Brother Kepler man about town bike

This has just arrived.

In my head its going to be used for lightly laden overnight trips out of town to camp under the stars. In reality it will be used to take the children to football/swimming/ballet/shops.

It needs a front rack, and mudguards, obv. I am planning to use most of a 10 speed 105 groupset stripped of my old cannondale together with the stem, bars and wheels from that bike. The wheels are aksiums. I have some TRP mini v-brakes

I need to get the rest together. I am probably going to get a woolftooth single front ring and run a modish 1x setup.

Questions:

What size front ring?

If I use 35mm tyres on the aksiums, will I die?

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Lovely, that paint job is ace

Looks nice.

Dunno how steep it's your area, but anything around 46-42 sounds good to me, in any case, get a cheap one, try and decide if you need to run a bigger one, smaller, or you like the actual one

Kid carrier on the back? I run a 1 x 8 on my commuto-dad cross check frame with a 42T up front and a cheap shimano 8 speed cassette. I've run everything from 25s through to 40s on the same 19mm wide Alex rims. No deaths.

I run a 1 x 8 on my commuto-dad cross check frame with a 42T up front and a cheap shimano 8 speed cassette.

Cheap, reliable and long lasting, good set up, another 1+ for the 42t chainring, you're never going to break the speed record on it either way with the roles you described.

10 speed cassette like the 11-36 is cheap enough to get and have a reasonable range of gears (£20-25).

On my Day One I had 10spd, 40t with 11-28, on my Defy I have 11 spd, 42t with 11-32. Both covered pretty much everything apart from some of the bigger hills in the Peak District.

And indexed DT shifter = infinite bar setups with minimal transmission faff.

@Psmith - what about carrying ballet/football/swimming stuff? Paniers?

@Aroogah - I like the idea of downtube shifters, but the frame has no braze-ons. I also want to make use of the stuff I have so far as possible and the shimano sti s fit the bill.

I'm exaggerating about ballet/football/swimming. What I mean is a kind of all purpose bike that I can use with the kids, getting around myself, maybe a bit of touring. I want a front rack that will do for those purposes, and maybe I can hang panniers off it

42 x 11-36 then.

^ sounds good, I'd go for that with a 1x setup. How old/many/heavy are the kids? Presumably they're well past the not cycling on their own phase what with the constant swimming and ballet dancing. Otherwise get front + rear racks or a trailer obviously.

Or try this approach?

I've got the glactic as a commuter, TRP's and PDW's - love it. Where you find this one? Thought that paint was discontinued...

Swap the fork out though, its an anchor; seriously.

@russmeyer - the kids are all riding themselves, apart from one. I am thinking about a trailer, so that may affect the gearing. Or I may indeed have them haul me around in a buggy. That would learn them

@Fahrgestell they found this one in the back of the warehouse

Lush frame and paint job.

Fitzrovia have one of these in store. 58cm. Really tempted but in reality I can't afford it right now.

Finished, pretty much

Picture

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Looks great! What are the tyres?

Good work, looks hot & functional too.

Looks like Pasela's

Rad.

Yes, Paselas

So, have you become the new man about town on it?

Also, in your own words:

It needs a front rack, and mudguards, obv.

I have done a little swanning around, certainly.

Rack suggestions welcome. Porteur style, attaching to fork legs/canti mounts, black, steel. I can't find one that meets all those criteria though.

Mudguards later in the year