This post started with a question from my dad. I was telling him about a trip I had made to my local bike shop to double check some repairs I had done that I wasn't overly confident in. When I was there the staff were interested in the bike and asked me lots of questions. ‘Why?’ my dad, not unreasonably asked. ‘Is it a very expensive bike?’
For some reason telling my dad that I had seen an Instagram post from a Japanese cyclist who was documenting a coffee club he had started and I thought to myself, ‘I should build a bike with handlebars like that' didn't seem very clear. It is not an expensive bike, but I thought I would write down what my latest project was because to a bike nerd, it is a little odd.
The inspiration started with seeing some posts from Tetsuo Ehara. He seems to have a great life going on slow rides, drinking coffee and riding a Singular bike with what I think we are now calling Alt Bars (my guess is they are Velo Orange Crazy Bars). I have never built a bike that is designed for that kind of cruising along riding, but the inspiration struck for what would a fast, slow bike look like?
I started searching for the right bars and after much faffing about decided the bike was going to be based around some Surly Moloko. They are an absolute unit but offer so many options for how to position them, grips, gears, bags, racks and so on and this was enough to get me going.
Next, I needed a frame. I wasn’t sure of exactly what I was looking for, but inspiration struck after seeing a post on the potentially not much longer for this internet, LFGSS forum. Someone was selling what seemed to be a very early Independent Fabrication. I have had trouble working out if this is so (as far as I can tell IF bikes from that era were pretty much still Fat Chance and have no serial numbers) but my best guess from internet searching is it is a super rad 1995 Steel Deluxe in 853 and I decided to take the risk.
(image of a before and after in its previous life, where it has been resprayed by chicken, before it came to be owned by me. It has has a disc mount tabbed on and the canti mounts removed)
After that, the build was a mix of things I had lying around and some ebay trawling. I wanted to make sure I could ride long with in, so got some Stans with a dynamo that is not yet hooked up. The forks are v old Lynskey steel things that are very very tight on the clearance, so means I can only run a 38c tyre, that I expect will mean I want to shift to something with a bit more space in the future. The build is a simple XT group set and cheap Magura MT4 brakes (one day these will be swapped out to some Pauls Klamper, if I really take to this bike)
Finishing kit is a ratty collection of a Charge saddle, Thompson seat post, Hope headset, a little 90mm Cinelli stem and some slightly absurd MKS GR9s that are going to shred my legs. I was directly inspired by Marcus at probably riding who always seems to make them look super cool.
The ride is lively. I was thinking that that era of IF would be super plush, but whilst it has some spring to it you do have to battle a bit to keep everything under control. It immediately made me think of my happiest days mountain biking in the 1990’s and this continues to be my absolute favourite era of and feel for a ride. The bars are, as expected, absolutely ridiculous but give me a smile as wide as them.
My plan is to keep it as a fun clunker, for a bit. After that it might get switched up to something like a mountain bike tourer to attempt Traws Eryri on. As always. All bikes, are good bikes.
