Broke No More

Eric — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:35:23 +0000

After all the trouble I went through to get the Pipebomb set up, I ended up deciding to sell it only about a week or 2 after it was finally done. Even from my point of view, that is incredibly fastidious; however, I have my reasons. I was never completely happy in my mind with the paintjob, even though it was done twice. I also found 3 mysterious dings that appeared after the first horrific attempt at paint… starting off on such a wrong foot really set the tone for me with the Broakland. Secondly, I’ve come to the point where I didn’t see the need in investing so much money on just a bicycle. It definitely became a status symbol type thing more than anything, and that’s not something I’m down with. With that, I was motivated to just cut my losses and get sell it, then get a cheaper bike that will work the same/as nicely in the future.

I first tried to sell the bike entirely, but it was obvious no one wanted to drop that much coin on a bicycle in one go. So I slowly parted everything out. I ended up selling all of the smaller components first, and the wheels + frameset last.

Now, the sale of the Broakland concludes the last chapter in my “other” projects.

Nice to Meet You, Pista Concept

Eric — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:52:07 +0000

The reason I put my Iro for sale was to fund a new bike build. I felt the urge to upgrade so I decided to start from the ground up. The Iro was a nice bike, especially for a first fixed gear, but I needed something with more refinement. I’ve always been eying the Bianchi Pista Concept so I started the process and started gathering the new parts. I wanted to do it right this time so I did a lot of careful picking on the components…

To start off, I grabbed an Answer ProTaper XC handlebar:

Then some Sugino 75 crank arms in Black:

White Selle San Marco Rolls Saddle with Titanium Rails, I ended up selling this one and getting a Black one…

Oury Grips:

Euro Asia Imports Superstar 17T Cog:

Vittoria Randonneurs for the back, and Zaffiros for the front:

MKS Sylvan Pedals in Black:

Some random plastic Toe Clips at the local bike shop… I was tired of metal ones since they kept cutting up my shoes:

Sugino Zen Racing Chainring 46T

Izumi ESH 1/8″ Track Chain:

Phil Wood Lockring:

Sugino 75 Bottom Bracket:

Phil Wood High Flange SLR Fixed Rear Hub:

The Back wheel with the Cog mounted… Velocity Deep V rims laced Half Radial 3-Cross with Sapim CX-Rays and Sapim brass nipples:

The front wheel, 700C Aerospoke Raw Finish. It came with a machined lip which I didn’t like, so I ended up masking it off and painting it.

After the lip painting was done:

Miche Supertype 27.2 Seatpost, I kept this off my old bike:

Thomson Elite 90mm Stem, I also kept this off my old bike:

I had all the components gathered up and ready to go, the only missing ingredient was the actual frame. I was set on obtaining a Bianchi Pista Concept and I searched hectictly everywhere… A couple weeks passed and I still could not locate one, these were extremely hard to come by and no dealers had any inventory. I was giving up so I posted a Wanted ad on craigslist, and somehow that actually worked. A guy contacted me saying he had a 2008 55CM Pista Concept so I met up with him and bought it.

The bike was originally white but it had a few chips and some of the stickers that were on it had ink that leaked through… so I decided to just repaint it. I always liked the low gloss black of the trendsetting 2003-2004 Pista Concepts so I followed that scheme.

After everything was all said and done, the bike was assembled and here’s the finished product:

The seat was eventually changed out for a Black San Marco Rolls. Even now I’m still waiting on some Bianchi decals to finish off the bike, hopefully once I get those I can retake some photos and show the bike at full completion.

I love the way it rides though, very smooth drivetrain and once you start pedalling, it carries so much momentum.

ProjectFD.com » Fixed Gear

Broke No More

Nice to Meet You, Pista Concept