Tom's Bikes

The next project on the block is I have bought the Nimbus that was for sale on here to start assembling my *ideal geo road bike. Time will tell though.

Now we are talking!!

Thats turned out rather nice

Cheers dude

Love this !! * the 1 1/8th ahead conversion is genius

Very tasty. Top marks

Cheers all.

Very nice

So this is the Nimbus that I got. Many will have seen it for sale on here and the picture is from said thread.

Now I really need another gravel bike in my life and I have enquiries out there for a custom frame and fork but nothing set in stone. The reason for this is that seat angle is my big bug bear at the moment. I have grown to love steep seat angles on my MTB's and my older gravel bikes just seemed too slack now and I didn't feel happy on them. I had to run inline posts with the saddle all the way forward but when the angle is closer to 74 degrees this just isn't enough. The sensation to me feels like sitting on a sofa and trying to pedal which is just awkward in my opinion.

My main MTB is an XL Hello Dave. I got this is it was the first mainstream frame available which was slack enough, had enough reach and a steep seat angle. The first batch I got were Sick bicycles frames that weren't paid for by a Taiwanese manufacturer. I'm not some giant either I'm just under 6ft but I always opt for bigger bikes now as I like the seat angle steep but I like to maintain the reach. I have spent so much time on the Dave and I love it. Seat angle is around 79 as its 78 degrees with the saddle pushed forward on an inlien post. Only thing I would do on that frame is shorten the stays a bit to make it manual a bit easier.

I jump on some bikes now, such as my mates Giant Reign and I just hate them and wouldn't enjoy sitting down and pedaling one at all. It feel like the pedals are so far in front of me. I had a stint (3 months?) on an XXlongest Geometron (one of the best MTB's I have ever ridden) that a mate lent me. This was the proof that a steep seat angle was a must have on any bike I wanted to keep for any time. This pushed me to get a Marino full sus with a steeper seat angle as well.

I never had this on a gravel or road bike though and I though I would benefit from it. Custom Geo was the only way to go past 76 degrees. I had tried a friends new Ti XC MTB which had an 80degree seat angle and to me this still felt nice IMO, then a couple of months later the Nimbus popped up. Being a TT bike this will be a great way to see if I prefer the steeper angle on longer rides seated. I should mention the angle helps a lot on an MTB as when you get out the saddle it feels much quicker to get up into a position when you can stand and pedal or take on a descent for example. I also really like the position when seated pedaling though. On this Nimbus I'm looking at around an 84degree. Need to decide if I will run a layback post or not but I think realistically be riding it around 82 degrees to start with.

1 Attachment

There will be a couple of unusual features on the build compared to a normal road bike. I was going to run a set of Funn Gwide 500 bars. I tried them on it and while they felt great across the hoods (500mm) across the drop which are getting over 600mm they felt too wide. I will save these for the gravel build and on this bike I will probably run a set of woodchippers. Unless I'm on the track I only run some form of flared drop now.

I want it 9 or 10 speed because I'm going to run it 1 x with a 44t front ring and one of the cheap aliexpress 11/42 rear cassettes with an older 9 speed Shimano MTB mech. This is the peasants GRX/Apex groupset. I have a choice of Ultegra 10 speed brake/shifters or I can run a bar end 9 speed shifter I have with fixed levers. This I am still yet to decide on.

This looks ace. Reminds me that I should probably throw some mudguards on the alpinestars.

Cheers, haven't been using it as much as I should as I bought a Whyte Glencoe which I am in love with at the moment. Was actually out on it last night with a few mates. Here are some pictures from the ride. These were taken at the top of a local climb called Bone collector.

3 Attachments

Love this!! Looking real good

Cheers dude. Do you know that climb over Clent? I can't say I have done it before but its just around the corner from Waltonberg (the cobbled climb)

No idea. Though a client session on the retro bikes seems like a great idea! Loadsa climbing tho

Oh yeah lots.

It needed these bad.

2 Attachments

Enjoy this a lot. Good call on the minty decals!

Cheers man appreciate it.

New tyres roll nice and fast as well which is good.

Got some Cosmics at the weekend for my road build. This is a slow burn as my Whyte is as fast on the road as this will ever be so it's a bit redundant at the moment. Even though I have most of the bits minus a cassette.

1 Attachment

Broke the track bike out, might even race it soon. Love the TA's but they are too narrow. Fitting some Sugino 75 soon. Had it a while, was raced to a European championship win as well by its previous owner.

2 Attachments

Pics in the wild.

2 Attachments

V good with the tan walls

Wondering what that Nimbus will look like once it's finish

Thanks.
While I want to finish the Nimbus, I am enjoying my Glencoe so much that I wouldn't use it at the moment, so it's on the back burn.

This is ace. I picked up a Bobcat Trail out of a skip near my folks, which Mrs c00ps now uses. Rides really nicely. Although if I even hint that it might turn into a project, I'll be in trouble.

that marin conversion is great. love the colors.