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thanks! appreciate that especially coming from the owner of the forum #1 ronniewagon :D. the rear brake is by this bmx racing brand bombshell. as it's my only brake i need to pay more attention to it and i think i got it right with this. i got a bad arm and can't use the right side at all, that's why.
don't have much experience on pulleys so can't really say. the sram ones that came with the rd were trashed and i read somewhere the kcncs last longer. more of a function choice than bling, like with this build in general.
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so onto the next build then, which may or may not be more trailblazing. i'd like to think it as a white paper on what the concept of mgoof can be, how far it can be taken to stop making sense. for readings i'm proposing this epic saga from the mother of all cycling forums.
the discussion is led by a senior member from boulder, colorado, who's fond of cannondale and not too fond of rivendell. as someone who's riding 73cm tt bikes his delusions can be easily ignored. however, i think he makes some crucial points too while the discussion meanders from the superiority of the 80s st series and the definition of bobish via the art of welding and the crimes of gary klein into the ecumenism of jehovah's witnesses and presbyterians.
he finally presents "in the end a bicycle isn't what you want it to be, it's what it really is" as the synthesis, which i think is a fair point made beside the contemporary cyclo-consumerscape of late capitalism. this also perfectly captures my own ethos with building bikes. essentially, minimising the part of the price that can't be traced back to the perceived functionality of the bike... without forgetting a healthy amount of emotional charge towards brand image.
as much as mgoof culture is about showing off the shiny hip hop in the groupset, for me it's also an act of circular economy, saving the planet, being a woke cyclist etc. stridsland also says this. hence, my groupset is modern or modern ish but often not new. my rattier, sleeper-mgoof is to cycling a bit like what the faux squatter aeshetic donned by a posh art school kid is to youth culture. transcending mamil?
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anyway, let's get to the bike before the last two remaining followers unsub the thread. so we have a 1987 cannondale st600, a pre-grant heyday aluminium sport touring. i kind of betrayed my principles already in the beginning by paying too much for the frame, but i simply couldn't let the lavender colourway which was featured only in the year of '87 go. below it's presented in its full catalog-glory.
who could resist the disco stripes? paradise garage nyc reincarnated on a seat tube. the state of it was far from original though, notably it lacked the matching lavender fork which is a bummer. a full rebuild was in plans so i accepted this destiny. at least the chrome replacement was of 531 and cleared more than the stays did. here it is coming home on the greateanglia, looking benevolent as ever dressed in the rear rack.
upon closer inspection the paint seemed to have survived pretty well. some bubbling on the nds chainstay, which wouldn't be too visible. it has this subtle shine to it, not a pre-trek klein shine but a quality vintage frame shine. when riding it home from the station i noticed the bb was somehow very low and pedal strike was extremely real. i lived in the assumption this was only because touring bikes were designed as such foe some time. the first parts bin setup got rid of the drops which i still can't ride at all and started to reveal the true nature of the beast.
i was expecting it to be laughably slow, but it rather showed the rocket bike esque characteristics as described by the bike forums guy. promising as i had only swapped the stem, bars, brakes, saddle and tyres so far. besides the haunting pedal strike the clearance was obviously a talking point. i had hoped for 35-38mm but there wasn't too much space left on the stays with the placeholder 28mm tanwalls. the poor mans crust juan martin bars from planet x, which adorn certain forum pompino these days, worked well together with grant's deluxe tallux. the cockpit was to however become even more rivendellised later on.
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after being shown this platypus build presented by grant of the bloods the direction of the build started to crystallize. the low bb and limited clearance for a touring frame were crushing the gravel bike dreams, but it could be a speedster. grant himself had built a speedster here and what's more opulent/wanker than a rivendell speedster?
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as the summer seems to be officially over, i feel like it's time to reflect on how the new faithful has held up throughout the hot grav summer.
it's mostly been carrying out the daily rider duties; commuting, grocery go-getting and such. the weenieness makes it accelerate nicely from the lights, even gain speed when clicking higher on the sram pg1070. the oddball carbon fork doesn't bother too much in the city if the pressures are kept lower. yet, there's still this feeling of 'not going anywhere', which i believe (and i've been told) simply originates from the 26er wheel size. perhaps a little bit from the dynamo drag. this is probably how all 26ers feel anyway, i just haven't ridden them much.
where it really has been shining at is the occasional 75k all-city gravel hunt or an epping affair. the tyre width is starting to show its better side on bridle paths and singletrack. no bike has brought this kind of a joy in a long time. emerge from the darkness of the lockdown to shred around wanstead flats like you've never seen a park in your life. the duck ponds, the mid to low income families on picnics, the naughty boys (dogs) at the cafes. starting to sound like a bootleg @Maj here :D.
the carbon fork however is casting a shade on some of this fun and thus needs to go. there's a new more city-specific build in the pipeline which means this can become the full-blown trailseeker it was always meant to be. as learned with the road klein, the combo of an aluminium frame and a steel fork is the way for me.
a new fork has been recently sniped and and hopefully installed soon. already realised upgrades since the last photos on the basic setup are the black kcnc post and the supernova lights. after all the posing it actually went bikepacking too with the compulsory hobo pieces restuvus and salsa cargo cage. at some point the 175mm cranks were causing knee pain and a pair of 170mm suginos gps came to the rescue. they should be installed too as soon as i find a 36t narrow wide in 110bcd i'm happy with.
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it doesn’t as i can’t grab the bars on the right side. not too keen on the combo lever so far either.
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such a nice ride! thanks again for inviting. there’s still summer left for more and the rumor is @Maj is keen for the next one…
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could join, sending pm
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dibs nitto cap, pm sent
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dibs gk slicks