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Was watching Sofiane's dot intently when it got teleported through the finish line due to the tracker updating, quite anticlimactic! Seems like there will be no waiting for James at km 1847.

So so good for such a nice price, this and the Rivendell make me wish I spent summer in London, GLWS!

(interested by the wheels if you end up splitting and can post!)

Regarding your folding bike project, maybe take a look at CdM 2021? Part of the brief was that "all entries are able to be easily dismantled to a size small enough to arrive car-free on an SNCF train – just 120 centimetres long and 90 centimetres high".

That's a Cyfac bike though!

Thanks! Glad to learn that works, it's a very elegant system, I would have bolted the hooks into a rigid plate like a caveman.

Well, that's sad to hear, I loved his bikes. Never meet your heroes or something.

It's all yours :) Tyre clearance was a bit too small for me!

Thanks! Did you attach them to a rigid plate inside the bag?

Love your bike! Is that rack bag homemade? It's lovely, would it be possible to have more pictures of it, especially the attachement system?

Not sure I understand completely, are you selling it with the fork and the complete groupset, except for saddle, bottle cage and pedals? Anyway, I'm interested, I'm PM-ing you :)

That's the best I got! It's from BQ34.

The idea regarding stress is that you should fasten the stays at the position they naturally fall in place when they're unscrewed, i.e. don't push the mudguard in (nor out). If it's actually aluminium, you can re-radius it by pushing the edges inwards or outwards to have a nice fender line. You need specialized tools to do that with stainless steel.

You can also bend the fender (according to J.P. Weigle, no cutting - not sure why tbh -) so that is fits the chainstay bridge, if you're unhappy with the bracket you made.

VO sells leather washers if you don't have the tools to make the washers yourself.

Are they Berthoud, like the stays seems to indicate? Or at least stainless steel? If so, just know that you shouldn't mount them with any stress : if they don't follow the tyre perfectly well, too bad, that's your fender line now. Otherwise, as I've learned through personal experience, they'll crack, most likely at the seatstay bridge.

As @yoshy is saying, leather washers are recommanded between the mudguard and both bridges. Also, put a large washer between the mudguard and the head of the screw at the seatstay bridge. Shape it in a vice before hand so that it follows the shape of the mudguard. Or buy one of these from VO.

Didn't bother thinking that one through but yeah, that might be the reason :)

Oh, believe me, I know about coax cables ;) This is why I wrote "wire" in quotes.

I'm also familiar with what @Julien1A alluded to, though :
1°) I've always heard it was a fairly unreliable method to replace the neutral wire.
2°) I don't want to bother with that because it wouldn't make it cleaner than using a single SON coax cable.

I really like the cleanliness of SON's coax connectors, the crimped connectors look very unsightly in comparison. I'm confident enough in my soldering abilities to use them, we'll see how it'll turn out. But first, I need to put my hands on a pair of connectors.

Thanks for your reply, it was super helpful. I had those exact questions about the Fairlight mount and the Son rear light beam pattern.

I saw the framebuilders yesterday, and ended up sticking with the mudguard solution after talking with them. On their own bikes, they tend to mount it at the dropout, for the same reasons as Fairlight, i.e. it's compatible with all configurations. However, they tend to use Supernova rear lights - whose beam pattern is apparently better for vertical mounting -. As I have an Edelux at the front, using a Supernova for the rear light would mean loosing the standlight function, which I'm not keen to do.

I also hadn't realised how big an area brazing damages : adding braze-ons or holes to have some sort of clean routing towards position n°3 would have meant repainting the whole seattube.

@Five-Hats : I'm going to use a Son coaxial connector between the BB and the mudguard, to make mudguard removal easy. I assume that's what you meant?

@Julien1A : I've heard of that, but I'm not sure it changes much : Son coax is a single "wire".

That's also what I thought about the dropout mounting. Any experience with a light mounted that low?

Under saddle isn't an option as there's a Di2 battery in there. Cable routing would also be problematic, I want something clean and durable so that'd probably mean internal, which isn't ideal, as I'm not having the frame repainted. The framebuilders will just touch up the areas they modify, so I'm trying to avoid drilling holes everywhere.
But I will talk to them to see if we can figure out anything about mounting it there.

I run full metal mudguards 95% of the time, so I was also considering that option (with a connector near the BB for easy removal). I wanted something that was independent of mudguards for the last 5%, so that I never have to worry about light even when removing mudguards, but it might be my best option so far.

@M_A_X : I don't actually plan to run a rack, the mounts will be there "just in case".

@Grumpy_Git : Ok so consensus seems high that 1 or 2 are shit for visibility!

In your opinion, what is the best place to mount a rear dynamo light?

I'm going to see a framebuilder this Saturday to make some modifications on my rear triangle. They will modify the fender mounting points and add rack mounts.
I believe I should seize the opportunity to figure out where to mount my future rear dyno light, as well as the cabling. I plan on using a Son rear light.

I'm torn between several options. I'd like to avoid mounting it anywhere on the seatpost, as I might be using some sort of saddlebag from time to time. I'm thus left with :

1°) Mounting it on the dropout, Fairlight-style. I live in France, so it would be on the NDS dropout.
Pros : Barely any modification needed, I can run the wire along the brake hose.
Cons : The light would sit very low to the ground, so I'm afraid I won't be visible to cars.

2°) Mounting it on the hidden mudguard mount inside my seatstay (see picture below).
Pros : Slightly higher than option 1°), less exposed.
Cons : Slightly uglier cabling than 1°).

3°) Having a mounting point added high up on the NDS seatstay.
Pros : The most visible out of the 3.
Cons : Can't figure out any kind of cable routing that wouldn't look bodgy as hell. This would be solved with fully internal routing, but I'm hesitant to do that as I'm not having the bike repainted.

If I wasn't so afraid about visibility, option 1°) would be a no-brainer. What do you think?

Any advice on best practice to sew the "spine" of a frame bag? My two side panels are done but my first attempt at sewing them together with a single strip went poorly. I tried to follow Mack Workshop's video but he seems to be doing way better in angles than I am. Here are the problems I encountered so far:

1. Fabric is bunching up a lot on the angles. Should I cut a pattern into the strip to ease that? How far in? My seam allowance currently is a very conservative 1.5 cm as I was afraid to fuck up.

2. How do you close the strip once you've gone all the way around? I don't care to leave an opening like Mack Workshop does, so I was just thinking of leaving some extra fabric and simply stitch the two ends of the strips together at the end?

I'm wondering if sewing 4 straight panels on each side of the panels like they do on bikepacking.com (instead of a single strip), then stitching them all together at the angles would make my life easier. What do you think?

(I'm using VX21.)

(edit : removed my comment about the length of the strip, apparently I can't do math)

Good to know, thanks again!

Thanks so much for all the pictures, that's exactly what I needed! Are you happy with the "snap" guides (do they hold the cable correctly?), and do you happen to know where your framebuilder got them/what's the reference?

Amazing bike. Can you share what you've had done for the dynamo routing, both front and rear?

I'll have some alterations made to my frame soon and I'm debating whether I should add routing for the rear lamp myself.

Very nice, I did not know of him!

In the same vein, I'm sure you know of Pierre Soulages? The linseed oil reminded me of his etchings, and the black oxide of his paintings.

It's in Iceland! It's chock-full of otherworldly landscapes, really amazing.