Whilst waiting for my Rourke frame, and seeing @13thfloormonk thread reminded me, I took a mate up on offer of a custom Frameset build. He’s doing singlespeed Frameset with 50mm clearances and that sounded appealing to me. After some back and forth discussing sizes and the like he set to and once arrived it was over to me to build up.

Loose spec- Columbus zona/Reynolds 725 tubing for frame. Reynolds 631 fork blades.
Ultegra 6600 130bcd crank
Hope gunmetal bb, headset and seat clamp.
Easton ec90 post
Trek isocore bars
Trp hylex brakes
SRAM 971 chain
Wheels by Joey at RyanBuildsWheels with bitex bx106 front laced 28 to kinlin xr22t and hope pro2 evo rear laced 32 spoke to kinlin xr26t. 10mm bolt in axle. Rainbow nips.
Rene Herse 48c oracle pass extralights

Thunderstealer! 😉

That’s nice though, I’ve always been tempted to gravelise my Charge Plug singlespeed, similar tyre clearance etc.

I need friends who offer me custom frames. Nice bike.

Everything looks right with that. Everything

@honourablegeorge I did pay for it, so don’t be too envious 😄
Cheers all. It’s pleasant to ride. Currently on 69” gearing and possibly changing to 63-65” for some of the rougher bits.

Brown bar tape and saddle would be an improvement. But I guess they’ll be brown soon enough if you use it for rough stuff.

Well yes that’s a great colour.

What’s the big old bar bag?

That is so nice.

Can I be framebuild geek and ask for a photo of how he has done the fork disc mount? I’ve always chickened out of making a fork – my latest commuter wanted one very similar to that and I almost made it but found a Soma Wolverine fork was near enough so bottled it again (and the Soma curved blade disc mount is a bit brutalist)

@matt_outandabout the bar bag was a custom one from Tim Tas+Rek about 3 years ago. I had it made for my Boone for touring.

It’s also been used on the Tern for camping trips with v2.0

@mick_r from memory they are Bear 12mm thru axle dropouts and post mount for the callipers. Don’t think I’ve got a pic for f the calliper but I’ll get one.

OP, tres chic, but it deserves some better photos (I think – I can’t quite be sure 😉 ).

Thanks. I remember once hearing about the Bear stuff – will go have a Google.

But yes we definitely need more pictures of that bike 🙂

Brown bar tape and saddle would be an improvement. But I guess they’ll be brown soon enough if you use it for rough stuff.

nothing is cooler than dirty white bar tape

10/10 OP. Love the paint too. Anything 88-91 inspired including pink is a winner, it’s a rule.

I saw the builder posted up some frame availability not long ago. Luckily I’m past my SSCX stage but seeing these I was tempted to plunge back in. Really nice frames.

Intrigued by the stem with built-in “spacers” (sort of) – any reason for doing that? Or just because you can?

@voodoo-rich it’s a Velo Orange tall stack stem. Had it lying around and it was the right size. Just asked for it to be painted to match.

@mick_r here’s two more fork pics.

Oof! Loving the close up splatter detail

Nice fork and nice paint. That is way tidier than my Soma fork. Wishing I’d made one now…

Is the splatter flatted and under a clear coat (so it feels smooth)? Reminds me of first teenage away from home mtb adventure in 1990 – looking at a Kona in a Kendal bike shop window where they’d done a matching splatter on a seat tube mounted Zefal pump 🙂

The fork is probably my favourite part There’s a clear coat but if I’m being honest the paint needs more work. Richard is aware of it.

@voodoo-rich, incidentally, I have the same Velo Orange stem, AND also painted to match the frame (no splatter, just plain metallic blue), but it’s not the tall stack height I like (my back likes it more and more, though), but the fact that it looks neater with the single clamp bolt facing forwards, so it resembles an old quill stem rather than an ahead-set stem.

@finbar have one on the house as it were

I changed the bars to a pair of Midge to see how they worked. Much happier off road. It’s very lively through bridleways and woods. Enjoyable.

Dreamy 🙂 .

I’m halfway through building a Pompino with a similar albeit cheaper vibe.

I like that a lot, I bought a 13 year old Singular Peregrine frameset to be a “cheap” Singlespeed pub bike, it is now my favourite bike and loads of posh parts like Chris King hubs and run as a SS gravel bike!

I found midge bars best after trying a few also.

Who is the framebuilder?

@scud R G Evans from Colchester. You’ll likely find him under Pen, Paper, Steel online.