Today I revived My Summer Bike!
This one's a bit of a beast — a fixed gear touring gravel bike (?)
Cinelli Tutto frame, bought online in size M (I'm 5'8/172cm), and it needed a seat post with setback, a saddle with long rails scooted all the way back, and all the spacers to make it fit.
I guess I'm tall for Italian standards.
Mounted the widest tires it would take, the lightest rack I could find, and the bare minimum in accessories to make it kinda street legal.
It's the silliest bike I ever built, and it makes me smile every single time I ride it.
I did John O' Groats to Land's End on a steel frame bike! There's something reassuring about knowing you could plow into a wall at 20 miles an hour and the bike will not give a single shit. Here it is just before setting off:
That's very similar to my last touring bike.
I ran over a fist-sized, cube-shaped rock with it on a descent (on 23mm tires), and it did nothing.
But those old school brake hoods are NOT comfortable on long tours, and with those brakes, you better schedule descents for a day when it doesn't rain.
Aw man, totally. They were the sole reason I built a more modern bike: those brakes became the bane of my existence. The extremely hilly section at the end of the trip was arse-clenchingly terrifying. The noise they made was like a cat going down a waterslide.
Fun in an ordeal sort of way though!
I'm owned by 2 cats, and I can't stop giggling at this.