Small and Green / Neo-retro beater / Town and Country Shopper

They are also waaaay better at slowing you down.

Go MT4! This bike needs it. Also, if its the only brake in stock and you want to ride the bike this side of the end of times, then surely its your best bet?

Get the crazy fluro ones x)

Tempting, but y'know. I've got boring suburban cred to maintain here. As a distraction, here's my work in progress parts list:

Frameset: VO Neutrino

Crankset: SRAM Rival 1 50T
BB: GXP
Pedals: MKS Stream

Front Hub: Deore M6000
Rear Hub: Deore M6000
Rims: Halo Sub 4
Tyres: Eclat Morrow Tan

Bars: Nitto B903R Bullmoose
Grips: ?
Headset: Cane Creek 40

Seatpost: Black something
Saddle: Brooks B17 Imperial
Cog: Surly 15T
Chain: SRAM 9 Speed

Brakes: Magura MT4
Adapter: PM to IS
Rotors: Something 160mm

Bottle Cage: ?
Front Rack: ?

Looking at that, it's all fairly utilitarian and robust - definitely not going to be a potential wanker...

Big gear! I just built one of these up, great fun to ride.

Got nudes? Also, you're right on the gearing front. I'm toying with either a 15 or 17T cog, but I'm not hip enough for a dingle.

This is so cool! Really looking forward to seeing it built :)

50 17 isn't a super high gear on those little wheels.

I'll chop the steerer tube later and get some.

@psg1ben is right about the gearing not being that big, I've got 46x14 which is a little under an inch less than 50x15. Feels a bit heavy to get going, but I've been riding super spinny gears for a while now. Should probably just get better legs.

Better late than never.

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Mate! Looks great. Happy with how it rides?

Got some supplies in today. Eclat Morrow tires and a pair of grips that don't quite match the gum walls. Wheels being built next week and we should be on our way to a rolling chassis.

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looks great, well done

Thanks! Yes, very pleased. Rides a lot like a normal bike and inspires a lot more confidence out the saddle, or descending, than a Brompton does. Done a bit of bridleway-bashing round the coast near Morecambe at the weekend and that was fine too.

@Maj also thanks! Was hard not to go full full wanker, now even thinking about swapping the cambium for some generic wtb thing and bags for a lil' wald.

call me a heritic but i think i prefer the mini nut builds which are functional single speeds than bougie shoppers.

just look/ride so so well

Sounds great, and nice to see one with a bit of mud on it for a change. What tyre size did you go with, and what is the clearance like? I'm all for bling builds @Maj but when it comes to owning something like this you just need to get it dirty and have a laugh.

There's clearance for 2.4"?
I shoulda bought one of these.

agreed! riding @Belagerent's was so good! for the 100m i did ride it, one must feel comfortable to chuck it off some street obstacles and not worry about scrapes

Amazing, bag selection shows real depth too.

At least! These are 2.3 and there's loads of room

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Still light on pics due to not actually having been to LBS in a couple of weeks, but we've had parts landing and we're almost ready to build.

Hope Stainless BB, Ritchey WCS seatpost, Campag Ekar rotors and some tidy MKS Touring Next pedals coming in and it should be in the queue to get some stick with the spanner.

Wheels are built up, but I'm considering a second front wheel with dynamo hub, but that one can probably wait until the autumn. I'll try and get pics later in the week.

If you're planning on using a single sprocket on a cassette freehub, I hope you have better luck than I did. I noticed variable chain tension when rotating the cranks, and it was down to the sprocket not being mounted concentrically. I tried the trick with half-tight bolts and knocking the chain, but only got it slightly less eccentric. So I'm rebuilding around a proper fixed/free hub.

But this was a Miche cassette sprocket, not ideal anyway. Perhaps you're already intending to use a SS sprocket which is designed for the job?

Do you mean you used a single sprocket taken from a cassette, and spaced it out to the correct chainline? I was planning to use something like this (actually, good reminder because it's the last thing I need to buy). Its not an issue I've anticipated tbh, but I've never run a drivetrain exactly like this before.

I’ve used the ‘Andel’ wide-foot Surly-style sprockets from Velosolo with good results, they fit a freehub body very well with no eccentricity issues.

Does the wide foot also prevent the usual bite you'd get on the freehub body from cassette use?