BLACKMARKET

vannilla.
but i would be afraid of some ******* nicking up the frame or something when it gets locked up.

concernicus

vanilla. sacha is a great guy.

11.4

I own a couple Nagasawa track frames. You won't fit more than a 22 mm tire under the fork crown of a Nagasawa, and at that point you will have trouble getting clearance to fit a short-reach brake (if you're going to use one, of course). Plus, the front end tends to be pretty steep and stiff -- not very comfortable on the road. The paint finish is beautiful, but whatever he uses isn't as tough as some of the epoxy finishes that American builders use. Plus you're stuck with a traditional non-sealed headset that needs constant maintenance if you ride it in the wet and with quill stems.

Nagasawas also come with around a 5 cm bottom bracket drop. Road riding doesn't need anything more radical than a 6 cm drop, and perhaps even 7 cm. (I've never scraped a pedal on a fixie with 165 cranks and a 7 cm drop, although I am using low-profile pedals -- a 6 cm drop would give you clearance for any pedals.) Now that 5 cm drop makes the top tube rather high against your anatomy, plus it makes the bike noticeably less stable on the road. Nagasawa doesn't let you specify specific dimensions like bottom bracket drop -- he asks what track you're riding and designs for that track.

Nagasawas and Vanillas are both amazing eye-candy. Both ride superbly well. From an artistic standpoint, they are almost polar opposites -- one is completely traditional with touches from a 1966 Datsun, the other is pure rococo. Both can and should be ridden. I might say it's criminal to drill a Nagasawa fork crown (he'll do it for you in a new frame, but only if the geometry and such are basically aimed at a road fixie -- you can't get a drilled fork any longer with keirin geometry).

I'd suggest you look at Spectrum Cycles (Tom Kellogg). They make absolutely gorgeous track and fixie frames with some of the finest lugwork and finest painting out there. Tom and Jeff know track frames like nobody else in America, they deliver in 2-3 months, and you get an incredible bike. You should also take seriously the suggestion above about Kalavinka -- I have a couple Kalavinka frames and can attest that Tanabe is very easy to work with, delivers on time, has great product for the price, etc. I think the Spectrum is a bit nicer, although you won't get the nice kanji graphics that way. Still, avoid the long wait lists and go with someone who really knows bikes. Kellogg will guide you through the design process better than anyone else.

beppe

11.4, will you marry me?

evanyc

a Vanilla on FGG today.

Doctor Who

I'm in love.

mcatano

While those vanilla stainless steel top tube "protectors" are quite lovely, I have a hard time believing that they'll actually do anything to protect a top tube. That's just me though. And that bike is very, very pretty.

evanyc

yeah, that's what i was thinking too. im sure they do afford a bit of protection though, but it can't be much.

eddiebrannan

i expect they're more there to protect the frame paint from dings taking the bike on and off a stand than to protect the top tube from getting dented in 40mph crashes on the velo.

Rodador

I really don't know whether to hate you or idolize you. ****!

Great post, though.

Still, ****!

ImOnCrank

Actually that's one of the first Vanillas that has pretty much done it for me. A little more trad than his other stuff. Still a little bling for me but very nice.

11.4 rules.

auk

11.4, as of today, wins for best post of 2006 thus far.

samal

I second that

bbattle

You sir, are a winner!

bbattle

Ding, ding!

My LBS somehow manages to get by using some squares of foam and/or whatever rags are handy.

Back in the Space Race, NASA spent a million dollars designing a pen that would work in space. The Soviets used pencils.

bbattle

Did anyone else catch the excellent use of the word "rococo"?

First-rate post, 11.4.

messenger33

I've had my Vanilla since 2003 and I've ridden it in Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver (BC), Portland (OR), Edmonton and New York City. Yes, that includes locking it in public with a Krypto chain in Manhattan and doing messenger work in the rain of Portland (okay, it was only two days).

I had it built as a do everything bike, or at least everything I do, which is mostly ride in the city, a bit of road riding and some track riding and it's done it all quite well. It's got those sweet cutout track drops with a derailleur hanger so I can set it up singlespeed or geared and S+S couplings so I don't have to think about shipping it ahead to save a few bucks on airplane trips. Given that I asked Sacha to build one bike that I could ride on the velodrome or in heavy downtown traffic or on extended road rides or take on lightly loaded tours, that's pretty amazing. Before I got it, I was pretty convinced that carbon forks were the way to go, but Sacha said let's try a steel on first and he was totally right, I don't miss the carbon ride (whatever that may be) at all and his fork looks right with the frame.

Here are some beauty/ridiculousness shots of it:
https://iheartbrains.com/vanilla/
and here are some shots of it from today as I was changing it back to a geared setup:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/3805340...7594094622536/
Yeah, it's been seen quite a bit of time in motion.

As to the question of whether to get a Nagasawa or Vanilla: as someone posted earlier, the aesthetics are quite different. They're both beautiful styles, but very different. Why ask a builder to build in a style that's not his/hers?

I've never ridden a Nagasawa so I can't attest to how they ride, but I can say I sold a Bridgestone XO-1 and a Waterford 1200 to finance my Vanilla and I don't regret it at all. Okay, I wouldn't mind having a Waterford again, but I wouldn't give up my Vanilla for it.

mcatano

I have one of those in my pocket right now!

jim-bob

https://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

raygunner

Remember when Jack Klompus gave Jerry his space pen?!

Hahah!!

messenger33

I used a space pen when I was a messenger figuring, hey it still writes on wet surfaces and in the cold. But I still had to warm it up on many Minneapolis winter mornings. Does that mean Minneapolis is colder than space?

moki

Eisentraut, Kvale, Walker, IF, Weigle, Kellogg, Sycip, Mercian, Bob Jackson, etc. Trust is earned.

11.4

Not to hijack this thread, but just to show what a nice Kellogg fixie looks like. It doesn't have to give anything back to a Nagasawa or Vanilla. Note that there are a bunch of really fine alternatives out there, and they don't take four years or four grand to get one. These folks have to work to get every sale, and you'll get an incredible level of rapport with the guy building your frame. Anyway, this the work of Spectrum (Tom and Jeff). They've probably built more real track frames than just about anyone else in the US. This was done as a variant to be a dedicated road fixie. This was built custom to fit the Honjo fenders and road brakes front and rear. Angles and all geometry are custom. The paint is a blue fine metallic; the white has a very light gold tint in the clearcoat to go with the gold downtube lettering (which is hand stenciled paint, not a decal). Check out the detail behind the head tube where the two lugs join, the quality of the internal top tube brake cable routing (done with a stainless tube so it doesn't rust inside), and the seat stay lug. The point is, if you're fixed on a Nagasawa or Vanilla, think about some of the other gorgeous alternatives out there. This took just over two months and a lot less than a Nagasawa.

evanyc

gorgeous bike, but that stem makes me want to cry

pigmode

Sweet! I ended up going with a Spectrum as well, and I believe my frame is next up.