A couple of very nice photos of bikes found their way into my in-box yesterday.
The first is of Mark's lovely Fuji Randoneuse. There are more photos here. He writes:
The only thing original on the bike is the frame and fork. I built-up everything else with either new or NOS parts. Wheels are shimano 105 hubs DT Swiss R1.1 rims 32-spoke laced 4-cross. Tires are Grand Bois 700x32 (thanks out to Jan Heine). Besides short touring, I made the mud flaps out of 1/8" sheet rubber bought at a hardware store. I epoxy-glued one end of these to the inside Honjo fenders, clamping them with a wine cork on the inside to make it fit to the curve of the fender. Then I drilled and through bolted the flap with a small stainless steel bolt/nut.
I've used this bike to carry photo equipment to photograph stages of races like the Amgen Tour of California.
<http://www.medesignphoto.com/amgenTOC2008>
I'm currently retrofiting a second later quad butted del rey frame as a campee bike (it's dark green).
Then there is this stunning Myata built up by David. Click to enlarge the photo; there are lots of nice details. Maybe David will chime in with more info.Finally we have a less-than-stunning prototype VO "Type C" or city bike. This is a perfect example of why we build prototypes. The fork length is an error. I spec the length from the bottom of the crown because this allows for perfect fender lines, but the manufacturer assumed it was from the top of the crown. Good thing we caught it now. The color will change to a very very dark green. The chain guard was not drilled for this frame, but rather it was an old one that already had some holes in it. In fact, most of the parts were simply bits we had lying around; I'll rebuild it later. This one is in Annette's size; I haven't photographed mine.
By the way, we have VO handlebar water bottle cage mounts in stock again.
Posts
20 comments:
Odd looking Silver Fuji bike. Looks to me to be about 5 cm too small for the rider. Why put so much effort into something that does not fit ?
Nice accessories, though.
Where can I find those cool reddish tires on the last bicycle? What model/make?
Chris,
Are you going to offer a complete production city bike package? What is your best guess as to when the frameset will be available?
Nice rack. No seriously I like the rack on the Fuji. Anyone know were it can be purchased?
Wow, that Fuji is gorgeous.
Winga - I believe the rear rack is the Nitto campee. Chris had a sample earlier this year and posted some comments about it.
I think the first poster is spot on. With that much stem and seatpost showing one could likely have a bigger bike with plenty of standover to spare.
Ron
Yep, that's the Nitto Campee on that Fuji. The only place I have seen it for sale on the net is Ben's Cycle. They also have the front Campee. They're like $160 a pop. Have you thought about carrying it, CK?
I agree that the Fuji looks a tad small, but it's beautiful.
The Campee racks are on order. I hope they get here soon so folks stop asking when they'll get here ;<)
The first batch of city bikes will be sold as frames, but I've thought about offering a "build kit". It would be all the components you'd need as a package and at a better price than getting them separately.
I'm putting in the final order in a few days, then it's about 2 months to make them and a few weeks for shipping if all goes well.
By the way, the production version has semi-horizontal dropouts.
Yes, what about those tires on that last bike? They look kinda cool ...I haven't noticed them before.
Phillip
They're Grand Bois tires. Check the Bicycle Quarterly web site to buy them.
hello,
what is the stem you are using on your city bike? it looks quite nice
-Yann
James asks "Where can I find those cool reddish tires on the last bicycle? What model/make?"
They're the Grand Bois Hetre, 650Bx42. You can get them from Vintage Bicycle Press: http://tinyurl.com/43p53x
There's a black model of the Hetre in the works, too.
Is that a sexless low rake fork?
James, that is a low rake fork. And in real life it's the best looking low trail fork I've seen come out of Taiwan. Still, they don't have the special mandrels that I asked Johnny and Ahren to use, so they can't bend th fork to look like the Semi-custom frames, at least not YET.
That is a very lovely Fuji. I love it when people pontificate on how a given bike fits from pictures of... a bike. We haven't a clue about the rider. I am sure I would be set straight about many things if I posted pictures of my bikes here. Ride what feels good, I say! Ride a long travel duallie with street tires on the highway if that's what you like. There will always be someone out there who is disappointed with your choices, no matter what you do. Internet snipers are a very disappointed lot. Not much can be done for them.
Umm, if the Fuji was a size larger, wouldn't the top tube then be too long for the owner's preference(or the stem too short)?
Looks great to me as-is.
I think the Fuji looks amazing. As a rider with relatively long legs and short arms / torso this is how most production bikes look when set up to fit me right. Remember we aren't all built the same.
Hi all,
I built-up the Fuji Randonnuese pictured and... thanks for all your comments.
The 54cm frame has a 31-1/4" standover height and this size fits me well. The bike may appear small because I have raised the bars up more than some of the other bikes I ride. (see http://www.medesignphoto.com/bikes).
The racks are Nitto Campee rear and M-18 for the front.
The bike has a single butted Fuji Valite tubeset (the inside fork tube is stamped Ishiwata) and as pictured weighs 27 lbs. Just ok, but rides great for an older frame.
Mark Eastman
Chris,
Please tell us which pedals are pictured in the photo of the city bike prototype.
Merci!
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