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I inquired about them. One thing to note is that most of the sellers on Ali don't seem to be able to get a lot of backsweep going. So 6 deg is max on most of them which is way too little for my fucked wrists.

Just caught up on your CP. Didn't know you moved to Vienna!

@Marcootsee haha thank you. We'll see. The lightweight parts I am looking at are mostly black. So very little of my usual little colour touches.

@moog Its TIRIS

With the frame being superlight I got triggered and the plan now is to build a (sensible) weight-weenie-ish SSMTB.
I already knew I wasn't going to try to restore that old sagged-in suspension fork.
I was close to pulling the trigger on one of those new Cyber Cycles rim brake Ti forks but a friend told me about a reputable Ali Express Ti seller offering bespoke options and I was hoping to save a few bucks here. He ordered three of their forks already and took them bike-packing off-road here in Austria so I have considerable trust in them.

Spoiler: I got hit hard by the import tax. That's not even cutting it. I got fucked over. Paying 90% on top again.
This is due to an anti-dumping price extra tax for bike forks (yes, it's that specific) coming from China because they want you to buy locally.
Nobody f**king makes (custom) Ti forks here...
And the best, there was no way for me to look up that extra tax rate until they presented me with it.
Whatever, rant over.
The fork is here and it looks cool and it is light. Minor annoyance the surface finish is different to the frame.

Another thing that is happening started with seeing a Uncle Rons Alumalith in real life at BITW this year.
I believe it belongs to Ben / bhughes808.
I do like the bike. It has a nice retro modern klunky vibe to it. What I am having a hard time with is that it's a 2K frame before import which literally looks like any raw 2000s cheap alu 26"hardtail.
I was almost a little bit angry. After Crusts nicely lugged elegant steel frames with nice paint jobs this felt like taking the piss. How much can we get away with and you idiot customer trend slaves will still buy it.
I know now these are hand-crafted by a beardy torch wizard in the mystical forests of Vermont and that they are built around 650b wheels and feature internal dropper routing.
But that's about all the difference. Right?
Okay, forks are cool too but they are also just a remix of Tange switchblade forks et al.
So kudos for making such a stupid product so cool.

I am really intrigued by the platform. A cool but able and fun bike, not too large (29ers), not too heavy, ready to ride some shit and throw it around and due to the lack of paint that can scratch and the overall rougher aesthetic you are just not too precious about it.
Just not for me at that price tag though and if you follow along here you can also tell that I have absolutely no need for it. However, if an opportunity came around, maybe ;).

I felt a bit cheeky. What If I am taking the piss at it. Since I already identified it as a 2000s alu mtb for myself, I could just keep an eye out for a cheap-ass suitable alu frame and built it up with some stuff from the parts bin. I even happen to have one of Ronnies favorite 9 speed XTR rear derailleurs lying around.
Maybe strip the paint off a frame if I have to. Maybe drill a hole for internal dropper routing. Fuck it, it's alu. Put some tape or a rubber grommet around, done.

So I went along at setting up alerts on eBay etc. and checked offers coming in. Nothing that really fancied me. Until a badly advertised full bike turned up in the search results.
Light Aluminum Bike - 220 Euro
Raw frame, no branding but quality components. Full XT 8speed group and something that used to be a fancy suspension fork.
I got curious. A full bike wouldn't be too bad. I was helping a friend to build up a retro MTB at that time and could utilise some of the parts.

Looking at the photos I got skeptical. Didn't look like alu. Skinny tubes and much finer welds. The photos were quite bad so I wondered if it was just a grey-painted steel frame mistaken for aluminium. Especially since there were some places around the cable guides that looked quite rusty. Zooming in on the dropouts it clicked.

PLOT TWIST: Could this be a titanium frame?

I messaged and met up with the seller at their place and got my hunch confirmed. This is indeed a ti frame. It belonged to the seller's father-in-law and has been gathering dust for quite some time. He was happy to pass it on and even went down in price by another 20€.
I rode it home, stripped and cleaned it.
I never owned or held a ti frame in my hands before. Felt like holding a can of Coke very light and thin in a way.

Oh, the trimming left and right was already there. I just had to extend the hole to a slot. For that I used a table drill, drilled multiple holes and then some files.

Workshops, some nice film looking like tourist photos, Cats and ingenious beautiful bags?
Top-notch content!

That's a great-looking bike! Good choice of parts too.

Yesterday, I went to the flea market and bought some old metal film containers hoping they will protect my film against airport x-ray in the future. Back at home, I realised there was some developed film rolled up in one of them. I don't really have a scanning setup so this is photographed using my iPad as background light source. Hence the visible pixels.

Flappy pics:

God, what a finicky job.
Pro-tip to my future self: If you know you want mudguards on it anyway install them before you install all those extra bits like dynamo lights and baskets with custom mounting etc...

Finished this yesterday ready for the bad weather and today is the sunniest day in a week :D
I recently signed up for a maker space which gives me access to a workshop with some extra tools. So I decided to go the extra mile meter and drilled the guards in the right places for neat mounting and make some DIY flaps.
Bought an IKEA desk mat which is gonna give me at least 20 more flaps at less than 5€. Which is good as I might have been very conservative and made them too small. At least based on these infographics kindly provided by @spotter.

With autumn creeping in, wet days are becoming more of a thing, even in sunny Vienna. In fact, it was just very very wet if you followed the news.
So to make the Marin even more practical and useful it will get mudguards. Nothing fancy. Stealth SKS Bluemels. Currently dialling in fit before cutting and drilling.

So good you had the chance to capture those moments.
I just dropped off a roll of film for development my mum had in a drawer for over twenty years and was pleasantly surprised by a photo of my long-gone cat (r.i.p).

Hot!

Sorry for your loss :( but what beautiful photos!

I think you should leave it dirty for Bespoked

YES! Can we get a Gravel / SFAB diorama?

a bit of fun, sometimes

Is not a bad starting point and green is a decent colour too.

How is the bike doing @lt?

Finally got around to getting the test roll for this fleamarket buy developed. As always I am using cheap AGFA APX 400 for testing.
Quite happy with the results. I wasn't sure if the camera works properly as it always sounded like it would open but not close the shutter/curtain.
The rangefinder spot is very bright and easy to use and the camera operates in an aperture priority mode which is my favorite way to shoot. Even though it's a bit bulky I'll definitely take it out again.

Lovely, more please <3

@oheyitsd I own an XA + flash (my mom's old camera). I rarely take the flash because it's so nice and compact without it. It does indeed take some time to warm up. I used it once or twice on an evening with friends to get that disposable camera with a flash party look which it does well.

I pre-ordered one. Should ship on the 15.10. I have a Rollei 35 classic. It was the first analogue camera I used (besides a disposable as a kid) and I am super excited about it.
I was bumped out when I saw that the black one is currently USA and Asia only. Rollei Germany told me they'll start selling black ones in spring 2025.

Yes, there was some beef on Instagram etc. I found it all a bit blown up and exaggerated tbh.
There are soooo many steel frames coming from those factories in Taiwan.
Brother, Fairlight, Crust, Soma all QBP (All-city, Surly etc...) most likely the Peregrine too and now also people who used to make all their frames by hand like Sklar. It's all the same and for a reason. Those factories actually churn out really good frames.

In my opinion, Crust acted very much like they invented big tyred rando / gravel bikes with a classic touch. I feel like that's a very US centric perspective. They forget, that the US is not the sole inventor of gravel/offroad riding and that before there were any of these Instagram cult bikes or figures there were french randonneurs, english touring bikes (Raleigh!) and things like the Rough Stuff Fellowship. Before there was a Fabs Chest there was a Carradice waxed canvas saddle bag etc...
It's all been done before and inspired by each other. I assume Rune and Crust also don't necessarily overlap too much in market share. It's ridiculously expensive to import a crust to the EU / UK and the other way around.

A much more appropriate criticism of "that Rune Person" was/is that he supported some discriminating policies against trans people in the cycling world. This almost did cost him agreements with dealers in the UK. He has since apologised for his statements.

Thank you!
Yes, there is a certain overlap especially as they currently share a wheelset and some other bits.
The differences are details really.
The AWOL has slightly less clearance. 29 x 2.1 XC tyres vs 29 x 2.3 knobby tyres.
The Inbred will receive a new dynamo wheelset soon and also now sports a nice Pelago front rack. And some cockpit changes that makes it a really nice rigid rugged touring MTB.
With the AWOL being a bit lighter and less loaded I see it more as nifty travel ATB (flat bar gravel bike) vs Touring MTB.
It is definitely a luxury to have both though.

Cheers!

On another note, I tried some nicer B&W film the other day on a hike. Here are some rocks shot on Canon AV-1, 50mm + HP 4 125