Jimalex’s 853 Crust Romanceur

@vilms5000 Yes that’s right, I just keyed the stock paint so it’s all sealed with 2 coats of the Spraybike on top. It’s cured for about 3 weeks now too so should be fairly robust. I’ll update on durability once it starts getting ridden.

@vpCogworks Thank you!

Oh nice project!

For seat post I’ve gone for the inline Simworks Froggy which is a rebranded Nitto SP92 and comes in a nice gunmetal that should be a good match to the 600 levers.

1 Attachment

And a carved Brooks Cambium C15 Allweather on top.

1 Attachment

@veLLo Thank you!

I’ve used the exact spray.bike combo on my precursa. Even the same flake colour.

Like you say it’s not a very hard/thin/glossy finish but (at least in my case) it’s fairly durable.

Nice one @miro_o glad to hear it’s holding up for you.

For wheels I was planning on the Hunt 650b Adventure disks. I have the 4 Seasons on another bike and they’ve been great, but Hunt have a 8 week lead time and having the same wheels on different bikes is boring so I started to shop around.

I may get something a bit more special built up in the future, but I happened upon the Fulcrum Rapid Red 5s. Fulcrum’s first gravel offering, well reviewed, well priced and coming in at 1605g the pair, only a hair over the Hunts and lighter than the majority of the competition. They come in the correct axle specification and I think they look pretty awesome too.

At 24 spokes front and rear they won’t be super burly but I don’t plan for any heavy loaded rides or anything too gnarley for this bike in the near future, so they’re a great fit for the moment.

For tires I’ve got Rene Herse Juniper Ridge 48mms with tan walls. I’ve never had Rene Herse tires before but as I’m building a low trail monster rando bike these seemed the perfect choice.

2 Attachments

When I saw the cans of spray.bike and a brand new crust frame I thought “what the fuck is this lunatic playing at?” But you’ve knocked it out the park. Great respray, I am impressed!

@Tonts Ahhhahaha thanks man I appreciate that sentiment all round. :)

What are you thinking in terms of quill stem?

Going to be hard to match the seat post colour.

@Tijs You are correct! It may be that down the line I switch to a black seat post as I’m not going to get the stem and post to match otherwise. For now I’m AOK with them being different colors and the bar and stem being lovely glossy black.

Even so, it is surprisingly tricky to find a black quill stem these days, and the only new one I could source is the Soma Sutro, which fortunately has a good amount of extension and looks good.

1 Attachment

Cool. Other black quill stems I can think of are of course Nitto, and Dia-Compe. Soma one looks solid.

Think Nitto do one, maybe Hubjub or SJS have them.

My Google skills may be failing me but I couldn’t find a black Nitto out there unless it was a daftly aggressive track one, and I will take the Soma over the Dia Compe.

I stand corrected! HubJub do now have black Dynamics in stock but they do not have the extension of the Soma. Still kind of wish I had one for sake of Nitto cohesion though. :) I’ll see if that irks me down the line. Always nice to have a little upgrade for later.

For bars I am going with the Nitto x Crust Shaka 52cm.

1 Attachment

And that brings me up to date. Here’s how the bike is sitting as is.

2 Attachments

Cages are Lezyne Power Cages. They’re great and get close to achieving the unattainable combination of light, strong and cheap. (They’re not that light.)

I really think you smashed it. It's a who's who of hipster gravel rando parts and I mean that in a good way, with some cool old school bits thrown in too.

Also my mum has the same cushions and she is a woman of great taste and it seems you are too.

@oheyitsdrew I have been called a fucking lunatic and a woman of great taste in the first 2 pages of this thread so can only view that as a great success. :)

And yes guilty as charged on hipster parts for sure!

I’ll see if that irks me down the line.

I'll give you something else that'll irk you, to distract you from the seat post: rear tyre logo is on the NDS. ;)

Have to say bike is looking great. The blue and black is a fantastic combo.

@Tijs Gah yes I know it. Will be flipped before sealant is installed.

Nice job. Really like the new paint job. Absolutely nowt wrong with a goodly amount of hipster parts.