aero' chainring,

Might look good if it was solid silver or black....

Also way too expensive.

Rotor is probably out of my price range. Aren't newer chainrings narrower than 3/32? Maybe I should change the drive train to 1/8, Gebhard has some reasonably priced solid chainrings in 130bcd...

Turbo or Flite? I think the flite looks a little bit better but I think I'll throw it on the vanhaelen or the gitane instead.
p.s. I know I need to get rid of that spoke protector, I'll have the tools here next week.

2 Attachments

Both saddles look great on it tbh, lovely machine!

I prefer the turbo. So glad to hear that the spoke protector is going :D

Okay, the turbo it is then, another friend voted for the turbo and it probably makes more sense given that the weight savings of the flite are negligible on the bottechia with mtb tubing.

I sold the Concorde and found some ratty DA cranks for a good price on here. I also ordered a 52t aero chainring from china for the starfish so now I have to decide whether I'll put the mavic or the da cranks on the vanhaelen. I'll probably put the starfish on first and get a nice wheelset at some point for a v2 with da cranks. In terms of smiles/cost ratio the vanhaelen is probably my favourite ride.

3 Attachments

Enjoy the cranks bro!

Cheers! The epoxy stains came off fairly easy btw. I'll have to sort the rest of the drive train before I throw 'em on so it might take a while.

Finally got rid of the ugly spoke protector:

1 Attachment

And I'm eyeing up a wheelset for the vanhaelen with DA hubs laced to anodized mavic open pros. Will see if I can get them...