Simplicity.....2 wheels 1 gearing ratio

Sure enough, just when I was back with the mentality of a 1-bike-do-it-all
or do-most-of-it-all, the lure of building up another will start to rear its evil head in my mind.........

The El Guapo is pretty much done up with only a new coil left to test out and a new Ragley Blue Pig frame is sitting out in the cold of Heathrow Airport making its way to me.

But even in between these two, I just had to whip out something else. The good old days as a schoolkid riding on whatever hand me down are always a fond part of my memories. The bikes are never in tip top condition and mostly too big for me. The joys they brought, however were of a totally different kind from any bikes I have now.

Having recently been riding on a couple of old school steel frame built up as light touring bikes in Malaysia brought back a whole side of what it means to ride a bike at a personal level. Its not the usual weekend fiery runs with the  EG nor the "must keep pushing above 40km an hour" roadie rides. Its the kind of simple no ego involve ride, cruising and watching the world go by.

Whipping out the hand-me-down Trek 800 that was destined to be the kiddo's commuter (that never got built for that purpose) I decided on a slightly different approach. Since its all mostly flat around here, I decided a single speed daily commuter at least for now. Simple!

Slapping up with whatever there is in the bike bin this is the result....

Not too shabby. It has even went on a night offroad ride. A little help with large modern tires to give small bump compliance.

Updated (23 Jan 2010)

Final build. The "Kopi/Errand Tourer"

Just have to find excuse to use up the ever piling mass of bike and bike related stuff around the house.

The 2 x 200L Dinotte are just too "outdated" for my nite offroad rides, so its being "dedicated" here....

A nice 44t Blackspire DH ring, so no more monkey pedalling. After a round island trip of 104km, looks like a 16t cog will go back on the rear instead of the current 18t

Final piece of change before this pic-- H-bar for the better comfort on longr rides.

Oh... and the 2GB Otomo MP3 player mounted on the left of the bar is probably gonna be a "permanent" feature too.