5 months later, my new singlespeed commuter

R

Rik

logged out
5 months ago my beloved pink DiamondBack was stolen... it was my favourite bike, so much fun to ride...
Since then, I haven't been riding as much, as none of my bikes were practical for getting around town, especially to TAFE and the shops and whatnot.
Alas, that has all changed, here's my new mean machine


Oldschool GT frame, cromoly as you'd expect... so old it's running a U brake on the rear. This was lying around at work, and it took me a bit of pestering but now it's mine.
I've built it up with mainly spare parts, the wheels I had to buy from my workmate, but it was worth it. Duke rims on a DMR rear hub, Surly front hub. Singlespeed, boltup, tough yet not too heavy.
I managed to get the drivetrain together without a tensioner, the dropouts have about 10mm of horizontal adjustment, and with a 39/17 not only do I get a good combination for tension, it also pedals really well. Cranks are old DuraAce, with a long bottom bracket there's just enough chainstay clearance for them to fit.

Here's the driveline


So yeh, now I have no excuse to be lazy, I intend on riding everywhere again... I have to lose the christmas kilos, and regular riding will see me shed quite a bit of excess rather quickly I hope.

Anyway, this is my new bike... I'm happy, so yeh... trying to think of a witty way to end the post....
Meh...
The End.
 
J

jays_5000

Likes Bikes and Dirt
haha Rik, that is SICK!

I love single speed commuters! My boss has a nice one aswell!

Have fun on it, make sure this one doesnt get stolen.
 
neko

neko

Likes Dirt
Hoorah for ss commuters. That things sweet! Except for the brakes... but it's not like you need 8" discs on the road I guess.
 
R

Rik

logged out
Don't let anyone tell you canti's are crap. They're set up fairly well, don't have the "woah shit" bite of V's, but they give more than ample braking to cope with my riding style, I can slalom my way through the city knowing if I do need to stop, I'm able to.

Today was its first decent ride, and weeeeeeee it was fun, I'm gunna have to get used to stomping this gear around a bit, but once it's wound up the bike just glides along. Sooo quite, the only noise is the tyres on the road, and even that's barely audible compared to ambient traffic noise.
It handles really well, scared me a few times as I'm used to riding slack angled bikes with short reach, but once I adapted I could throw this around with ease, it went where I pointed it, and stuck.

And yeh, blue ano rocks, I don't know if I wanna go much further than I have done so, but if I had the opportunity I'd probably go silly with blue cable caps, brakes+levers, spoke nipples etc. Ahh I'm a rolling fashion disaster :lol:
 
j5ive

j5ive

Jonny Sprockets Bike Shop
Sweet dude. Whats the headset config? 1 inch spacer or ahead adapter?
 
R

Rik

logged out
1 1/8 Ahead, which shows that whilst this bike is many years old, it must've been pretty good at the time. Thinking of the headset... there's a blue ano FSA one at work... hrm... :roll:
 
G

Guest

Guest
those bullet caps will be the first thing to go..

nice bike rik :D
 
bazza

bazza

look at me
thats veryyyyyy nice. btw bullet caps off 8 balls on!!! other than that it is one beutiful commuter. beats the hell out of mine and soooooo simple! btw running the dual rings is a good idea i like! just have to carry a wrench around with you for adjustments.
 
R

Rik

logged out
Dual rings are a product of laziness, I don't have the option of changing ratios, there just isn't enough horizontal adjustment in these dropouts. I'm waiting until I can get some appropriate washers then I'll remove the outside ring.

Oh, and, 11.8kg's, not very impressive, but if/when I rebuild the front wheel with a light rim that'll help a little bit.
 
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