Current Projects chat and miscellany

Just finished converting my old kona fire mountain to singlespeed to use as a winter beater. It's been hanging up in a cupboard at home for the last 5 years so figured I might as well use it. I've owned it from new, got it for my 14th birthday back in 1990. Just used cheap shitty parts to do it. Maybe one day i'll go all retrobike on it and restore it to how it was originally.

This looks so much fun, i've always had a soft spot for konas. I was thinking about trying something like this myself in the new year. Is it the original rear wheel you're using or something specifically single speed?

So today I finished my Gazelle. No high-end parts, no expensive parts. But I like the build and I am proud of this one :) Bought this bike of the Dutch eBay (marktplaats) for 25 euro and then saved some money and bought parts everytime I had enough.

nice clean build! very much like the bars, are they ITM?

That is one pretty Gazelle.

custom Fibrelyte chainring

Looks like an interesting project coming up .. but why a Fibrelyte chainring? I'm not questioning the supplier as I have a number of their products. But why not just get a custom alloy one made to suit the Zipp bolt pattern and chain line you need? It'll last longer and be less likely to shear a tooth when you're testing, which I assume is the purpose of this bike. It's not like the weight difference is going to make to much difference to overall weight of the bike!

That is one pretty Gazelle.

Second that.

nice clean build! very much like the bars, are they ITM?

look like 3ttt bars to me.

So today I finished my Gazelle. No high-end parts, no expensive parts. But I like the build and I am proud of this one :) Bought this bike of the Dutch eBay (marktplaats) for 25 euro and then saved some money and bought parts everytime I had enough.

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brake setup fail.

Hows that? I see the outer cables on the gears and brake could be a better length

quick release is undone maybe?

Jesus Malaysian aka Eagle Eye Cherry.

(it's because the thingy-whatsit has been left partially up. Is I presume what he's referring to)

Rear brake cable routed along the wrong side of the HT?

Jesus Malaysian aka Eagle Eye Cherry.

(it's because the thingy-whatsit has been left partially up. Is I presume what he's referring to)

winner winner chicken dinner!

it is entirely up, might as well be down. Although he has qr on the levers as well.

Oh yeah should've said, great build on the Gazelle, would prefer a Rolls myself but saddles personal preference of course.

Might not be to everyone's taste - not sure it's even to mine at the moment - but I made a couple of changes to my Raleigh this afternoon.

After last week's brokenhandlebargate I was using track bars and thinking about getting some new old-fashioned bars, but decided bullhorns might be more comfortable. Today I chopped and flopped the bars, and it is much better.

Minor niggles now are that the bar tape and the seat don't match as well as my old grips did, and that the new Goldfinger lever (cheers Plastic Pedals) is a different gold to the rest of the shiny bits.

It feels nice though

That is begging for some porteur/mousetash/northroad type bars.... you know it's right.

Begging!

Well yeah, that's what I had, and that's what I was after. But it's hard to find nice narrow ones.

Plus the top tube is relatively short so if I had swept back bars the reach might be too short for me

Tell you what, I remember you had really nice bars on your baby blue fixie skidder...if you really want me to do the right thing...

Your brake lever needs adjusting.

you'd have to prise those from the cold hard grip of the titanium stem.... not gonna happen unless you've got the power of greyskull on your side.

How narrow do you want? I found these whilst tidying yesterday

they are 45cm.

£11 posted?

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Yeah I think the whole bar needs tilting down a bit, and the brake lever more so.

Handlebars

They're alright them.

Are they alloy or steel? Inferior bars tend to wilt under my titanic strength.

Also, are they 25.4mm clamp?

They are aluminium but are considerably stiffer/thicker walled than the ones on the Argos, as a 16 stone guy I feel in a good position to comment on such things!

and yes they're 25.4.

Yeah I think the whole bar needs tilting down a bit, and the brake lever more so.

I would.

I'd also probably use some natural cork tape. It won't match but might look nice.