botty kayer

As I'm now in my 5th decade and my knees are starting to creak like a worn bottom bracket, I decided I need a bike with a triple. I've got a new fork and new wheels too so it turned out to be a near complete rebuild, the only parts I retained from the previous build was the gunmetal 3ttt bar and stem, Campag ti seatpost, headset, brake calipers and the Merckx bottle cages.

First up the new Max fork. Columbus recently made this tubing available again so I had these straight bladed forks made for this bike.

The shiny fork makes the bike look different to nearly every other ti bike ever with their carbon forks, so i decided to lean into being old and grey with shiny silver parts where i could.

I'd been stocckpiling parts for months and so had everything and was just waiting for the fork to be finished, which it was this week, so this weekend was build date.

I got some new wheels made too, some silver Campag Chorus hubs, 28h front and 32h rear, Sapim spokes laced to H+Son Archetype rims with the hideous logos acetone'd off. Fitted with 30c Vittoria Corsa Control in 30c. I could.probably.fit 32c tyres if I wanted, quite a surprise for a road bike.from 1996.

I managed to find sone NOS 10 speed Campag Chorus shifters and had those shipped over from Belgium. I also managed to find a NOS Campag Chorus triple crankset NOS front derailleur. I got the hard to find Campag Record 10 speed long cage rear derailleur from Germany, and managed to source the rest of the parts from ebay in the UK, apart from the silver saddle, which was surprisingly hard to find so i ended up grtting thst shipped over from.tje USA.

Ive got some silver Campag pedals with Look Delta compatible cleats for interchangeability with my other bikes/shoes, Koolstop brake pads, some grey cable outers and some Supacaz Bling bartape.



Finished putting it all together and I'm delighted with how it rides and looks and this 28 year old frame has scrubbed up nicely. With 30 gears I'm confident i can take on any hill that rolls into view and with all day comfort I look forwqrd to putting many miles on this
bike.. its early February in the UK and the weather is as grey as this bike, so over the coming weeks I'll photograph possibly the greyest bike in the world in the greyest surroundings, for the full 50 shades of grey experience, the Classic and Vintage version, not the S&M one

mpetry912 

Nice looking bike, tasteful build. Fork is beautiful. What is the ride like ?

might be too harsh for me

/markp

botty kayer

Thanks, it rides great, not harsh at all and probably the most comfortable of all my steel or carbon bikes, tho the marginally fatter 30c tyres than.my usual 28s contribute.

mpetry912 

those Vittoria Corsa tires are great ! I have them on several bikes, fabulous ride and zero flats

/markp

masi61

botty kayer - beautiful build, including the fork. Can I inquire who built it and how much it cost?

Mackers

Close ups of the hubs please?
Never seen a 28 hole Chorus hub

And is that blood on the big ring?

mpetry912 

I think rear is a 32 front is a 28

nice to see a silver bike for a change instead of black

/markp

BMC_Kid 

Very nice build. I am building up a couple sets of wheels using the same H+Son Archetype rims. Thanks for the tip on removing the logos.

botty kayer

I got the fork built by a shop in north east London in the UK called Mamachari. Not cheap compared to a carbon one, but just what I wanted and should last a lifetime.

botty kayer

Its dark outside here now, so sorry for indoor pics. Rear is 32h and has Chorus marked on it, front is 28 but maybe isn't a Chorus then as it has no markings on it.

Both were part of a Harry Rowland built wheelset I had with these laced to some Mavic Open Pro's, which I wore thro, so replaced bearings and laced to these Atheseype's. Happy to be corrected as I"m no expert so which Campag variant do you think the front is?....if they are even Campag?



And as for the red/blood on the chainring, eww no idea, I didn't spill any claret, whatever it was washed off in the rain on the way home.

botty kayer

Nice. I've had a pair on my work bike.for the last 2 years and done big miles on them on crap road surfaces, and they've remained true and have plenty of life left in them, very impressed with them.

icemilkcoffee 

Very nice. Although if you really want to go all in on grey, you could have gone with a Campy Century Grey edition 10 speed groupset. The century grey is roughly the color tone as the 3TTT Prima bars, maybe a tinge darker.

79pmooney

Ti frame with steel fork is a sweet combo! My first ti ride, Gwendalf Jone's personal Merlin MTB. Steel fork. (Family reunion ~1990. He's a 2nd cousin.) I knew within a 1/4 mile, this was it! Just needed to be a road bike but everything else was there. 2007 I'd come into a job where now a custom ti bike was affordable and TiCycles had already built me some (steel) stems and I'd seen a few of their ti bikes. So I ordered that ti bike with a steel fork.

Spent the next few months second guessing myself on the fork choice. Got the bike. And that ride! All there! Fork is just perfect. Belongs. Feels so right I never think about it. 3 years later I ordered a second ti bike, steel fork again. And again, the ride!

Now, I've never owned a carbon fork and won't. As reliable as they are, they have a failure mode way too close to the fork that nearly killed me and cost me a lot. The "what if" would be front and center every fast descent. But after riding ti bikes with steel forks, it just not a big deal. That combo is just that good. And you get to paint them! (Yes, the old B&W photographer in me loves the subtle shades of black and grey but fire engine red and silver is much more fun.)

roadcrankr

Those huge Graphene 2.0's would smooth out the ride.
You could do better with tires using thinner sidewalls.
Vittoria advertises them as possessing a "supple" ride.
I judge them as one of the more harsher riding tires - up there with Conti Gatorskins.
Good traction, durability, and puncture-resistance, tho. YMMV

botty kayer

Yes you're right the graphite ones or whatever they called them are a bit darker than the 3ttt bar/stem.

I've got a double version....

....but I prefer the full shiny triple

Mackers

Yeah, front hub is a Novatec (also sold as Ambrosio.)

botty kayer

They're way nicer than Gatroskins imo, I actually prefer the Vittoria's grip in wet/damp conditions to the Conti gp5000s. And I live in the UK where wet and damp conditions are, erm, regular. And our road surfaces are pretty shocking so longevity trumps outright race/light weight/performance for me.

dddd

Very sharp-looking build, did you replace the decals?

My own Merckx EX has a carbon fork that I suspect is as stiff as a typical steel fork. The ride is forgiving though, as these EX models featured the MX Leader geometry having angles around only 73 degrees (versus perhaps 75 degrees for a Corsa or Super Corsa).
LiteSpeed built of course, but Italian in flavor.

I found my bike particularly hard to photograph, having to go around the house seeking good enough lighting to capture it.
Mine is a well-used bike, bought from an older Ironman Triathlete who previously raced for the BSA factory, riding flat track (some of those motorcycles having titanium frames if I recall, their builder later going on to produce the Speedwell road bikes)!

P!N20

Who did you get to make the fork? Looks like one of the fork blades came up short

dddd

I also find the Corsa 2.0 tires to be quite supple and grippy on rougher, steeper technical descents down into the American River Canyon.

Though these bikes hardly need softer tires, I am eager to try slightly wider tires on mine, Corsas it will be!

roadcrankr

You totally misunderstood me. I basically said both the Graphene 2.0 and Conti Gatorskins ride harshly.
The Vittoria's sidewalls are very thick. This will never contribute to a supple ride. My crotch does not lie!
So, bigger tires will help somewhat, but then again, you can find much nicer-riding tires out there.
Very tough tires, however. In a sense, that means more to us cyclists.

tkm

Yeah, I have a frame that's screaming for a new "vintage" fork like that. Do they have a website to look at what type of work they offer?

icemilkcoffee 

I guess the Chorus Century grey is really dark. The Centaur Century Grey is much lighter. Basically same shade as the 3TTT Prima bars:

GullyFoylesbike

But what about Ultradynamico Cavas? You could get even greyer

Chombi1 

Can't resist asking,..... but are you going to wear an all grey jersey and shorts euen you ride that "greyest bike in the world"??
You might actually disappear too much against the streetscape and not be seen by drivers....seriously....