MAJs gay bikes [she’s in her fitness era]

@Simba mv recommended this too, after some digging i found some cool bolt taps where you drill a pilot hole and hammer one of these in and can get it out with a spanner? seems less dangerous.

@hippy what if your whole post was seat post collars?

pondering the new bike after a week of riding

i put some first impressions back on Thursday from the forest and before the bolt incident, since then i've done a fair bit more mixed terrain riding and have had time to reflect due to being back at work.

I thought i'd list the good, the bad, the quirky for the bike, me and the whole experience.

the bad

1) custom bikes suck,

drawing on ameyism, i'd like to think i probably had one of the best experiences i could by a builder who kept me updated more than my own line manager in their respective roles, who built the bike exactly right and to a great degree of competence as we can all see. it's not to say i don't love the end result, for that is clear, it's that the process is such i just wish the bike i wanted already existed and anyone looking to go down this path should be comfortable with some scepticism.

I think it's less custom bikes suck, but more i wish there was greater diversity in market offerings with a smaller focus on constant growth/ standards/ optimisation. i don't really care for "that's what the market demands arguments!!!" for that is boring, and there is a booming cottage industry of smaller brands showing there is a market for different/ quirky and wonderful bikes. i hope long term we see more bikes like this, built for fun, elegance, to make use of old parts or just because. smaller brands like crust, rivendell, stidsisland etc give some hope here

2) 2" tyres suck on road

crowd boos, shouts we told you so, other sheepishly nod in agreement as they have experienced similar

they really do, it's lethargic and maybe no slower really, all those people you see on rivendales? lying to us. My tyres are not exactly premium but even so, i don't think it would improve much when a chelsea tractor blasts past and you feel like you're in sludge.

3) geometry is fake, well at least to your average Joline,

i've gone beyond the realm of otp options here, much to MV's labour trying to get those lugs to fit, it's pretty much as short in wheelbase and tall as it can be to fit me, a 6ft woman. and only doing all this could i tell it apart from any other steel bike noticeably.

what i notice far more is the ride quality from the weight and tyres, as i have done on all my previous bikes, light and skinny tyres feels nippy on road, heavy and big tyre feels great off road. really all there is to it.

a lot of people seem to spend a lot of time sweating the details, and maybe in edge cases/ certain use cases it's worthwhile, but here i just feel "get a bike and learn its quirks, decide if you mind weight or not". similarly to the first point, most bikes you buy otp are fine for most jobs/people no matter what we have sold to us.

the good

1) i got what i wanted

i literally could not have purchased this elsewhere, except maybe a rivendale hungerwhatever? maybe i could have found similar with discs, and i could definitely find a similar riding bike elsewhere if i was less neurotic

but as for swb, tall, 29r rim brake steel hybrid clunker which doesn't look bad? nah, nowhere

2) the bike is truly exceptional off road.

it feels so intuitive and safe with the bigger tyres and flat bars, with the fun/ sketchy feeling anyone who's ridden a cross bike as an mtb knows. some of my favourite riding moments have been taking a cross bike over stuff i shouldn't, this bike has that but with the added buffer of control and ability to do bigger/ gnarlier sections

moments over the last week i've truly "sent it" and the bike has carried me through it all, anyone who has ridden with me knows i can barely get my bike through a chicane without putting a foot down, and have the bike handling of a small child. even with that in mind i have done some truly steep/ rutty stuff in trainers and a sun hat.

away from that extreme however, on the tamer flatter bridal paths, it is also a delight. i'm somewhat of a sensitive soul to comfort/ pain/ annoyance so i've found stuff like my kepler/caad/pomp a chore after a day in the saddle and end up just taking roads back home. the extra tire volume here definitely helps smooths out the trail and leaves me feeling better for longer.

3) it's really nice to have a bike not designed for performance

it's a bike which does its job well sure, but so much of cycling is informed by racing/ performance/ marginal gains now and in all honesty it doesn't resonate with me. i find it droll and tiring, the products which are informed by it always seem lack lustre and for someone else.

it's nice to be on a bike where things are almost antithetical to what makes a good bike, it has a fair amount toe overlap because it's so snub nosed, it has a bouncy front end because its so high, it has extra weight because it has a bar stuck in it which makes no difference, the seat tube is 3 layers thick just for cosmetics and doesn't work as well. all these things are negatives, objectively but without them, the bike wouldn't be the bike it is. and i think i prefer the end result than less toe overlap and more convenient clamp.

4) my design worked, it's robust and simple to service

i wanted a bike which was easy to build and something bombproof, i got this. yeah yeah i had loads of issues but that was my inexperience, not the bikes. drop headset, square taper and 10 speed mtb shifting with full cables, quick release and rim brakes? so easy me, a literal moron could do it with the help of some internet assistance.

the dropouts work great with a shimano closed cam and it provides a good modular platform for a whole host of builds in the future, drop bars, single speed, carbon fork, hub brakes you name it. like a big pompino.

the quirky

1) the seat clamp

this still keeps me up at night, i still hear that PING, and every creak and groan makes me think it's happening again. it was definitely user error and its been fine since. maybe in a few months i will have forgotten about it and can admire the seat cluster in its full glory

2) the paint

rattle can is good! mv done a great job here, i've knocked some paint off due to various mechanicals and so forth but the primer and base he applied hasn't budged. maybe not right for your sunday best, but if you have an older workpersons bike, a couple of coats of montanna can definitely freshen it up!

3) rim brakes

do i wish i had got discs? nah not at all, rim brakes are fine and im never going to ride in the rain because i don't need to, nor do i doubt stopping if i'm caught in it.

what i do hate tho is how much better the pivot spring system of paul brakes is, like it's not even close. why do other brands not do this????!?! maybe dia compe does, but in all honesty the arm tension springs on shimano sucks, it's a hassle to set up, i could see myself getting motolites long term.

4) the bike sucks on road.....but that's good....actually?

since discovering this i've put way more time into actually mapping a route to see where i could cut through, meander or avoid a road, even just for a taste of gravel, and i have to say, my rides are better for it. i'm a lazy mapper who just drops pins at heart so this mechanical limitation has been good motivation.

more importantly however, it has made me really appreciate my pompino build, which is great on the road round here. riding over to the next town to get my chainring fixed it really stood out. I was worried i'd become a bit of a "1 bike andy" after this and slowly steal/ sell parts to upgrade the homer, like i've often done. but in all honesty? after a week of riding the mv, i'm hankering to get out on the pomp, and that's good! it's a fantastic bike!!! it might get slicks to really nail it into a role which would be nice.

tldr? custom bikes do suck but i'm just built different

look forward to reading these first impressions in 6 months to see if i still agree