Unexpected New Bike…

I’ve been planning on buying a new frame for quite a while, as much as I LOVE my Orlowski it is a bit small for me and I really do need something bigger. I’m almost certainly gonna get a Brother which I was planning on getting powdercoated a kind of light mint colour but I think I’ll just stick with black.

Seeing as I was gonna get a new frame I thought I may as well put together a new wheelset, again as much as I LOVE my Dodici rims they are pretty heavy and I am as skinny as a rake, I really do notice the extra weight when climbing hills which I do a lot and really enjoy. So, I started looking for new rims and came across the Velo Orange PBP’s which are low box section old school type ones, nice and light and classic looking. I’ll lace them to a basic set of System Ex hubs, a lot of people seem to think that hubs get better the more you pay for them but I can tell you for a fact that mid price hubs are no better than System Ex or whatever else brand they are stickered as. Obviously when you start paying a lot more (Phil Wood, Royce) you are getting a better product but there’s really very little point in paying £60 for a hub rather than £25 when the difference in quality is marginal…

…Next thing I know I start looking for ‘classic style’ cranks, after all if I am gonna have a sleek black track frame and old school chrome box section rims I am gonna need some cranks that fit with the whole classic track bike steeze. I ordered some Andel arms that are based on the Campagnolo Nuovo Record of many years ago only to find that getting a 1/8 144BCD chainring for a good price is a total pain in the ass so I may actually switch my whole drivetrain to 3/32 (Opinions on this? Hit the comments below) which will shave a few grams off the total weight of the build and cost less. So thats a frame, rims, spokes, hubs, crank arms, chainring, sprocket, bottom bracket and chain that I have to buy.

I’d like to think that I can keep my current seat post but I’ll probably convince myself I need a new one, My Charge Bucket saddle has got a bright orange underneath which is just not gonna cut it so I need to get a new saddle too, fuck! I’m sticking with my pedals, clips and straps for deffo and my Nitto stem is badass so there’s no need to replace that. I may get a set of Nitto track bars, why the hell not? I’ve already spent 50x more than I planned anyways!

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