This is the second bike that I’ve built for Jon. The previous bike was more of a 700c randonneur but this one was to be a straight up road bike. I conveniently came across two sets of Reynolds 753 and offered to build his bike from one of those sets. It was my first time building with a full set of 753 and after having worked with it, I can now say that it is no more difficult to work with than any other set of high quality heat treated tubing available today. The fork blades come pre-raked which is inconvenient but understandable (can’t really bend heat treated tubing without annealing it).
It has been quite some time since I had built a road bike and I was excited to get into that style again. It’s a simple, light, and purpose built bike that is the essence of speed on a bicycle. I realize that carbon fiber is now the standard material for modern road frames but there’s no reason not to build with steel and use modern components. That’s what Jon did as he went with Campagnolo’s new 12-speed Record gruppo when building this bike.
Jon provided the wheelset which is a set of HED Belgium Plus rims laced with Sapim CX-Ray spokes to a set of White Industries T11 hubs. The 28mm Continental GP4000s tires measure 30mm and challenge the clearances allowed by the Campagnolo brakes. Everything fits fine though.
Campagnolo no longer offers a carbon Record seat post but Jon was able to procure a new vintage one for this bike. The black anodized Compass bar and black Nitto Pearl quill stem are right at home on his build.
The lugs are a vintage set of Bocama that were super light and cleaned up nicely. The Suntour front and rear dropouts were trimmed down to just the bare essentials. The fine silver paint reveals EVERY detail. There is no hiding anything under this. The evidence of process can be seen in areas around the lugs and dropouts but I find that it lends to the character of the bike.
Jon’s Reynolds 753 road bike
January 25, 2019
This is the second bike that I’ve built for Jon. The previous bike was more of a 700c randonneur but this one was to be a straight up road bike. I conveniently came across two sets of Reynolds 753 and offered to build his bike from one of those sets. It was my first time building with a full set of 753 and after having worked with it, I can now say that it is no more difficult to work with than any other set of high quality heat treated tubing available today. The fork blades come pre-raked which is inconvenient but understandable (can’t really bend heat treated tubing without annealing it).
It has been quite some time since I had built a road bike and I was excited to get into that style again. It’s a simple, light, and purpose built bike that is the essence of speed on a bicycle. I realize that carbon fiber is now the standard material for modern road frames but there’s no reason not to build with steel and use modern components. That’s what Jon did as he went with Campagnolo’s new 12-speed Record gruppo when building this bike.
Jon provided the wheelset which is a set of HED Belgium Plus rims laced with Sapim CX-Ray spokes to a set of White Industries T11 hubs. The 28mm Continental GP4000s tires measure 30mm and challenge the clearances allowed by the Campagnolo brakes. Everything fits fine though.
Campagnolo no longer offers a carbon Record seat post but Jon was able to procure a new vintage one for this bike. The black anodized Compass bar and black Nitto Pearl quill stem are right at home on his build.
The lugs are a vintage set of Bocama that were super light and cleaned up nicely. The Suntour front and rear dropouts were trimmed down to just the bare essentials. The fine silver paint reveals EVERY detail. There is no hiding anything under this. The evidence of process can be seen in areas around the lugs and dropouts but I find that it lends to the character of the bike.