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IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
I don't know why I'm so averse to the idea of getting another Genesis when I wub my current two so much, but it almost annoys me that they've basically scanned my brain and made what I would have built myself.
http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/urban/bridge/smithfield
And the steel's called Mjolnir. They don't even pretend it's not plain old 4130, but...it's called Mjolnir. That's one louder.
Don't forget this when you build your own -
"
the built-in chainguard helps protect clothing from the chain and keep you looking dapper
"
"Mjolnir AKA Thor's Hammer"
I'm tempted to buy one for this alone.
I wear long trousers so infrequently that it takes till noon before my shin hairs stop going mental from the feeling of fabric over them, but if the chainguard crankset is the same cost as the other kind, I might as well.
Over 13kg, mind you. That's 2kg heavier than the Croix, which is itself much too heavy for me to seriously consider buying it.
For a commuter the tare is fine as long as it's going into robustness. I have more pressing places to lose weight from than my bike, anyway.
That is one lovely bike, and if I didn't have one almost identical that I'd made myself over the years, I'd buy one like a shot...
That Genesis looks solid. If cost were no object, though, I'd be tempted by some version of the folding Airnimal Joey: http://airnimal.eu/products/joey/sport/#.VL92By3LeiY
Then for even more capability, maybe one of these opulent dynamo hubs:http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/schmidt.asp
But hey, I might feel guilty riding such out-and-out luxury.
The more ultimate a commuter gets the greater its need for things like re-usable auto-deploying lockable ground anchors. Alternatively, you could conceal a fancy SON dynohub with the shell of a bottom-end Shimano, wrap a Rohloff up to look like a rusted three-speed Sturmey from the 1970s and use paintjob-and-decal-mimicry to disguise the true nature of the frame.
I wouldn't go as far as calling that little plastic ring to the chainring a "chainguard", your trouser leg can still get trapped betwixt it and the chain. To my mind a chainguard needs to encase the chain and ring.
It seems that the main benefit of the "Thor's Hammer" tubeset is that you aren't paying the proprietary rights to use the "Cr-Mo", "Chromoly" or "4130" names (given it's exactly the same sort of scaffolding poles as the former).
I've just e-mailed Diamant to see if they sell bikes to the UK at all. Seems not, despite it just being a Trek/Bontrager trading name.
Their Elan Elite is almost ideal for me, but I'd want a Kevlar belt and I can't stand twist grip gears so I've asked if they sell frame and fork combos too. Really like the short travel headshock fork. I know lots of bicyclists poo-poo non-MTB suspension, but some Edinburgh pot holes are so deep they leak Hawking radiation.
Is a bike so ill-suited to the UK market that it isn't sold here really going to be a thief magnet?
13kg isn't heavy for a bomb-proof commuter-mobile; and is pretty light for anything with a hub gear. No-one's planning on racing their ultimate commuter, are they?!
If it's the ultimate commuter, then yes. You've heard of Strava, right? ;)
I took a lot of pride over the KOM I held on my tandem :)
13Kg isn't so bad it it includes bags and a set of snow tyres. If you have to add all that on afterwards you might as well ride a down hill sledge to work.
I have to add 88kg of myself on afterwards. That puts the 6kg difference between a Smithfield and a UCI-minimum device into perspective.
Mate of mine just reminded me of this;
http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/bike/rose-black-lava-5-carbon-drive-trekking-men/aid:777458
I'd fit one of these;
https://www.sram.com/rockshox/products/paragon-gold
and take the stupid 'lock' off it, but otherwise....
@iwrats "Rose black lava 5" very nice .... <drool>
Y £2k?
Ah, the hub.
IWRATS - those locks are great for just nipping into a shop. The good ones also have a cable attachment point so you can lock the bike to something if you want. I like mine, anyway. If you're going to lose something, I'd lose the kickstand.
If I'm going to nit-pick:
1) What's holding the rack up? Have they airbrushed out the fixture between the seat tube and the rack? Surely it will wobble dreadfully without one?
2) My german is non-existent, but I surmise that the back light isn't driven off the dynamo, which seems a missed opportunity.
Other than that, though, very nice...
@Greenroofer
I'm going to nit-speculate;
1) The mudguard? Maybe? Surely not? There seems to be a spindle present between the two.
2) Never spotted that, but I have both great trust in German engineering and a soldering iron.
3) The lock - years of Scottish riding mean that I put the lock on by reflex where and whenever. I thought the kickstand might make me feel grown up...
Indeed - the rack-bone's connected to the mudguard bone.
How stable it is I'd still have to wonder. And if that's the sole thing that needs to break for the rack to rotate and become a risk I'd be wary of it.
Once it finds the stability sweet-spot, my tourer is steady as a rock on the kick-stand, but it will only point in the direction at which gravity and the ground topography allows it to settle. It's one of the rearward opening ones that hinges from the dropouts. My experience of stands mounted around where the stays meat the BB shell is they inevitably end up working loose and leading to bike collapse but perhaps I've been unlucky.
@kaputnik
'Bike collapse' sounds like you came back to find a pile of tubes, wires and ball bearings.
@Instography
Now I don't want that bike any more. What an odd defect to have introduced. The rack, like everything else on the bike is pretty serious kit too;
http://www.racktime.com/documents/Racktime_finale_MA_17012013_aktuell.pdf
Raking through the Rose website reveals the campest named bike ever. Unless the hive mind knows otherwise?
Time for me to re-do the cockpit of the Kaff. My original intention was to go for an Alfine 11 hub, but given my desire for a bullhorn handlebar with bar end shifting it would appear Di2 was the only Alfiine 11 option which would allow this, so I have binned the idea of hub gearing.
The good news is that I have probably saved about £400 as a result of not changing the drive train :)
Now, back to the cockpit:
Charge Slice bars.
Dura Ace bar end shifters.
Velo Orange Stem, and headset.
Brooks Cambium tape for some bling, and to match the saddle.
Brake leavers - stuck.
What (reverse?) brake levers do you put on the end of a bullhorn bar which are disk compatible, is their such a think is disk compatible, it's just a lever with some cable right?
OOOH I know this one...
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/dia-compe-131-road-brake-levers-for-bars-238-mm-silver-prod18262/
No need to reverse them, either - there's a wee channel underneath which is juuuust big enough for the gear cable protruding from the bar-ends.
e2012-03-22_23-17-14_1669 by wingpig, on Flickr
I sent back the Charge Slice and got a Zenit horn instead as the inside of the Slice was just a tiny bit too narrow for the shifter plug.
Thanks @wingpig, good advice on the handlebar, probably saved me having to return a handlebar. So 26mm handlebar required rather than 25.4m.
Dif find these nifty brakes which attach onto the side of a bar end shifter, but pricey at £80:
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/jtek-aerobrake-shimano-bar-end-brake-lever-prod19042/
I would prefer if it were possible to have hidden brake cables too. Other option is to use repeater brakes from a cx bike (I have a set of these lying around) like this, but I suspect my small hands wouldn't be able to operate them safely:
Seems to work, time will tell if the cross top brakes will suffice as a main brake...
Just tape to do now...
Yes, I know I need to wash the bike!
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