ALBINI - Self-Obsessed and CX-y (The SSCX / Tracklocross bike I DON’T need)

Look at using modern MX bars with a shim for the 31.8 stem. They come in 28.6, loads of options from OEM stuff that people have removed. A much cheaper alternative to the Stooge Moto.

Great project, it's like a Pompino v4 with better tyre clearance. Looking forward to the paint job!

I happened upon a cool Azonic stem that was natively 28.6mm so I got an alloy 28.6mm moto bar off eBay and bent it on the first ride.

I came to the conclusion that the stem was way narrower than the clamp on a motorbike would be and that was to blame for the failure. Could also have been to do with the bar being a cheap unbranded one, think it was oem like you’ve been looking at. Maybe a decent renthal bar would be ok.

Stem is quite a bit narrower than a Moto clamp you are right but the gauge of the material there should be consistent through so enough to clamp on. Wall thickness tends to be greater on moto bars as well as the impact tends to be so much greater so in theory they should be stronger? I used 22.2mm moto bars for a while with a BMX stem fine.

Yeah I’ve used 22.2mm steel moto bars no problem and that’s what I make myself, I was surprised I’d bent the alloy ones, especially as I’d not done anything that I reckoned would have been damaging.

I’m still tossing up between what bar and stem.

Considering getting a cheap 25.4 stem, a shim and 22.2mm moto bars. If I don’t like the bars, I’ll go risers. I don’t think I can do the short BMX stem.

Unrelated, I discovered tonight that the frame takes a 29x2.0 Maxxis Grifter on narrow-ish rims.

Decent clearance on the front, not too bad on the back, and the rear wheel was half way in the track ends.

When I bought the frame I was hoping I’d be okay with 700x38. Was not expecting to be able to get a tyre this big in there.

Some pics with the 29x2.0. The rear wheel is slightly out of true too and it still didn’t rub.

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Also dug out this Fujita seamless saddle. Just need to shave all the pilling off of it and clean up the rails, but it’s NJS!

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Any closer to paint choices??

Not yet. Everything has been kind of put on hold for the time being. I have also ordered an electric Yuba Mundo longtail dad bike, so that has taken priority.

A few things though. Found the stem I had in my parts bin. Wish it didn’t have the giant PRO logo on the faceplate, but I’ll paint over it.

I also have secured some black Sim Works GetAround bars secondhand as well, so that’s exciting.

Other not so exciting parts are some black V2 Oury’s and a knock off Spurcycle bell. Questioning as to whether I buy a black chainring as well. I thought I had a silver 42t that would fit, but I’m not sure.

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After a flash of inspiration this morning, I think I want to try something like this for the paint.

https://theradavist.com/brian-baylis-painted-this-insane-splatter-two-tone-holland-track-bike/

I don’t know about the splatter, but definitely the two tone.

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Well I have finally found some inspiration for this build. Life has been pretty non-stop, I’ve been customising my Yuba Mundo dad bike and cold wet weather has given me little motivation for this.

Went to the local bike recycling place at lunch today and picked this stem up for $5. Might strip the logos off, respray it and cut some new vinyl decals and clear coat it.

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Feeling impatient, and would love to build this up ASAP, but I need to get the frame stripped and painted before I can really do anything. Bars and stem look great though.

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Looks like a fun bike! I'm considering pivoting from gears to SS on the sort of cruise/gravely thing im building at the moment, so interested to se how this turns out.

Finally taking the frame in to get blasted on Wednesday. I think I might make some Albini decals for it. Two reasons, firstly, my late wife’s road bike was an Albini. We had no idea who the maker was, but it’s cool. I always loved that bike. So it’d be cool to make some matching decals and I think the classic looking decals would look rad with the paint. Secondly, I’m a huge fan of Steve Albini’s bands Big Black and Shellac.

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Nice touch. Sorry to hear of your loss.

I absolutely love Shellac too. Curiously, all the Shellac stuff has been taken down from Spotify :(

Thank you.

In regards to Shellac, apparently it’s to do with Joe Rogan.

Ah wasn't aware of this Rogan related boycott. Awesome that Albini has joined in. Luckily I have my vinyl 😉

I can't imagine Steve Albini being exactly keen on his music being on Spotify, given his general views on the music industry.

It’s on all the other services though (Tidal, Apple, etc).

There’s also this article from 2014.

https://www.stereogum.com/1678835/steve-albini-thinks-the-internet-solved-the-problem-with-music/news/

And this from earlier this year.

https://mobile.twitter.com/electricalwsop/status/1488245883594547201

Long story short is he still hates major record labels and doesn’t really hate streaming services.

interesting, that's me looking like an ass.

i'd have thought they just fuck over the artist in a new and slightly different way.

Haha.

It’s all good.

Anyway, gave the bars a quick touch up with some black and clear spray paint. They were a bit scuffed and have come up nice. I need to do the stem next, but I’m going to make new Ritchey decals as well.

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Frame stripped to be blasted tomorrow.

Might try and make the stem decals today as well.

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I figured seeing that it’s getting stripped tomorrow I’d experiment / test with masking the frame to do the half/half paint. It wasn’t as hard as I thought, but it’s going to be tricking to get it perfectly centred I think I’ll be figuring out some sort of guide. I also used blue masking tape, which bled a tiny bit. I think when it comes to the proper painting, I’ll upgrade to a better tape that provides a crisper edge. You can see how it’s not perfect. This was also done in a few minutes though.

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Another photo of the down tube. You can see how the the line isn’t as crisp as it should be. I’m going to try this Frog tape and see if that works better. Also not sure what colour I’m going to do the seat tube. I like the idea of a contrasting colour, but I don’t want it to be exactly the same. I also like the multicoloured dots on that track frame I posted. I might do some other squiggly shapes though.

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