and open myself up to public ridicule

Nothing bling about the build but something a bit different.

Is it quick with aero bars?

A dwarf conifer??? Damn right, not many of them around these days. They were popular in the 70s and 80s but times have moved on. This is the 2010's – herbaceous perennials rule! (Bikes have moved on too, some even come with gears and suspension now 🙂 )

what a rareity a well tended garden on stw kinda of ruined by that thing in front of the bushes though
Is it a singlespeed 29 /69er with drop bars?

Looks good.

More of them around than you think though. 😉

The risers on my bikes are lower than your drops 🙂
Nice daisys though, I'm mostly cultivating dock in my lawn.

This is the one with both wheels the same (admittedly excessive) size, no ability to fit a suspension fork and purpose-designed for late 19th Century grass-track racing handlebars? I forget what it's called… 🙂

Looks good and looks like its made to be used off road as opposed the blue singular that was posted earlier.

LOL at thepurist. Good job on keeping up the STW garden comment tradition 🙂 I tried hard to avoid weedy borders, wonky fences and walls with poor rendering!

Junkyard – drop-barred 29er – Singular Gryphon. Clearly it won't be everyone's cup of tea but I like it.

singlespeedstu – Have you got one?

I really, really want a Gryphon…

The only reason I want to get C2W at work…

Me likey. I rode a Salsa Fargo recently & thought it was ace fun. Looks very similar.

nice. i really really want one.

I'd just got the idea out of my head and someone gave me a mechanical disc brake….. 😉

There's a few of us got prototype Gryphons that Sam had done to try out the geometry.

standing still.

local trail.

It's now got a Salsa Woodchipper Bar fitted. Much nicer than the Midge.

onboard fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahtat9Fx7uM

Very nice, welcome to the singular club, we really must have a meet

The Woodchipper bar has longer drops than the Midge but is narrower, right? I'd like a combination of both I think!

The woodchipper's much wider than the midge.

The woodchipper's much wider than the midge.

Ah. I need to have a look at these then.

Here you go.

Just snapped a quick picture to give you an idea of the difference in width.

TBH I think i'll end up trimming the rear section down a bit as they're very long and i've caught then on posts/trees a few times. 🙄

Love it, and love the drops. Toying with the idea of something drop barred for my next 29er build. Only thing holding me back is an irrational fear of leaving hydraulics behind in favour of cable actuated discs

Another question on the bars, if I may. Have you doubled up your bar tape? I have some pretty thin bar tape on at the moment and could definitely do with something a bit thicker.

No. It's just one layer of salsa gel cork tape. Wrapped with plenty of overlap though.

Every morning as I ride to work, I pass a woman with bars so high her wrists appear to be above her shoulders.

Now I know what bike she rides.

Every morning as I ride to work, I pass a woman with bars so high her wrists appear to be above her shoulders.

Now I know what bike she rides.

🙂

The drops are actually a couple of inches below the saddle but the tops are around level. The bike is on a slight slope in the photo. I think the set up is about right for a drop-barred bike but I admit it does look….unorthodox.

singlespeedstu, how do you manage to avoid wind noise in your video? I'm hoping for a low tech answer like "put some take over the microphone" 🙂

how do you manage to avoid wind noise in your video?

The waterproof case that comes with the GoPro doesn't let much of any kind of sound through.

You could try the tape trick though. 😆

Looks good, makes my collection of bikes look very normal indeed!

Liking the chest mounted gopro vid too, I've got mine post mounted at the moment, but the chest gives a better riders eye view without as much of the bike obscuring the shot, but at the expense of a bit more shake I suppose.

Does the chest strap impede on your movement at all?

Oh, on the subject of brakes, obviously hydraulics wouldn't have the nice rubber hood, but surely some of them would work at the right angles to function on a midgealike bar?

Cheers, Rich

Oh, on the subject of brakes, obviously hydraulics wouldn't have the nice rubber hood, but surely some of them would work at the right angles to function on a midgealike bar?

Waits for The KoS to come along with his hydrodropbarbrakes.

Chestmount's fine and doesn't get in the way at all.

tails -Looks good and looks like its made to be used off road as opposed the blue singular that was posted earlier.

which one 🙄

Meh, drops are for wusses.
Risers all the way – probably needs some bar ends too…

chopper tastic!