New Bike Day!
Kid-trailer hauler and city bike, that I can tear down and rebuild as a cx race bike in a pinch:
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Well it’s been a few years and the bikes have been updated!
Road: Norco Section A1 (replaced the Allez Sprint - 99.8% as fast, way more versatile)
Gravel: Specialized Diverge E5 (replaced the Felt Breed - had to try the “most advanced gravel geo” and it really rides great over the rough stuff)
MTB: Kona Kahuna DDL (replaced the Kona Honzo - Honzo was TOO “progressive”, needed better pedaling and XC performance)
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Picked up some tan side-wall tires to round out that pro look finally. Small change, but I love the look so much. Other than upgrading the bar and stem, the only upgrade I could get now would be a groupset.
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The gravel bike that started it all… if you ignore every bike before it, including mountain bikes from the 90’s 
Suspension on gravel is so cool right now
Cannondale Slate
GRX hoods - fantastic ergonomics
GRX 600 rear mech - with the clutch spring tightened a little to eliminate chain slap
11-42 in the rear
SISL2 2x Quarq crankset for all of the gearsPreformatted text
MT-520 4-piston calipers and ice-tec rotors, for all of the stopping power
Mavic wheelset
PNW Coast handlebars (short reach, shallow drop)
PNW Rainier CX Dropper Lever
KS Lev dropper post
Thompson stem in 75mm
Donnelly Strada USH tyres in 40mm and 50mmx
Specialized Phenom saddle with extra patina
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I can now join the club after selling my carbon road bike that was completely inappropriate for many of the roads I enjoy riding here in southwestern Japan, and building up an aluminium all-road / light gravel bike.
It’s a Merlin Malt G2X frame, and the components are a mix of things scavenged from another bike or bought lightly used.
It rides very nicely on smooth roads, and handles the bumpy stuff well, although I nearly came off yesterday on a track that would’ve been much better suited to a MTB. It’s really opened up new routes to me, and I’m much more comfortable being out of the way of the geriatric drivers around here!
I do need to get better wheels though. These Bontis are ones that I got just to prove I’d like the concept of the bike without needing a big outlay, but they weigh a ton - something like 2.2kg just the wheels alone I believe. I’m looking at the DT Swiss G1800 or GR1600 or something from Light Bicycle or similar.
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After a long delay while rebuilding my basement, I finally have my Trek Domane ALR frameset all together.
I pulled together some random parts along with an R6000 105 group (Ultegra 4iiii crank PM hiding on the back side) and my shallow carbon wheelset.
This will be my daily driver and I’ll save the nicer Emonda SLR for the big days on the bike. I have just done a short spin around the neighborhood, but it feels nice for what it is. Just on the heavy side with the frameset and group (despite the nicer wheels).
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Nice build. Silver parts work on that frame :).
Does that one have rear isospeed? Whats it like on an alu frame?
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Thanks! I was pretty pleased with the silver crank and derailleurs. I couldn’t get the black anyway from limited stock, so it was great to see it all mesh well. I chose the silver cages to help push the motif too
Yes, this has the rear Isospeed. It will be interesting to see how it rides compared to my other carbon bikes for longer days. I love the Isospeed on my Boone for gravel use. No idea if the aluminum version will be as good, but it’s a nice bonus.
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Silver stem and seatpost down the line would really set it off imo 
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You know what… that’s a great idea. I should see what I can find for those. That would tie in the top end nicely. Thanks for that!!!
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Bought this bike as an entry-level hardtail with a 3x9 drivetrain as my first non-commuter bike in 2014. Made incremental upgrades over the years as it served me well as my only mountain bike. In March I got an Epic Evo, so I turned this one into a flat bar gravel/mixed terrain bike. Working out just how I’d hoped! It has shimano SLX, a carbon fork, a kinda janky but functional external dropper, and I’m having fun on it.
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Just a follow up to my post from last year, as I never posted a picture of the final build.
I love this bike.
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Meet my new love! Just finished my new commuter bike.
She’s from early 2000 and has had some rough times during her life. She was kept in a barn on her side and had quite bad scratches on the left side. But we had a blast removing her old make up that she didn’t need anyway.
Polished the frame, changed some bearings and got rid of the drops with bar from a tt-bike. Controlling the 1x9 gears is a bar end shifter and probably gonna make a nicer fitting for that during next winter. Already had our first pub crawl together and nothing bad to say on her.
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What dropper are you using? 
I’ll have to check the brand. It’s a very cheap, very janky externally-routes abomination. I don’t touch it on 90% of rides in that bike (on my real mtb I use it constantly), so I went the econo route. It gets the seat out of the way, and it comes back up!
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Well, tennis elbow has had me sidelined from trying cyclocross for 2 years. The elbow is healed up and I’m dusting off ye’ olde Redline to try CX this fall. I’ve signed up for a 2 day clinic in September. Should be hilarious, given my low w/kg and lack of CX skills. But you only live once, right?
Sorry for the potato pic.
PS adjusting mini-v’s really sucks.
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Have been keeping it SS with slicks on since last summers coast to coast in MI destroyed the drive train. Plus, usually race SS CX. Not gonna do SS this year, just one race per day… So back to gravel grinding/commuter mode for next spring and any NON CX rides till dec…
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