Current Projects chat and miscellany

Understated and nice.

Is the fixed wheel any fun without clips?

I like it a lot btw..

Thanks & thanks. I was debating clips, but i have such big chunky winter boots they would not fit inside them. two brakes and no clips work really well, i don't have to rely on my legs to slow down...... This may change in summer....

I picked this up today after winning it on Ebay a couple of weeks ago. Looks great in real life, the paint is really nice and the webby lugs are beautiful. And it's 853.

As I feared though, it is a little bit too small and as such it wasn't particularly comfortable when I took it out just now. I think a slightly longer seatpost (this one is at its maximum and still needs another 5-10mm) and nicer shaped bars could help, otherwise I may have to pass it on.

Also, it's from about 1996, but was completely original, right down to the bar tape, tyres, cables and brake pads, most of which are in good condition as well. I changed the rear tyre for a 25mm one, and bought a new Turbo saddle as the seller had told me it needed a new one. Actually all the original saddle needs is a bit of superglue.

a set of compact drops will raise the hoods up a fair bit, plus the stems quite low at the moment so you could bring that up a bit

DIBS when you get bored of it :)

Done; taking it for spin around park now.

so when he's back from the park then

tommmmmmm looks good, nice lugs

Rych is pretty awesome; I generally dont get 'bored' of it, carbon fit was too aggressive for my flexibility and a little longer ETT which I though I could get away with but didn't anyway this is exact same geo* as my tokyo fixed custom which is like finding a unicorn on ebay in mint condition.

*If it fits it stays***; like the SSMTB and TFG Custom.

I really enjoyed putting this bike together.

• this has sloping TT but ETT is the same and so is headtube if considered stack heights of different headsets.
  **worlds most expensive bike fit
  

a set of compact drops will raise the hoods up a fair bit, plus the stems quite low at the moment so you could bring that up a bit

I think I could get it to fit alright but it would be a bit of a bodge. I have a set of Deda Piega compacts I bought for another bike and never used, so I will try them on it and see. Another benefit of that is saying goodbye to that godawful bar tape. This frame is 57 x 56cm ctc, and I usually ride a 58cm top tube without too much of a drop. Generally it would be alright but ideally I'd like to be commuting on it, and going from a Pompetamine where the saddle and bars are only about 1 scoblebrick apart to however this ends up might be too much of a stretch.

Anyway, no big loss if that is the case, I should be able to recoup the money easily enough and I could pass it on to someone who can make the most of it.

Rych is pretty awesome

Nice bar tape!

horrible taping skills! I need to buy apollo a pint soon ..

excuse the nooby question

I'm trying to work out which bb I need - italian or english. I have measured and it looks like it's 70mm but using measuring tape the margin for error is p.big and 2mm is not that much of a difference

it's a concorde frame though - that's most likely (99%?) to be italian-threaded right?

Digital calipers are cheap and have a multitude of uses about the house, one of the classic bike building investments after a decent torque wrench.

id say before a torque, you need to know what size to buy before you can install it

It'll be much easier to work out whether it's BSA or Italian from looking at the direction of the threading. Italian tightens clockwise both sides. BSA is reverse threaded on the drive side.

FWIW I think Concordes can vary. A lot of their top-end steel racing frames were built in Italy but not their more ordinary stuff.

just had another look - stamped "36x24t 70" on the left side so assuming it's italian

∆∆ this.

If your Concorde has chrome it's probably Italian.

Lay back seat post Tommmmmmm?

New front wheel today :)

Lay back seat post Tommmmmmm?

It has a layback already, and I'll make sure it will get the same again when I replace it with a longer one. I tilted the bars up a bit so it's a bit flatter, and that seems to make a difference for the time being.

I had this Xb3 meteor build up for last weekend and now I know that this isn't for me.
It flexed so much with risers that now I'm scared of 1inch steel frames.

Was the flex definitely in the frame and not that flimsy-looking stem?

get one of these

it was frame as well definitely. skidding felt like with some post 1st world war bike and stem wasn't the only thing with flex.

^^

before you talking more bullshit about this stem:

"The story Michael Huebner is telling right after his trackstand is about the time when he was racing Keirin in Japan. The officials made him ride NJS material [and] of course and he said to them: “Do you really want me to !zackkkk! ride this?” …He was breaking their stems just buy pulling on them. That’s why he was allowed to ride this famous and rare “Bierhahn - Vorbau” (beer faucet stem). It weighed about a ton but was stiff enough to not break under his power.

That’s why they called him the “Beast of the East”. He even rode jerseys saying on the back “Too fast for you”."