Finally finished her up this weekend. Don't mind the Speedplay Frog pedals...had to ride her to work and then for a quick 10 mile or so ride...smooth as a Cadillac, love the feel of steel.



 Witcomb Competition Frame/Fork (Reynolds 531)
 Mavic A719 rims/Phil Wood hubs
 Panaracer Pasela Tourguard tires (700c x 28)
 Brooks B-17 Champion Special saddle
 Suntour seatpost
 Nitto Noodle (B-177) handlebar
 Brooks Leather handlebar tape
 Nitto Technomic Deluxe stem
 Tange headset
 Dia-Compe Model 750 center-pull brakes
 Cane Creek SCR-5 brake levers
 Sugino XD-600 crankset (48/36/26)
 Shimano 600 bottom bracket
 Suntour 5-speed freewheel (13/15/17/19/22)
 Wipperman chain
 Shimano 600 friction down-tube shifters
 Shimano Tiagra front derailleur
 Shimano Ultegra rear derailleur

Love the look of the brown hooded Cane Creeks with the Brooks wrap. Beautiful job, I bet she rides really well.

Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. Congrats.

Tell me about your paint. Looks real nice! What kind of procedure did you follow?

J B


My Bikes

Looking at that Brooks saddle and bar wrap together, I'm absolutely certain how I want to finish my Bates......

Thanks for the props, guys. I am really happy with how it turned out.

I bought the frame as is from a guy who said it supposedly been refinished before he got it. All I did was clean it up and throw a coat of wax on it. There are a few minor chips here and there, but nothing to worry about.

Nice, really nice!...only thing I'd do is rotate the handlebars downward just a little...if it were mine. What's the brown chainstay protector made of?

beautiful! Saving images as inspiration for my comparable build of this summer, a fixed gear neo-british audax bike with Japanese components. Thanks for sharing!

- Joel

Great job! Looks like a very comfortable ride. What do you think of the Crane Creek levers? I was upgrading my Mercian and almost went with them.

Thanks! Yes, I am still fine tuning the handlebar angle, that is about where I envisioned it to be, maybe a tad lower as you said. The concept is to have the bar close to level right behind the brake hoods to provide a nice flat surface to use when riding with your hands there. (Which I do quite a bit) Got the idea from Rivendell.

Chainstay protector is leather, elk hide to be exact. Got it from Velo Orange. https://www.velo-orange.com/lechprsead.html

Love the Cane Creek levers. I have them on my San Jose as well. They are very comfortable, brake well and a good value for the money. Plus they have a cool little quick release feature to use if your tire won't fit past the brake pads when removing the wheel and you don't have quick release brakes like my cantis on the San Jose and the center-pulls on Witcomb.

they look to be the same as the tektro/cane creek hooded levers I have on one bike - they're very well made and I think the hood shape is perfect.

- Joel