M_V's multitude of bikes and adventures in the land of framebuilding

Be careful of pedal clearance swapping from 451 to 406 on a Raleigh Shopper.

The American ones seemingly got 406 wheels as standard.

With fatter tyres the bb height (which admittedly isn't very high anyway) doesn't change much.

I managed with a coaster hub, now that I have the ability to back pedal it'll hopefully not be an issue.

I found 165mm cranks worked well on a dropbar Shopper and I am >180cm.

Super impressive work! How does it ride?

Yeah I am keeping an eye out for a nice set. Tempted to whip the Sugino 75s off my track bike tbh!

The wee wheels climb pretty horribly as there's no momentum. Hence the 3 speed hub as the Etape has some hills.

Other than that though, it rides real nice. It's a good bike to be quite chill on, otherwise the bb height might become an issue, position is very 'normal'.

I have a faux Twenty from a brand I've never heard of, considering doing it with 451 rims, narrow tyres and all the running gear from a roadbike I have.

Was going to post this in an ancient n+1 thread I found bit think I’ll post it here instead.

Peeps that have several many bikes, do you ride them all? Do they all do different things?

I was up at like 11 which was as follows,

Track bike, kept at the velodrome.
Brompton
Raleigh twenty
Fake Raleigh twenty project (runs but I have plans for it)
Pashley
Schwinn klunker ssmtb
Full sus ssmtb
Kona Honzo hardtail ssmtb
Lugged ss gravel bike (drop bar)
Flying Scot Fixed gravel bike (swept back bars)
Belt drive 3 speed gravel daddy commuter (swept bars)
Ti retro road bike

So a lot of them did very much the same job.

I wasn’t enjoying having so many options. I think my brain is a bit adhd addled already so I can find it difficult to decide what kind of riding I want to do, having to then choose which of the bikes that can handle that kind of riding I want to use was a bit much.

I’ve now got the belt drive gravel daddy up for sale and have actually boxed it up so it’s not available for me to use. I’ve also stripped the retro road bike (it doesn’t take guards so probably not much use for the next 4-6 months!) and the full sus mtb down to make them a) unavailable for use and b) easier to store. Actually I’ve done a classified for the road frame as I’m thinking about building the fake Raleigh twenty up with the parts from the road bike.

I rode my klunker for the first time in a long time last week which was really nice.

I’m still pretty far off n+1=4 (as was the title of the thread I was going to post in) but I think having fewer options is definitely the way to go.

Right now i could limit the number of bikes to 6 (beater, folding, road, gravel, touring, mtb), but i can't see myself getting rid of a couple other more, that are completely maintenance free (rim brake and cable actuated, with tubes and mostly steel).

I try to ride the more modern ones more, so the oil in the brakes and suspensions and the tubeless juice don't degrade. The aforementioned rim brake bikes can stay unused for longer, without occupying too much of rent space in my head.

A part of me still wants to keep the strict necessary, but i'm afraid this approach it's more of a self imposition rather than a real need.

I’ve got lots of love for the belt-drive Dad bike.

I’m at 2: Stooge Mk4 for all mountain biking, and Surly Cross Check which covers SSCX duties during CX season, and then mudguards and a variety of handlebars for all road-based duties (still single speed at the moment).

I do have access the the eldest’s Pole Taival hardtail too, but it’s a bit long for me so only for emergencies if the Stooge is unavailable for whatever reason.

I'm at basically 4 (beater drop-bar fixed, folding, traditional touring, hardtail 26er mtb) plus various bits (road frame, retrobike at my parents' house, ...) & can't imagine going much lower, they're for pretty different things.

If I had somewhere to store them, tho, I would definitely have more bikes - and would blur some of those categories... (29er ssmtb, drop-bar gravel, folding mtb i.e. all-packa, fast road, moustache-bar dinglespeed road, ...)

I'm lucky, I have space in the flat for my Brommie and the wife's one and a couple of full size bikes too and then I have the garage/workshop where space isn't too bad but I do have to sort of stack bikes against the wall so whatever's at the bottom of the pile can be hard to get to hence the klunker not getting much use.

Belt drive gravel daddy bike is nice but I think with having two other full size gravel-able bikes and my raleigh twenny being somewhat gravel-able plus having the Pashley all mudguarded, chaincased and dynamoed up for the grotty weather commutes, it just wasn't what I was reaching for very often.

I'd say sell everything that you don't need, haven't used within the last 12 months (?), have a plan for or components/frames that have emotional value/impossible to source.

If I would do the above I would probably be left with some (IMO) nice frames, but get a lot less ordinary parts (and a Marie Kondo-sense of accomplishment and inner peace).

Also I guess that your skill set means that you can build a lot of what you want/need.

I have 4 bikes that have discreet uses and get used frequently:
full sus mtb
gravel bike (which gets used for both grav and road duties)
cargo bike
road bike (which is permanently attached to the turbo and only goes outside if the grav bike is out of action for some reason)

I also own a rigid mtb which gets occasional use for town runaround duties where it’s not appropriate to take the cargo bike (mostly when it will be locked out of sight for an extended period), and a vintage mtb which is owned for its sentimental value.

So 6, but could definitely be brought down to 5. Maybe 4 if I was less fussed about having a bike I can lock up around town without worrying about it. Maybe 3 if I could be bothered having a bike that went on and off the turbo.

At the moment I only have three road/trail worthy bikes.
A bullitt with gates and alfine 11 takes care of kids transport an any foul weather riding, then a singlespeed with drops disc brakes and mudguards and an old trek 930 singletrack with disc tab and stridsland fork+anchor bar - which I'm not sure will get ridden again until spring.
So in the wet season I think I could get away with just the cargo and the singlespeed.
Though I do have a hankering to build up my Pelago Stavanger as a singlespeed porteur/basket bike for those errands that doesn't quite call for the cargo.

I'm a big fan of letting stuff go if you don't use it - at least the stuff without sentimental value or that can be replaced if needed.

I’ve started modifying this Raleigh Twenty style bike I have.

It was abandoned in town and being that it was missing its seat/post, had two flat tyres and the guard stays were all tangled up in the wheels I think it was safe to say its owner didn’t want it back.

I’ve changed the headtube out to a 1 1/8” integrated one as I have as fork I want to use with it. Also added coaster tab, bottle bosses and a second brazing tube under the main tube. Adding a toptube to Raleigh Twenties seems fairly popular but I don’t feel like mine needs it. Being that this one is probably more cheaply made though I thought it might be wise. Went under the main tube so it’s still a step through though.

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Got finished up with this Mayfair thing today.

The squid fork is probably a bit long for it so it’s pretty laid back and wants to wheely all the time but it’ll make for a fun silly cruiser.

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Loooooovvveeeee this!!!!

That's amazing

hah, that's rad!

So good. That fork is so insane

Love the raleigh experiments. You should make a BMX F1 tribute. Would be so sick. https://blog.sellwoodcycle.com/bikes-we-ride-grams-88-diamondback-f1-bmx/

From what I’m hearing a few builders have been watching Brodie’s Giraffe video
and thinking about making their own and I’m one of them.

I think mine is going to a bit different to the original design in order to allow me to stand over the frame. This is in the hope that it makes it more rideable and I can actually use it practically instead of it just being a novelty.

I’ve made a start by modifying some headtube lugs to take braze on integrated headset cups.

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Will it have Di2 and disc brakes?

I also want to build my frame with ‘parallel’ chainstays but having no way to bend stays into this shape I’ve bought a donor frame that I’ve cut them out of.

I’ll try to reuse the seatstay too as they have a similar ‘parallel’ shape to them but I’ll need to find a way of extending these as the seat stays of a giraffe are really long.

The framer I bought for the stays was advertised as being from the ‘30s which I thought might have been an exaggeration but I found a frame number on the seat clamp lug (which I want to reuse) and it has the number 32 stamped beside it so maybe a year of manufacture?

Interestingly it also has integrated bearing cups!

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Been making a fair old bit of progress on the giraffe.

Here’s some photos from the build process and one of when I threw it together for a round the block test ride.

I had planned on using the seat status from the 30s donor frame but couldn’t find a way to extend them that I liked so ended up using a twin plate wishbone that I’d had laser cut a while back. This will match the fork I’m using nicely.

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