motoboy

Too true.

H.S.Clydesdale

I am always a bit perplexed as to the best spot to post my bike pics. Commuter vs. Clyde vs. Road forums. I think I'll go with the commuter forum today, since my most recent changes are geared more toward day-to-day comfort/"adventure bike" aesthetics. Here is a pic of my bike, (KHS flite 747) for which I am quite fond:



For those not already in the know, the 747 is for tall folk, I am 6'7". It is the only production bike tall folk can buy with proportional cranks. It happens to come from the factory with extremely ugly decals. I figured I would just live with that, perhaps get it powder coated in few years to a nice solid color. Then it occurred to me I could simply "black out" the decals with some gorilla tape. I am really surprised at how well this worked. The gorilla tape matches the black color very well, and also provides a nice protective layer to the paint. I am sure it will degrade with some weathering, but I can easily just replace the tape as it starts to look bad. Since that worked out so well, I then put on some brown Charge U-Bend (synthetic leather) bar tape to match the seat (wrapped right over the stock bar tape to accommodate the wider grip of my clyde hands). It used to be a perfect match, but I have since put too many treatments of proofhide on the leather saddle and it is a bit dark. Maybe I'll try proofhide on the bar tape, but I suspect that wont work out well.

I have also changed the stock chainring to a forged version to avoid the bending chainring problem, and gone with a 90mm stem instead of the stock 120mm, but those are older changes.

running a Specialized Roubaix 25/28c tire in the rear which so far is very nice. (older vittoria rubino pro III 28c in the front, also good)

there is also a brass bell on the right bar end. This is critical for my commute, which involves a lot of MUPs. The brass bell works much better than any other bell I have tried, it has the traditional "bra-riiinnnggg, bra-riiinnnggg" associate with a bicycle so pedestrians know exactly what is coming up behind them. The mirrabell or other single tones bells seem to confuse people. Its nice that the brass bell happens to fit in aesthetically with my overall theme (brown leather and copper/brass)

jrickards

Someone should built 800D wheels for monster bikes like this!!!

This is a beauty!!!

H.S.Clydesdale

Thanks, Would LOVE some bigger wheel bike options.

thelazywon

I got a 2014 Tricross at my LBS yearly 20% off sale. I swapped out the Sora for an Ultegra 6703 set I had, and left the Avid BB7 brakes. Velo Transit Panniers.

RubeRad

Well they'd need longer chainstays and forks too, so maybe it wouldn't be so easy. But yes, this is a beauty! The black gorilla tape really hides well -- it was only at full-zoom on photobucket that I could even begin to guess where you had applied it! And the rest is very elegantly simple and understated. Looks fantastic. Makes me think of removing the decals from my crosscheck (one is damaged already anyways), but black on "dark dirty blue" is not too obnoxious.

H.S.Clydesdale

Good point, Lennard Zinn has written a few articles about this very problem, where bikes built for tall folk need to be both longer AND stronger, so pretty much impossible. I'll just think of my bike as a proportional upsize of a 650b road bike.

If the decals are on top of the clear coat, I say go for it. My decals were underneath the clear coat, so I was stuck with them. The gorrilla tape may work if you use it add black stripes. They also sell various different colors and designs of duck brand duct tape which might be cool.

noglider 

I did look and see the dowel. Not only that Frank the Welder sold me the bike and told me it's the later version of the fork. I'll go and check to see that the dowel is made of steel. It looked to be wooden.

Thanks for the warning.

noglider 

@H.S.Clydesdale, I want to know more about that bike. For instance, what bell is it? Is that a good height for your handlebar, i.e. have you tried higher handlebars, somehow? How long are your cranks? Where did you get that handlebar tape?

H.S.Clydesdale

great, happy to oblige. The bell is a "Crane Bell Co Riten Bell, brass". Seen here: Crane Bell Co Riten Bell, brass, Bells and Horns

I need to polish mine...

I have tried the handelbars lower and higher, and this is a good setting for me. I might actually prefer them a bit lower, but I do have an aggressive riding style.

Cranks are 200mm. Perfect size for me. Andel makes the crankset special for this bike, but other companies also make longer cranks, most are found at bigandtallbike.com

I got the bar tape here: Charge Bikes U-Bend 45 bar tape, brown syn leather, Handlebar Tape

The link is actually a newer version which looks a bit superior to the one I bought about a year ago.

RubeRad

Wow, the chainstays appear to have a normal angle, and yet it looks like there's still plenty of clearance. Do you ever have problems with pedal strike?

Gresp15C

Forum newbie here. Here are my two bikes. The Schwinn is my official commuter, a lug frame made by Giant in the early 80's. My commute is just over 8 miles round trip on fairly tame terrain -- roughly 300 feet elevation range, all on side streets or paved bike path. I also use it for shopping, etc. Not shown: Bag with rain gear.

The Trek is my "fun" bike, but I ride it to work if I know the weather will be clear and I have no payload. Both have home-built wheels with old 3 speed Sturmey Archer hubs.

RubeRad

Nice! Welcome to the forum. Vintage steel, sensible spoke-counts, IGH, fenders, townie handlebars, you'll fit right in around here!

Also, you're really tall -- unless those are 16" wheels...

Gresp15C

Thanks, and good eye. Both bikes have 27" wheels. The Trek is too tall -- my mistake when I bought it 30+ years ago, the salesman wasn't much help fitting it, and I was a stupid kid. I can ride it safely, i.e., stand on the ground without injuring myself, but barely. It's just that I'm not inclined to replace the frame for that reason alone, so I live with it. Perhaps a bigger problem is the length of the top tube, but the upright bars move my hands back to a comfortable position. While riding, the thing fits me like a glove. Due to old age, I can't ride drop bars any more, and flat bars pound the heck out of my wrists.

The Schwinn is a couple inches lower, so it's well inside the safety zone, even if still a bit on the tall side compared to how bikes are typically fitted today.

Clyde1820

DS, that's a nice looking bike. What is it?

TrekNerd

My road bike and my mountain bike turned commuter. I'm selling the car now and using bikes from now on.

RunForTheHills

I bought a Brompton M6R a month ago to start commuting with. I added a Brooks B67 saddle and the Shimano dynamo hub with Schmidt Edeluxe II headlight and Toplight.




Then a couple of weeks ago, the office I work in added bike lockers to the garage. So I reserved one and bought a used Jamis Nova Sport to also use to commute to the office with. I have ordered a rack for it and the seller had some fenders for it already that I will install this weekend. I also ordered a wheel for it with a Shimano dynamo hub. The Brompton has been a lot of fun to ride, But I think the Jamis will be better in the rain and for longer weekend rides.

H.S.Clydesdale

No problems with pedal strike, the frame does have a higher bottom bracket to acommodate the longer cranks. The chainstays probably just look normal due to the picture angle.

TheDavid 

I like taking the long way to work.

DiabloScott

Friend of mine has that same bike... likes the decals. Likes it better than his 65cm Cannondale. On tonight's ride, another guy passed us with the same bike, newer model year - the blue one. Never seen two of these in the same place at the same time before.

DiabloScott

Thanks, yeah it's a great commuter. It is a Trek! District S fixed gear.



My product review:
Diablo Scott's Bike Blog: Product Review: 2014 Trek District S

Rollfast1966

This is my favorite way to go to work, or almost anywhere for that matter. My 2009 Kona Dew Drop.

H.S.Clydesdale

Cool, glad to hear more folks on this bike. If sales are good enough, one of the big names might take notice and offer a 200mm crank carbon fiber bike. They already offer the same size bikes, just not with the proportional cranks.

RidingMatthew

what size tires are those? what kind of tires are those?

RidingMatthew

both bikes look awesome.