New Bike Day!! Green Tourer Content...

[boblo]

After shortening the wheelbase of my venerable 1980’s tourer last year, I had the nice man Simon at Stanforth build this lovely frame for me. I wanted a contemporary take on the original with:

* 853
* Fillet brazing
* Disks
* Thru axles
* Modern geo to avoid the ‘gate’ look

The build is 3×9, XT rear der, and Tiagra shifters and front der. There’s an SP dynamo there to be connected up to a Luxos U and I’ve a Tubus rack to go on when I can be ar$ed. I think the green’s come out OK n’est ce pas?

[reohn2]

NICE!
Like the colour.
What does it ride like?

[pwa]

Lovely. Very decorative rear dropouts.

[boblo]

Thanks chaps. It's Kawasaki green. Ride? I've not bloomin ridden it yet, just finished putting it together tonight. Tandem duties tomorrow so it'll sit there unloved

[peetee]

Gets my vote.

[PH]

That looks stunning and extra marks for the shiny silver
I know someone who bought a stock frame and tells me he loves it, but I haven't seen it. His was built by Lee Cooper and I've admired all the frames of his I've seen.

[boblo]

Funny you should say that... AIUI Lee used to work at Orbit as well.... 6 degrees and all that...

[roubaixtuesday]

Beautiful.

How you can resist riding it is a mystery to me!

[reohn2]

That looks stunning and extra marks for the shiny silver
I know someone who bought a stock frame and tells me he loves it, but I haven't seen it. His was built by Lee Cooper and I've admired all the frames of his I've seen.

We had a LeeCooper built Thorn Discovery tandem,the frame build was great!

[Cyckelgalen]

Very, very nice, congratulations! Beautiful colour as well.
Who said utilitarian touring bikes cannot be stylish?

Couple of questions if I may. Why would you want to shorten the wheelbase in a touring bike, when a long wheelbase is a plus for touring? And what is a "gate look" ?

[Cyckelgalen]

Really beautiful, colour included, congratulations!
Being pedantic, I would have gone for silver levers to round off this master piece.

A couple of questions. Why would you want to shorten the wheelbase when a long wheelbase is a plus in a touring bike?
Was the fork also hand built at the shop? And what do you mean by "gate look" ?

[gazza_d]

Nice bike.
Lovely colour, but I would say that as it's the same shade as one of my Moultons
[img]

IMG_20200408_063126.jpg

[/img]

[pwa]

Really beautiful, colour included, congratulations!
Being pedantic, I would have gone for silver levers to round off this master piece.

A couple of questions. Why would you want to shorten the wheelbase when a long wheelbase is a plus in a touring bike?
Was the fork also hand built at the shop? And what do you mean by "gate look" ?

Frames for tall blokes can look a bit ungainly with horizontal top tubes. I imagine that is what he means. Personal preference, of course.

[boblo]

Yeah that's spot on. They can look a bit baby giraffe/gate like which is fine but can look a bit 1940's. I wanted something a bit more contemporary as the broken one is of the classic style. Having said (written) that, the old one was a fantastic bike.

It started life as a commuter, morphed into a road training bike, did a few TT's and Triathlons on it (even 'got' the 25 on it which I was very pleased with at the time) and then converted it into a dedicated touring bike. Did some longish rides on it including things like the Trans Am so it was a very flexible old friend. Sad day when I broke it

[slowster]

Very nice. After you have had a while to become accustomed to it, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts about how the bike's handling and ride compare with your old tourer.

Incidentally, I see you've got SKS Chromoplastics with the new triangular shaped reflector, which because it uses the same rivets as the stays points upwards. Does the reflector work at that angle, e.g. have you stood well behind it in the dark and shone a torch at it?

Also it looks like you've used an ordinary nut to secure the front mudguard to the fork crown. Assuming that the crown is designed to take a recessed bolt, I would fit one of these:

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/brakes/9-gilles-berthoud-brake-spindle-screw-for-mudguards/

13mm would be the appropriate size, but you would also need a shorter M6 bolt, plus an M5 bolt to fit the mudguard.