Meriwether Cycles is building me a beautiful custom steel gravel grinder. It's got a wishbone seat stay, bent top tube and can handle Riddler 45mm tires on Stans Grail wheels. I like these wheels b.c. they can handle low and high pressures for off and on road and they're wide (21mm internal). I'm putting an Enve Cross fork on it and Sram Rival 1x hydraulic groupset.
I'm wondering what stem and especially what seat post and handelbars. I'm leaning towards a Thomson stem maybe. I think I want a carbon post (27.2) and carbon bars (440mm). But hardest of all is picking a color from Prismatic Powders. https://www.prismaticpowders.com
I really can't choose one. I've been staring at bikes for months and it's impossible. I am planning to leave the carbon fork unpainted and the rest of the components will be black so most colors will work, but which one?
Stem alternative: Kalloy Uno 7 (remove the decals with acetone, if you wish).
Carbon post could be a number of types, depending of how compliant you want it: e.g. Ergon CF3/VCLS2.0, Ritchey Flexlogic, Syntace Hi-flex, Spec., and so on.
Just curious -- what drive train, shifters, brake shifters, brakes? Stem, bars, etc. can easily be changed; but the drive train is a bigger investment. Frankly, if I were outfitting a custom steel bike, I would go with an electronic drive train either the Shimano Di2, or SRAM eTap Wifli. Since extra wide tires are in your plan, that would eliminate the eTap, because of the design of the front der. battery limits the rear tire clearance to 40 mm. In that case, I would dress your custom beauty in Ultegra Di2, with Shimano hydraulic brakes and shifters. Expensive -- yes. But, so are custom steel frames. You could also drop down to the Shimano 105 system -- which has good trickle down tech. from it's more expensive Ultegra, and Durace brethren.
bobknh wrote:Just curious -- what drive train, shifters, brake shifters, brakes? Stem, bars, etc. can easily be changed; but the drive train is a bigger investment. Frankly, if I were outfitting a custom steel bike, I would go with an electronic drive train either the Shimano Di2, or SRAM eTap Wifli. Since extra wide tires are in your plan, that would eliminate the eTap, because of the design of the front der. battery limits the rear tire clearance to 40 mm. In that case, I would dress your custom beauty in Ultegra Di2, with Shimano hydraulic brakes and shifters. Expensive -- yes. But, so are custom steel frames. You could also drop down to the Shimano 105 system -- which has good trickle down tech. from it's more expensive Ultegra, and Durace brethren.
Ooops my bad -- you said SRAM Rival 1x Hydraulic. Sorry ---- ignore my comments. I still like electronic shifting, and 2x drive trains, though. But, that's a personal preference.
I've been looking at those Kalloy, thanks! Not sure on the seat post flex. I have a Cannondale Mod 1 mtn bike and the seat post is disconcertingly flexy. So something stiffer than that. Of course my 155 pounds isn't going to flex anything too much.
I haven't gotten to try electric shifting. I'm sure I would love it. Really the thing for me is I don't want to mess with anything with a plug or a battery. Since it's a rigid bike with one derailleur I'm hoping to keep it simple. Plus computers and software and even electric hardware often act oddly around me, must be my vibes man.
I'll look at Prismatic Powders for a powder blue. Kind of leaning toward some shade of Orange with a Casper Clear Top Coat. It gives it that old school matte powder kind of pastel look. I was going with matte black but I want something more cheerful!
I like the Sram Rival 1x hydros. The shifting is reliable and I love not having to even think about a front derailleur.
