Originally Posted by
mstateglfr
What happened to the Landshark Road Shark? That thing was sweet, and I thought it fit your proper bike fit numbers.
You with the goal of a single bike is wild to think about, considering how many you have gone through over the last 5 or so years. Based on your indecision on if itll be road or touring oriented, perhaps the door to owning multiple bikes is still a bit ajar?
The Land Shark is gone. It was indeed sweet, and was/is the template for my bike numbers. A custom frame allows me to address a few of the hindrances I had with the Land Shark. 1) I'm fine with 23s and 25s for tires, but want easy room for 25s, if not 28s--just sort of some breathing room. The Land Shark was 23mm only in front (suuuuper short axle to crown, brake pads fully up in their slots) and rear (seat tube clearance). 2) Change to vertical dropouts in back so as to be able to mount a tire fully inflated into the frame, and more easily. 3) Paint color of choice. The Land Shark's paint schem is very unique, 1 of 2 (the other is a 'funny bike') that I know of. It was in iffy condition, but still presented alright, and I would have been crucified for changing it, and even I in my mind didn't want to do it unless I needed to, and with the other hang-ups, I thought it better to let it lie and be with someone else.
When in doubt, I default to road/race. It's lighter, more responsive, looks great, faster, and I don't find them uncomfortable. A touring build can have most of that speed and responsiveness, but with fenders and carrying capacity. Perhaps its a subconscious desire for a pickup truck in bike form. Aside from a rainy day and no fenders, I don't lose with a race frame--I'll never get over them, plus, I can put all the pretty Dura-Ace components on them without having to dilute the groupset "purity" with different brakes or whatever.
The red frameset I built in CAD is pretty much a "greatest hits" of bikes I've had. 74° ST angle from the Land Shark and early Waterford Paramounts (as well as road/race Schwinns of the mid-late '80s). 73° HT angle is from those same Paramounts and racing Schwinns, as well as Trek racing bikes. Same goes for the 40mm offset forks to get a trail number at 62mm. That head tube angle also allows me to use a normal quill stem that isn't angled down due to a 73.5-75.0° HT angle like so many tall bikes. This gives me the most classic and modern stem/bar options. BB drop is 75mm, which is taken from my '74 Paramount (ok, that's actually 3" or 76mm..., but you get the idea). 58cm TT and resulting reach matches the Land Shark, and gives me many stem length, bar type, and brake/shift lever options depending on how I outfit it. The 67cm size obviously gets me the height I want, with the ability to run as tall or "slammed" a 'normal' quill stem as I like. The frameset has vertical dropouts and clears 28s with no issue. Seat cluster is taken from some other bikes and just looks soooo good. The spike/peak at the top of it takes inspiration from my former '85 Paramount. Long point lugs are just pretty, and also perhaps an ode to the chromed long point lugs of late-'70s Centurions (and other Japanese bikes).