mustard's projects...

Then this turned up, I hadn't really been looking for a full bike as I've such a glut of parts but it's cheap enough to mess about with and I'll recoup some of the cost when I sell off parts I don't need.

I'm going to collect it this evening (sellers pic) - for once a bike I fancied on ebay was collection only and local enough that I can walk to collect it.

It's a Cotic Escapade and, from what I've been reading, the BB on this older model is a little on the high side and the 9mm through axle fork might be a bit of a ball ache. I'm not very keen on the track end/geared combination either as the first thing I'm going to do is fit mudguards.

So, in no particular order/timescale, these are my plans:

1. fit mudguards
   
2. Switch bars to something narrower (I've plenty of options in the house) and stem to suit my position.
   
3. move bottle cages as low as possible in the frame
   
4. Switch to 1x (I'll just use current 50t for now and see how I get on)
   
5. fit mtb rear mech (to get rid of the cable loop and only if I stick with SRAM)
   
6. Change the fork - I've a Kinesis DC37 lying around but it's 5mm longer a-c than the frame comes with so i'm not sure about it.
   
   

Then there are a couple of bigger changes that I'll conside if I like how the frame rides enough to invest in them

1. make drouppouts vertical - I've an idea in my head about brazing a piece in to fill the track end then cutting out a vertical dropout, this may be a stupid idea. The alternative would be to get 142x12 dropouts brazed/wended in.
   and at the same time
   
2. lower bb/potentially tapered head tube.
   
   

I've no idea how many of these will come to fruition or if this will magically morph into a completely different frame but I'll try to keep my progress documented for posterity.