A Plan To Get By On For Now

Now that I am committed to the Dirty Kanza 200 which happens on June 4th, I am now in the planning stages for coming up with a lighter steel cyclo-cross-ish bike that will do two things. #1: It will get me riding sooner on a rig I can train on that would be similar to my "Ultimate Gravel Rig", which is going to take some time to get together, and #2: It will possibly be a donor rig, as far as parts go, if it is a complete. What if it is just a frame? That's cool. I have 9spd Campagnolo parts just gathering dust that would be fine for this.

But What About The Ultimate Gravel Grinder Bike? Yeah.....I wish I could get that done now. The thing is, the earliest that can get started is this spring, and finished by......? I don't want to rush that. So, I want to get on something lighter, steel, and that will get me a feel for what I like and don't about a cyclo cross based gravel rig. My plan is to get lighter. Both me and the bike. The plan concerning me is in motion already. Time to work on the bicycle part of the equation. Bonus: If it doesn't pan out, I have the Badger which will play as back up bike. Now that I have laid all that out, here are the contenders....

Fisher Collection Presidio: Previously I had been looking at the Erwin, which is a step below this bike, and opined that I didn't like the spec or the value for the dollar so much. Well, this Presidio is what I would like for spec, and I looked into the employee purchase on it, and it is do-able. Okay, that said, here are a few other thing I am liking.....

Steel, obviously. Carbon fork, and low mount hangar for the brake. Good. Single speed capability. Great! Big tire clearances. Great! Geometry, Okay. Wheels.....meh! (But I can build wheels)

So, this one looks like a contender. The final nice thing is that most all of the hardware could go to the new custom rig with this frame getting a permanent single speed makeover.

Black Mountain Cycles Cross Frame: Industry veteran, vintage mountain bike maven, and shop owner Mike Varley owns Black Mountain Cycles, a bicycle shop in Point Reyes Station, California. He commissioned a design for a cyclo-cross/all rounder in steel that is a pretty smart design. (There is a smartly designed steel road frame as well. Read about both here.) Anywho......here is what catches my eyes....

Steel- Great! Steel fork- Great! Big tire clearances, (but not quite as big as the Presidio), Great! Geometry- Good. Small Brand Coolness- Off The Charts! (For what that is worth, I happen to like that) Smart details- Great! Not available as a complete- meh! (But like I said, I have some Campy stuff sittin' around) Price: Excellent! Single Speed-able- Great!

Another strong contender. I like orange, but it is also available in a rich brown hue as well. Hard to choose between this and a Presidio. Either would get the job done.

Either way I could be up and running sooner than later, and either would do well on gravel. The BMC, (That's Black Mountain Cycles ya'all, not the Swiss roadie marque), would put to use some long neglected road stuff I have, so "re-cycling" in this case has an appeal to me. The Fisher Collection rig supports the shop I work at, in a way, so.......  Like I said, tough call.

Then there is one other remote possibility that is rumored and yet to be announced. 

Choices. What a nice problem to have.....

A Plan To Get By On For Now

Now that I am committed to the Dirty Kanza 200 which happens on June 4th, I am now in the planning stages for coming up with a lighter steel cyclo-cross-ish bike that will do two things. #1: It will get me riding sooner on a rig I can train on that would be similar to my "Ultimate Gravel Rig", which is going to take some time to get together, and #2: It will possibly be a donor rig, as far as parts go, if it is a complete. What if it is just a frame? That's cool. I have 9spd Campagnolo parts just gathering dust that would be fine for this.

But What About The Ultimate Gravel Grinder Bike? Yeah.....I wish I could get that done now. The thing is, the earliest that can get started is this spring, and finished by......? I don't want to rush that. So, I want to get on something lighter, steel, and that will get me a feel for what I like and don't about a cyclo cross based gravel rig. My plan is to get lighter. Both me and the bike. The plan concerning me is in motion already. Time to work on the bicycle part of the equation. Bonus: If it doesn't pan out, I have the Badger which will play as back up bike. Now that I have laid all that out, here are the contenders....

Fisher Collection Presidio: Previously I had been looking at the Erwin, which is a step below this bike, and opined that I didn't like the spec or the value for the dollar so much. Well, this Presidio is what I would like for spec, and I looked into the employee purchase on it, and it is do-able. Okay, that said, here are a few other thing I am liking.....

Steel, obviously. Carbon fork, and low mount hangar for the brake. Good. Single speed capability. Great! Big tire clearances. Great! Geometry, Okay. Wheels.....meh! (But I can build wheels)

So, this one looks like a contender. The final nice thing is that most all of the hardware could go to the new custom rig with this frame getting a permanent single speed makeover.

Black Mountain Cycles Cross Frame: Industry veteran, vintage mountain bike maven, and shop owner Mike Varley owns Black Mountain Cycles, a bicycle shop in Point Reyes Station, California. He commissioned a design for a cyclo-cross/all rounder in steel that is a pretty smart design. (There is a smartly designed steel road frame as well. Read about both here.) Anywho......here is what catches my eyes....

Steel- Great! Steel fork- Great! Big tire clearances, (but not quite as big as the Presidio), Great! Geometry- Good. Small Brand Coolness- Off The Charts! (For what that is worth, I happen to like that) Smart details- Great! Not available as a complete- meh! (But like I said, I have some Campy stuff sittin' around) Price: Excellent! Single Speed-able- Great!

Another strong contender. I like orange, but it is also available in a rich brown hue as well. Hard to choose between this and a Presidio. Either would get the job done.

Either way I could be up and running sooner than later, and either would do well on gravel. The BMC, (That's Black Mountain Cycles ya'all, not the Swiss roadie marque), would put to use some long neglected road stuff I have, so "re-cycling" in this case has an appeal to me. The Fisher Collection rig supports the shop I work at, in a way, so.......  Like I said, tough call.

Then there is one other remote possibility that is rumored and yet to be announced. 

Choices. What a nice problem to have.....

Updates

One Step On The way To The Gravel Concept Bike: Since the idea for the Gravel Concept Bike has been largely decided, I have been thinking about an interim rig to "get by" with for awhile and to test the waters on some of the ideas for that ultimate gravel road warrior.

So, I've had a look at the Fisher collection cyclo-cross rigs. They have several bits I like about the geometry, and are pretty basic looking with a single speed option. Thursday I got up close and personal with an Erwin, in my size, since the shop I work at received one for stock which I built up. There are quite a few interesting things about the Erwin, and the Fisher Collection steel cyclo-cross bikes in general that I liked, and a few things I didn't like.

Overall, the bike is pretty dang cool, and for the most part, I could probably live with this on its own merits. The geometry is decent, with exception of the bottom bracket drop, of course, since it is a cyclo-cross rig. That BB height is noticeable too. I really felt like I was sitting up in the air on this rig, and it only had 32mm tires on it! Bigger tires would jack it up even higher. Not my cup-o-tea, but there are several things that I did think were cool, and speaking of bigger tires, that's one of them. in fact, I am certain XR-1's would shim into this frame. That's a 29"er tire folks! The clearances on this frame are enormous. The head angle is slack enough, and the bike in a 58cm fit really well. They moved the cable hangar for the front brake to the fork to reduce front brake flutter, and it has the hidden fender mounts that Fisher Collection road bikes have. Rack mounts too. The sliding drops mean single speeding this is a no-brainer.

I don't really care for Tiagra shifters and components though, and for the price of the Erwin, it seems a bit cheap on the drive train spec. ($1500.00MSRP) The wheels are "meh", and so is the crank set. I do like the Presidio's SRAM spec, but that is the next step up and even more money for the same frame and fork otherwise.

Ideally I would get the Presidio and when the custom bike was done, I'd swap over most of the geared stuff to it and single speed the frame on the Presidio, (or Erwin), and keep it, most likely, as my SS gravel rig. We'll see.

And In The "Other Bike" News: I got a voice mail message from Ben Witt yesterday, (Thank you sir!) saying that everything for the Mukluk is in but the frame. I suspect that by next week then I'll be getting my wheels built and will be anxiously awaiting my frame and fork.

Maybe, just maybe I'll have it in time for Frostbike. And maybe, just maybe- if everything falls into place, Marty and Ben will have their fat bikes and we can all goof off on fat bike at Mike's Bikes in Northfield. (hint-hint), or do some other dastardly fat biking around that area. Hmmm.........

Well, it is rather cold out this weekend, but if you can, go outside and do something fun. Have a good one folks!

Updates

One Step On The way To The Gravel Concept Bike: Since the idea for the Gravel Concept Bike has been largely decided, I have been thinking about an interim rig to "get by" with for awhile and to test the waters on some of the ideas for that ultimate gravel road warrior.

So, I've had a look at the Fisher collection cyclo-cross rigs. They have several bits I like about the geometry, and are pretty basic looking with a single speed option. Thursday I got up close and personal with an Erwin, in my size, since the shop I work at received one for stock which I built up. There are quite a few interesting things about the Erwin, and the Fisher Collection steel cyclo-cross bikes in general that I liked, and a few things I didn't like.

Overall, the bike is pretty dang cool, and for the most part, I could probably live with this on its own merits. The geometry is decent, with exception of the bottom bracket drop, of course, since it is a cyclo-cross rig. That BB height is noticeable too. I really felt like I was sitting up in the air on this rig, and it only had 32mm tires on it! Bigger tires would jack it up even higher. Not my cup-o-tea, but there are several things that I did think were cool, and speaking of bigger tires, that's one of them. in fact, I am certain XR-1's would shim into this frame. That's a 29"er tire folks! The clearances on this frame are enormous. The head angle is slack enough, and the bike in a 58cm fit really well. They moved the cable hangar for the front brake to the fork to reduce front brake flutter, and it has the hidden fender mounts that Fisher Collection road bikes have. Rack mounts too. The sliding drops mean single speeding this is a no-brainer.

I don't really care for Tiagra shifters and components though, and for the price of the Erwin, it seems a bit cheap on the drive train spec. ($1500.00MSRP) The wheels are "meh", and so is the crank set. I do like the Presidio's SRAM spec, but that is the next step up and even more money for the same frame and fork otherwise.

Ideally I would get the Presidio and when the custom bike was done, I'd swap over most of the geared stuff to it and single speed the frame on the Presidio, (or Erwin), and keep it, most likely, as my SS gravel rig. We'll see.

And In The "Other Bike" News: I got a voice mail message from Ben Witt yesterday, (Thank you sir!) saying that everything for the Mukluk is in but the frame. I suspect that by next week then I'll be getting my wheels built and will be anxiously awaiting my frame and fork.

Maybe, just maybe I'll have it in time for Frostbike. And maybe, just maybe- if everything falls into place, Marty and Ben will have their fat bikes and we can all goof off on fat bike at Mike's Bikes in Northfield. (hint-hint), or do some other dastardly fat biking around that area. Hmmm.........

Well, it is rather cold out this weekend, but if you can, go outside and do something fun. Have a good one folks!