First day of Winter… 58 degrees tonight sitting on my porch in California. It’s been a while since I documented my bikes; the Quickbeam has C-Lines and thornflickers, but it’s about the same. Except no fenders or lighting, since it never rains here and never gets dark. So… pretty much totally different. The weight of the bike as shown is 25.5 lbs.
I went for a little spin around downtown, the JC, and the MacDonald neighborhoods. There are Snoopys all over town, since Charles Schultz lived here.
The Quickbeam currently has a 44t ugly Rocket Ring, a 15t D/A cog and a 17/21 Surly Dingle cog. With 37mm Soma C-Lines, it’s geared with 80″, 71″, and 57″. I think the 44t ring is going to move to the Gryphon to replace the 48t ring, which means the Ross will probably give up a ring or two, or I’ll just put the stock 40/32 back on the Quickbeam. This Arabesque 600 crank belongs on the Ross anyway.
I still love the WTB dirt drops on the Quickbeam. The tape faded, and the shellac turned it white in the rain. The Salsa stem might need a respray with the Plasti-kote “Shamrock,” if I can get another can.
The Soma C-Lines are very nice tires. I didn’t like the Tektro 720s when I first got them, but they improved greatly with Koolstop pads. I put the original low-profile brakes back on the rear, though, since these hit my heels. I think every Quickbeam should have a Nitto M12 rack. It connects to the canti posts for a clean look, and it’s very strong. I use a basket, attached with hose clamps. Other people use zip ties, but I don’t trust ’em.
Stock Tiagra brake levers on the WTB dirt drops. The gray plastic bit on the right lever broke and disappeared a couple years ago. I was going to replace it, but it doesn’t seem to matter.
Front view. Quickbeam badge, Wilderness Trail dirt drops’ sexy swoop, green Brooks Special saddle in the background.
Side view. The bike-holder-uppers were sourced from Rivendell. This is the first time I’ve used two on one bike.
I’m always interested in updates on my favorite (except mine, of course) Quickbeam. You might have explained already but apparently the SA S3X hub didn’t meet expectations?
I’ve got some changes in mind for my Quickbeam, for a specific event in 2014. More about that later. I’m thinking those C-line tires would work well for me also.
The S3X is in the shed, and might go back on the bike for winter, along with a dynamo front wheel. I like the lighter weight and less lash of a classic fixed setup a little more, but the S3X is certainly cool. I’m actually approaching the possibility of just a single-sided single gear, but haven’t done that yet.
I’m interested in what you’ve got planned – as I get to ride the C-Lines, I’ll post my experiences with them.
Looks good! I was recently thinking I missed my old quickbeam but I think it’s mostly cause I broke it’s replacement the hunter monstercross over the summer and I haven’t had the cash to get it fixed. I was also looking jealously at the recent photos of your gryphon for the same reason. I think the hunter might finally get a derailleur hanger when I get it repaired… How’s Santa Rosa treating you?
Ugh. Broke the Hunter? That’s a shame. I’ve been fantasizing about designing a Gryphon-style 29er road bike built around the Big Apple Supermoto tires. Superlight tubing, wishbone seatstays, no provision for singlespeeding aside from an Eno hub, and rear cantilevers.
Santa Rosa is pretty fine, but I haven’t done a whole lot of bike riding.
Yeah, 5 years of single speeding and mostly rough off road use is a lot to ask for a very light steel frame. Driveside chainstay cracked through about 10mm from the dropout, going to have both chainstays replaced soon. I’ve even been considering just having it switched to verticals since I’m in the east bay (alameda) and gears sure make it a lot more pleasant to get to trails up in the hills. I bet the supermoto version of the bigapple is a really awesome tire, highly worthy of building a bike around. I have a set of the 26″ version kicking around, somewhere that I really liked for annadel when it was not muddy although I no longer have any 26″ bikes…
I was using the 60mm Big Apples on the previous incarnation of the Gryphon (Fisher Utopia + Kona P2), and I loved them until I started flatting a lot. The road loop I do at work is littered with staples, wires, nails and glass, and Mt Burdell loaded up my front with 6 goatheads in a single ride.