ok it´s time to lay it on the line. we never posted about our own bikes since we were writing this blog. we always thought it could easily turn this blog into a mere presentation room for our own bikes and that was never the intention of it. today i (fabian) decided to break these rule cause i am just too excited about my new bike haha. we (martin & me) both have and had several fixed gear bicycles since we started riding fixed in summer 09. we had to pay hard for some frame and parts decision but in the meantime we understood more and more what is worth buying it and what is just a waste of money. and in review my decision to buy a charge plug was on of the things i didnt knew better. i bought it at a time where frame geometry and aesthetics were just a mystery to me. i bought what i thought looked nice and realized later that this isn´t the right frame for me. don´t get me wrong the plug is a perfect beginner-frame but it´s relaxed geo bugged me more and more. for example the bb was way too low - i think i´ll never forget the sound of my toe clips scratching along the pavement while wheeling my bike - made me go crazy^^
so this christmas i decided to buy a new frame and finally get a more tracky geo under my ass. i had some requirements : as i constantly upgraded my charge plug i don´t wanted to buy too much new parts for the new frame and wanted to reuse as much as possible and i wanted a steel tubeset. that meant a threadless headset, british bb a 27,2mm seatpost size. my total budget was about 450 euros. after surfing two days and nights there were only few frames that got my attention and the cinelli gazzetta was the one i liked the most. cinelli - i always admired these frames and envied people that got one. i found an offer for a cinelli gazzetta for 399 euros (+ shipping) at fixie factory and ordered prompt. they delivered very quick within 6 days from france so the frame arrived at 6th of january. i waited way longer for parts from german vendors so thumbs up for fixie factory! i disassembled my charge immediately and build the gazzetta up within about two hours - i just couldn´t wait :) so here it is. i am sure there are quite a lot changes to come, especially a proper wheelset but for the meantime the old parts should do it.
the differences between in geo and therefore handling my old plug and the new gazzetta are huge. here some data to see the differences:
comparison plug/gazzetta:
- seatpost length (center bb-top) 59cm/59cm
- headtube angle 71°/74,5°
- seattube angle 73°/74,5°
- chainstay length 40,5cm/38,5cm
- toptube length 54,5cm/55,5cm
- headtube length 15,4cm/16cm
so you see the cinelli is a lot tighter and more nimble than the plug resulting in a wheelbase of 95,5cm (compared to 97,5 with the plug). the greatest effort of the new frame in urban riding is the much higher bb, which i unfortunately missed to measure before but the times of scratching in corners are over - yes! :)
my old frame:
fresh out of box:
there are only a few things better than unpacking a brand new bicycle frame <3
and here finally the photos of the whole bike. as i mentioned build up with used parts from my last bike. more changes to come.
first day with flatbar:
with risers
if you want to know the exact details of the bike you can look at pedalroom here
i don´t know if that´s my last frame, to be honest - i highly doubt it :D but for now it´s the most beautiful bike in the world to me and surely the best bike i´ve ever had.
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to a combination of circumstances the other author if this blog martin bought the exact same frame a few days after me. so it seems this is the official nafgb-frame now :D so be excited for his new build!! and off course we´ll post some "twin" photos of our bikes in the future ;)
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