Varonha Frameworks winter bike / FW Evans 650b conversion rat bike fun

@Skülly @veLLo

Reading up on V-brakes, I think they'll give me added problems with tyre clearance and cable pull (with the levers I have), so probably a no-go.

Visible from both sides definitely is better.
Especially in cities.
And I, as an European, didn't go touring this year. Which was a mistake.

Rookie question but I've been searching online for a couple of hours and am now thoroughly confused...

If I buy THIS front light, what wires / fixings / connectors / plugs etc do I need to run it to THIS rear light?

Do I need to be brand-specific to B&M?
Do I need 'single' wire or 'double' wire?
Do I need to buy the little paddle connector things separately?

Or will everything I need just come with the light from the nice people at Spa Cycles?

I have routing on the frame and know where the wires will run... the question is purely about what wires and stuff I need : )

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Dunno about the wiring.
Have Spa employed new staff?

Ha ha, I take it you haven't received good customer service from Spa at some point?!
I think the nice people in the dynamo thread have resolved my wiring question now : )

Lush new fork. Do you still have the Evans fork?

It kind of is the Evans fork - Winston reused the blades (you can still see some red if you look closely), and I think even managed to reuse the crown on someone else's bike.

I was equally frustrated with the lack of information on this front, I don't have extensive knowledge but this is my experience: Of the two rear lights I've bought one came with and one came without a wire. In both cases I needed double wire. One of the bikes has spade connectors on one side and didn't need them on the other, the other bike didn't need spade connectors on either side. Of the lights I've seen all of them would have worked with spade connectors and 3/4 worked without.

Ah I missed that. Good work.

In other news, I got the wheels back from Arup the other day and that seems to have solved the problem with the brake pads rubbing on the underside of the tyres. Also, for anyone struggling to set-up cantilever brakes, everyone's favourite moustachioed Park Tools guy has done a completely life-changing video on how to do it right... Why didn't I just watch this years ago?!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_tDym0G­6zo

I also managed to score a new stem: An ever-so-slightly battered 80mm Cinelli 1A, only a tenner on facebook. Luckily it is 26.0 : ) Will try and get the Salsa stem sorted at some point but this seemed like an easy fix for the meantime.

Finished the build yesterday but haven't taken photos, and now it's dark again.
Maybe I should wait til I've wired the rear light and got some crud on it anyway?
(The fact that I dropped my phone in the bath is also not helping).

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Glad to hear I'm not the only one struggling with this stuff!

Annoyingly, it appears that I've snipped the cables for the rear light clean off my front light... so I probably need to buy a new front light as well.

The range of B&M front lights that have almost exactly the same names (but have minutely differing functions) is the most dyslexia-inducing nonsense I've ever come across, and is giving the research I did about wiring systems a real run for it's money... Peter White is the only man on earth who appears to have got his head around it all. He needs to get out more, but I'm happy he doesn't.

On the plus side, I now have a front light for Josephine, and therefore a legitimate excuse to start thinking about shiny new dynamo wheels.

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Spent last night wiring the rear dynamo. Never done that before so felt good. The wire goes down the DT and up the inside of the mudguard (with Gorilla tape, curious to see how long that lasts).

It was fun learning about connectors and heat-shrinking things.
Incidentally, all the wires and gubbins came with the new front light.

Anyway, here are some pics of the full bike:

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I've been riding it around for a few days already and it's pretty much dialled-in.

The stem could do with being a bit longer and taller, so I'm on the lookout for something 26.0 / 90mm / 0-5 degrees. Probably Salsa as I don't think anyone else makes them. Or maybe any old MTB stem if I can find a pair of those Decathlon 25.4 compact drops.

Eventually I'd also like to find a replacement stainless Tortec Epic rack (like the squashed one from the Dawes), but this one will do for now.

Woah, really nice! Rat goals.

Have you waxed or clearcoated this rusty finish? Soz if i missed something.

Lights look tidy. It's good to see that rear light on a bike, when they first appeared the online photos somehow made it look huuuge! But no it's very neat indeed.

Looking very nice.

That looks epic

This bike is so well put together that it could be easily mistaken for something much more expensive. I can't see this one as a rat, no matter the frame finish

Yeah, it's got about 8-10 layers of clearcoat and glittery stuff on it.

I'm chuffed with the rear light, it's only small but it's super bright. Glad I went with that one over the Secula (until it gets nicked or squashed, obviously).

clearcoat and glittery stuff

Disco rat huh

Glad I went with that one over the Secula

The higher position of this sort of light (and the posh SON mudguard one) away from the back end of the wheel means they're much less likely to get broken off. Seculas are always getting busted IME

Neither can I yet... I definitely got a bit carried away!
Hopefully it'll look worse once it's covered in shite, it doesn't help that I cleaned all the parts before putting it together.

And to be fair, a lot of it actually was quite expensive : /

I'll take that as an excellent justification for my obviously-too-fancy rear light!

It would have been even better to pop it under the rack but I want to switch racks at some point and was worried the beam would get ironically blocked by a light mount on the new one.

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Just rolled up here to see how this one's getting along - nice to see my Roberts making an appearance!
Working a similar look on my current Rih .

Love the GAZ sticker tho and the gold looks great with the braze.

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Kevin and Roland with a ghetto blaster = class.

An excellent result - really love the fork.
fabulous work
(I think I prefer the look of the 1a to the Salsa FWIW)