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

It will look ugly

Embrace the functional aesthetic, will work well with the fisherman trawler vibes.

Widebar looks fun/silly, thought the Japanese plod were pretty hot on brklss bikes?

Took this out for its first "proper" ride this year, actually both its and my own first decent length ride since last time I posted here. (And that had a long stop in the middle so I don't know if it counts as one long ride or just two medium ones.)

Due to this I am now even more unfit, I walked up the steepest bit of a hill I remember riding up on harder gearing sometime last spring.
But it was a good day on the bike, highlights including getting caught in a fast paceline of randoms on the way out - parts of Tokyo I've never ridden through before - plum blosssums out in the hills and by the rivers - roadworks gone and no cars on the big descent - beer stop in Yokohama - figuring out a new and better route home.

Other than being slow af the only negative was that for some reason I can't get these tires to hold air. They go flat after sitting for a couple of days and yesterday they got soft enough to affect cornering after around 6 hours.
The only thing I can think of is that the sealant I use doesn't agree with them, but I'm sure they weren't this bad when I first built the bike.

Anyway I'm planning a few long/tough rides starting from the middle of April so I have until then to fix both these problems.

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i finally finally put a big cassette and long cage derailleur on
suprisingly it shifts better than it did previously, maybe i set it up more carefully but i imagine the derailleur is just more forgiving of slightly misaligned friction shifts
i also strapped a load of shit to it because i can't find a saddle bag that works for me and probably wouldn't be able to afford it even if i did. it doesn't sway or hit my legs enough to bother me so this will do i guess, i just wish this rod was short to carry horizontally under the saddle. this is how i usually carry fishing rods but i hit my leg on this one sometimes and i can't sit on the top tube
finally i changed the rim tape to try and get the rear tire to hold air and now the bead 100% will not seat, so the rear has a tube in it

got some new bottle cages as well

i also started sensible-ing my road fixed with a front rack mounted on the rear, mostly due to being bored and debating whether i really need this bike. i bought some fenders as well but they need modifying to get not to rub and it's too much effort atm

doorbell rings
Enter shinkuu_kiss, looking disheveled, hungover

Delivery guy: I've got a bike for you here

Delivery guy looks at the three other bikes already outside the front door
Laugh track plays

shinkuu_kiss: Oh yeah that's right, haha

i do have a reason for buying this but it's not a good one so don't ask ok
it's a little too small for me but i looked at some old japanese catalogs and most of them didn't even list my size so i think this is the best i'm going to get, i will just ride it with a lot of seat post and low bars like all my other bikes (and the top tube is actually long enough i think)
the rims and bars are anodized purple, bars are quite narrow tho unfortunately so i might have to change them

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I've also actually been riding the bikes I already have.
Been doing some good distance and climbing on my sensible road bike. I am still really unfit but starting to get better, however I'm also starting to realize that some of this might just be age? I clearly don't recover as quickly as I used to and that's a big part of what's holding me back. I can do big climbs still but only like once in a day and then I just don't have it in me until I get some time off the bike.

Doesn’t help that this bike is heavy as fuck when it's loaded up, I weighed it and it was 16kg with everything on it? Made be feel slightly better about being slow.

Also recently have been spending a lot of time riding into very strong headwinds which really really sucks, I hate it! I've been able to a decent amount of gravel-ish sections on recent rides tho which is fun and proves this bike can handle everything I want it to.
I'm probably going to try the new gravelkings as they look really promising and all the tubeless troubles I've had with the current tires has made me kind of dislike them.

I also did a three day trip but took my other road bike as I didn't feel like taking it seriously, I just brought a backpack and left it in train station lockers while I was doing the real riding.

I rode from Kyoto and then around lake Biwa (still convinced this is actually the sea, it's massive). I was going to go all around the whole thing but it was unseasonably cold and I got snowed and hailed on so I just did the bits I wanted to see and went back before it got late and even colder.

The first picture is what happens when you believe ridewithgps and a security guard who said it would be ok and then have to carry your bike down a steep muddy hill in the middle of a forest.
The second picture is what happens when the area around is completely flat for miles and miles but your disturbed cyclist brain makes you ride up the one hill there is.

Then I rode to Nara and did a loop I plotted around the area to look at a lot of the old burial mounds, or as I realized and thought a lot about while riding, to look at where important dead people tried to show they were important even after they were dead.

I like poetry from the era when the capital was here and I wanted to see the land where these people lived, but thinking about the power structures of the time made me realize that a lot of them where probably dicks much like the people in charge of us now, and I've stopped romanticizing the period so much.
It was still very moving for me to photograph my bike in front of this site where one of the palaces was and to look at the same hills and sky and land that helped inspire people to make such lovely words hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

Two poets I like were active around this time and although they lived their lives as important and powerful people they both seem to have shared a similar, if rather differently expressed, outlook on life that makes be believe they would not have cared much for the systems they lived and we live under. I think the real poets were still first and foremost, poets.

なかなかに人とあらずは酒壷に成りにてしかも酒に染みなむ
I'm such a fuck-up, I wish I could just be a wine bottle instead. Ah, fuck it, let's drink.

世の中を何に譬へむ朝開き漕ぎ去にし船の跡なきごとし
Describe the world. A boat rows away at dawn. It leaves no trace.

I had the last line of the second poem written on my top tube but it's already worn away, lol

Anyway that's my blog on what I thought about while pedaling my bike.
The weather was shit on the third day so I didn't even bother to ride, I just had a drink with the deer and took the slow train home.

the tubeless troubles I've had with the current tires has made me kind of dislike them.

What width are the current tyres and what kind of pressure are you running? I found that anything below 30c for road tubeless is pointless, as there isn't enough volume in narrower tyres to run lower pressures, and if you inflate them above 60 psi, they can't hold the pressure and leak air.

they're 30c and just under 60psi
my other road bike actually has tubeless 25c at something like 80psi and I've never had a problem with either of the sets of tires I've had on it

tbf I'm not sure it's only the tires that are the problem this time, I'm just choosing to blame them

Quill bmx stem and bars will help that fit you

This is gonna be good! (The mtb)

I ordered new cables and tires for the mtb as a start, I'll strip it down and clean everything up before fitting them
Also the chanrings look to need replacing and I was thinking of making it 1x anyway because I hate front derailleurs. It's only going to be ridden around town anyway.

I haven't ridden it yet but I will definitely want to change the bars. I was thinking of low-ish risers and an aggressive position to thrash around the city but I actually might well do what @spotter said instead. I'll use this cheap front rack I have to put a basket on if I do.
I always get bike stuff done at crumb works and this is the first bike I own that actually suits what they're about so I think I'll ride it down when it's rideable and see if there's any cool stuff in stock.

it's a bridgestone wild west incidentally (not sure if they were called the same in other markets), what's left of the model number says it's one of the higher end models
the seller said they think the forks aren't original and they seem to be right, but I think these are just a lower grade of bridgestone fork
It has a mix of Suntour XC LTD and various levels of Deore, I think the suntour is what it would have come with originally
I couldn't find replacement wild west decals but I ordered some cheap bridgestone ones

so i've got a threadless converter on to find the right stem length but this seems ok so i'll get a nice stem at the weekend
also i decided triples are cooler than 1x and these unused chainrings were selling cheap
somewhat regretting this as i got the rear set up easily but i'm still having trouble with the front derailleur (altho i haven't tried very hard yet)

other remaining things:
need a new seatpost but it's an akward size and not a priority
the bridgestone decals i got were comically small so i need to find some bigger ones
i would prefer to use my nitto rack but i can't get hold of the long struts to mount on the dropout eyelet
the kickstand was a nice idea but it tries to deploy itself on medium sized and above kerb drops so it will probably have to come off

i've only ridden it down to the park so far but it's goin to be fun to have around town, might even take it on some longer chill rides when it gets hot this yar

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Looking great so far, what are those bars?

Nitto x blue lug hihi bar

Awesome! Love the pink bits and the rims.

New stem is acquired, also got the unnecessary steerer chopped (and threads extended)

Feels pretty comfortable really but I can tell the bar angle/height will need fine tuning for more than hopping on-off the bike around town. I think I've injured my wrist at some point as I've had a hard time getting new risers set up right the last few times I've done so (drops are OK tho...?)

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Looks great

Hell yeah. Looking good! I find risers quite uncomfortable generally as well, unless they've got a good amount of sweep. The angle my hands sit at on straighter bars always feels a bit unnatural. Maybe it's just that?

Risers can be very uncomfortable but for me the ones with 25 degrees backsweep were way worse than the 9 degrees ones I have now... Also depends on the width I guess

Thanks!

Yeah I'm also on the more sweep more uncomfortable for me side.
These bars have a similar sweep and rise to the ones on my track bike which are very comfortable even on long rides. It's just quite a different position, I feel like they're going to work but got to fine tune them.

They're also cromo so they're stiff as shit (I like this) and the height makes it a lot easier to lift the front of the bike up... I've apparently forgotten how to loop out tho so I need to practice manuals on some grass until I remember how not to fall over

So 1 year since the ride that inspired this, holidays have rolled around and I've been able to go away for 4 days again.

This time I set less aspirational targets for my daily milage and it was very enjoyable to be able to finish riding by lunch and have the rest of the day to explore however I wanted.
Actually in the end I only rode about 300km as I realized too late (by watching a guy on youtube ride it on a motorbike) that the mountain pass that was central to my longest day is impassable by bike, at least without proper offroad tires and probably more skill and fitness than I have.

What have I learned?
Well I found a lot more actual unpaved (gravel or dirt) roads than I expected this time, and most of roads I like riding are too narrow and twisty and covered in various debris to really bomb the descents.

So I kind of want fatter tires and I'm OK with not having full on road bike geo. Right now I feel like I want an old cylcocross frame that I could switch the parts from my alu road bike onto, but I will never ever find one my size here. So I don't know.

Also not really related to cycling (except for maybe needing to be able to carry more on the bike) but I slept outside this time but forgot I was going a) north and b) into the mountains and misjudged how cold it would get. So it was great not having to get anywhere on time and be able to change my mind about where I want to go (which I did) but I really need to plan things better. I did no planning or preparation other than vague routes until the day before.

Finally I'm currently sick of riding up mountains with luggage on my bike and I don't have any trips planned where I need to carry much.
So I put the silly wheels back on this bike. I'm going to get a smaller chainring for my alu road bike and maybe change some other parts, and use that for riding in the mountains over the summer.

And maybe I will also find another frame over the summer. Maybe I will go full buyer and get a custom frame. Maybe I will just give up and hike in the mountains (also been doing this recently). My moods are fickle as fuck so I really can't say yet.

so i did this to my other road bike, i was just going to put these wheels and a smaller chainring on but decided it was good timing to change bars as i have wanted to for a while, and that meant a new stem, and so then i put on this old seatpost to match

originally i wanted deda shallow but since trying them on the steel road bike these are my new favourite bars, nitto b105 (actually mod 55 on the steel bike but it's the same shape)

also the freehub is fucked, i have a replacement but not convinced i will be able to get the old one off...

the bars feel a bit high but hopefully will change to just right as i get tired on a ride, going to take it into the mountains this weekend anyway

right now i feel like i want basically this exact bike but with maybe 38mm? tires

right now i feel like i want basically this exact bike but with maybe 38mm? tires

early 2000's cross bike is calling.

Yes, very much this

I don't remember reading all of your current projects thread before but I definitely have because your Cannondale is pretty much exactly what I envisaged while rebuilding this/imagining future fatter tire bike

So I felt like shit today and didn't do my planned route but I was able to determine that yes, I prefer both climbing and descending on the alu bike.
The difference in weight & stiffness is just psychological doping at my level of strength but it handles a lot better on inclined surfaces.
Stem is probably OK, and the drops feel fantastic. Plus the hoods are nice and narrow with just the right amount of flare. I love these bars.

I also bought a frame bag because... I wanted it, and my bar bag doesn't really work on this + I'm thinking I want to carry some lightweight sleeping kit rolled up on the bars this summer.
There wasn't a colour that would work on all my bikes so I utilized lateral thinking and got one that would work on none of them.

In this diagram it is being used to carry two bottles of sake, for which it is the perfect size.
You could also do this with wine bottles if you prefer.

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