Sven Custom 853

Got this on it's way to me soon (love to @yetidamo ). Custom made for someone, ideal size for me. Not ridden a steel frame since my fixeh conversion days and those were probably all cromo.

Plans:

Repaint in a mid-purple, and reproduce all current decals (or maybe not). Planning to keep the gold/orange headset so imagine purple will be a good choice. Happy to be shot down.

SRAM something with a power2max
Kinlin wheels
Hylix bits
Antares
Gumwalls?

Nothing too fancy.

Can any framebuilders shed light on tubing sticker conventions for this bike? Understand its got 853 pro team frame other than a columbus head tube, enve fork. Is it wrong to put an 853 sticker on it?

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I'm against putting any of the new Reynolds tubing stickers on bikes, they're too big. I've got a Bob Jackson coming to me, paid for higher end tubing and still got them to leave off the stickers.

I liked the lurid green and was tempted by the frame too. I know that up close it has so paint issues. a pastel Purple would look good. RE the tubeset, It is kind of wrong to call it an 853 if its a mixture but why not make a feature of it, its one tube. have some scissor cut lines made as decals and put mini single colour reynolds and columbus stencils on the appropriate sides. '-> Columbus' or a Dove. '853 <-' with an arrow. The way i imagine it it would be in keeping with the current design and look slightly drawn on wih a sharpie. Alternatively reynolds do send out decals ( at a fee) to genuine frames/tubesets if you have a serial number, sometimes even without one if they have some info about the brand or bike model.

If it didn't have such significant chippage then I'd probably leave the paint but I think it's gone beyond the point of patina now. You're right, the newer Reynolds are a bit oversized, maybe I'll just leave them off.

Ah I wondered if you’d get it painted again. Will watch with interest to see what you do with it. I really like the unusual green colour and in a weird sorta way the fact that is does (and has) chip easily. Kinda refreshing to have a bike that doesn’t give you terrors about scratching it as it’s already fairly lived in. But it is a really nice riding bike and as such deserves a better and fresh coat of paint. Looking forward to seeing his next chapter unfold.

The decals are all hand painted btw.

Sub’d - just out of curiosity what are the dimensions of the frame?

Supposedly this. HT looks longer though.

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• Geo Chart.pdf

When I had a custom Roberts made I was told that if the main triangle is made of the same tubing then you can put the relative Reynolds sticker on it.

My Roberts had an 853 main triangle, 531 forks and a blend of Columbus for the stays and had a 853 sticker.

Glad someone bought that. It's really similar to my Oak. 853 is real nice, stiff but comfortable.

Excited to see this come together, I was ogling it too

What @Eamesy said, anyway if you are repainting it, you could decide what decal in which size you want to put on it..

Nice to see this getting some love. It's a beaut!

Pumped to see this is still within the LFGSS bubble.

Am I right in thinking you're in Australia? Couldn't justify it this time round (after realising it wasn't actually too small), but I'm in Sydney if you fancy shifting it further down the road 😉

Yeah Brisbane, I'll roll it down the coast when I'm done.

Every LFGSS forumger [of an appropriate height] should own this Sven at least once. #keepitinthefamily

5'10 crew let me hear ya

Hopefully it fits me! Shorter than you.

You'll be fine I reckon - I just feel most comfortable with long stems/low stack.
Really looking forward to how it turns out!

I’m 5’9” and slightly short in the torso for my height. Fitted me like a glove.

Thoughts for the day, raw/stainless rear end?
Silver parts?

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Oooh looks noice. Courier collected it today so it’s on its way to the other side of the world 👍

It's not a stainless rear end though, is it? It'll just rust

Can it not be cleared over to imitate that look? Steel, I don’t know you.

Not really, it'll still rust under the clearcoat, after a while.