thirdgenbird

For an extra $20 they will give you the titanium version. That's my vote

edit: if the arione fits, that would be a good bet. Just don't sacrifice the Merckx.

pcdmiele

I finally got to try out the aluminum blackening solution. I think it works pretty good. It is very similar to the steel blackening solution. here are a couple of before after picks. the parts are custom tule bar clamps (to hold a bike rack) that I made. I glass bead blasted the parts after machining to get a darker and more even color. I also clear coated them with some spray paint for a glossier look.
I nthik this stuff would work great to blaken some cranks or brake levers to complete an "ALL BLACK" build. but any clear anodizing would have to be removed first.

gomango

A good friend picked up his team bike for the upcoming season today.

An All City/Fulton Nature Boy Zona in team colors.

I want one as well.

cacher

Please educate me on that headlight your using down there near the front fork. Thank you.

Sixty Fiver

It is a 10 watt Nighthawk Halogen... the battery pack lives in the tail bag but was not connected in this picture.

It is a great trail light and turns night into day, there is an additional mount on the light bar for a 2 watt LED I use on the street or for a daytime flasher.

pamaguahiker 

That looks like my entire area of riding here in Pa. Beautiful.

~W~

whatwolf

Those do look great, don't they? I dig the Whisky Parts Co. forks. Now I want one.

I think if I ever do start racing cross I'll do it on an SSCX. For now having my geared All-City makes it a more versatile bike for other kinds of riding.

The short TT of my cross fit is making me re-think all my previous fits on road bikes.

gomango

This Zona was too small for me, but I did a few pretty good hills by our house anyway.

This bike jumps up hills in my limited sample. Light for sure, but rock solid.

Very little flex in the stays.

I could easily see owning one myself, as I love some of the features built into the bicycle.

Would love to get one out on the trails for sure.

Definitely more of a course and trail bike versus gravel grinder. Imho

Lug

Those turned out nice.

Bikedud

Gorgeous bike, I really would like to have one.

shoota 

In what way?

danec99

I like bikes to be versatile, and I like to leave the pavement. I live near a huge network of fire roads that can get boring on a MTB. And it is nice to plan a route that covers a bit of asphalt and a bit of dirt. The real joy of MTBing is no cars to deal with and a sense of isolation, adventure. So to be able to veer off the beaten path and into the woods is especially nice. I did an adventure series in the Russian River area of CA, the ride covered rough roads, dirt roads and very muddy dirt roads, with a touch of ice as well. My bike of choice was my 1993 Miyata Elevation 2002 with CX tires.

Then I needed a bike more roadie than Cx, but still needed traction in dirt. So I put some 28's on my Salsa Podio and had a blast. I have yet to take the tires off!

Here is my oldest original bike, a Fisher Hybrid I bought new in 1989.

Like the Miyata, I love old MTB's and they make great mixed terrain riders. This is my 1997 Marin Bear Valley SE, CX tires and a front disc brake on the Nashbar carbon fork.

pcb 

New-to-me Kelly Knobby-X. Looks to be a pre-'05 frame, w/PITA (for me) ATB-like bent chainstays. Carl "Snarl" at Vicious built the fork for me 12yrs ago for a Fuji Cross, never used it, so it sat patiently waiting a dozen years just for this frame. Changed the rings to 28x39 last night, stay clearance was mega-tight w/30x45 and the chain would absolutely not upshift to the flat/unpinned 45t ring. Better clearance now and quick upshifts, just won't be able to spin at 40mph+ on paved mountain downhills. If time/budget permit I might send it to Kelly for a "stay-ectomy" (his term), and get another set of bottle mounts and pump peg, etc. Snagged a Kelly stem t'other day, might go STI when I re-do the bars. Photos are from a coupla weeks back, the foliage is rapidly falling here in NJ.

dddd

Your photography skills are showing, nice pic's, ...even as the frame pump throws my aesthetical senses for a loop... :-)>

I like your short-profile brake boosters. I fashioned a couple of them for my Pro-Flex hybrid, one from an eccentric-mount model which I shortened (by cutting off the defective eccentric-mount loops), the other I made from ~1/16" Al sheet (going drillium-style).

What a difference in brake feel these shortened/stiffened boosters give, and no more brake squeel or uneven pad wear!

pcb 

This was my first outing with a Sony RX100. Great lens/sensor, but I really have trouble w/o an eyelevel EVF when shooting outdoors. Can't see what I'm framing very well, which bugs me.

Sorry about the pump. I'm a cranky old Gus, won't give up frame pumps, but so many frames don't have pump pegs/stops any more. I've learned to live with the aesthetics, but on the Knobby-X it gave me trouble getting the long bottle out of the cage. Needed the longer bottle 'cause no seat tube bottle cage. Should probably get a shorter pump for this one and run it along the seat tube, since there's no bottle cage there to get in the way. I know Kelly was trying to build a balls-out 'cross frame w/no compromises, but Cranky Gus wants versatility---this frame should have two bottle cage boss sets, and a pump nub, too.

Very nice job on your brake stabilizers, wouldn't know they weren't somebody's low-volume high-cool '90s bling product. They do a nice job stiffening the brakes and reducing chatter. I'm more looking to maximize the number of Things That Say "Paul" on my machines.

redcaymatt

My Dean 853 Cross bike. I just bought this for myself after getting rid of a bunch of bikes this past month. I'm adding a different seat, Paul cantis, & fresh bar tape.

redcaymatt

Great looking bike! I need a set of those Paul braces for the brakes now that I've seen yours. Where'd you take these pics?

tarwheel 

I picked up my first cross bike earlier this year, a Ritchey Breakaway Cross. I've always wanted a Ritchey Swiss Cross but older ones are hard to find, and the Breakaway actually suits me better because it has eyelets for fenders and racks. I bought this one used without the fork, and had my bike shop install a Soma-Tange steel cross fork, which I actually prefer over the stock Ritchey carbon fork. It's built with an Ultegra-DuraAce 9 speed group, Open Pro wheels and Jack Brown tires. I've got an extra set of Open Pros with Ritchey Speedmax Pro tires for use on unpaved roads and trails. I absolutely love this bike and have ridden more than any of my other bikes since it was built this summer -- except for my commuter.

Speaking of commuting, I recently picked up this Gunnar Crosshairs to use as my primary commuting bike. I liked the Ritchey cross so much that I couldn't pass up on the Gunnar when I saw it for sale. This is an early model Crosshairs (2000) with a nearly level top tube, smaller tubing and other details that differ from the current model. I had it built with a similar mix of Ultegra-DA components and DT Swiss-Ultegra wheels. The tires, for now, are some Conti GP 4000s that I had on hand and plan to run during the winter months because they have reflective sidewalls. I've got some Vittoria Rubino 28s that I had planned to put on the bike and will look much better, but the reflective sidewalls on the GP 4000s are a nice safety feature for commuting in the dark, which I do a lot between October and March.

pcb 

Your Dean looks sweet! I'd like to see a little more detail, don't see a lot of Deans.

The Paul stabilizers work fine, look great, with the best possible boy's name prominently engraved as a bonus! They require new/different canti mounting bolts, which I think, but am not positive, are included with the stabilizers. Either way, just make sure you get the mounting bolts.

Shot those on the Piermont>Nyack rail trail. It runs parallel to the river, up on the hill, maybe 5mi. Ends in Nyack, you can cut through Nyack down to the river, ride River Rd to Nyack State Park, then pick up a couple of connected trails up to Haverstraw, another 5mi or so. Pretty much the only unpaved public trails of moderate distance I know of within a reasonable cycling distance of NE Bergen County, I get about 20mi of round-trip trail on a 40mi round-trip ride. The Nyack Park trail runs right along the river's edge, which is nice. Then it climbs to the longer trail to Haverstraw, which is fairly hilly/challenging for fat old me. Here's the Kelly down by the river's edge:





Aren't you down in Highland Park? I rode the canal trail to Princeton often when at Rutgers, was just there a coupla weeks back on a BTCNJ ride.

tarwheel 

I love your Kelly. You can add a "pump peg" for minimal cost by picking up a Zefal doodad or whatever they call it. I bought a pair recently on eBay for about $5 shipped, and use them on a couple of my bikes. Zefal also makes attachable bottle mounts.

https://www.zefal.com/en/spare-parts/...ointes-xl.html

Did you buy the Kelly stem that I sold last weekend on eBay? It was a 10 cm with slight rise. Beautiful stem but it just wasn't the size I needed.

pcb 

Thanks for the Zefal link, I already zipped on a zip tie and added a pump strap at the front for good measure. I'd really like to countersink a small, shallow divot on the headtube and crazy-glue a ball bearing there, or drill/tap a small hole for a short bolt and use the bolt head for a peg. I won't do either, but 5 minutes of cleaning/brazing when this was built would've done it right. Harumph!

T'was I who scored your Kelly stem, for this very machine. Thanks for selling it! I wish it were 10mm longer, but the bars will be a bit lower so reach might be similar. These bars are moving intact to a Soma DoubleCross frame that's waiting to get built, but I ran out of bar wrap so I haven't been able to use your stem yet. Pretty sure I'll go STI on the new bars. Still waiting on tape and need to get busy for the Philly show, so prolly after Philly...?

Nice Gunnar Crosshairs, BTW! I have an '11 OS-tubed geared Crosshairs, the first bike I rode on these Rockland County trails, and an '05 OS-tubed Crosshairs with a fixed 3spd S-A S3X hub I use as a commuter.

Bianchigirll 

Like all the threads here great looking bikes. I am not sure my humble 'cross offerings are up to the meeting the bar thus set. They both started life as 'cross machines but are more suited to general riding as they sit now.

My '89 Bianchi Equinox, Tange Prestige with mostly stock w/ Deore XT with 600/Ultegra brake levers/shifters.



My '00/01 Boarala Columbus MAX OR tubing, from Europe, built with a hodgepodge of stuff but mostimportantly a 8sp shipmano IGH w/ JTek shifter.

cyclotoine

Love the bikes, especially the Marin, those are 26" wheels right? My only concern is the syncros post. I would say you should sell it to someone who wants one and put something on there with setback. Those syncros posts are not made of the best material on the head pieces and since the insert to the post is machined it is not super strong. The amount of leverage on there may cause the top of the post to eventually crack or bend your saddle rails. But I am guessing that you have been riding it that way for a very long time.

cyclotoine

the best saddle I have ever ridden hands down.

tarwheel 

I would never describe a Celeste green Bianchi as a humble machine, and it's a crossbike to boot. I would love to own a Celeste Bianchi cross but never came across one in my size. Owned a mid-80s Celeste Nuovo Record for many years but stupidly sold it.