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Good stuff. Downtube shifters 4lyfe... both sides tho! I have a road bike with 'brifters' too but when I ride it and get fatigued I find myself clawing ineffectually at the downtube...
Cupcakes-
Ha, I could definitely see myself going that route one day... I've got the rear Dura-Ace shifter sat in my parts box as well as some SRAM bar-ends, they're lovely to use on the road but I worry that I wouldn't be able to get my hands off the bars to reach them on some of the nearby rocky traily stuff
Speaking of your thread has your own bike materialised yet?
frankenbike
Ha, I was sat out on the Meadows just now (in a t-shirt, at 11PM!) - if I'd been a bit quicker off the mark I could have found somewhere nicer to take the picture, but it's too dark now. Left it a bit late with that first picture as well by the looks of it.
I really like how it rides. It's a full blown tourer at heart, obviously, but some of those geometry choices translate well for gravelly stuff - it's got a nice small turning circle (unladen) which is good for rocky stuff, it's stable on downhills and with gear, for some reason they gave it ~60mm BB drop which gives decent clearance on the cranks, and I'm pretty confident it can handle anything that I'm able to ride due to the massive sturdy tubes (the downtube is enormous), and so on.
But the downside of it being a tourer is that it weighs a ton and it's super slow - it's about 1-2 minutes slower full pelt round Arthur's Seat compared to the cheapo aluminium road bike it replaced. But never mind, I've no interest in racing for now and in a year or two I'll probably get myself a fancy carbon road thing when I get a real job.
My other complaints are that I'm not enamoured with the downtube front shifter, which is surprising as I've loved them on other bikes, and that my 650b wheelset is porky and doesn't spin nicely. The DT shifter hasn't really had a proper test ride yet though, so I'll see how I feel after the weekend
Edit: actually now I think about it I think it was your thread that inspired the DT front/brifter rear!
Edit: soz for essay