Update: I’ll try to post some better pictures of the bike frame this week. C.
Tuesday evening I drove out Murfreesboro to buy a Modikoso bike frame for my son. Goal is to build up a versatile cyclocross-ish bike for the boy to ride on and offroad. I happened upon this amazing deal using SearchTempest to search multiple area Craigslist pages within however many miles of home I was willing to drive to make a purchase. A couple of things sold me on this frame – it came with a Chris King headset that, itself, was probably worth close to what the seller was asking, and it was designed for use with 650b wheels. A few years back, I picked up a 650b wheelset for $50 from Mike at Elon Bike Shop when I was visiting my best friend, Eric. (See my Troi Villes Tour d’Alamance blog posts for reference as well as this post about Elon Bike Shop.)
The wheels I thought were Shimano 105s, but turns out they were Mavic Experts Mavic CXP 21s (from a distance the sticker looked like it said Expert) with a 105 9 speed cassette. I’ve got good condition Dura Ace front and rear derailleurs I got around the same time at a local sale for a few dollars. Now, the big things I need are fork, seatpost, appropriately sized stem, handlebars, crankset and shift/brake levers. And chain. And cables. And pedals. Tires and tubes should be no problem. Those that came with the tires are old and unsuitable for the use I think this bike will get.
The frame’s seller told me she’d set it up for time-trials. While I have only the vaguest idea what that is, that Kinesis Air Foil front fork looks like it was designed for riding fast in a straight line on intact, smooth pavement. Thing I’m trying to figure out is whether the Kinesis fork has to be replaced with a 650b-specific fork or whether a more standard and more easily obtainable 700c fork will work.
Here are a few more photos of the Modikoso:
On another note, here’s something I drew goofing around with Sketchbook, I think it’s called, on an Ipad:
Christov_Tenn 