All City Spaceh̶o̶r̶s̶e̶ Clydesdale

It’s pretty much finished… except it’s too dark and too many mosquitoes to take it for a test ride. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so I’ll take it for a spin. I might wash it first, because it’s also filthy.

I’d like to get the other rear wheel trued so they match a bit more, and some nice matching mudguards, then I’ll say it’s finally completed.

Found these BBB CityGuard mudguards that come in sizes 20” to 28”/700c, that are located in Australia, so I’m going to give them a shot. They say they cover tyres up to 48mm, so I should be okay for the rear, might need to size down the tyre for the front. They look pretty nice as well.

Rear guard picked up today on the way to picking my son up from school. I really hope it fits. The front one was ordered today as well. I’m hoping by the end of next week this bike will be finished*.

*are bikes ever truly finished?

Easiest mudguard install ever. I managed to do it with a 3 year old and almost 6 year old antagonising each other. I wish I had the front one on hand to install that as well. Fits over the 700x42mm rear tyre perfectly. Will definitely have to size down the front tyre to the 20x1.85” tyre I have for the other mudguard though. Used my favourite spacer hack using old v-brake pad spacers to get it nicely aligned at the chainstay bridge. I just need to trim the stays now it’s set up.

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Nice lines on that rear guard. Will there be flapz ?

Nah. I could probably do a smug flap behind the bottom bracket, but these are quite short at the back compared to something like a SKS Longboard, so the flaps would have to be quite long. Might do a front one though. I do have some Buddy Flaps packed away somewhere. I’m also considering using the rear 20” on the front for more coverage if I can. If installation is the same as the rear (and I don’t see why it wouldn’t be), the bracket that attaches to the brake bridge slides along the mudguard. It should be able to attach to the fork crown easily.

On that note, I have to wheel the bike on its rear wheel to get it out of the yard, so the shorter the rear mudguard the better.

Did some digging in my box of crap this morning and found the smaller 1.85” front tyre and this Buddy Flap. I’ll clean it up and may use it on the front mudguard if it fits.

EDIT: Going to be pushing it with the 1.85” tyre and the mudguard. Markings on the tyre say it’s. 48mm tyre and the mudguard only goes up to 48mm, although my crappy analogue calipers show it’s at 45mm. Fingers crossed it fits okay. I might buy some digital calipers today and solve all my problems for this and the Bianchi.

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Nice bike! How does it ride with heavy load on the front?

Used my favourite spacer hack using old v-brake pad spacers to get it nicely aligned

A solid hack I have used on almost every mudguard install!

It rides fine. Well I think it will. It rode fine when the fork was on the Specialized frame.

Went for a 36km ride this afternoon. Rode great. No issues and most importantly no mudguard rubbing. I took the rear wheel I want to use in to my friends shop to be trued, so I’ll swap that over next week. Hub needs to be rebuilt though. Once the front mudguard arrives, bike should be done for now.

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Got some white vinyl to stick to the back of this clear sticker. The basket came with this little removable panel and this sticker fitted perfectly on there.

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The 20” mudguards arrived today. I never thought I’d get around to putting full guards on the front wheel, so this is exciting.

Of course my son is home sick from school today, so I probably won’t install them.

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My son actually fell asleep! Then my daughter woke up.

Tried fitting the guards. The front one fits okay, but it stops pretty short under the basket and at the back of the wheel, the coverage isn’t great. I put the flap on the bottom of guard to get more coverage, but I’d have to cut about 5cm off of it and punch new holes so it doesn’t scrape the ground.

I don’t have photos of the rear on the front, but coverage is a lot better. This goes all the way under the basket and around the wheel closer to the ground. I can also mount it to the bottom of the rack to be more stable as well as there is an eyelet there.

With both of the guards I’m going to have to figure out a way to bend the struts up because the fork has mid fork mounts. On a positive note, clearance over the tyre doesn’t seem to be an issue.

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Could you use DIY flap and just attach something waterproof to the underside of the basket?

I installed the front guard without the flap. It fits okay with the struts bent. It is still very short. I might trim and attach the flap tomorrow, or play around with the rear mudguard on the front again. For now it will do.

The fork crown attachment is also a touch too short to get the guard sitting nice and close to the tyre as well.

I still need to cut the struts on the front and rear guards as well.

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Tried fitting the rear guard to the front again, but it was proving too difficult. Because the part that bolts to the brake bridge on the rear can slide, when mounted to the fork crown, the guard would be able to slide unless I bolted the front to the rack. Right now I can’t be bothered doing that.

I ended up punching two holes in the Buddy Flap (the first was too high and the flap sat too low and scraped on the ground) and attached that to the front guard instead. Provides a really good amount of coverage to keep my feet dry. The guard still stops short under the crate, but If I am going to ride in the rain on this bike, I’ll just put everything in a dry bag in the crate.

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Couple more photos. I reckon I’m pretty much done. My #smugflap is a pretty good length, and the ET stem cap works well for this bike.

I’ll try and take some nicer photos tomorrow.

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Rode to the shops this morning and a used the crate to hold groceries. It rode great, except rear wheel slipped slightly and brake pad is rubbing. Still, it’s nice to have this completed. Just need to work on tyre pressures.

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Dug this PDW Fenderbot out. Drew up a template for drilling and will attach to rear fender this week. It’s not the brightest light, but I like the rear reflector.

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Grocery carrying.

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Looks excellent. Does it have a kickstand plate and if not how did you mount that one, looks like a Pletscher?

Shame the Specialized died as I loved that build but this fork looks great on the All City. Have you noticed any issues with it going from a 26" wheeled bike to a 700c?

No kickstand plate. It’s a Plestscher one that clamps on to the stays.

No issues at all. I rode it 35km yesterday and it was fine. It feels like it did with the original fork.