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@frankenbike
Been absolutely destroying my knees with this thing for the last week. Here's a picture from a couple of days ago.
The knee pain is partly due to very shoddy braking which is in turn due to absolutely horrible rims. I'm going to try to find a new front wheel, since the one I've got is ancient, and will true the back one, which should allow me to sort the brakes out. Brake levers feel awful to ride from the hoods because the rubber hoods are loose and it's hard to get a good grip on them. But they work in the drops.
I complained a lot about the position before... It's not totally horrible, to be honest. Quite aggressive but feels good from the tops. I might get some little cross levers to pop on there and I think that'd feel great.
Have got a pair of replacement chainrings here that need to go on. The first is a 53t (bye knees) which should sort the chain tension in the current fixie incarnation (I am forced to ride it with a chain tensioner at the moment, as otherwise the chain popped off every kilometre, but chain tensioners and fixed is bad according to @mdcc_tester and logic). The other is a 42t which will go in the middle position and be used as a 1x chainring. I just need to get a cassette - might "borrow" an 11-32 off my spare road bike wheelset for now - and repair a spare X7 derailleur that I've got sat around. I've got a SL500 shifter that can go in the bar end.
I was looking back through the thread and spotted this comment from @Batt and am now sort of pondering swapping out some parts to make it look decent... I'd have to swap out black/silver parts so they all match and probably spray the fork black on the cheap. And obviously swap the bar tape and saddle for spares that are not quite so hideous. I'd leave the frame in it's current funky sun-bleached yellow obviously.
I've also taken the rack off as that was basically only there to act as a "saddle" so that I could get to the shop to have the seattube measured. Side note; do not ride a bike sat on the rack, it's no fun.
One more thing; the headset is junk so I'll replace that at some point.