Masi Speciale Sprint

I gave up on the Delancey and went with a Masi Speciale Sprint.

I'll have to change some of my accessories to black and I'm going with white bar tape (we'll see how that comes out). Eventually I'd like to get white painted rims on it.

Soma Delancey Build

I've decided to build a fixie. I decided early on that I'd probably build it from a frame set. I always want to do this but the last time I tried it turned out to be much cheaper to take the stock bike. Parts are very overpriced and bike manufacturers get much better deals.



So I'm spending the money (too much) and building a Delancey. Since it has silver lugs I'm doing all silver parts: This is expensive.

I'm going with soma's pursuit bars.



Other than that it's all pretty boring. I actually have to get a cane creek S-3 to get a silver headset. I pretty much have to buy Soma's levers to get silver. Silver cranks are easy.

I'm gonna throw a honey B17 on there and I'm probably going to find the closest to light brown cork tape I can find. I'd spend the money for Brook's bar tape but I know I will find it uncomfortable. I'd hate to have to wear gloves all of the time because of my bar tape choice.

All in all my fixed gear is going to be my most expensive bike. Mostly because of the $650 frame set.


Hopefully this will help me stave off my desire to build a bike based on Soma's Speedster frame :D. If I were smart I'd take advantage of the current exchange rates and buy a Bob Jackson frame.


All of this makes me realize: I'm becoming a frame snob. As I looked through Bicycling's buyers guide edition today I found very few bikes that I liked. They either: Weren't steel, had an odd geometry, or they had shimano equipment.

I feel like the high end bike market is being taken over by low end carbon, super cheap aluminum, and shimano. I'd feel better about it if Shimano would rework their STI levers to be ergonomic.

I find myself recommending Konas and Surlys to people and realize: There's almost nowhere for them to ride one! It's a sad day when people want to buy the whole bike for what I consider to be reasonable for a frameset. *sigh*

Awesomeness

Toys R Us Ferrari Cruiser Bike. What's so awesome about it? It's $4,400 and it's an aluminum frame! A "comfort" aluminum frame. Anyone familiar with bikes can tell you: Those words don't fit together.

It appears that what's running the price up is:
1. The front generator wheel hub.
2. The automatic shifting electronics.
3. A cheap saddle that says Ferrari.

I must admit that if you got rid of #3 and charged $1,500 you might actually sell a few to rich folks looking for "the mostest awesome bike." You can't sell at Toys R Us though.

My Next Bike

Ah I've found her. She's a long way away but I've found my next bike. And here is the frame to base her on: http://www.somafab.com/speedsterplus.html

I'm thinking downtube shifters (part of the Dura Ace group) and decent brake levers. I've grown to loath STI brifters and long for brake levers that weren't made for ogre hands. That longing has been fulfilled on my commuter which uses bar end shifters. I'd rather reach to shift then have humongous hoods that I can barely get my hands around.

Anyway, the frame is lugged which is the big thing I'm looking for. I thought I'd have to go used but I managed to find a sexy lugged frame for $800, new.

And of course it's steel.

Trouble with a frame like this is that I can't ride it anywhere so I'll have to figure the geometry and sizing out on my own. Well, if they still make this frame when I have money to buy another bike that is.

New Commuter Pictures

How about some pictures of my new commuter.

New Commuter

I ended up buying a stock Surly Cross Check and changing out some stuff. It turned out to be quite a bit cheaper than doing a custom job, and the parts are fairly similar to what I'd have done custom (although I probably wouldn't have gone quite this crappy on the brakes, but I can replace those later if they drive me nuts).

Surly Cross Check.
Changed the tires out for some continental street tires (which are on order).
Changed the seat out for a Brooks B17 Champion saddle.
Added the new Shimano double sided pedals. They're SPD on one side, and a nice platform on the other.
Added fenders (which are on order).
Added the axiom rack I already owned, seems to work fine.

All in all it's pretty nice. I haven't even done a half dozen miles yet. But tomorrow will be her first commute! Then I go on a 4 day weekend.

The Brooks saddle is definitely a different feel. It's like a more connected, but gentler, feel on the road. But, if you ignore the bumps, it's really hard. If you account for the bumps, it doesn't seem so hard compared to gel.
I'm sure the steel adds to the ride quality.

The pedals are pretty great for regular shoes. I haven't tried them with my clipped shoes yet. They're not as wide as standard platform pedals, which is a nice feature.

It's good to have a frame that's so standard and has wide clearances. Thank you Surly!

Custom Commuter

Well, I've kind of had it with my current commuter. Here are my complaints:
* I can't put regular fenders on it
* It's really heavy (I carry it up two stories every day)
* There's a tick in the bottom bracket, and I've had it rebuilt once so it looks like replacement time.
* The chain rings are a bit scarred up, but mostly good.
* It's a mountain bike: Heavy, front shock, back rigidity.

So it looks like I'm going to get a new commuter and sell the old one. Hopefully I can get $100 or so out of it.

I have two choices: A trek 7.3 FX, or a custom surly. The custom Surly is a lot more expensive, but I think it's worth it. And hey, I'm not strapped for cash so let's build the bike I really want!


Here's what I'm thinking:
* A Surly cross check frame. I can't use a Long Haul Trucker (well I can) because in my size (54) it doesn't come with 700c wheels.
* Bar end shifters.
* Drop bars, obviously.
* Probably a Brook's saddle, my butt needs to feel good in jeans.
* Double sided pedals: One side is a platform, the other is SPD.

Everything else I'm less worried about. I've got a source for a very low cost 9 speed cassette, rear derailleur and crankset. Low end stuff, but I'm not looking for a racing machine I'm looking for a good commuter that I can still park. The cassette may or may not be satisfactory, I despise large changes in my cassette. I still dream of a cassette with decent range and only steps of 1 tooth. Maybe these new 11 gear cassettes will realize my dream in 6 years when they're cheap. 3 tooth steps suck. That's a small complaint I have on my current commuter, and on the 7.3 FX.

I rode a Cross Check at Monkey Wrench on friday, and it was a nice ride. I'll probably give it another ride and start ordering parts sometime this week. Should be fun, I've never assembled a bike before :).

I'm excited!

New Bike

On Sunday I bought a used mountain bike I found on craigslist. I'll skip on disclosing the price, but price was the main reason for going used: I didn't want to spend alot, but I didn't want a $300 mountain bike.

It's an '05 Giant Yukon Disc. Hardtail, disc brakes, trigger shifters, and some insanely odd 26x2" 80PSI tires.

So I rode it to work today. Since it was snowy out this morning I figured it was a good day to break her in. It does pretty well in this crap. Ice isn't so great, I really need studded tires for ice (I fell once on the ice). Snow though, for snow it does wonderfully!
On dry pavement it's not so nice. The road bike has spoiled me.

Anyway it looks like I'm gonna be about 11 for 20 for commuting this month. Pretty good given that I had only a road bike for the first 3 weeks.

Edit: A picture.

New To Cycling

Since this is my first post I thought I'd give a little background on myself with respect to cycling. I bought my first bike (as an adult) in September. I'd known since moving to Lincoln that I wanted to get into cycling, at a minimum, to explore the city.
After several months of mulling it over, and saving, I purchased a new trek road bike (a 1500).

Since then I've ridden around almost all of the cities trails (in later posts I'll clarify what I consider a trail, some things Lincoln calls a "trail" I call a wide sidewalk) and a few of Des Moines' trails.