Mat’s Steel All-Rounder

Classic steel frames are a thing of beauty - except when they don’t fit you. Mat had a lovely imported cyclocross frame he was commuting on but sadly it was too long and too aggressive for him. For a replacement frame we kept the classical styling with the level top tube and straight stays, but shortened the reach, slackened the angles a bit, and added creature comforts like bottle bosses and fender mounts.

Mat already had a set of the best rim brakes in the biz on the bike, and didn’t foresee using anything else in the future, so I machined some custom stainless steel cantilever bosses for the Paul Components cantis. These allow for fewer parts to be used in the assembly to reduce tolerance stack and get the arms really close to the seat stays and fork blades for increased braking power and modulation.

Like the brakes, most of the build parts came from the old steed, including a titanium stem that was made as a prototype for Seven Cycles back in the day. I kept the titanium theme going with one of my own titanium seat posts with a 25mm setback.

There are plenty of other fun machined bits hiding in plain sight here. The stainless dropouts have an integrated hanger like in the good old days, and the matching fork tips mate to a performance-tuned segmented fork. Three Paul Baby Groovy barrel adjusters handle the shifting and rear brake cables, turning in custom hard points on the downtube and upper seat stays.

With clearance for a triple crankset, 35mm tires, and fenders this one has everything you need to get around town in style and nothing you don’t.