-
I was tempted by the capo when it came up and honestly you've done a far better job than I'd have. It looks sweet. The paint's never not going to be slightly challenging but all in, definitely would ride.
Steamroller build makes me actually want to buy one though, good work.
yoshy-
Thanks Ali, neither are finished yet and both already look better than the pics above (IMO!).
The Steamroller has been great. Maybe it's just nice to have a bike i can lock up and chuck around without worrying about but i really think it rides nicely. If you get one deffo put some decent wheels/tyres on as that makes all the difference. Plan for weekend rides is to see if i can fit some 35c tyres on there with a rear caliper if i want to go S.S instead of fixed. Something like G-one speed or maybe even Compass Barlow if i can get them at a decent price. They'll definitely fit as road fixed but the caliper drops from the bridge a little reducing space. I was gonna stick on my Omniums with Hope B.B but on review the "beater" crankset on there is a Condor Legacy unit with Shimano UN55 which is actually pretty decent and actually suits the bike better than the Sram.
jono84
Update time.
CAAD has been split and sold. Slight regrets but it wasn't getting used and I needed the money to fund other builds.
Iroko has been sold. Was very much looking forward to a year of MTB'ing but personal circumstances have changed and it wasn't going to happen. It's stayed within the forum and maybe/hopefully I'll buy it back one day.
With the money from the CAAD I had a friend build me a wheelset that would work as a track, road fixed or single-speed setup as that's the only riding I plan to do atm. I went for 45mm deep 20/24 FSE carbon road rims on DT Swiss dbl sided track hubs, spokes are similar to CX rays and tyres are GP 4000's found on the forum. In hindsight I'd probably of preferred low profile rims but the main driving point was the spare stock of 45's I was able to get for a good price. Needless to say Martin has done an amazing job with the build and they're lovely to ride.
So now I have three frames (Surly, Capo and Argos), three wheelsets and more than enough bits to build three bikes. I've decided on Surly for commuter, tracklocross and maybe long-hauler single speed. Capo will be my nice commuter, weekend toy and road fixed weapon. The Argos is a bit redundant and I really don't see the point in having three fixed rides for the road. However I'm looking into doing track accreditation at HH to get over the loss of MTBing this year so it may turn into a proper track bike yet.
On the Capo it rides great but looks shit. I stuck a load of my "nice" bits on it and it just ended up looking like a very lardy run of the mill stock build (see pics below). So as I like a challenge I've gone back to the drawing board and will try and do something better with it.
Zen, Omniums, Monkey bars, Fizik R1 saddle and carbon post all heading to classifieds soon...