The Bikes
The Bike. It is the central tool in pursuit of our craft. A Velominatus meticulously maintains their bicycles and adorns them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. The Rules specify the principles of good taste in configuration and setup of our machines, but within those principles lies almost infinite room for personal taste.
It seems in some ways like a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, the way we honor our machines. We love them to a point that lies well beyond obsession. Upon these machines upon we endure endless suffering, but also find an unending pleasure. The rhythm, the harmony between rider and machine, the outdoors, the wind in our faces and air in our lungs.
The Bikes is devoted entirely to our machines. Ours, The Keepers, and yours, the Community. It features articles devoted to our bikes, and proves a forum for uploading photos of your own machines for discussion. We will be harsh, but fair; this is a place to enforce and enhance our observation of The Rules.
If you’d like to submit an article about your own beloved bike, please feel free to send it to us and we’ll do our best to work with you to include it.
- Rule #12 and the Cascade Effect
That is a very reasonable opening salvo for the Rule about bike ownership. Three is good and certainly a minimum, and we are talking road bikes here, if there was any doubt. They naturally become ordered: the #1 is ichi-ban, top dog, go-to bike for every and all rides. #2 was the old #1, ... - Guest Article: Black Is Not The New Black@kogalover is singing my song here. Bikes are beautiful. ’nuff said. VLVV, Gianni With all those posts on riding in winter and being visible, either by putting Eyes of Sauron or other car melting devices on one’s steed, or by even considering a YJA instead of donning plain black kit, it was about time to finally get ...
- Dialing in the StableThis was going to be an article about Rule #45. It is amazing how much time is wasted and matches burned when professionals stop for that second bike change to get back on their #1. With all the jigs available to team mechanics it would seem they could set up five bikes exactly the same. And ...
- Matching the drapes to the rugAs a longtime titanium bike owner, I’ve always been jealous of a beautiful painted frame but Ti and carbon frames don’t need paint like a steel frame needs paint. But I want some painted beauty. It’s like buying a white car; I can’t do white, need some color. So between a Ti frame and a ...
- Festum Prophetae: Waiting for the HourEveryone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. – Mike Tyson The one thing everyone should always plan for is that however well-conceived a program might be, things will never go to plan. The high level plan for my Festum Prophetae Hour Ride was as follows: Have a custom Hour Bike built by Don Walker. Because reasons. Reasons like custom ...
@Analog
Nice!
Not sure that I love that oversized top tube but it is a Colnago, and that more than makes up for it!
not exactly a bike, but one week’s worth of clothes for commuting to work this week. Yes, I’m a wimp and live in London and 3 degrees is cold for me and only managed 100k over 4 days (beer night meant walking/train on Friday). BWTF, this is what life is like for me. On the plus side, meeting a annoyingly fit 20y-something bloke from work tomorrow for a ride, he’ll burn me off on some climbs, I’m ready for that, but 4 hrs in the saddle will fee soooo good.
@markb Watching the weather at Twickers you needed to be a bit further south. It was not so bad down here but I guess you may be just a tad damp?
@Barracuda
!?@$?! Why am I not getting a free keg of this, FFS? OK, maybe a free pint. We will send Frank up to BC to drink their profit margin down.
Rule #47 beer.
@Gianni
Fuck yes. Next time I cross the Strait I’m going after a pint of this. They make good beer up there. Not as good as Seattle nor (obviously) as good as Portland, but good.
Loving my BC neighbors.
@kixsand
I’m really enjoying the bike but it was a labor of love rebuilding it and of course learning a lot along the way. It’s my first road bike… in fact my first spin on it last week was the first time I’ve ever ridden a road bike. Forgive my philistine ways! It took me 56 years to see the light.
I’ve spent the past two years riding a Trek Cobia MTB that I put 38mm road tires on to get myself in sufficient shape to take on a road bike. I figured that once I regularly passed more road bikes than passed me, I was ready.
Thanks for your interest @kixsand.
@PeakInTwoYears
We do make some good beer, but not this one. I think the Victoria in question here is the state in Australia.
@Teocalli
I can deal with damp, so long as your moving it’s ok. It’s the cold that gets me, especially my fingers. A combination of silk inner and skiing outer gloves sort of works, but at the price of control over levers.
@chrismurphy92
@wilburrox
I’m experiencing a wee bit of frustration uploading photos on a windows 8 Lenovo tablet…. bikes are freshly washed and for the first time I have a photo of the stable cleaned and together. At least I got the chance to check out some sexy cross rigs, and now off to tackle the strava climbing challenge. any helpful tips on the upload tool? It let’s me select the photo but it never loads….
@Analog
Incredible job and great extra effort to remove paint! Those two oval shaped tubes are nice — very nice.
So my new Number 1 is finally nearing completion(placed the order in April).
It’s a custom stainless steel frame from Saffron Frameworks, Columbus XCR front triangle, with a custom machined 44mm head tube, and Reynolds 953 seat & chain stays. Groupset will be Campagnolo Super Record, wheels are Campagnolo Bora One 35 Dark Labels shod with FMB Competition CX 25’s. First pics of the frame below, it’s with the painter at the moment(whose facebook page I took these from):
The fork(Enve), seatpost(also Enve) and stem(3T) will also be painted in the same pearl blue colour, but with a pearl white detail at the end of each in the shape of a lug(hard to describe!).
The groupset and wheels are due with the distributor on November 15th, so hopefully they will be with me some time before the 22nd. Plan at the moment is to head down to pick it up/build it on the 28th of November, unless I get the groupset earlier than expected in which case it will be the 21st or 22nd.
I think the last thing I have to decide on now is the bottle cages, currently dithering between King Ti’s or Arundel Mandibles in the plain black. Any suggestions?
Getting rather excited about this now!
@campbellrae1
Sheeeit bro! You have just shown a top ten bike for this site. That is impressive and glad to hear the gruppo is going on. Keep posting as you build.
@campbellrae1 Niiiice! Bit come on…there’s no way something so stunning should be ridden on Scotland’s roads in winter, even if the heart and soul is stainless. You know the road salt eats everything.
Keep posting though as it nears completion and you unleash it in the spring.
@campbellrae1 Boy oh boy, stunning. Just added another option for my bucket list bike. I like the shiny cages on some of the bikes on their web page. Suitably minimalist.
@unversio thanks! I wish I’d discovered cycling decades ago. I guess it’s never too late.
@pistard
Thank you for this correction.
Here’s the latest no.1. Loving it.
1
@Giles strong work on reping orange!
@campbellrae1
Oh boy! That is a stunner… similar build to my Jaegher, I’m close to pulling the trigger on a set of Bora 35 Dark Label tubs as well.
@Giles
Another stunner. You know what would really make a difference though? Black headset spacers, to match the black at the base of the seatpost. Yep.
@DeKerr
I’ve thought about it. And the conclusion I came to was that I prefer to have the data available so I can KNOW that I’m going faster than I did last time. Without that I’m just guessing. I’m so confident of this that I chose my computer in a complimenting yet contrasting colour.
That’s how I roll.
Further to this, I’ve already realised I don’t like compact chainsets. The Giant Rapid I was riding has a triple chainset, yes, but the big ring has 53 teeth, so that’s what I’m used to for descending.
Also, I tried my first steepish climb on my new bike yesterday, and when I stood up and pressed hard on the pedals the chain slipped! Any ideas why that would happen on a brand new bike?
@brett thank you sir, and yes I think you might be right on the money…
@campbellrae1
Bloody well done! This is the stuff I dream about!
@RobSandy
I’m an idiot when it comes to mechanicals. When you say that you’re chain “slipped” I’m assuming you mean that it dropped a gear?
If you have some play in the bottom bracket you could be rocking the front end of your drivetrain when you put the hammer down. I can imagine enough movement where the chain grabs another gear?
@brett
1 on the black spacers. Just a little too much white going on right there.
@campbellrae1
I too would like to see more of this build as it happens.
Question – mixing Columbus and Reynolds tubing? I’m guessing that the columbus is super stiff and the Reynolds is there to improve compliance and ride quality?
@kixsand
Another vote for black spacers. Good thing is – it’s easy and cheap to try. One one hand all that white and orange shouldn’t work, but it does. Congrats!
@Giles
Is it just me or does something look odd about the angle of the forks? Is that a Trek thing?
Thanks for all the comments guys! I’ll add more pics as I get them, although there probably won’t be much to update till the end of the month as it all comes together.
@JohnB Don’t worry, it won’t be brought put till the spring, will be drooled over in the bike room till then!
@kixsand The mix of tubing was the framebuilders decision. The columbus tubing is slightly lighter than the Reynolds, and slightly more compliant and comes in a larger diameter than the Reynolds, which I preferred, but isn’t as stiff for a small diameter tube. The Reynolds has been used to stiffen up the rear triangle.
@ChrisO I thing that has something to do with their E2 geometry. cant for the life of me figure out what model that is though.
@kixsand
It felt very much like the chain slipped a couple of teeth but stayed on the same gear. Thunk.
I don’t know that it can be that. Especially as every component is completely new (like, I’ve now done 30 miles).
Any ideas, anyone?
@RobSandy
Is your cassette on tight? 30 miles is far enough to give things a shake-down. Are all the spacers there that need to be there? Is your derailleur adjusted right? Sometimes changing gear will move the chain 90% of the way, but just enough to be a bit “off”. Does your chain have a stiff link? Is it long/short enough?
It’s all about eliminating potential issues. Good luck!
Cannondale Update
Well, I’m in love. And, I’m very happy with the choice I made to buy this bike, in this size.
The Neil Pryde was no dog but the Cannondale is simply a cut above in terms of stiffness and what they like to call vertical compliance. The Hi Mod Super Six is rock solid when you jump on the pedals and yet I’ve never ridden a bike as comfortable over the cuts and rocks and potholes as this bike is. There are some horrible stretches of pavement near where I live that I’d be willing to bet I’m 5kph faster on this bike!
With the benefit of hindsight it is now clear that I was riding a bike that was too small for me. One of the questions that the fitter asked that I thought was interesting was this one…
“Do you descend on the hoods or in the drops”?
I knew the right answer was the drops but I couldn’t truthfully give that answer.
With the extra reach and the compact bars, the drops feel just wonderful. I can reach the brakes perfectly and feel completely in control of my bike. I’m going to be so much faster on this bike when the road goes downhill, I can’t wait to try it some more.
Still getting used to SRAM Red over the Ultegra Di2 that I had on the NP. Rear cassette shifting is more fun with the SRAM red – super fast and crisp. Swapping chainrings at the front end is a bit more of an adventure with SRAM and there isn’t any micro adjustment that I can see?
The Dale came with 2 sets of chainrings – 53/39 and 50/34. My bikes have all had compacts so I had them build it up with the 53/39. It has an 11-26 out back. I’m loving the big to small ring transitions much better but it will take some getting used to for overall ride ability. I certainly find that I’m down on the small ring more often. The really steep stuff is a bit tougher in the 39/26 that it was in 34/25 – or is that in my head? They’re likely similar?
@Analog Thats a sweet bike. Got to love raw Ti, it’s probably a crime to cover it up :]
@RobSandy
I agree with @wiscot as the bike is new it’s more likely that the indexing is not quite honed and so you are actually getting a gear jump when you load it up vs the chain actually slipping. Does it do it just the once (each time) or does it continue to do it? If just the once then I feel that is more likely the indexing. Also check that the locking ring has not come loose on the cassette.
@Giles
Damn, that is fine as hell. I love the orange and white. And those wheels, beauty.
@ChrisO
Me too…
could it be flipped front to back?
The trek logo on the front fork would typically read from top to bottom. I’m betting that this is a custom paint job and maybe the painter chose to go the other way with the decal. The shape of the fork at the bottom looks to be correct as does the angle of the fork. I think it’s just that decal that plays tricks with the eye.
@Giles
Campy on a Trek: On the one hand, you’d think this would produce the same visceral discomfort as SRAM or Shimano on a Bianchi, on the other hand, Campy is beautiful and could make this abomination look better.
Very nice bike.
@il muro di manayunk agreed but the purchase of the frameset above (correctly identified as a custom paint job) left me in a position of having to strip what is now No. 2, to get on the road. Campy on a Wilier is far more palatable I feel. Here is No.2 when she was No.1.
And having ridden Campy for the last 6-7 years I couldn’t go back anyhow. Apologies for phot quality, it isn’t great. I don’t apologise for the non-slammed stem as dropping the bars is a work in progress…
@kixsand
How many spacers are there? If there are 3, I’d do the top and bottom in black and leave the middle one white.
@Teocalli
Hopefully it’s just that the indexing isn’t quite right. I’m bribing a more competent buddy with beer to help me fix it one night this week. And if we don’t make any progress, at least we’ll have drunk some beer. Win, win!
@ChrissyOne
Shouldn’t the spacers be coming out anyway to slam the stem as per the Rules?
I agree that’s a lovely looking machine though. I’d feel a lot of pressure to ride like a hero on a bright orange bike.
@ChrisO
The Trek Madone has direct-mount brakes (in this case, white Bontrager ones), and the fork is quite slim. The head-tube sort of extends over the brake, which looks a bit odd and results in a huge head-tube junction.
@RobSandy . Exactly my mental process, the orange makes me work twice has hard on the bike.
Spacer wise there are three, one twice as thick as the other two. I will try every conceivable combination to try and finesse the look. Will let you know how it goes.
Paint wise it’s a Project One job, but can’t take the credit for the choice – it was the LBS owner’s bike before he updated. Colour was chosen on the basis of their branding, as is the wall behind it! The quality of the finish is amazing and it polishes up beautifully.
Thank you all for the positive comments.
@kixsand
34/23 nets you a gear similar to a 39/26 – you’re going basically two gears harder now.
Is it the new SRAM Red? If the front derailleur reads “YAW” on it then it doesn’t have micro-adjustments – their idea was to pivot the FD as you shift, so it would enable a full range of gears without trimming. No idea if it works, but that was their idea at least.
@tessar
I found an online calculator and you’re right…it is a fairly big difference. Perhaps a 12-27 out back to even things out a bit…we’ll see.
I have 2013 SRAM Red – 10 speed – and the FD does have the word “Yaw” scrawled across the top of it so no micro adjust. It’s set up pretty good at present and does seem to be able to cover the spread without rubbing but it sounds like there’s going to be more fine tuning required over the long run.
@Giles That Wilier is really nice too! Campy on a Wilier is only natural — I’d expect nothing less. Are you going to get a new gruppo to replace the one you moved to the Trek?
And just to be clear, I wasn’t calling your Trek an abomination in the post above, but rather the heap of scrap metal I linked to.
@kixsand
If you live anywhere properly hilly, a 27 or 28 is probably in order on a double. With SRAM and Shimano so eager to move us to 11sp, an Ultegra 11-28 is cheap as chips. My FTP is above 4W/kg and I still find the lower gear useful, especially if I’m not hammering – living in the mountains, I use the full spread of gears quite evenly.
Analog – where the heck do you live? I want to know more about the tropical background.
Good lord, the blue Saffron is going to be be incredible. Get that thing built up!