Hedging against future inflation rises.

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  • Oh god same, same

    Although actually more. In part because I already had bought wheels, and mainly because I wanted to pick each part.

  • Just found it and this is now one of my favourite threads.

  • Me before before buying the bike: 650b is stupid, just get 700c, the added rollover compensates for any smaller airchamber suspension.

    Me after buying the bike but before riding the bike: 650b is stupid but I guess it looks cooler and that's the main thing.

    Me after riding the bike on a bike path for 20 minutes: Hhehehe.....monsta truk...


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  • i love this for you, looks great

  • very nice

    if you feel like there is a LOT of overlap between this and neutrino, I am ready

  • I think I need bigger tyres for mine!

  • Early morning ride. Bigxtop bag is alright, might give me enough clearance at the bottom to mount my light but I do feel the cables are a bit crushed. That's kind of the price of entry for handlebar bags though.

    I think I can finesse contact points a too, 46cm butanos probably a bit wide for me, could switch to 44 or 42, whichever comes up first. Partially a comfort thing and partially I think I just find the gravel bro wide arm silhouette kind of embarrassing.


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  • Have taken the bike with me on a family trip to Cornwall and managed a few outings. GRX 10 speed gearing (46-30 with an 11-36 on the back) feels good, possibly bolstered by slightly smaller diameter wheels [Citation needed]. I would appreciate a lower bottom gear if I was loaded but I've bought all this crap now so I'm unlikely to change it. The bigxtop bag also works really well, very impressed with it and surprised it doesn't get more press, my only feedback would be that the side pockets should be stretchy mesh instead of regular fabric.


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  • Evening ride that got out of control and off track. I need to fit my light.


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  • Last week riding around Cornwall I nearly started to believe that expensive rims, tyres, steel frames really made a difference. The whole bike felt like it just wanted to keep going.

    But I now realise this feeling of endless energy was just caused by the fact I hadn't been to the gym in a week and all bikes actually ride the same.

    I would not say that I find these tyres at 20 PSI particularly revelatory on baked hard east anglian bridleways compared to say, 700x38 g ones. Also the low BB on this does make more technical and tussocky trails quite frightening. I'd like to try some 700x48 tyres at some point, which should also raise the BB a little. If they turn out to be better I guess I'll have to buy another wheelset :|

  • Getting my money's worth from the internal routing here. Big x top bag is very cool but can't find a way to attach it to this rack and not enough space when it's fitted to use the dynamo light on the mount I have so running it like this for the moment.

    I think a combination of one of those bumper type stem mounted racks and a different light mount would allow me to go "rackless" but I kind of hate those thingums. Would rather use the front rack and find a different bag. I'll move the bigxtop bag to my mountain bike.


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  • Front light working OK (with the usual caveats caused by positioning to the side of the wheel) Rear is just a battery light. Not sure if I'll bother wiring the rear SON in. Feels like there's no fool proof place to put it.

    Rode straight after work over to Newmarket along the Icknield Way last night. About 42km, dinner stop half way. I've only heard bad things about the Icknield way but this stretch treated us well, the gravelly descent into Newmarket with the sun's afterglow on the horizon was a real highlight. Train back home was 7 pounds. 23 PSI or so in the tyres. Felt like there might have been a creak from somewhere, not sure. Hope it's not the partially threaded bottom bracket.


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  • Feels like there's no fool proof place to put it

    Ah the joys of having a permanent rear rack on the commuter - perfect. Non-racked or bemudguarded bikes though, which may or may not have a saddle encumbrance of some kind - trickier.

  • great bike and thread. mount the rear light on the seatstay bridge? best option and often overlooked. full visibility + saddle bag clearance. brompton branded mount also comes in black https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/lighting-spares/brompton-bracket-for-rear-lamp-le-versions-no-rack/

  • @si_mon628 @zincfingers

    MMM both good ideas. Still not really sure what to do but no real rush on it. I think the brompton mount could be good considering most of the time I'm not running a big seatpack. I guess I could put it on there with enough slack then move it around when luggage changes.

    On the other hand I could just... use the battery powered one. Rear lights basically last forever and I only ever tour for 4 days and never do so away from civilisation.

  • of course battery powered lights are totally sufficient for the rear. but they're also totally sufficient for the front too......

  • Sadly I must agree. I guess I just got carried away with this bike, kind of wanted to see what it would be like to have something "fully loaded".

    That said, I wish there were more STVO battery lights around.

  • Took the PDF bike on an eerie ride in Breckland, following the Peddars way from Kings Lynn to Thetford. Whole route was sticky with the decayed feeling of late summer. Blackberries all burned up amongst overflowing nests of brambles, crab apples rotting in verges. We hardly saw anyone outside villages and even the villages seemed deserted of foot traffic, just a few thin lipped SUV drivers picking their way around whole flocks of road killed grouse. On the trails the insectoid shapes of fallen trees peeked out from the forest shadow and the trees that were still standing all seemed to be prematurely losing their leaves. Every farm looked abandoned, even the new, clean ones just looked like they had been abandoned more recently. Swaffham, our resupply point is somewhere I've travelled through before, always with a feeling of unease. To put it simply, I don't find the locals very friendly and on this visit they were true to form. But we made good progress and when dusk fell we were picking our way through heavily canopied single track next to a pig farm. There's nothing to kid yourself with about a pig farm. They don't lay eggs or grow wool or even produce milk. There's really only one reason for a pig to be farmed and from the way they stood around barely moving, it felt like the pigs themselves knew it. Around then we must have disturbed a roost of jackdaws, because although the canopy blocked our view of the sky all of a sudden the air was filled with their creaking song, getting louder and louder as we scurried to get away. By the time we arrived in Thetford and our phones began shutting off one after another, we both began to feel more than slightly harrowed. The kebab shop had never heard of falafel, only accepted cash and sold shit chips which we ate, grudgingly on the train home. A good ride, but not one I'm in a rush to do again.

    On a technical level, I packed 1.75L of water, which was probably overkill given the resupply points. Tyre pressure was 22psi, which seemed about right. I've dropped to 19 before but there wasn't much bumpy terrain on this route. The bike has a creak which seems to sound when I press down on the non drive side pedal. I swapped the saddle from the aesthetic C17 to a selle italia sport gel, which looks rank and has a stupid name, but seems to be more comfortable to me. Feels like this goes in the face of ideas about padded saddles, but maybe it's because I don't wear padded shorts when I ride. I need to find a 27.5 tube to bring as a spare on longer rides like this.


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  • Very moody, enjoyed that a lot

  • Blackberries all burned up amongst overflowing nests of brambles, crab
    apples rotting in verges. We hardly saw anyone outside villages and
    even the villages seemed deserted of foot traffic, just a few thin
    lipped SUV drivers picking their way around whole flocks of road
    killed grouse.

    Bleak. Love the “thin lipped SUV drivers”.

    Glad it has all worked out with the bike, looking good.

    I do like the look of that bigxtop bag, I’ve been thinking of similar but I can’t abide the idea of the bag resting against cables. I am looking for some kind of foam block that would help. I know you can get this type, to move a bag out from the bars at the top:
    https://carradice.co.uk/shop/accessories/handlebar-spacers-for-saddlebags/

    Maybe a stack of those between head tube and back of bag would work. As you say, though, there is then the dynamo light position to content with. I would get away with it on the bike in question but probably not with something as tall as the bigxtop.

  • I really like the bigxtop bag. It deserves far more hype than it gets. The way it manages to hang is true wizardry and I love the rando style flap. The only things I would change about is is stretchy mesh pockets. That said it's going to be replaced with something that will suit the rack a bit better.

    In the current set up it's moved away with blocks so it just about leans on the rack but that was me messing around, it doesn't need a rack at all. If you route your cables so that they're coming out of the bottom of the bars and go straight down it won't bump against them severely because of the way it's designed.

    I think the best solution to avoid cables being squashed is something like the restrap bumper bar, depending on your taste for that kind of thing. Haven't tried but it looks like it would work.

  • Bonus pic that I didn't include because it wrecked my gloomy narrative but there was two types of free pears on the route also.


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  • Handsome bike, handsome rider

  • Nice clothing palette, and very atmospheric write up.

    also

    I nearly started to believe that expensive rims, tyres, steel frames
    really made a difference. The whole bike felt like it just wanted to
    keep going.

    But I now realise this feeling of endless energy was just caused by
    the fact I hadn't been to the gym in a week and all bikes actually
    ride the same.

    😯

    I have some things to try on mine to try and get the most out of it, and some propaganda to get together for my thread. I quite liked 650x47 Teravail cannonballs - they were the TLE tanwall version. they seemed to roll on tarmac quite well.

    Did you try mounting the light (on the bracket) directly to the fork leg?

    interested to see what you go with for the front rack. And I like seeing you post rides in here so nice one

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Hedging against future inflation rises.

Posted by Avatar for Belagerent @Belagerent

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