Montague Boston - why didn’t I commute during summer...

Always been intrigued by folding bikes, and now that it’s got colder, obviously it’s now that I decide I’m going to commute into work.

No showers at work, and don’t want to leave it outside, so fairly slow commute, after which the bike will be stored in the office.

10.8kg in current form, can’t be having that!
Have some fairly light components to put on, so after strip and rebuild, hope it will end up closer to 8kg.

Wheels are I think 36 spoke beasts with marathons, so will likely change for 32 spoke open pros with gator skins, save about 1kg.
Fork is cromoly and around 1.2kg, so swap to a carbon fork and drop around 700g.

Swap stem, put drop bar and cross top lever, take the rear one off and keep it fixed.

How it looked when it got delivered:

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After work fumble in the dark:

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Never heard of these, are you ever going to fold it up? If not why not get a normal bike?

I’ll fold it up more than my Ritchey breakaway.... so maybe twice!

I’ve got other normal bikes, and my office doesn’t have suitable bike storage, so it’ll stay folded indoors to save space.

They fold like this:

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Aha. Neat!

Cool bike, never heard of them before now...

I’d been on the watch out for them, or an airnimal for a while, was intrigued by the larger wheels rather than going for a Brompton or something similar.

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Temporary bar tape to go. Pro plt -10 stem and sram s900 levers to go on.

Got a decent clearance carbon fork (450g), but need a crown race for caged bearings, which I don’t have in the parts box.

Got some ambrosio pista 165 cranks to go on, but might look a bit odd with a silver chainset, and wondering whether I need to bother with a bash guard like it has at the moment. The guard is currently bashed to shit, so has obviously helped protect the chainring and chain at some point.

Any recommendations for long drop calipers? The ones on at the moment are generic and need some replacement.

TRP make some good ones I think but generally long drop calipers are gonna be a bit shit. Drop doesnt look too far, you could use normal calipers and maybe a bit of filing?

I don’t think the drop is so much the problem (no mudguard mounts for example) more tyre clearance. Got 28mm tyres in at the moment.

I guess I could give normal calipers a go, I wouldn’t want to be filing Sram Red or Duraace calipers though!

Modern shimano calipers will have better crown clearance than long drop calipers. See if you can borrow a 105 5800 to check for fit

EDIT: with zoom and enhance it looks like the pads are right at the top of the caliper, definitely try something modern and shimano for better tyre clearance, I'm 99% sure its something they improved with their last couple of generations. Others might know more than me though

I did read somewhere that some of of the pros used 105 5800 calipers during Roubaix for better tyre clearance so you might have a point.

Silver stronglight 2000 cranks, yes or no?

I have Tektro R539 calipers on my Pacer, currently running 35mm Gravelking Sk tyres, it's tight, but not scary tight.

35s definitely won’t fit my carbon fork, but the cromoly fork it came with is surprisingly spacious.

Will have a go with sram red calipers, got some duraace 7900 to try if they don’t work.

looks like the bashguard is what it rests on when it's folded? so probably useful / essentialish

It’s probably is quite useful, the white bike doesn’t have one, nor does most of the other Montague models though.

Would leave marks on the office floor if you rested it on the chainring and chain all the time!

I needed long drop brake calipers for a Moulton and tried the drop extenders which worked really well. They're lightish and I didn't find any additional flex, but they let me use nicer (lighter) calipers, than I could find with a long drop.

Thats a brilliant little hack, definitely consider that if the calipers don't fit.

Changed bars and levers to Sram s900, and changed stem to debadged Pro PLT 90mm -10.
Tried some spare Campag Véloce brakes, front fits ok, rear doesn’t, due to wheel being bolted a bit to far back.

Also how come veloce brakes have no quick release levers?

Also changed pedals to Shimano m520 SPD

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What's does the wheelbase measure?

Not sure, but it feels quite long. Had to drop to 90mm stem, might need to go shorter even.

Also how come veloce brakes have no quick release levers?

Campagnolo have the quick release on the shifters, not the calliper.

I gathered that was the case, never used Campag before, they came with a bike for parts.

Will need the quick release at least at the front for easily taking out front wheel, so back to the original brakes for now.