Spending, say, a grand, on a bike to ride, in order to have less bikes.

[d8mok]

I’ve got a London road which I bought new in October. Paid about £720 from memory in the sale.

I’ll try to summarise it for you from me having it for the last 4 months.

I bought it as a cheap winter road/gravel bike so I could save my decent Gravel and road bikes for summer. It’s fitted with guards and lights and I’ve still not washed it yet.

Good - It works very well. Gears and brakes are great for the money. Wheels are nice and finishing gear is decent. There isn’t a better sub 1k option.

Bad - it’s a harsh ride. It’s slow compared to my gravel bike even. The seat is awful.

I plan to replace saddle at some point , and maybe use a thinner Seatpost and a shim to help with comfort.

It rolls slower than my gravel bike on 43c tyres. No idea why but it’s hard to keep it going. After 2 hours I’ve had enough and want to quit. This means that if the weather isn’t too bad I tend to use the gravel on the road. However I must mention that the gravel bike is 7x the price so of course it’s going to be nicer to ride. I think once I’ve tweaked the LR it will be better.

For a all round bike I’d recommend it. Don’t buy the Triban it’s crap in comparison. The quality is far better from Planet X.

The groupset and wheels are equal to the purchase price.

 

[Captain Stupido]

Well... I started building up the Synthesis. It's not going to be a lightweight!

 

[Takingabreak]

Looks fantastic already. If you wanted to save some weight then the obvious things to change would be saddle and use a 1 x something drivetrain. Will you use cantis or v's?

 

[Captain Stupido]

Looks fantastic already. If you wanted to save some weight then the obvious things to change would be saddle and use a 1 x something drivetrain. Will you use cantis or v's?

Thanks!

I considered Vs for ease of setup but in the end have gone for some Tektro CR720 cantis which are on their way to me - a modern touch but very retro inspired and it means the rear cable hanger gets to fulfil its destiny.

This definitely won't be going 1x and as comfort is a priority it'll probably keep the saddle (or something similar).

I've already hopefully saved quite a bit of weight over the original spec which was altus with a horrible crankset and lots of steel bits (bars, headset, etc.) but in truth the frame and forks are both pretty weighty so it will probably always be a bit of a lump.

Still... Could lose a bit of weight with a wheel upgrade, 2 of the chainrings are steel etc... Lets see how it rides and then I'll consider upgrades.

 

[rwm1962]

@rwm1962 Don't those bars put your wrists at an awkward angle when braking or are they OK in practice?

I found them uncomfortable on hands & wrists once I started riding it regularly. I've now fitted some conventional USE Summit drop bars procured on my lads bike shop discount & my 3x weekly commute of 23 miles is now comfortable. Bars aside been very pleased with it. Pretty rapid compared to my old 26'ers.

 

[CassidyAce]

I found them uncomfortable on hands & wrists once I started riding it regularly. I've now fitted some conventional USE Summit drop bars procured on my lads bike shop discount & my 3x weekly commute of 23 miles is now comfortable. Bars aside been very pleased with it. Pretty rapid compared to my old 263'ers.

Thank you for remembering that question and taking the time to reply. Good to know that the bike is a success, bars aside.

Ironically, I was taking photos of my Pinnacle road bike today, for the purpose of selling it. I just couldn't get on with the drop bars at all. However, aside from that, I thought it was a pretty good bike: I liked the frame set.

@Captain Stupido How's the Dawes coming along? In case you're interested, I gave my not-too-dissimilar 1996 Marin Stinson a bit of a makeover, and have been loving riding it again.

 

[Captain Stupido]

@CassidyAce the Marin looks great.

The Dawes build stalled because I couldn't get the CR720s set up satisfactorily with the Dia Compe SS5 brake levers I planned to use, also had issues with brake pads/stud position etc... After a fair bit of messing about I've decided to use some generic low profile cantilevers. Hopefully it'll be in action soon - I will post once I've made progress...

 

[legrandefromage]

I used those CR720 - they do stick out a mile but worked very well,

 

[Captain Stupido]

I used those CR720 - they do stick out a mile but worked very well,

I do like them and they look fab... I decided to persevere with them and I think they're going to work OK.

The hybrid/road style forks are narrower than typical MTB forks so spacing from boss to rim is narrower.

The standard brake pads were causing them to stick out even further than "normal" (ultimately reducing mechanical advantage) so I ended up fitting some road cartridge pads which are better suited to the setup.

The SS5s are not ideal for such wide profile brakes being designed for and having mechanical advantage better suited to low profile cantis so initially the braking power was marginal.

It'll need a road test to prove it but the setup feels OK now, if not maybe I'll try some different levers. The rear rim is wider than the front so that's possibly more critical...

Assuming they're done it just needs a chain and gear outers.

 

[Captain Stupido]

It's a bicycle! Haven't ridden it yet, but I like it.