vp's Cogworks: The Marin and Beyond

It’s a cool idea but yeah the price, considering an adaptor is around a tenner!

Utterly delightful

Isn't that right? I bought mine for 3 GBP worth of monies here, and it works like a charm! I understand the hate behind them, as they really aren't aesthetically pleasing.

@Matisse
Thanks bud, appreciate it! It really is, and what's more important, my lady loves it too!

Arrived in NL safe and sound, so did the bike, and it's still a blast to ride it. Upgrading components once we've settled in properly...

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Should be comfy. Also hunting for a cheap C15.

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Stuff arrived. Comfy according to a short test ride. :) Wanted to get a Nitto quill bullmoose, but it's sold out everywhere, and honestly this cockpit does the job for way less. Just need to get some nicer looking spacers.

Brakes feel like pulling a rubber band through a bowl of mashed potatoes, albeit they do still bite like a mofo. Seems like the XT STIs and the mini Vs don't mix all that well.

Looks good. Kind of how I’ve tried to set my Giants cockpit up. Need to get some new grips though after I managed to pull one right of the end of the bars while riding along yesterday 😬

Mini vs are designed for short pull levers I think. You could put short pull flat bar levers on.

Thansk! Saw you went with the OG v2, I originally wanted that too, but it would've been kinda pricy with the shipping. This Aerowing II is similar in size and shape though, so no regrets.

These are short pull levers, originally designed for cantis. It's just not a good pairing it seems, but well, I can still stop with ease so no real issue.

Might be worth getting a set of the avid levers that can be adjusted? Not tried them but it sounds like you’d be able to tweak them to work a bit better possibly.

Plan is going 1x9 anyways, which means I can ditch these STIs and will get a set of proper, long arm V-brakes and levers for them. But this is a long term project, maybe next year sometime. :)
In the meanwhile I'll probably put together a dirt cheap fixie skidder just for the sake of it.

Weather won't let me take a pic outside. :(

Looks comfy af. What size are the tyres?

Ta, it is! 700x38C Maxxis Overdrives.

Thinking about a Wald 1372, will it fit these OS clamp weird aero thingy bars on the Marin? Or do I go with a generic basket at the rear...

I run a Wald 1392 (and previously a 1372) with on On One OGs on my commuter, didn't have any problems. At one point had some barends in the bends (think discount version of @t0-ster suicide knob bars) which slightly limited cargo capabilities.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback! Do you run a front rack, or is it installed with the stock mounts?

Just the stock mount, haven't had any problems with them. max load I carried was 20 kg of potatoes in the 1392, handling was a bit questionable, but the basket held up just fine. I'd recommend to switch out the stock nuts with lock nuts though as I've had them come loose a couple times.

Cheers! I probably won't be loading anything more than 10 kilos anyways, but I feel a front basket will come real handy.

Bike's heaps of fun and very comfy, just need to replace the saddle for something more sensible for this sitting angle.

I have 1372s on two of my bikes. One of them is fitted with the struts to the dropout eyelets and the other one is attached to the lowrider braze-ons. The latter set-up feels significantly stiffer but it might also be due to the thicker forkblades and ahead stem on that bike.

Thanks for your input! I'll stick with the stock setup then for starters. Hopefully sometime next month the bike will be rocking a set of mudguards along with the basket.

Some ride pics from today:

So, in the past month I've been wondering what to build next. Retro MTBs aren't very common in the online marketplaces here (unsurprisingly, given there's not too many mountains either).
However, there's a lot, and I mean a lot of vintage road bikes. Now this gravelbeik thingy has stuck in my head for the past years, but the Marin is already a gravelbeik. Well, sort of, it's a dadbike now...

...which means I need a fast bike.

I've always been a fan of neo-retro steel roadies. You know, modern-ish groupset, old frame, all that stuff. Few things have been holding me back, lack of budget and ridiculously overpriced components in Hungary. Things are different here, people sell stuff for reasonable prices and there's also a lot more options to choose from.

Now I don't want anything funky or fancy. I want English threads, 26.8-27.2 seatpost diameter, and tyre clearence for 25C.

There was one more thing that I really wanted: compact drops. 1" threaded forks make difficult. 31.8 clamp stems for 1" forks are ridiculously expensive, and 25.4 compact drops are basically nonexistent - at least that's what I though, right until @Neddos posted my holy grail of drop bars.

So now the hunt begins. This will be a slow burner. I'll to find a whole bike with a 2x7/8 groupset, and go Shimergo first, as I still have my Campag brifters from the Marin. Then I guess I'll go with R7000, or something similar.

Nice, I love a good neo-retro. My road bike is a 90s Dolan built ribble with a bit of a hodge podge of DA 7800, with 105 10 speed shifters. Everything works really nicely together and it doesn’t really feel like I’m riding a ‘retro’ bike (possibly the 1” quill stem feels a little noodly sometimes but I suspect that’s partially psychological).

Your Ribble is one of the finest examples of what I aim for. :) I love the aesthetics of such a build!