Fantastic, Tim! A country bike is a stunning joy to ride! I've been amazed by how much I love to go fast and free on my Quickbeam over hill and dale on the dirty trail (well, mostly roads). Grin. Your King is a beautiful bike and looks ready for tremendous adventure. What tires are those?
A agree with your sizing approach -- bigger is better (within the range of the sizing "sweet spot"). My QB is 66 cm for my 6'-2", 90 cm PBH, 190 lb carcass and with the Albastache bars I melt into the bike and we flow with wild abandon. That is a wondrous experience! With abandon, Patrick On Thursday, May 29, 2014 5:24:45 PM UTC-6, Tim Gavin wrote: > > I recently changed my '88 Schwinn KOM > <http://mombat.org/MOMBAT/Bikes/1988_Schwinn_KOM.html>, a wonderful old > rigid MTB, from upright bars to drop bars. Now it's a gravel cruiser > extraordinaire, fast over rough surfaces. A true "country" bike. And you > can tell from the paint job, that "country" is the USA! > > > > Drop bars give this bike a much faster, sportier feel than when it had > upright bars. It's a tall (22"/56cm), and long (24"/61cm) frame with a > high BB (I have 89 pbh). So with upright bars, I felt like I was perched > on top of the bike. Now, I can get myself low and forward and really get > my weight to be one with the bike's. I can ride top gear (46 x 13) on the > flats now. > > My bike is named "the King", short for "the King of 'Merica" (like a King > of Mercia <http://www.merciancycles.co.uk/frames/22/king-of-mercia>, but > this bike is USA all the way). > > "The King" weighs 37 lbs as shown, but that weight and mine are now more > in sync, so we move pretty well together. For me, the KOM went from being > a good old bike to an excellent bike! > > Riv content: Tangential, besides inspiration. The bike was built in > Greenville, MS under Richard Schwinn. He is the proprietor of Waterford > bikes, builder of many fine Rivendells (including my Road Standard). > > Detailed build below the trip report. > > *Trip Report*: > Today I took the "The King" on a 50 mile trip along the Cedar River, about > 60% on gravel and a couple gnarly dirt "B" roads. I rode from Sykora > Bakery in the Czech village of Cedar Rapids (where I breakfasted on a > vanilla kolach) to historic Sutliff bridge, about 25 miles south along the > river. > > > > I rode the west side of the Cedar on the way out, and the east side on the > way back. > > > > I took secondary roads and even a couple dirt roads. I had to ride the > shoulder of the highway in a couple spots to connect the back roads, and > I'm glad this bike is so good on gravel. Thankfully, I encountered no farm > implements on the back roads. Iowa is finally in planting season after the > long winter; I was passed by this rig > <http://www.deere.com/common/media/images/product/planting_and_seeding/planters/db_planter_series/DB80_48R20/DB80_48R20_120388_642x462.png> > > over the weekend while biking on a narrow gravel road. > > I saw some picturesque Iowa scenery, and a farmer's declaration of state > pride. > > > > This Czech priest > <http://www.kcrg.com/subject/news/new-faces-adorn-czech-village-business-20140516> > > inspected "The King" and gave it his blessing. > > > > The fat micro-knobby tires floated over everything, with a pretty perfect > speed/cushion ratio. > > > > I'd like to do tours on it, but it's hard to load up. The frame has no > rack or fender mounts, because it was a race bike. The clamps already > wiggle too much with just the fenders. I'm going to see if my friend Andy > can braze some mounts on. He's done a couple jobs, including brazing > cantilever posts on an old Lotus frame in a J.P. Weigle style 650b > conversion (now a lovely country bike). > > > > *Build*: > Original: > Full Deore XT-M730 group, in great shape. (I kept all the original > take-offs: flat bars, stem, thumb shifters, brake levers, pedals, even the > tires) > > New to bike (mostly used parts): > Handlebars: Nitto B135 45cm "Grand Randonneur" > Shifters: Suntour Accushift bar-cons > Brake Levers: XLCheapo > Cross Brake Levers: Tektro RL720 > Stem: Kalloy dirt drop style, 10cm extension > Tape: blue foam/cork, twine finish > Brake Pads: Kool-Stop > Saddle: Brooks B17, black > Tires: ITS DJ MK2 "Micro-Knobby", 26 x 2.1". Really great 559 tires for > $18 apiece! > Fenders: SKS P65 > Pedals: Shimano M324 SPD/platform > Bag: Carradice SQR Tour > Chain: Sram PC-830 > Cables, housing: Jagwire > > My original build for this bike was as a townie/errand bike, since I > already have a nice MTB for off-road riding. I replaced the original flat > bars with Wald 872 sweep back "cruiser" bars, and put on a Wald 3133 QR > basket. Those are both nice (and cheap MUSA) products, but the KOM was > under-served as a town bike. I gave it wings, and now it can fly! > > The '88 Project KOM is almost the exact same frame as the '86-87 > Paramountain, also built at the Greenville plant. It was $1k in '88, the > same price as the anniversary gold fork Paramount frameset. I bought "The > King" for $70 from Craigslist! > > Original KOM Specs: > > > > > > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
