Field Cycles

Who are you (no off-topic talk please)

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leicaman
Posts: 129
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2014 3:55 pm

by leicaman

Hi all

I've been a member for a little while on here but not such a prolific poster. I thought I'd share with you my soon to be new build.

I've been road riding for a few years now, and before that I used to race downhill mountain bikes here in Japan. When I made the switch to road riding, I got myself a specialized Tarmac. A year or so later, I decided to upgrade and went with a Canyon CF SLX. Having ridden that for around 3 or 4 years, I decided it was time for a change. When looking around for a new bike, I stumbled upon a bike maker that immediately caught my eye. As I'm originally from Northern England, it seemed like fate that my next bike should be a Field Cycles. I contacted Harry at Field and put my name on the waiting list (which included paying a deposit). I then waited. I was given some good advice by someone who told me the best thing to do when you put your name on a waiting list for a custom build is to forget about it until they contact you.

With my name on the waiting list, I began to think about what bike I would like. One of the hardest things to decide was whether to go with disc brakes or rim brakes. Coming from the world of downhill MTBing, I would say I'm a reasonably confident descender and I'm very happy with the way rim brakes stop me on the downhills. With this in mind, I emailed Harry and told him to change my original choice from disc to rim brakes. If it ain't broke,don't fix it eh ;).

Going custom opens up the possibility to choose your steel tubes. Having no experience with steel (apart from my specialized Langster that I ride everyday) I told Harry what I was after in a bike and he made suggestions as to what tubing would work. I've gone with a mix of Columbus and Reynolds 853 Pro team (the pro team drops a little weigh from the regular 853 apparently which will help in the mountains where I love to ride).

Once the frame manufacturing details were sorted, I was contacted by Tom, the designer. I had a Skype call with Tom to tell him what I was after. I also emailed him some photos of the Japanese mountains that I had taken many years earlier. Tom came back to me with some ideas. I picked one idea and then we dissected it and changed bits here and there. Over a couple of months period, we narrowed in to the final design. Tom, just like Harry, is a real stickler for detail and it shows in their work. Despite being super busy , they always had time to answer my inane questions.

The months have crawled by and I am pleased to say that I am close to the end of the journey. The painting was scheduled to be finished last week and now I have to wait for the final coat to harden. Once it has hardened, it will be photographed then shipped off to me.

I've had plenty of time to think about the build and I've pretty much got everything ready to put on the bike once the frame arrives in Japan.

The build includes the following

SRAM Red etap
Red compact crank (will be swapped for the red quarq Dzero when it arrives)
Enve 400mm compact bars
Enve stem
Chris King headset
Enve carbon road fork (2.0)
Integrated seatpost
Brooks c13 cambium
Enve 2.2 SES tubs laced to CK hubs

I realise that the bike won't be anywhere near lightweight but I'm hoping that she will come in around the high seven kgs. (Although I wouldn't be surprised if it was over 8kg).

Image

This was from a couple of weeks ago

Image

Unfinished fork

Cheers
Last edited by leicaman on Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

by Weenie


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KCookie
Posts: 1963
Joined: Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:40 am
Location: Pom living in Australia

by KCookie

Tapatalk is the easiest way to down load some pics. Looking forward to seeing your build.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

leicaman
Posts: 129
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2014 3:55 pm

by leicaman

@Kcookie thanks for the tip. I used to have tapatalk on my phone but deleted it. Might have to reinstall it.

welchy
Posts: 458
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 4:04 pm

by welchy

Awesome - I've been keeping a look out for this on Instagram and even got in touch with Tom myself to have a look at costs, although he never got back to me with a final full frameset figure!

rajMAN
Posts: 211
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 4:20 pm
Location: UK

by rajMAN

Fantastic, you won't regret going steel and some nice equipment you have going on it. I went back to steel a couple of years ago after various alu and carbon builds and no regrets whatsoever. :D

leicaman
Posts: 129
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2014 3:55 pm

by leicaman

welchy wrote:Awesome - I've been keeping a look out for this on Instagram and even got in touch with Tom myself to have a look at costs, although he never got back to me with a final full frameset figure!


With me, they never gave me an exact price. More of a rough guide. With it being full custom, they probably won't know the exact pricing until the design is finalised as different levels of details can vastly increase the amount of time it takes John to bring the design from a 2D PDF to reality. Take mine for example, none of the lines are straight which is more difficult than straight lines apparently (for applying the masking). And the gold leaf detailing adds a lot of time onto the paint application too.
I really think it'll all be worth it in the end though.

Look565w
Posts: 225
Joined: Mon Dec 27, 2010 1:25 am
Location: West of Scotland

by Look565w

Hi Leicaman, going by your user name, I doubt time & money are your main concerns when choosing your pride & joy! :D

I like the colour so far & looking forward to seeing how this comes out, but I'm sure it'll be a winner indeed!

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers

riggsy
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2015 6:35 pm
Location: Cheshire - UK

by riggsy

can't wait to see this finished - really love Field Cycles work
Cannondale CAAD12 Disc
Cinelli Experience
Specialized Langster s/s hack

:popcorn:

timmbo
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:42 pm

by timmbo

I saw this pop up on the Field IG feed - can't wait to see the finished frameset.

MrMojo
Posts: 151
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:24 pm
Location: UK

by MrMojo

Cromaworks who paint Field frames are refurbing my Colnago C40 in March, can't wait! Their work looks excellent.
2021 Colnago Master
2020 Colnago C64
2017 Colnago C60
2017 Colnago V1-R
2014 Cipollini RB1K
2008 Colnago Extreme C
2005 Colnago C50
2001 Colnago C40
1996 Colnago Tecnos

dwn2sk8
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 4:23 am
Location: Lancaster, PA USA

by dwn2sk8

What a tease! Can't wait to see it all built up!

Christono
Posts: 39
Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2016 10:22 am

by Christono

Field Cycles are doing some amazing work, looks very promising so far!

leicaman
Posts: 129
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2014 3:55 pm

by leicaman

Got a little photo update this morning on the progress of the fork. It's getting its final clear coat.

@Mrmojo cromaworks is a seriously talented guy. I'm sure you c40 will look amazing.

Image

You can see the 24K gold leaf that I took back with me to England at Christmas. Every year, my wife and I visit one of our favourite places in Japan. The place is famous for manufacturing gold leaf (the literal translation of the city name, Kanazawa , is Gold River). I bought some of the gold leaf and handed it over to Harry at Field Cycles when I met up with him over Christmas. It's great to see John bringing it to life on the fork ;)

dpkinard
Posts: 62
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2016 11:31 pm

by dpkinard

That paint and leaf work is stunning, I can't wait to see this one finished.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

by Weenie


Visit starbike.com Online Retailer for HighEnd cycling components
Great Prices ✓    Broad Selection ✓    Worldwide Delivery ✓

www.starbike.com



MrMojo
Posts: 151
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 2:24 pm
Location: UK

by MrMojo

@leicaman that's what I thought although I'm just getting the Colnago PR82 Saronni paint scheme so not the most adventurous but I'm sure he will do an excellent job. Looking forward to seeing yours once built, looking amazing so far.
2021 Colnago Master
2020 Colnago C64
2017 Colnago C60
2017 Colnago V1-R
2014 Cipollini RB1K
2008 Colnago Extreme C
2005 Colnago C50
2001 Colnago C40
1996 Colnago Tecnos

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