Current Projects chat and miscellany

Interesting when you look at how big the two balance bike grip are, as to how much effort Islabikes went to BITD to scale. Everything down.

Maybe a bmx pivotal seatpost and seat would work in this case. Low stack and easy adjustment.

Low stack saddle?

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Hmmm... As good an idea as the bmx pivotal seatpost is I've just nabbed a set of replacement tyres so am now forbidden from spending any more on it.

Looking more at the pic, I think switching the washer will give me the space to drop the post another 2-3mm, so with shoes I think that might be enough for now.

They're not going to be using it much over winter.

Now also worrying that the new tyres will prohibit the mudguards I don't have. I need to get a grip.

The tatty nature erks me

Erks are by their nature tatty, anybody who doesn't irk their officers rapidly gets promoted to LAC

I had this grip issue, I just put a few layers of tesa fabric tape under and a cheap aliexpress grip on top, worked fine

Cheers.

I'm assuming they'll fit fine as they're 19mm inner. Just procrastinating over whether they're too chunky for little hands. I'm sure they'll be fine.

Plus I cba to work out how to return them to Holland (which I didn't notice the shop was in at the time of purchase).

Grips on. Just removed the seatpost spacer in the end to allow the post to be slammed all the way. It won't be long before it's raised.

New tyres are 1.75" vs the OG 1.3" so will hold on those until at least the new year.

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Silver spokes was definitely the way to go.

My mate also went crazy with the specs and got all matchy matchy purple CK stuff and Enve finishing kit. Will be a nice build.

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Ooof!!

So that's your mate's Merlin?

These were the ones for £500 in the Wiggle death sale with Rohloff and a Bafang motor, right?

Pretty nice bits, shame the overall package isn't up to it.

Those are the ones! Definitely not a Rohloff hub though. It comes with a horrible automatic 2 speed hub that shifts up nicely but doesn't shift down again until you're more or less stopped. Luckily mine has been converted to single speed which is loads better.

To be honest, with a few tweaks to make it more comfortable for me, it's not bad to ride.

I just know how unreliable it is which is the main worry.

Thats the one! Hopefully full build coming on Sunday.

And here it is. 2 curve balls thrown at us during the build:

The jagwire end caps are not sized to older frames so we had to bodge it and file down 0.5mm from the OD of 2 endcaps to fit them at the headtube

And the rear brake's mounting studs were lower than expected, so even in the top position in the Paul Minimoto brakes the pads were on the bottom half of the brake track. We could juuust make it work with some long spacers on the brake pads. They are definitely not paralell, but still got insanely good stopping power. And, well, with time they'll wear paralell lol.

On the upside, the enve bartape was the nicest I ever worked with, shame I had to put gel inserts under it.

Approximately 50 seconds after I've taken these pictures I adjusted the saddle. Might cut the RD cable housing shorter.

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What a beauty!

Lovely attention to detail! Which cages are going up there?

My experience with SRAM 22 groupsets is that you don't want to cut the cable any shorter, that looks about the right length for the best shifting.
Also I'd tilt the bars down slightly and the shifters up a chunk (BDHU). But that's just me.
If you need padding on the bars, have you considered moving your saddle back a little and trying a shorter stem? It will take weight off your hands.

that looks about the right length

^What he said. SRAM road dérailleurs like a big loop.