Cyclokairos

The Green Bike is complete. Of a style of which I am fond – skinny steel tubes, a threaded 1” fork with a pleasing curve, rim brakes, leather saddle, shellacked bar tape, and friction shifting, but no mudguards this time.

A bike to be ridden on road, bridleway, in fact, looking at these two books, pretty much anyway:

Long before gravel bikes were a thing, cyclists road drop bar bikes everywhere, often tourers for the Rough Stuff Fellowship, but in the case of Jobst Brandt, a bike with narrow tubular tyres and huge gears, little different than the race bikes of the time.

The frameset is a Harry Hall cyclocross one, with Reynolds 531 all round.

The cockpit: Nitto Noodle handlebar, Nitto Technomic Tallux stem (my days of slamming long gone), Dia Compe brake levers, Newbaums’ yellow cotton bar tape coated in amber shellac (Rustins Button Polish), Nitto bar end caps, and Sim Works x Nissan turmeric outer brake cable.

Dia Compe cantilever brakes when it comes to stopping; brass caps for cables.

With shifting being friction, plenty of tolerance in selecting components: Rivendell/Dia Compe shifters, Campagnolo Chorus 10 speed triple chainset (53-42-30), Campagnolo Centaur 10 speed triple front derailleur, Shimano Ultegra triple 9 speed rear derailleur (the extortionate prices for silver Campagnolo ones leading to this choice – still silver, still elegant), Shimano Acera 9 speed cassette (11-36), and a KMC 9 speed chain.

The wheels are Mavic OpenPro rims, laced to Shimano 105 hubs via 36 spokes (brand unknown), and shod with Schwalbe G-One tyres (700×35).

The saddle and saddle-bag are both Brooks – Swift and Isle of Wight, respectively. The bottle cages Velo Orange’s Retro Cage with tab.

Improvisations: only needing a short length of outer gear cable, I used a piece of outer brake cable instead (needed to trim off the plastic coating to fit the ferrules); and, I ran out of outer brake cable ferrules for use at the rear cable stop, but had a gear cable one (albeit in brass and not aluminium). More trimming of the plastic coating of the outer cable and drilling to widen the hole in the ferrule, to allow a wider brake cable to fit, did the trick.

Improvements: the bar tape isn’t wrapped with equal spacing on one small section (did you spot it?); and, I don’t have much experience of setting up cantilever brakes – should the cable bridge be lower for better mechanical advantage?

Just need a dry spell to ride it properly – sometime next year then.