After many years of cycling daily in London I had decided it is time to build my perfect ride. I emphasise "my" because these things are always subjective, and I had a very clear budget and criteria in mind of exactly what I wanted to achieve, so I am not expecting it to be everybody’s idea of perfect by any means.
I have ridden all kinds of bikes around town over the last decade, and have always preferred the road bike, so that is what I decided to build. No, I wasn’t going to go fixed/single speed, for many reasons which I am not going to go into because the idea of this blog is to respect individual preference, suffice to say that they don’t appeal to me personally, so will be going for a setup with gears. One of the positive aspects however, of the fixie culture is that it has highlighted how good a lot of the older components were, and still are. Also style-wise they can be more understated than today’s modern carbon counterparts. Remember this is a town bike for everyday use rather than a dedicated racing bike, so it doesn’t need to be as light as the latest material technology allows.
Redux:Rides is based on a bike renovation I have just completed, which might prove helpful/inspirational for anybody else contemplating doing the same. It isn't about creating a museum piece which is faithful to the original in every way, but more about bringing up to date something that is otherwise on its last legs.
