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Monday, October 31, 2011

Cicli Boom x Pancalen Cycles: Ican's Rih Delta Cyclocross Conversion


A little while back, a good friend by the name of Imandaru “Ican” Candraningtyas decided to build himself a cyclocross bike. The problem is, he is tall. Like around 180cm-ish tall. Finding a decent second hand steel frameset with ample geometry and cantilever mounts is kind of hard for that size, until the boys at Cicli Boom hook him up with this 59cm Rih Delta frame.

  
Rih (which means "faster than the wind" in Arabic), named after Kara Ben Nemsi's Arabian stallion in Karl May’s “Oriental Odyssey” saga, was formed in 1921 by the Bustraan brothers in the Jordaan in Amsterdam, Holland. The brand has a long history of producing fine racing machined, as proven by estimation that Rih frames have been ridden to over 350 national championships in both road and track events and 63 World and Olympic titles.
The Reynolds 500-tubed Delta was originally a commuter/touring frame, which explains the really slack seat angle. It features enough tire clearance and bottom bracket height though, so the slack seat angle was made up with extra forward scooting saddle position. A little custom work is needed to fit the 27,2mm OTA zero-offset seatpost to the 26,4mm seattube.



A couple features commonly found on commuter/touring frame: rack mounts...
...frame pump mounts...
...down to the fender/kickstand mount.
Representing FixedForward crew, baby. Probably the only member that didn't ride fixed. For now.
 The componentry on this Delta was cobbled together from plethora of parts, even with some mountain bike components. Shimano Tiagra 4500 shifters controls the Shimano non-series triple front derailer and Deore M590 long cage rear, with braking provided by Tektro CR720 wide-profile cantilevers. The crankset is a triple Tiagra 4500, mated with 105 chain and 12-25 9-speed Ultegra 6600 cassette. The wheels are Shimano SLX M660 front hub and Shimano 105 5501 rear freehub, mated to Mavic CXP22 via 32 plain gauge stainless spokes and brass nipples.






Easton cockpit. Holy long stem, Batman!
You have to sacrifice a bit of braking power to get good mud clearance like this.
 Aside from having some fun on the local singletrack, Ican used this Delta for touring and mainly, daily commuting. Expect this bike to be ridden on an epic ride from Jakarta to Jogjakarta anytime soon!


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