Planet-X Uncle John - My semi-road bike

I recently started looking for a road bike to help with my training and also be something I could ride to work on. Quite fancied something new like a Specialized Allez, but £500 seemed a lot to pay for something I wasn't sure I'd get along with. I'd had a road bike a few years ago and never used it, so was hesitant about spending too much. So, time to scour the classifieds and eBay...

...could find LOTS of frames of 54cm upwards, but none of 52cm size that I needed. However, finally RB came up trumps and I sourced a Planet-X Uncle John.



Now with it not being able to run caliper brakes it meant I could utilise some parts I'd been given by a friend for helping sell his Stumpy. He'd bought a Hardrock and stripped the brakes and drive train off it and gave them to me. All low-end 7sp SRAM parts, but brand new and perfectly useable. These parts were destined for the Uncle John.

RB also came up trumps with a set of wheels. A nice set of Fulcrum Racing 7 wheels:



Now time to put it all together:







Had to buy a few bits to finish it off (cassette, cassette spacer and chain), but managed to keep the total cost at just over £200. Not bad in my opinion!

Even with the weighty drive train the total weight is just 21.8lbs

Long term I'd like to fit a road drive train and some drop bars, but this is more than sufficient for now.

First ride out: http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/ojzTyW4o-hA

Wet and windy, but I was eager to give the bike its first run out. Found it really quick to ride and pretty comfortable. Bike feels a little short, but not sure if this is the way it should be or not. Seat tube length is fine and I've fitted a slightly longer stem that I originally had.

Going to try and build up to doing some longer rides and eventually try and ride to Keswick and back (27 miles each way).

Nice work, I'm going touring on my Uncle John today!

They do seem to get good reviews etc. I'm pleased with mine. Does what I want so can't complain. Just put 10 miles on this morning, and will put another 10 in on the way home later on. Certainly beats having a mountain bike on the road! Just could do with more gears and/or a better ratio.

Gone 9sp now thanks to the old cassette from my Stumpy and a spare 9sp shifter. Could do with a bigger ring chainset now.

A fine build - good to see my Old Uncle John put to good use

Thanks Richard. It was a great bike. Had some brilliant trips through on it and it's really spurred me on to buy a full on road bike. Afraid I've since split the Uncle John and have just ordered a 2011 Specialized Allez Sport, which I should have on Tuesday.