vp's Cogworks: The Marin and Beyond

Yeah Shimano are the best after that the sturmy and like super old ones are good. But next trend should be building coaster brakes into cool wheels! Wanna get one built into a campy vento and a carbon hoop this year

Only needs a black tyre, then it's showtime.

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So on Tuesday the weather was finally kind enough to let me commute to work (6 degrees and no rain), which is a bit more than 16 km one way. It's a nice route all along the (Delftse) Schie. I would've taken some pics but I had an about 40 km/h headwind so I was quite reluctant to do anything, besides desperately clinging on to the anchor, that is the fully loaded Marin. Then of course the wind changed by the afternoon, so I faced a similarly strong side/headwind all the way back home. Not bad exercise though. The Marin was as good as ever, although the top-heavy backpack on the pannier rack was acting like a sail in the heavy crosswind.

Needless to say these past days I've had a ridiculously excessive internal battle whether I should pick up road cycling again or not. This basically meant windowshopping on Marktplaats and other various platforms for a new bike. Thankfully the remnants of my sanity won for once, so I didn't buy anything yet. However, I actually did need some gear, so I've pulled the trigger on some new bib shorts (I didn't wear one for 10+ years), a merino base layer, and finally a new helmet as the old one's almost 10 years old and has been worn to hell.

And then yeah, the bike thing. I have the Puch sitting behind me upon writing these lines. Technically it's a well-functioning road bike, lovely chromed 531 tubes, solid 105SC groupset, and the whole thing ain't heavy either. I mean the frame's a bit out of alignment, which is nerve wrecking for me, but it really isn't a big deal. I'll be taking it out for a few longer spins, to see what do I like more, cycling, or rambling about bike stuff online. And if it's the former, well... I've been lusting over titanium bikes for 12 years or so... In the meantime, fingers crossed my orders arrives soon and I can ride wearing anything other than jeans or cargo shorts.

Oh, and I took the Spinergy front wheel for a quick ride, it's total madness, the sound of the blades slashing through the air is quite awesome. But it needs some work of course, it has a layer of yellow and another layer of black spray paint on the rim part, that I'll try to remove carefully.

So I've got an appointment for fixing the Puch and they'll also check on the track bike while at it, only two weeks from now.

And in other news...

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Never thought I'd be riding carbon, let alone this type of monstrosity... But it's really great. Time to build some endurance by the summer, I wanna do some longer rides this year.
Needs bdhu and an inline seatpost though, and that's all my tinkering plans with it for now. Photo courtesy of the seller.

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Needs bdhu [...]

During which you will switch to black contact points, right? Right?!

Jokes aside, nice bike. Is it a little bit light?

Ha! And you could de-sticker the rims while you’re at it.

Haha I definitely want to change the brifter hoods to black, but I quite like the saddle. :P And the bike weighs about 8.5 kg with pedals, so not crazy light, but ain't heavy either.

@Sig_Arlecchino That was my first thought when I bought it! Will definitely do it.

White components galore. Nice bike btw, could be a mean machine with low effort

^ Thanks!

First step's done, pic was taken before cleaning the glue residue off the rims. It all came off after some scrubbing and now the bike looks a lot better already.
Seatpost, bar tape, carbon assembly paste and torque wrench ordered.

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Sun's been out today, took the bike for a ride. Luckily my new inline seatpost has arrived just in time. Fit is great. Hopefully my new bar tape arrives soon so I can do some proper bdhu tinkering. Then I think black brifter hoods and maybe a black stem are next.

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Such an improvement already with the destickered wheels. Next step is going to finish this off nicely.

How’s it ride?

Fast, nimble, stiff, so pretty much the opposite of all my other bikes.

Yesterday I finally made the adventure into the den of Rijwielatelier 'De Specialist' aka. Theo. He's one the most fantastic chaps I've ever had the chance to meet and I'll definitely be visting him again.

I took the frame and fork of the Puch, as well as the fork of the track bike, to have them checked. The track fork is perfectly straight (there was some paint residue in the dropouts causing the wheel to sit a bit off-center, now that's fixed).

The Puch's fork was quite twisted (even though the wheel sat straight), and it was most likely involved in a collision sometime in the past. Luckily, the frame is perfectly straight. Theo worked his magic and the fork is like new again. Complete mental relief...

...or not. The victory is bittersweet. The derailleur hanger (which is straight by the way) has a major flaw: the B-screw doesn't sit on it properly, the lip is worn off/doesn't sit at a right angle. Tried two different derailleurs, both have the same issue. I remember seeing this the last time when I was installing the derailleur, but I completely forgot about it since. It doesn't provide a proper support for the B-screw and it's slipping around a bit. It might be okay but I hate the idea of using it like this, so I've rebuilt the bike as single speed until I figure out how to proceed.
Maybe a derailleur hanger extender can be a solution? I think they have quite massive contact points compared to a tiny screw end.

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Flip the screw around so the head is making contact with the hanger. The larger surface of head will give more contact.

Omg. You can't believe how baffled I am that I didn't think about this. I've tried it and it's perfect. Thanks a ton!

Accidentally turned this into a dadbeik/tank again. Gearing is super bodgy, 3x7 STIs, with 2 front chainrings and 6 usable cogs at the rear and to my surprise everything works like an absolute dream. I'll need to find another saddle for this sitting angle though.

I didn't quite like commuting with drop bars. For some reason my brain doesn't let me go slow enough on drop bars, so I ended up being drenched in sweat by the time I was in the office. Hopefully this setup helps with that...

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Tried a Brooks C19 Carved on the Marin, but it appears that my buttocks are just not compatible with any Brooks saddle. The quest continues. I'd gladly take recommendations for a good saddle with a quite upright riding position. Ordered a BBB BSD-72 while at it.

Last piece of the Puch puzzle. Can't wait to shoot some pics of the full build.
Also, amended the thread title.

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I think it looks quite great. Definitely my nicest bike so far. Rocking some vintage MKS pedals at the moment.

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Eternal struggle with sorting out the N-1(-1+1)

The coaster track bike is for sale, and I expect the Pinarello to be listed soon, as it's redundant with the Puch being useable now. The latter might get a set of Sensah 2x7 brifters and compact drops again, will see how it goes.

Then, I've just ordered a Brompton a couple of minutes ago. A Line, the most basic edition. I'll see how it holds up. If I like it, I might upgrade with mudguards and whatnot. Knowing myself it will have numerous titanium parts by autumn.

I went through 4 saddles in the past weeks on the Marin, none of which fit, so that's still in progress. I even measured my sitbone width, got a matching SQlab, it was good in the first 5 kms or so, then it became very uncomfortable very quickly. I might just get a cheap grandma saddle at this point.

There's no cool new projects in the pipline. I really wanna score a cheap retro MTB to play with, but as soon as anything interesting pops up, it's already sold. And it doesn't help, that even rusty, worn to hell RockHoppers are going for over 200 euros nowadays. :P

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The Brompton's great, love it, such a handy little machine, needs some small upgrades though. But I'm absolutely surprised how fast and agile it is.

The Marin's got another cockpit change (this is just a form of obsession at this point), 56 cm wide flat bars with a bit of backsweep, a 80 mm ahead stem and an adapter. Looks okay, feels great, much better than the cruiser bars. Easier to store and get through doorways and steering doesn't feel nearly as twitchy anymore, it's much more stable. I guess this frame geometry appreciates some front load for stability. Oh and it has a fully working 2x7 setup now!

I've been out riding the Puch and it's stellar, even the Flite is comfortable enough with bib shorts, so I'm very happy with it. Decided on trying these Sensah brifters. They feel solid, were easy to install/set up and they work well, albeit their durability is of course questionable. I've got to admit that I've failed the bdhu game miserably this time, will adjust later I guess.

And I've already ridden more this year than any of the past 10 years, so I'm quite happy with that.

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Thanks @Heldring for the recommendation on the Ergotec Country bars, this bike feels like riding a couch now, it's massive fun. I need to level the saddle though. And I might chop a few cms off the bars too.

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Love it ❤️

Thanks!