SBC 4130 — Dynamo, Alt Bars, Full Fenders, Tons of Fun

The story behind this bike is that I needed a bombproof, inexpensive bike when my daughter was born back in 2022 — I was just starting to work for a nonprofit and my old mountain bike was having more and more issues along with just not fitting me that well.

I bought the Allouette color scheme and put on roughly 4,000 miles before I had destroyed the drop-outs by running a chain that was way too loose coupled with a freak accident involving a massive downhill and a huge rock that got lodged between the fender and rear wheel. I bought this frame as a replacement and have since put down another 2,500 miles.

I guess the whole idea behind this bike is to keep the frame and just keep upgrading parts as I need to. Not being frivolous, being thoughtful about any upgrades/changes, and taking care of the bike on my own as much as possible. I learned how to do so many maintenance tasks on those two frames, with this olive drab one having seen my first bottom bracket and crankset install, checking of chainlines, installing headsets, etc.

The bike has a dynamo set-up, a solid Shimano dynamo hub that is wired to a B&M IQ-X light — I have a rear light that I'm going to fix to one of the seat stays and have wired up soon. The handlebars are also Velo Orange Utility Flat Bars, chopped down to size for me. The fenders are the Planet Bike ALX Deluxe (700×43) which state they can only take 700×32 tires but can actually run 700×35. The tires are 700×32 Gatorskins as they were the only flat-resistant slick tire I could find in that size (if you know of one that is 700×35, lmk!). The gear ratio is 46/17, which is okay, but I'm looking to change it up to 46/19 or 42/17 since we have so many hills here.