Kirk Frameworks JKS

Could bigger tyres deal with the road surface?

It's not a tyre pressure thing. Queue wanky comment, but the Seven starts to lose its composure when things get really hairy whereas the Kirk just kinda deals with it.

I think that was more to help improve road buzz killing on the Kirk.

Both bikes look ace, though the Kirk would certainly benefit from a nicer stem, specially one of those nice August ones.

Yeah, this isn't final, but I am pretty happy with the 100mm from a fit perspective so will get something nicer in due course...

And ah yes that makes more sense. I didn't say the road buzz was a bad thing :-) It's just a more lively bike. I already have cushy 30c tyres on here. No real desire to go bigger right now.

Beauty of a bike, absolute classic! Makes me look at my carbon frame with a certain feeling of disdain..

Thank you! And yes, I don't get much joy from looking at carbon bikes.

Agreed with the owner to buy it as of this morning so it's now mine.

Nice! Are you keeping the Seven or is it a one in, one out situation?

Congratulations.

Can I have your place in the build queue?

@ltc Unsure yet. I'm trying to figure out what I gain from keeping it - why would I choose to ride it over this and vice versa.

@revenant-v it was a flexible place so I don't really have a place so to speak. Just a $300 deposit with him that will remain in place if I ever want him to build be something new. But considering I'm paying $1250 for this, I'd struggle to justify that!

Cue

I take it back about the paint - it looks great!

Oh, lol, the paint is so good that I thought you were joking 😅

Rode up and down a mountain this morning. The bike was very good.

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sort of bike which makes one forget all the bad parts of road cycling, it's v pretty

Excellent, congrats on getting such a fantastic frame at such a good price. Hope you get many happy miles out of it.

Thanks!

Oh and here's a geo chart for anyone interested. Stem and saddle height are for the original owner.

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74.3º ST is quite #njs

somehow looks more proportionate IRL than on that CAD.

Also saddle to bar drop is quite low compared to your seven no?

That 80mm BB drop surely is a big part of the planted feel.

It's not really. It's just a the proper angle to accommodate a setback post. A Tarmac in a 52 and 54 has a 74 degree STA with 72.5 and 73 degree HTA, respectively. So it's not unusual.

When we designed the Seven, we were going to go with 75 degrees for a setback post, but I didn't like how steep it looked against the 71 degree HTA, so went 73 degrees for an inline post.

Yep. And chainstay length. And the 'sitting in rather than on top of' feeling.

Ooh, my size, give me a shout when you feel like moving it on ;)

@amey has first dibs to turn it into a shopper biek

He'll be sending it back to Kirk for disc brake mounts and a rework of the rear end to accommodate battery/motor first.

Is there a reason why he built with a 1" steerer? Is it just to use some specific lug? All the Kirk bike I see on the internet use a 1 1/8 stem with a shim and that seem strange on a custom bike

Not strictly true. He builds with 1 1/8" too, if you request it or if your size requires it. Dave believes that 1" is enough for all but the biggest/most powerful of bike riders.

I haven't noticed any detrimental factors as of yet with the 1" headtube. I definitely think it looks better with respect to tube proportions.

I'm sure that not a lot of person can feel the difference from 1" to 1 1/8 and almost no one have Kirk as a race bike. My thought is that if you want a custom bike of that level you "need" a custom 1" stem and not just a shim