Friday, August 1, 2014

My Touring bike ... Finally

A dream bike exclusively for randonneuring and touring. Something made of good steel, that can take fat tires and also allows me to load it with fenders and racks. A Versatile bike that i can say it's my commuter, it's my tourer and if needed my cyclocross bike. BUT keeping the costs low by either buying used components or making the most of my unused spare items lying around.

Thanks to Sandeep I adopted his 4 year old Bianchi Volpe frameset that came with fork, new headset, seatpost, crank, crank arms and BB at an attractive price. Along with the baby I also got it 's toys like supernova dynohub powered light,  VO spacers, Cantilever brake units.






I already had the following accessories some of them from Happyearth

3 panaracer pasela tires ( 28 mm )
Decent wheelset
Racks ( VO pass hunter and Topeak rear )
SP Dynohub
Brooks B17 Saddle ( Narrow Black color )
Scor Drop handlebar
Retroshifters 9 speed ( Goats )

Thanks to Crankmeister Bicycle Works especially Riyaaz, Nikhil, and Pavan who built this bike exactly how I wanted it to be built. In fact Riyaaz is so fast that he built my bike and 2 more wheels for Surly Xcheck the same day. Initially I decided to go with 8 speed gear keeping in mind the low maintenance cost of chain and cassette. But I couldn't get good shifters as I didn't like the Sora button style shifter. I had tried to sell my Retroshifters earlier but since nobody brought it  i used it for 3*9 setup.

New items that went onto to this bike includes

SRAM hub for rear wheel
9 speed chain
9 speed cassette
LizardSkin bar tape that matches bianchi's popular celeste color
Gear and Brake Cables
30 degree 70 mm Giant stem ( Less aggressive More upright )

Thanks to KKR I got used fenders ( Planet bikes ).

I just rode the bike from the Store to Home ( 20km ). Today i installed the fenders myself. I wish to ride as many miles as possible on this beautiful bike. If you ever meet me during my ride you can drool over this beauty as close as possible. Till then eat more sleep more ride more ...