This one might offend, context first, I use this bike for daily commutes to work, about 6 miles each way, nothing crazy. But about 4 miles of that is railroad gravel and dirt. If there’s construction on the tracks, part of it isn’t even railroad gravel, it’s mild singletrack on dirt. It is built to be practical, not really era appropriate, or showcase style. It’s a mixture of stuff I like, and cheap parts that fit the bill.
That being said, 2003 castellano fango, ie a 2001 Ibis Ripley but with the designer John castellanos name on it. It’s an aluminum softtail with flexstays:
View attachment 837439
View attachment 837440
View attachment 837441
Pardon as it is dirty.
So the drivetrain is Microshift AdventX with the steel 11-48 cassette but the pro shifter, I wasn’t too concerned with weight despite buying a 4lb aluminum frame, it runs a kmc x10 chain, and it’s on a hope evo 175mm crankset with a 34t ring in the front, bottom bracket is a matching hope threaded one for their 30mm axel. Pedals are crankbrothers stamp 1’s.
That’s all been doing me well, got the right kind of range for what I’m doing, I’ve only had to go super low a few times so I could probably do with a larger front chainring like a 36 or something.
The fork is amusing, I needed an uncut fork for this, so I just got one of those cheap Bolany air forks and put fox stickers on it. It’s actually held up really well, because outside of the work commute this is still bombed through the woods sometimes and I’ve yet to really have any issues with it.
Brakes are a premade kit, Shimano mt200’s, though with miles semi metallic pads. The rotors are 160 in the rear and 180 in the front, just cheap no name floating rotors, because they’re blue.
Wheelset is a koozer xf2046 pair, In purple, because they were cheap. I wasn’t originally going to use them for this build, I had them for an entirely different thing, but I couldn’t find the other wheels I was looking for in time and just put them on there, and honestly I think the little bit of purple looks nice. They’re cheap wheels, I don’t expect much, but they haven’t caused me any problems.
Runs panaracer fire xc pro wire tires in blue, though with presta tubes, I’m not a fan of tubeless. I keep a little strap with a spare tube and stuff on the bike.
Seatpost, stem and grips are all Funn, because they’re orange.
Saddle is a Selle italia flite 1990, one of the rerelease ones. Headset is a cane creek 40.
Bars are no name carbon bars, 780mm, they’re fine, I got them mostly because they’re the exact kind of width, rise and sweep I like.
View attachment 837472
The pictured entrance to a bit of trail in the woods, when the tracks are being worked on. Otherwise it’s on railroad gravel, anyone who knows railroad gravel knows why something like a conventional gravel bike wouldn’t be suitable.
When I eventually retire this bike for this purpose, as I’ll probably find something else I like for the commute at some point, I’ll try and make this either a bit more era, or go the other way and kit it out with generally nicer parts. It’s a little bit odd having a frame like this for what’s effectively just a really rough rocky commute, lights and all.
