Custom Bike
I spent a few hours yesterday with Steve Hampsten, owner and designer of Cycles Tournesol, and ended up putting in an order for a custom road bike, to be delivered in about six months or so.
I’ll be spending around four thousand dollars when all is said and done, which is a hell of a lot of money for anything, much less for a bike, even though close to three quarters will be covered by the insurance settlement on the Rambouillet.
I’m ambivalent about the expenditure, not so much because of its impact on Mimi’s college fund or my retirement (we spend three times that a year just for the interest on our home loan) but moreso, because the utilitarian in me wonders whether I ought to direct the cash to something that makes more of a positive difference in the world.
I do console myself slightly that I’m supporting a local small business and helping to keep alive the craft of lugged steel bicycle construction, but I’m not, obviously, donating the cash to famine relief or even to bicycle-related causes.
I have this idea, therefore, that I’m not sure I’m going to follow through on but which I will at least think about and aspire to in some way.
Suppose I were to raise the same amount of money I’m spending on the bike and donate it to my favorite local charity, BikeWorks. I’m not entirely sure how I’d go about that (my preferred idea would be to put together an Xtracycle with a B3 SoulBlender and ride around selling smoothies and marguerites, the profits from which I would send BikeWorks’ way.)
This is likely to be one of those admirable ideas that never comes to fruition, but I’m hoping that if I keep it in mind, I’ll at least have my heart in the right place.
And maybe instead of going for full Dura-Ace, I’ll opt for Ultegra and give some of the difference away.
I’ll be spending around four thousand dollars when all is said and done, which is a hell of a lot of money for anything, much less for a bike, even though close to three quarters will be covered by the insurance settlement on the Rambouillet.
I’m ambivalent about the expenditure, not so much because of its impact on Mimi’s college fund or my retirement (we spend three times that a year just for the interest on our home loan) but moreso, because the utilitarian in me wonders whether I ought to direct the cash to something that makes more of a positive difference in the world.
I do console myself slightly that I’m supporting a local small business and helping to keep alive the craft of lugged steel bicycle construction, but I’m not, obviously, donating the cash to famine relief or even to bicycle-related causes.
I have this idea, therefore, that I’m not sure I’m going to follow through on but which I will at least think about and aspire to in some way.
Suppose I were to raise the same amount of money I’m spending on the bike and donate it to my favorite local charity, BikeWorks. I’m not entirely sure how I’d go about that (my preferred idea would be to put together an Xtracycle with a B3 SoulBlender and ride around selling smoothies and marguerites, the profits from which I would send BikeWorks’ way.)
This is likely to be one of those admirable ideas that never comes to fruition, but I’m hoping that if I keep it in mind, I’ll at least have my heart in the right place.
And maybe instead of going for full Dura-Ace, I’ll opt for Ultegra and give some of the difference away.
posted by Professor Dave at 11:23 AM
6 Comments:
So which model are you getting? As a little side story... years ago when I was involved with the Yellow Jersey Bike Club in Madison, I was in charge of the weekly club time trail series on Wednesday evenings. The route was an out and back flat course between Cross Plains and Black Earth, WI. That summer Andy Hampsten resided and trained out of Madison as there was a ton of races available that summer in the upper midwest. So oodles of very good riders spent a lot of time in town that summer. This was either one of two years before he went Pro and I think 4 years before he won Alphe d'Heuz (I know I just blew the spelling something fierce). Anyway he set the course record that year, I think just under 20 minutes and I had the pleasure of doing the holding start for him and others, and timing everyone, as well as the more fun part where everyone, usually about 30-40 riders rode out and back to the course from downtown Madison. Lots of stories and joking and enjoying the upper midwest summer evenings on paved backroads perfect for riding.
Mark Beatty
I'm getting a lugged steel Tournesol, 700c wheels, one-inch threaded steerer; it will look a lot like the blue one on this link:
http://www.hampsten.com/Tournesol/700c.html#
v cool, and extremely pretty. absolutely lovely seat stays/top tube/seat tube connection. on the "guilt" part, 1) at least you aren't buying another car and 2) put a persistant donation link to BikeWorks on your blog page (grin). 3) Offer "signed" copies of your fave 327 postings to whoever donates $xx.xx to BikeWorks, patrons get to choose their fave for you to sign yadda yadda yadda.
mb
I'm curious if you opted to have the frame spec'd to take the long (57mm) reach shimano Dual pivot brake calipers. I gather this bike will fall in a similar usage as the RIP Rom. I don't see much reason to have a full D/A group on the bike, perhasp the Rear Der. and Shifters.
For cranks I would go with a compact set up like the Shimano R700 50-34t Crankset , no need for a racing 53-39 double and since this will be a more sporty bike you probably won't need the granny of a road triple. You could mate this to a 12-27 10sp cassette for a good range of usable gears.
If you don't mind mixing companies, the new SRAM Rival shifters and ders have a very unique but intuitive operation combined with the clean dual aero cable routing akin to campy. No compact crank or long reach calipers though
Andre
I'm waffling between the Shimano long (standard) reach calipers and Rivendell's ultra-long reach ones. The latter would let me use 32 mm tires, but the former would keep the bike a bit more racy.
I'm gonna use a Ritchy Logic triple that I got from Brian Parker; I'll run a 26-36-46. The compact double doesn't give me a low enough low.
I'm going old-skool friction shifting; I'll probably use Rivendell Silver shifters and an Ultegra long-cage rear.
I run the long reach brakes (57mm) on my red fixed gear with 30mm tires and a full fender. I might even be able to fit a 32mm in there still. The pads are at the very bottom of calipers and just line up with the rim braking surface. So as long as the frame design maximizes the brakes potential you can still run a decent sized tire. Personally I'm not drawn to the ultra long reach caliper from an aesthetic point of view. I do like the simplicity of dual pivots over canti's though. Seem like this new bike will be on the faster side of your bikes, no need to tread on the Saluki's turf with long brake reach and plump tires.
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