Rad-ndo bikes

I'm injured and bored, so I thought I'd make one of these threads for my bikes and projects. Herein lie 650b conversions, small chainrings, dynamos, silvery bits, steel frames, Jan Heine acolyting, world tour fantasising, and on rare occasions, actual audax riding. I move frequently, so I keep to 3 bikes max: road(+), offroad, and fixed.

See moodboard attached.

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I built up the fixed wheel this morning for this raleigh I bought a while ago. Someone planted alu nipples in my nipple stash. I broke two of those and had to saw off two spokes before I realised something was awry. I suspect the LBS.
Anyhow, I almost got rid of this frame twice before making peace with the fact that I'd just buy another to replace it, so I decided to commit. I feel a distinct lack of horizontal top tube and fixed in my life, this should take care of it.

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The canti studs will have to go, and I hope either the centerpulls or the long tektros will be good enough. The crown brake mount is threaded on both sides, and the stay bridge in the back is threaded and only on one side, which makes the caliper situation more complicated. I'll hold off drilling for now since I can mount the front centerpull with a threaded bolt.

Stays will have to get crimped for sure, 42c should fit then. I need to find a vice somewhere.

Yes! This looks intriguing.

It should come out as a fixed reinterpretation of this green thing that got a frame transplant recently (rip). Don't have good pics of it with the new frame tho, and it's currently at a friends until my back is healthy enough to ride.

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Subbed.

Why remove canti studs and not just fit cantis?

they're made for 700, i'm trying to fit 650b

Didn't quite manage the dimpling, the clamp is too unstable.

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The stem arrived, tho, and looks great.

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I'll need to drill the crown after all. That, as well as modding the stays, will set me back a bit, because I need help with tools.

I actually like this bars up saddle down aesthetic.

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Green bike looked nice on the road!

While I figure out what to do with the grey raleigh, I got the pink raleigh back from my friend's place. The back didn't break after an hour of riding, luckily. This is a machine made for timely arriving at checkpoints and snacking while riding

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Some deets

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Didn't get to tweak the fit or even put proper bartape before hurting my back, so now I'm turning it into a dadbike. Lowkey hope is that mustache bars will actually be nice to ride, even kinda fast. That would be a vibe.

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It did, loved that frame. However, it had its problems, it needed all of the 78mm of reach, so the brakes were never very good. I also suspected that the 58 tt was a touch too large. So, when the fork cracked, I jumped on a mtb frame because I thought the brake reach situation would be better.

glad to see the pink bike got its other canti

I found riding a moustache bar to be similar to riding on the hoods of a drop bar.
You might need to adjust the stem length though.
And consider angling the ends down.

Almost looks like a proper bike now

Looks kinda cool actually
Am I supple enough?

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So, cleverly hidden behind that bell is a stem adapter, which looks pretty fugly and doesn't allow super high stem position. I could get a goose neck stem but most of the ones I see are fugly too. I'm thinking threadless is the way to go long term.

Now the decision tree is to either a) get a £30 fork from sjs, b) get a nice thorn fork off ebay, or c) wait for a bargain thorn frame because that kinda seems where the vibes are leading me. These options are in ascending order of money and commitment. I always get off on the idea of 'worl tour ready' or 'just doesn't break' bikes so thorn has been on my mind.

Agreed. Looks really good to me!

d) sell pink bike idk

Some progress on the grey raleigh. Found a vice for the stays, I could've been bolder on the driveside, but I think it should work. There's a bit more room on the other side. Might add another few extra mm.
Brake hole drilled.
Headset is being weird. Like five bearings all but flew out when I unscrewed the cup, must've fucked something up. Needs careful inspection, maybe over the weekend.

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Back to drops for the pink guy.
I need more height in the bars but the only tall 31.8 clamp stem around is that horrid adjustable one?

Serendipitously, minutes after realising the height problem, a bid for 42cm 25.4 nitto randonneur bars was finishing up, so I scooped those. I have a narrower (31.8) nitto randos and love them. Need a stem next, then the fit should finally be fine. Just need to guesstimate the reach, probably minimal.

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