Slow cooked organic projects (gravé, touring, functional bikes, bla bla)

Will strongly consider it for the next season, unless I happen to find the perfect metal frame for cheap this winter. The 8Bar Mitte v2 is interesting, but I think I would like some fancier tubing than generic CrMo.

Both the Gekko and the Marin is in my hands now, but the Kona got away. That’s fine tho’, I’ll just build up the Gekko as a functional beater.

So now I need some forks. There is next to none information about the Gekko available on the web, but the seller told it had a 100 mm travel fork when he got it.

The front is a bit lower than the Marin, which was designed around 80 to 100 mm travel, so I guess the Gekko was originally made for 60 to 80 mm forks. It will probably need a rigid fork in the ballpark of 420 mm to 440 mm A2C. Any suggestions for cheap, decent fork with rim brake studs? The On-One 26er fork looks cool, but lacks mounts for racks and fenders, which is a bummer.

For the Marin, I think the Ogre (447 mm A2C) or Soma CrMo (457 mm A2C) forks may get the job done.

The colour is popping more IRL.

Not sure if I love the decals or if it should get a respray and retro style decals.

Interesting triangular tubing.

Decent fork with ALL the mounts.
Not that cheap though.

Yeah, the Barnacle is a lovely fork, but I think it’s 400 mm A2C might be too short, messing with the Gekko’s geo.

An unused pair of Magura HS11 hydro rim brakes showed up on my front door this morning. Someone sold them for cheap, so I thought “why not?”. Will be put on the Gekko.

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Nearly done sourcing parts for the Gekko.

Got it a Troll fork. Decals started to deteriorate when cleaning the frame ... Not too happy with that, but I guess it will help keeping the thiefs away.

Some Mavic X221/Deore LX wheels and Holy Rollers rubber. Moto bars and BMX stem (dead heavy stuff). Rest of the parts will be from the parts bin.


Also found this Cannondale M900 frame that I had to get. DIY paint job by the previous owner (which is a shame, as it was originally purple). Love the finish of the welds and the frame it self tho'. Not sure what to do with it yet, perhaps repaint it and convince a friend that it’s the perfect adventure bike for her.

The process are going slow these days, doesn't have too much time for tinkering. Tried to restore the paint on the Gekko a bit, and installed the headset, fork and some other parts. Starting to look like something.

Need to lower the bars, and get some black grips.

As mentioned earlier, I'm looking to replace the CFR-696 with a modern steel frame. I think I'll sell the CFR-696 this spring and use the Cross-Check until I get my hands on a new frame. Playing with the idea of giving the Cross-Check some Squid inspired marble paint. It currently have a pearl beige powdercoat, which I'll keep as the baselayer, but need some ideas to fun colors to use for the marble effect. Camo colors? Blue and pink? Something else?