Hi, Otaka from the Tokyo shop here.
August is over, and worn down by the heat day after day, I keep feeling that summer is ending along with it.
It's a little sad, but it's often so hot during the day that going for a ride feels like a chore. I can't wait for autumn and its easy riding weather.
Enough preamble: today we moved the parts from an old MTB over to the HOTtest bike at Circles right now, the RAL Exposure!
If you're thinking about a parts swap or are undecided about buying one, do take a look for reference.
Kan Kobayashi
The bike we did the swap on this time belongs to Kan Kobayashi, the graphic designer responsible for the Exposure's graphics and art direction.
Besides the Exposure, Kan has also done the graphics for our BRING collaboration tee and the visual design for Circles' 17th anniversary.
Kan's work spans graphics and artwork in all sorts of other genres as well, including the cover graphic design for Kotaro Isaka's novels “Shinigami no Seido” and “Shinigami no Furyoku” and a collaboration with Manhattan Portage. Do have a look at Kan's website, too, if you like.
Active as a designer, Kan is in fact quite the bike geek, too. To live up to that eye for detail, we got straight on with the swap to the Exposure.
On with the swap!
The donor bike was the Specialized Stump Jumper that Kan had ridden for many years.
From a bike with front suspension and gears front and rear to a fully rigid single speed.
When they hear “single speed,” many people worry that they won't manage the hills or get around town, but for city riding in places like Nagoya and Tokyo a single speed is plenty in most situations.
In terms of gear ratio, I think somewhere around 2.2 to 2.4 is easy to ride around town.
The right ratio depends on how you use the bike, so please ask the staff at either shop.
Town riding on weekdays, a bit of light cycling or messing about on the riverbank at the weekend.
At times like those, you pedal and it goes, without having to think about gears. Simple and straightforward. Personally, I think a laid-back bike like a pair of VANS has fewer problems and is easy to ride every day.
And this time it wasn't only about going single speed: the request was to “work it into the Exposure while using as many of the current parts as possible.”
So we carry over as many parts as we can and replace the ones that are completely worn out.
The cockpit was carried over almost wholesale. It's an old-model THOMSON stem (25.4!) paired with a well-used SIMWORKS Little Nick Bar.
Believe it or not, it's almost the same cockpit setup as the bike I introduced in an earlier blog post, ha.
For the headset, we installed a new SIMWORKS Sim Heads.
Its design is neither too assertive nor too conspicuous, and it has the durability to stand up to daily use.
The slim look that only a 25.4 Thomson can give and the well-used handlebar add a great deal of character.
For the saddle, we fitted the slightly older Selle italia Turbo that Kan already had. It's a classic saddle that's still sold in the current lineup today, and it instantly gives a bike a classic feel.
The ride comfort gets a thumbs up, too, of course.
My personal favorite detail is the newly fitted DKG Flip Lock
With this clamp, raising and lowering the saddle needs no tools. Even without heading for the mountains, it might be fun to drop the saddle and play in earnest on a bit of gravel near home?
The drivetrain was carried over as well.
On the SHIMANO LX triple crank, we removed the inner ring and reused the outer, which still has life in it.
The Exposure is rated for 36T max, but Kan told us the aim was to gear it as high as possible and really stomp on it, so by going with a longer BB spindle we just about managed to make the stock 42T chainring usable.
42÷16=2.625, which is pretty tall, but it's a setup very much in character for Kan, who also rides a track bike day to day.
The Exposure also comes with dropouts for a geared setup.
Being able to choose not only for your lifestyle now but for however you play in future, whether OMM or camp touring, is another part of the Exposure's appeal.
For the wheels, we kept the LX hubs as they were and replaced the completely worn-out rims with the SIMWORKS Standalone 001.
With the choice of 26-inch rims dwindling these days, this is one of the few rims that is rim-brake and tubeless compatible.
It has brass eyelets, it's strong and durable, and its classic shape suits the Exposure perfectly.
We changed the tires, too, to the MAXXIS Cross mark. We went with a 2.1-inch width so the bike can be enjoyed both for getting around town and for playing on gravel.
The Exposure actually has room for much fatter tires yet, but for town riding, building it with about this width keeps things comfortable, just so you know.
The Exposure as a canvas
I think of the Exposure as a bike that is nostalgic, free and incomplete.
Fit gears and the fattest tires it will take and enjoy the trails, or add racks and fenders for a comfort build; either is good.
Precisely because it's built to older standards and has no eye-catching decoration, it becomes a canvas for building it up just the way you like.
Why not choose the Exposure, free and able to adapt as your style changes, as your everyday companion?
We look forward to hearing from you about a parts swap!
