This is my collection of on road bikes to compliment my main obsession of off road bikes.
First up is my general hacking bike. This bike gets used for a bit of everything; riding to work, uni, group rides etc. Velocity wheels keep it tough, SRAM front brake on there as I would rather be alive than hip. As you can see, I like to spin. Kenda Kriterium tyres on there that I am trialling too (I believe Kenda to be the worst tyres about, so I was challenged to run a set for a while…) It also has a squirrel horn.
I decided to build this as I wanted something that looked a bit more subtle than the bike above, so that I feel okay about leaving it at uni. I loved the paintjob on it so I left it original. I love the wheels on it (Velocitys with a Superbe Pro up front and an old 28 hole japanese thing in the back that will one day go for a Dura Ace). It is a nice bike to cruise around on.
I don’t know what this is, it just has “Made in Italy” stamped under the BB and a logo that I haven’t been able to identify on the seatstay. Whatever it is, I like it, it feeds my fetish for chrome. I don’t really like the biopace, and I have toyed with the idea of replacing it with Ultegra or something to make it a more usuable bike, but for now it remains as is. Oh yeah, the seat is the best!
My old man has had this National Grand Sport Deluxe since new. After a good many years of use it was looking a bit sad, so I gave it a new lease of life. Just put some basic Shimano running gear on it, a set of wheels (600 hubs with Araya rims) that I had lying around and an old Turbo saddle. It is just the thing for crusing along the beach now.
At the moment this is still a work in progress; I had it built up fixed but decided I wanted to convert it back to road for the lady to ride. The frame is handmade in WA by Milton Jones and is rather light. It should be rocket fast too as its rolling on Superbe Pro hubs to Ambrosio tubular rims with Clements singles fitted up. Superbe Pro crank/BB/rear derauiller also. 600 stem, Zeus post etc, should make quite a nice little bike for crusing.
I like that you spin alot, probs the same ratio as on my 29er which I find useless on the street. But whatevs yanks your chain man, i dig your collection.
That is the symbol on the chrome roadbike. I’ve tried hunting through many old roadie websites trying to find it, and asked many knowledgeable old fella’s, but haven’t had any luck. Anyone?
The gearing on the first bike is around 65gi, while the second is about 70. It is fairly flat where I live, and I deal with a terrible headwind, so the low gearing works for me.
I also found a picture of the Capo when it was built up fixed that I thought I would share;
yes. they were the ultra cheap track frames when i started riding. quality control was very average then (bent dropouts, flared headtubes when the bikes arrived from the distros) but nowadays they might be better. theyd want to be as they arent as comparatively cheap as they were.
i found it to be quite heavy for steel. this was 5+years ago so they might have changed.
FWIW: pake is actually an in-joke and is slang for how the frame/parts were viewed by the guy who started it (as an offshoot of soma).