SonicBikes

Some spacers added and I'm pretty happy with the overall fit of the 'guards.

This is it for now. Dynamo lighting at some point in the future!

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tidy! the pdw guards do look really smart.

pdw guards do look really smart.

Agreed.

I'd recommend getting the leather flaps they do for them, they work much better than the default plastic ones. (And look smarter!)

Changing the thread title to add ramblings on my other bikes and to document my shambolic attempts to add a dynamo set up to the Kepler.

Ordered two full SON set ups on cycle2work from Condor. They're having a bit of trouble sourcing the parts but it should arrive soon.

Plan for the Kepler is upside down front lamp on the pizza rack and then a mudguard mounted light on the rear. All joined up with the normal spade connections.

Up next is my Orro. This is basically stock except for the 38cm prime primevera bars. Even they are too wide for little old me, so I recently got some 36cm ones secondhand from a club mate and will swap them out once I get my bleed kit from storage.

This bike is basically perfect. Fast, light, and snappy, but also comfortable enough for all day rides (I think I've done about a hundred miler on it).

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Finally, the monster truck. Fairlight Secan 2.5. here it is set up with MTB tyres on some 650b wheels.

Plan for this is for it to do gravel bike and bikepacking duties in summer, and winter bike duties in... winter!

To that end, I also have a pair of 700c wheels with 35c slicks and I've just ordered some PDW guards (also on c2w) for this bike. Along with the guards, I'm going to add a full dynamo set up on this too, mirroring the install fairlight do. This uses the fancy coaxial connectors so I'll need to learn to solder...

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Story time. My first proper road bike was a Condor tourer made from Reynolds 531. I'd been coveting it as it hung from the ceiling of Deens Garage in Beckenham, where I was doing work experience aged 16. I then worked out how long it would take me to pay back the cost of the bike in saved train fares, if I cycled to school instead of taking the train. I presented my findings to my parents and it was agreed I could have the bike if I cycled it to school, at least until the train fare savings outweighed the cost of the bike.

Now, at this point I was into bikes, but mainly pissing around on my BMX. Not proper cycling. I was pretty unfit and would come last in the school cross country every year.

However, riding that bike over crystal palace hill every day with panniers full of books soon toughened me up, igniting my passion for cycling, and after a few months of this I came top ten in the cross country race that winter.

Fast forward a few years, I'm at university, I had another bike in my collection, needed some cash, and a friend needed a bike. So I sold on the Condor to her. She rode it for a few years before moving to Japan. It's been in storage for about 8 years.

She's just got in touch with me saying she needs to clear out her Mum's house, and would I like the Condor back? Of course I would! So a friend will collect it for me, and I'll work out how to get it back to London.

I don't remember all the details about the bike, other than it's lovely tubing, campag groupset (with a triple and canti brakes). It had some lovely Italian finishing kit when I last saw it as well.

I have no idea what state the bike will be in when I receive it, but I'll aim to find out some more about the frame from Condor, then restore it to its former glory.

I think the frame will be a touch too small for me now (it always was really, and I reached my dizzying 5'8 quite late in life). But it should fit my partner, so perhaps she'll use it as her around town bike.

I'll document the progress here along with my other tinkerings.

Tried to build up a cheap rim brake frame to put on a turbo and completely failed to do that, ending up with something that will get ridden outdoors lots

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The genesis is currently 8.1kg, which makes it lighter than the Orro. So that's got me thinking, how light could it be? AliX order has gone in, can we get to 7.5 ready to ride? The UCI limit on a steel frame (probably not)?

Shed a few grams on the genesis by swapping out saddle and seatpost for Chinese carbon. Tubes for TPUs. I make it 7.6kg now.

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And my first attempt at soldering turned out ugly but functional

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nice bikes! that genesis is cool

Thanks! It's by far my favourite to ride at the moment, but not a very practical winter bike...

Tidied up the spacer/top cap situation a bit with @gbj_tester 's very neat top cap solution. Popped on some 36cm bars (also tester approved) to try that out...

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Could you upload a side on shot of the #testerbars?

Oh they're only his old Pro PLTs. Nothing more interesting!

Put 38s on the fairlight and it's transformed the ride. Stating the bleeding obvious but now it feels much more like my pure road bikes (which are on 38/36).

It's a lovely bike in both configurations! Are you planning to swap between two wheelsets?

Yeh I've got the 650bs pictured above with mezcals on. Then in winter road mode it's a son front, pro5 rear laced to lightbicycle rims, and some mudguards.