Just built up my Seven Mudhoney SL for this season with Campagnolo, Thomson, Pauls, Ambrosio Nemesis and FMB tubulars.
Matches my other one which now lives overseas so only gets ridden on holidays (more’s the pity).
She’ll do me nicely until my Speedvagen turns up. Just placed my deposit for one of the 2012 batch with the upgraded ENVE seat top and integrated stem. I won’t be using disc brakes for cross. Something quite pure about cantis and they stop me fine. Now starts the long wait until September 2012 when Sascha builds them. Grrr.
Just bought this from the Tesco of bike makers, I rode it 38 miles on an almost flat road last weekend to see how my back felt and can report no stiffness or pain at all, it would make a great tourer and it has destroyed my prejudice against aluminium as a frame material. As a winter trainer (which is why I bought it) it is nice and nippy on forestry tracks though you wouldn’t want to take it into mountain bike territory for too long. A couple of hours of mixed riding leaves you feeling well exercised and happy.
Vanilla bikes are the people behing Speedvagen I believe! I may be wrong tho. The wait on a Vanilla is somthing nuts like a year or so!
Sasha helped design them but they are built by another framebuilder/s, the wait for a Vanilla though was up 5 years but the order book is now closed until further notice.