In Which I Attempt to Build a Sensible Road Bike + other bike content

So recently (since around the beginning of this year) I have mostly been enjoying two things: cycling long distances, and cycling up hills.
(see diagram 1)

(diagram 1)

When I built my current road bike, however, I just wanted to ride fast around the city (n.b. I am not fast) and it doesn't quite work with my current priorities, either functionally or more importantly ideologically.
I am also not able to htfu enough to handle the cycling up hills bit fixed, or at least not the ones I want to ride up.

So I need a more sensible road bike. There are three things I want:

1. A decent low gear for long hard climbs (currently I have a stupid 1x setup but I am old and weak and don't want to do long stretches of double digit grades on a hardman gear)
   
2. A better way of carrying luggage, preferably a small front rack (in particular I need to carry a bike bag on long rides to get on trains; I already have a suitable rack and could also use it for shopping, light fishing, carrying cool stuff I found, etc.)
   
3. Clearance for 28mm tires, even 32mm if possible tho this is unlikely (almost everywhere I want to ride is paved, but the most interesting back roads can be in very poor condition and often have random mountain debris on them; there is something of a consesus here that (assuming tubeless and low-ish pressure) this is the sweet spot for fast-on-good-roads + won't-die-or-pinch-flat-on-shit-roads)
   
   

I could solve 1. and 2. on my current bike by fitting a smaller chainring and/or bigger cassette and getting a big saddle bag but... I don't want to do either of those things.
There are modern frames that would definitely work but a) they are all boring and b) I am permanently broke af, so that's not going to happen.
Why not get a gravel bike, or if b) is an issue an old randonneur or touring frame? Because I don't want any of those bikes. I want a proper road bike, and also to have my cake and eat it.

My initial plan was to start by putting drops back on this, switching the rack for the Nitto M-18 I have, and seeing if I could squeeze 32mm tires in (it clears 28mm with no problem and the fork at least will definitely take 32mm).

Easy, and not thread worthy.
Unfortunately shortly after coming up with this plan I crashed the above bike (it was actually mostly not my fault).

At first I thought the frame was OK, but after careful observation of the facts and some thorough calculations I determined that I definitely bent it.
(And also that conversely one of my fingers no longer bends all the way.)

It's not just the fork, the top tube and down tube are kinked.
In fact the fork seems fine but I don't see how this could be possible.

Good bye soldier/鋼の戦士よ

Anyway this month I for some reason got a raise, and it will be back dated till April, so that gives me enough cash to buy a similar steel frame and basically come out even (/minus one finger).

The remaining problem is that >56 frames are not all that common in Japan and I don't want to buy from overseas and have to wait, so there is a high chance of impulse buying something that does not fit my brief.
The couple of frames I'm considering rn will definitely not clear 28mm tires, for example.
Also I already nearly bought a lo pro so lol🤷

Unless I have a serious case of being sensible I think I'm going to buy a frame next week. In the meantime I might post something about my other road bike and the ride that inspired this.
To be continued dot dot dot

Strong start, shame about the crash & bending your old frame!

I want a proper road bike, and also to have my cake and eat it.

On board with this credo.

Sorry about the finger.

~Bonus Content~

Here are some words and pictures about the rides that inspired this.
I did a four day trip with longish rides at the ends and two days off the bike in the middle.

Neither of them went as planned, possibly because I prepared for them mostly by reading Manyoshu poetry, whereas with hindsight I now realise I should have upped my mileage before and got a lot more practice doing long climbs. It was impossible to have known this at the time tho so I won't dwell on it.

As such I have decided to place the blame on the bike which I rode, and thus this thread.
If I could have carried more stuff, and/or, had a climbing gear without fitting a 36t cassette which I hate, it might have worked out differently.
Also I met a guy from New Zealand who was touring Japan in the most chill way possible, and, I thought his way sounded more fun actually. Hi Ben if you for some reason see this, that was a good talk we had.
(Ben is definitely not on here because he was not a massive nerd)

I started out in the middle of the night and took the easiest route through the mountains to save my legs. The night riding was quite interesting as I passed through a lot of weird desolate spaces on the outskirts of towns and by the side of major roads, in the most lonely time of the day.
I also rode among a shoal of lorries at 60km/h on the biggest road I ventured on, and then fully on the pavement at the top of the main climb after watching two guys in drift cars ahead of me start trying to push each other off the road and deciding I did not need to be in the same space as them.
I successfully timed everything so that I descended while it started to get light and saw Mt. Fuji appear to the side just as the sun came up.

After that I first rode along the coast for some time and then inland through tea fields and short punchy climbs. I passed the same cyclist multiple times due to doing a stupid windy route while he was going straight. Hopefully he didn't think I was fucking with him.

I got up the steepest bit (at walking pace, rendering the exercise pointless) but had to walk down part way on the other side. The woman running the shop at the top warned me that it was too sketchy to ride, and I assured here I would not go that way while internally realizing I had definitely planned my route that way.

I bailed and got a train at 280km into a planned 500km.
This was partly because the weather forecast was bad to the point I wasn't sure it would be safe to ride, and partly because the remaining distance was mostly boring suburbs and drinking a beer on the train and spending more time exploring my final destination seemed more fun than riding along flat straight roads in the rain.
I wanted to go a little farther but the trains didn't work out.

The second ride had a less than ideal start, due to the fact that I set out at around the planned time of 5am, but only after accidentally hanging out at a local bar until around 2am. I also ate dolphin sashimi; it wasn't very good.

There was a cycling route all along the coast but the riding was much better after I turned off it.
I took an hour or two off the bike to go to a shrine I saw on google maps a couple of years ago. While there I left my bike in the care of an old guy I found shadow boxing by the harbor, who gave me directions to the shrine. (It turns out to get there from where I started you have to climb up a not-an-actual-path on a hillside with the aid of some ropes tied to trees.)

Afterwards I went back the way I came and into the mountains. The first climb was more enjoyable than I expected, it was relatively cool under the trees and my legs were still quite fresh. I probably pushed too hard tho which contributed to needing a break later.
The flatter bits were less enjoyable than I expected because of a fairly strong headwind. I was trying to keep my pace up to get to Osaka at a good time and again I probably pushed too hard.

About 20km after the only convenience store on my route through the mountains and just shortly before the main climb I sat down near a bus stop for 30mins or so and considered throwing my bike away, waiting for the bus, and never cycling again.
In the end I did carry on riding tho, and when faced with a road closure that meant an extra 5km/400m of climbing I no longer gave any fucks. It was probably the best bit of the ride (all of the ride was the best bit of the ride).
I climbed up this staircase/ladder on the mountainside because it was there. Doing this in road shoes was probably the most dangerous part of the ride (it was definitely the most dangerous part of the ride).

Then at last I got to go down. I took this route only partly because it made sense and mostly because I wanted to ride down this loop. It was good.
The downhill was not fast overall tho as I was tired and the road surface was quite bad in a lot of places.

After this there is little to say, because it was just flat and straight and with a bizarre lack of anywhere to buy food? But eventually there was food, and bright lights, and a big city, and I think I did my fastest average in the final 30km. Or at least I felt that way.

My gf had come to Osaka on the train earlier in the day and I met her at one of the big tourist spots. We then met one of my friends who lives there, I put my bike in its bag, and we all went and got pissed up.
The end, no moral.

So I need a more sensible road bike

Haha i'm going through the same conundrum for my epic 50k loops around SE London.

Great write up and pics, FWIW i did Tokyo to Hiroshima pretty comfortably on my old CAAD. Did more coast to avoid some of the hills but enjoyed Mount Hakone and a few other "big hills". I wasn't/am still not fit or strong at hills but i had a bike fit before the ride that really helped to ride longer distances at a fairly leisurely pace. In general bike packing bags were great but as you know you can hit some pretty big speeds on the way back down those hills and something more stable is definitely a good shout. A gravel bike would have allowed me to take some more interesting routes for sure but i still had a blast.

Think it was @xDOMx who advised me whatever time i planned for the hill days triple it.

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Awesome adventure

Yeah I've been checking out your thread actually 🙃
I think my ideal frame must be something quite similar to what you're looking for, it seems like there should be frames like this but it's not easy.

I'm also definitely concerned with the downhills more than the uphills here in some ways (especially since honestly I love bombing hills), you can get up somehow if you have time and a small enough gear but I realized getting down and having fun while doing it requires some thought about your setup and how you're carrying your luggage, some roads can get unexpectedly sketch.

You seem to have done a much bigger distance than me on a very much straight up road bike so I am feeling a little reassured, haha

Thanks!
I had been planning it for 2~3 months and it was as good as I hoped, I need to figure out how to do this kind of thing more...

I went ahead and bought exactly the wrong frame but it was cheap and ratty and I fell for it right away.
I was also a bit drunk and didn't notice/wilfully ignored the fact that it only has one set of bottle cage mounts. I can cable tie another one on somewhere.
After a quick test it seems like it should be OK with 28mm tires.

I'm going to use as much as I can from the previous bike but will be getting:
Stem and bars (some nice Nitto ones, might also get a seatpost while I'm at it)
Brakes levers, probably going to try TRP
New wheelset (might take some time so will throw old mismatched wheels on to start)

I also need to coldset the rear while I'm waiting for parts to turn up.

Can you really go wrong with such a nice frame? If it was cheap as you say, it's definitely worth a try :)

Maybe there's some second-hand current-gen Ritchey Road Logic frames around?

They can fit a 30/32c tyre in depending on the brake callipers and compared to a lot of frames around these days they're not too expensive, and they ride quite nicely too. Paint is pretty bland though unless you stumble across the special edition red-white-and-blue team colours.

Gearing, maybe 105 or Tiagra + a sub-compact crankset (11-34 & 46x30), or a bit spendy, Chorus 12 - 11-34 & 48x11.

I've something similar in Tochigi prefecture for similar roads - a lot of bad backroads particularly after storms, steep climbs and broken tarmac - and for overnight / get-aways by train.

I had the older Ritchey but it lacked tyre clearance, so because I'm a tart I had something built the way I wanted for those roads using that same current gen Ritchey fork, tyre clearance, 3rd bottle cage.

I just use bike-packing bags with it, and have thought about something like the Jack-the-Rack for something heavier up front like going to the pizza shop.

I use the Montbell rinko bag and find it's small enough to easily pack in a saddle bag or smaller frame / bar bag. There's obviously smaller still but quite expensive options out there too to pack lighter.

Sometimes though, you really just need a gravel bike or walk...

That Ritchey is lovely, are those mid drop 57mm calipers?

Long time since I read the article (I think originally on Cycling Tips?) but I believe they're just the standard Rival calipers, and that they might have a little more clearance than some other short reach calipers. I'm using Chorus 12 calipers with mine (same fork) with plenty of clearance for a 30c tyre and maybe a little more.

Yeah the Ritchey looks nice (and so does your tart bike).
I don't think I saw it when I was looking for candidate frames, I was still looking for a lower stack so I might have skipped over it?
The plan is to ride the frame I bought for now and save for something more appropriate if it doesn't work out (which would not be too surprising) so I'll remember this one, thanks.

I've been looking at the Jack the Rack also, I wanted one actually before but it wouldn't fit on any of my bikes. It would probably be OK on this but I don't need to carry much weight so I'm considering DIYing something like a cross between it and an old school bag support.

I bought everything I need except wheels as I need to see if I can swap out the freehub on the rear from my old set and re-use it (I have a spare one that should fit but the old one has a rounded grub screw I gave up on previously)
I couldn't find a seatpost the right size but I don't like how the old one looks in this frame... might buy a Simworks one but it's more than I was planning to spend.

Also I found a Campagnolo headset in a box, I have no idea where it came from and got excited for a moment but it wasn't Italian threaded... this worries me as if it came off my old frame at some point (which thought I remembered was Italian thread) then it means the BB I was planning to re-use is also not going to fit, and I will get to do a very fun search and wait for the right size BB.

At first I thought the frame was OK, but after careful observation of the facts and some thorough calculations I determined that I definitely bent it.

noooooooo not the dik race!

New list:

1. Really enjoyed your ride reports and pics.
   
2. Gutted about the Dik frame.
   
3. Hope your hand is ok.
   
4. Totally approve of the new frame. It’s way cool man.
   

sadly yes, the dik race
for some reason every serious off i've had here was on the dik race, it might have been just a matter of time

@Jonny69
thanks!
it is a shame about the old frame but (even if it doesn't work out for this) i'm glad i had the chance to find this one

started putting it together with temporary wheels
the rest of the parts should show up this weekend but the rear wheel is too out of true to ride and i can't be bothered to true it just to ride it for a few weeks, can always borrow the rear off my other road bike for a test ride

the paint is not in great condition, there are a lot of touch ups (in a totally non matching metallic green) but i was pleased to find all the threads are in very good condition, the headset is also ok although it will be changed at some point for a less green one

Put the wheels from my other road bike on and did a test ride, tbh I like it like this but I don't need another set of carbon rim brake wheels in my life so going to stick to the plan.

Some things I thought while building/riding it:
I fucking love it

I really like the way the internal routing for the gear cables is dealt with, which that it's just... not dealt with. They just go right through the bb shell, I've put some tape where they touch metal for now

You can definitely feel how tucked in the rear wheel is, it's fun. However I'm going take the screws out of the drop outs and push it all the way back for tire clearance and then it will be pretty standard road bike length

My right friction shifter doesn't friction properly on this and after around 10 minutes into the ride I had to pedal 53x11 till I got to somewhere I where I could buy some washers and shim it

I fucking love it

Still not sure about the levers aesthetically but they do feel nice, they fit my hands and I'm glad I went for them

Again aesthetically it demands left lever-front brake but I can't relearn a lifetime habit and redo all my other bikes just for this

My nitto rack was bent and I don't have enough space bar tops to wheel for the jack the rack (I think their claim of fits any bike is very dubious as it will only fit one of mine and I ride a 56) so I'm going to DIY something

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Looks phenomenal if you ask me.

Yeah, that’s proper.

I made a bag support/basket rack
(And by "made" all I mean is I got the thickest steel rod I could bend by hand and bent it around the stem and bars)
Currently testing on tarck bike, I eyeballed it tho and it's fully not straight

I'm getting the wheels built for me as I can see myself buying the parts and then just never bothering to build them. Just dropped off the hubs, the rims are getting ordered so they'll probably be ready around the end of the month. Which means there will probably be some rides on deep carbon while I'm waiting.

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Nice! I've been a fan of your work since that pink low pro