Gideon's bike life - Genesis, Graham Weigh, Cinelli, Land Shark & Ritchey

Congratulations (on the dad bit).

Looks really good with these wheels! Looking forward to this

@jontea Cheers!

@kjlem Pretty chuffed with them, for less than a hundred quid I really can't complain.

Some more bits arrived in the post today, so managed to finish off the fancy hybrid. I say finished, but that probably won't be the case until I stick some mudguards on it, the weather really is horrendous at the moment!

Drivechain/pedals probably needs a rethink, but this will do for now. Found all the bits necessary in box I'd completely forgotten about - off the Ritchey before I made it GRX.

Quite looking forward to riding this, haven't ridden a geared bike with flat bars in probably a decade.

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not sure if this has been covered but how did you strip the Rotor cranks? Looks brilliant

Can't take credit for the stripping I'm afraid! @.gaz. did all the work! He covers it in his thread.

Fitted some mudguards & went for a little bit of trial-by-fire with laptop in tow (on-call sucks). Stayed relatively clean & didn't get clogged up until the last leafy bit on the way home, so count that a win.

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That's really really good. I miss my old Rockhopper and have been thinking about going down the throw loads of cash at an old MTB route but this makes way more sense.

What guards? It looks good! I always fancy doing something like this but known I'd just get wound up at the 1 hand position

@jono84 It's a proper mish-mash, but that's what 70% parts-bin componentry will get you. Not had a sensible-ish bike like this in fifteen years, it's quite fun & surprisingly capable off road too!

@yoshy The mudguards are a set of Kinesis Fend Off Wide. Never set up proper mudguards before but these weren't bad to get working without rattling. I'd have ultimately preferred drop bars, but at the same time, I'm really only ever expecting to ride this bike around the city (despite the recent excursion), so don't really need many more hand positions. Price difference between levers & drop bar brakes played a role too - for a low-cost build it made sense.

Looks great, especially with the guards fitted, best colour CdF in my opinion too!
The second pic isn’t up near the top of Adel woods by the jumps is it?

I've spent a lot of time and kilometers on handlebars that weren't drops. And if you get something like the Rivendell/Nitto Albatross or Ritchey Kyote you'll end up with space to move you hands around for longer rides.
Ergon grips can also really help getting comfortable on flatter bars.

@zigbit A friend had a nice turquoise one I always liked the look of, but the rarity of this paint job is more interesting. Mine's pretty ratty these days, & have fully embraced that with the stickers!

Also, very well identified! Yeah, is that mud pit on the edge of the field by the gold course up to King Lane. Just about managed to ride across it, it's nearly always like this except for about a week in summer.

@MisterMikkel Good shout, I'll probably switch to Ergon grips down the line, does look better for the palm. All good advice, I remember doing a century fixed with wide bars & the worst bit was my wrists afterwards.

Nothing wrong with a ratty frame! Still fancy a CdF at some point.

I spent a lot of afternoons up there on the mtb when I was a student in Leeds a few years ago, weird how it's stuck in my head and still looks so familiar.

I'm in the process of figuring out a good cockpit setup for my bullitt, so a lot of thought goes into handlebars and grips at the moment.
For me at least, it's important to distribute pressure along this line to avoid pain and hot spots.
It does vary with bar height and width as well as stem length, so a lot of trial and error.
I've found that ergon GA3 on flat bar feels similar to 20-30 degree sweep of the bars

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For sure it's doable, I've had a fair bit of success with fake jones bars for example, but on flattish straightish bars like this I've never managed

I did consider some more swept bars, but played it safe with some cheapo flatter ones. May revisit down the line.

Trying to plow through decorating at the moment (if nothing else it's a way of keeping warm with the heating down low). 25kg of lining paper from Wickes in the next valley over was a challenge, but the sensible bike did admirably. Think I was over the front rack's weight spec which is a very dicey game to play, but it was only cheap.

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I miss having a CDF.

Bike looks great.

Getting shot of my GT frame if anyone is interested.

Edit: didn't hang around for long!

Good bike cleaning day - plenty of wind to dry them off - so took a series of portraits of the current stable.

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Swapped stem & bars on the Croix de Fer today - more upright position with more sweep in the bars. Hoping to solve some wrist pain I've been having lately which flat bikes don't help with. Reckon the main cause of the injury is the bouldering though.

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All bangers! The CDF is looking great.

@ltc Cheers!

Tried the 650b wheels from the CdF on the Ritchey on a gravelly ride yesterday. Clearance on the chainstays is very tight, but it was pretty dry out so was fine. Have to say, I was surprised by how much more confidence inspiring the extra 12mm of tyre width is! Does have me thinking about a frame more suited to them, hmm.

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sounds like what you need is a ritchey outback!

Ha, possibly. I do really enjoy the Swiss Cross, & the sunset fade Outback they do looks lush.

Maybe just extend the crimp on the chainstays?