I put on my new Nitto Technomic stem and Albatross bars and rode over to Bikes Not Bombs this weekend (before the massive snowstorm) to ask some questions. This was really the first time I had ridden the bike at all. The first time I discovered the cassette needed to be replaced. The second time hardly counted, and this time i discovered that the toe-overlap is really tight. As in, I will not be able to put fenders on the front wheel, and I’m not at all happy about that. If I were to take a tight turn, my toe would most definitely hit the wheel. I also noticed that I can’t get the seat back far enough to get comfortable and seeing as it’s an older bike, it has a 26.0 seatpost with minimal offset.
At BnB, they noticed the fork has issues, which would explain the toe-overlap, as well as the squirrely way it rode. Check it out:
the red line is the head-tube angle. the yellow-line is the fork angle.
So, these two problems lead me to believe that this frame might not work out, which is disappointing, as I really don’t want to be spending any more money. That said, I’m already brainstorming on a potential frameset replacement: Soma Double Cross or the Surly LHT or Cross-Check or even the Kogswell P/R.