The Two Bicycles of Varonha.

Nope. Previous version was silver components, obviously this is the blacked out version.

@jontea and I are playing a long-term game of ping pong with the all city

I'll get my people to speak to your people to organise visiting rights and time together in the holidays.

I’ll be honest I’m a little confused. Is this three near identical bikes now?

What confuses you?
One 700x32 mudguarded road bike, for winter duties and commuting
One 650bx48 chubby road bike, for dry weather use
One frameset in a box under my bed, awaiting for funds to permit some minor alterations and a fresh coat of powder.
So none of them are near identical.

I didn’t realise the one under the bed wasn’t still built. Was that not to replace the all city?

My people have clearly stated that the bike collection has become a monster that I can no longer control

Winston 1 has gone under the bed today.
Yes, it did replace the Mr Pink, but @Cupcakes was selling it, I had first dibs (pretty much as soon as I sold it to him).
The Mr Pink now replaces Winston 1, the clear coat is getting very tatty, and peeling around bolt holes and dropouts, so I'm taking this opportunity to have some alterations done to the frame, and to get a coloured powder coat done.

It controls us, we do not control it!

Looks super cool with DT shifters. I reckon mine will go 1x with a DT shifter once the nice bits get moved over to my new frame. Lovely stuff.

Ta. Downtube shifters are fantastic, these are 7900 ones, so the rear is indexed, but will probably go full friction at some point in the not to distant.

What's the advantage of going friction (besides able to run 11s with the Dia-Compe set)? I am debating to go back to 8s for my DT shifters, not just because I have them in the drawer already, but also with DT I don't think I would want to shift as often as I would do with STI. I would just compensate with a difference cadence. What is your opinion on DT with 10s/11s?

Never tried it with 11 speed, I guess once you get use to how much to move the lever it'll feel the same no matter how many cogs on your cassette.
I don't know that there is an advantage, apart from maybe being able to jump the whole cassette in one smoother motion than the indexed (but how often do you do that), oh and the endless trim possibilities for nice quiet pedalling.

I’ve got 10 speed friction. The ‘clickiness’ of the indexed downtube shifters annoyed me - something about them being mounted on a resonant tube seemed to make them extra loud.

With friction, you obviously never have to worry about indexing so pretty much any combination of derailleurs (providing they are the correct speed) will work, and continue to work as cables stretch etc.

They just feel lovely is about how I’d sum it up. Also, with more gears (10 speed) you pretty much never end up between gears anyway. @jontea just get some nice suntour power control dt shifters (or Riv make a more modern equivalent) with a ratchet and swap them on. No going back. Very ‘zen’, just like freshly installed brklss on fixed gears back in the day…

I should add, it’s probably more important to get some decent downtube shifters with more gears - anything without a ratchet is likely to slip a little which, while never an issue with less speeds, tends to chuck you down a gear which is very disheartening on a difficult climb!

ones lust for friction shifting in 2022 is undoubtedly a psycho sensory thing which you experience or you don't. a perversion if you will, almost definatately psycho sexual too.

Just reading psycho sexual made me think of PWEI. Your input is always gladly received in this thread. ♥️

@crow I will get friction at some point for the All City, love it on the pink Winston bike. I get what you mean about the noise from the tubes when shifting with indexed downtube shifters. I'll probably get another set of the Dia Compe ENE shifters, they are rather lovely, and have the ratchet mechanism.

https://youtu.be/JDFm-w8qQ-Q

Ah! Didn’t realise Winston Mk2 was already friction. In that case there’s always the argument for keeping both as they are - another tangible and important difference between the two bikes IMO.

But yes, v clicky. Like you’re telling the whole world that you are changing gear.

I think the most important difference between Winston 2 and the Mr Pink is that one is pink and one is green/white, that's enough of a difference to mean I don't have similar bikes (which for some reason confuses people, which confuses me, as we're on a bike forum chock full of people with similar bikes).

Every time I stand and look at my bikes I’m confused. I’ve tried to figure out which one I don’t need but apparently there is a minor enough difference between clearing 32 and 37c that I need 5.

I know, it's the minor details that make them so different. Think 3 will be my limit though.

Blah blah blah project.
Side and roof on, hopefully making the door tomorrow. Bit of roofing felt and pallet wood cladding, and I'll have a bike store.
Love working with bits of timber on a sunny day.

Was me again with the Aye up mate. You were in the pain cave climbing Lamaload, as I was dropping down.

Thought it was you, did say hi, through gritted teeth, bit of a hilly one today.
We did brickworks, Side End Lane, Windgather/Pyms, Jenkins Chapel, Lamaload, Macc Forest, then home via Gawsworth and Marton.
Another fantastic day to be out n about.
You go far?