Haven't posted in ages, now that Winter is over here in the Midwest, I put some new parts (Surly Steamroller fork, road drops with hoods, a comfortable amount of headset spacers in order to reduce the saddle-to-bar drop, etc.) on the IRO to make it a heck of a lot more enjoyable to ride. Comfort and practicality were some of my major reasons for the upgrades and this bike has never been more fun to ride. Looking forward to throwing some fatter, knobbier tires on it this Spring/Summer and having some fun on it.More pictures of the Mark V in all of it's prior setups can be found here if anyone is interested.
Your frame seems a bit too small for you...
Last edited by LupinIII; 03-23-11 at 02:43 AM.
I hate fixies
My recently purchased 2010 Felt TK3.I am in love!
i love the tk3!!!!
Like Lupin III said, if I would have went up to the next size up (IRO calls it a "56") T.T. would have been too long for my liking. Now after owning and have ridden 4 or 5 bicycles, I have dialed in what I find to be my preferred T.T. length and that is anywhere from 54cm to 55cm, 55cm being just borderline too long, but doable.
IRO's super high bottom bracket on the Mark V and my choice of 165mm cranks is what results in my saddle height being quite high. I used to rock the stock fork with about 7mm of spacers, max, but then I realized I'd rather have a dorky amount of spacers and have the ability to set my stem at virtually any desired height. If you take a look at my build again, and instead see a threaded/quill stem instead of a threadless set-up, it doesn't seem all that far off from normal.
I have to say, it does look mighty comfortable, and looks about right when your in the drops... But I think what would make it aesthetically look better is if you used larger spacers, rather than a lot of small ones.. Unless my eyes are deceiving me and that's already what you've done.
IRO's have incredibly low top-tubes and very short head tubes for their sizes, so it can be hard to get the bars up. Fortunately their steerers weigh about 7,000lbs so you can run as many spacers as you like.
I have a front brake, but I only use it for slowing or stopping.
ok yea i like spinning anyway and i feel im strong enough to keep a good momentum if the mud is really bad.
its not your standard cx race with laps. 60kms town to town. heres a link to the website.
http://parisancaster.com/
wish me luck.
2012 giant TCR1. 2009 felt breed sscx. 1990 cannondale SR600. 2012 norco indie
That looks like a really fun race. Might want to go down to a 16t cog if there are flat sections but your call.
I was thinking the same thing. That ride looks really fun.
I'm not one for fawning over bicycles, but I do believe that our bikes communicate with us, and what this bike is saying is, "You're an idiot." BikeSnobNYC
why did you twist that disc cable around the top tube instead of using the guides?
Just noticed the front cable also. wow.
Last edited by craigcraigcraig; 03-23-11 at 11:50 AM. Reason: ssfg
That's exactly what I ended up doing ahaha. After a day or two, I too didn't like the aesthetics of that many 5mm spacers. Normally on my other bikes, I prefer the 5mm-sized spacers, but I found that when using this many it was a bit of an eye-sore so I had a little bit of inspiration from these guys and re-arranged them with sort of a pattern.
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Wow.
im pretty stoked. i've heard its not very technical[thank gods] but a serious grinder[im already running a 16t cog, im assuming you got confused with cynikals gearing]. it looks like it will be loads of fun so im not going to take it too serious. my jersey pockets will probably be tallboy/20oz waterbottle/tallboy -- haha. im doing this with 3 other guys who have never raced before either. all of them are on ss 29ers and have offroad experience, unlike myself. i'll post here or in the cx forum after with some pics and thoughts on the race.
just realized this is the new new 'post your bike' thread and i've already effed it up with off-topic[kinda] chatter. apologies mods.
2012 giant TCR1. 2009 felt breed sscx. 1990 cannondale SR600. 2012 norco indie
To be honest that looks like a 49 - 52cm frame....
Just entered the world of fixed gear biking with this recent craigslist acquisition
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Frame is what IRO calls a "53cm". The T.T. is 54cm and the seat-tube is a measly 49cm. My Surly Cross-Check is a 52cm (with an actual 52cm seat-tube) has a longer T.T. of 54.5cm and that thing fits me pretty much like a glove.
So basically if IRO made a "54cm" or a "55cm" in their Mark V, that would probably be a more appropriate size, but I'm guessing the "56cm" would be a tad on the large size for my liking. It was my first real adult bicycle and it's been an excellent learning experience and has turned me onto the cycling world, so I can't really complain much. One of these days I'm going to pull the trigger on a 53cm Steamroller frameset and then just switch everything over. From what I've seen from the geometry charts on Surly's website, it looks like it'd be a good fit.