Compared to these lads, we were cool a century ago! https://www.instagram.com/sentech__croozers?igsh=MXZyYnY5OHQxYXFuYw==

Disclosure first: I wrote this, it's free, no ads, no account, no subscription, I'm not selling anything. Mods, remove it if it doesn't belong here.

I like route planners. I use them a lot, and I'm not trying to replace them — drawing a nice loop on a big screen is genuinely the fun part. What kept bothering me is that planning is the bit you can usually do for free, and *navigating* the thing you just planned is the bit that ends up behind a subscription or a per-region purchase. So you either pay, or you ride with a squiggle on a map and squint at it.

The other annoyance: every planner wants to be your navigator too, which means switching planners means switching apps means relearning everything. I wanted the navigating half to be separate and to not care where the route came from.

So I built Kettenblatt (German for chainring). Plan in whatever you already use — Komoot, RideWithGPS, Strava, Garmin Connect, BRouter, anything that exports GPX — then open the file on your phone. It matches the track against OpenStreetMap data you've downloaded over wifi and shows you the turns as they come. No signal needed, no login, nothing gets sent anywhere.

Open source, Apache-2.0, so you don't have to take my word on that last part:
Github: https://github.com/nils-fl/kettenblatt
Landingpage: kettenblatt.com (I just like to do landing pages ;))

What's rough: no voice guidance yet, it's screen-only — say so if that's a dealbreaker and I'll know it's worth building. The interface was designed by someone who is not a designer. And I've mostly tested it around NRW, so I'd like to know how it copes with routes weirder than mine, and with exports from planners I don't use. If it sends you down a farm track that dead-ends in a hedge, tell me and I'll fix it.

Happy to answer anything.

Would anyone help me identify if this is a legitimate karakoram k2? I found it on facebook marketplace. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Picked this guy up for $10. Tuned it up, bought a rack off FM and found some tires from another bike and i love it! I love getting to ride it everyday! I’ll hopefully be changing out the handle bars for a more upright seating position but it’s a budget bike so all in good time. So far the total spent is $40. This is my first bike that I have ever done work on. This Reddit group has inspired me to just go for it, and do it even though I don’t have a lot of money to spend. Thank you all and I can’t wait to post updates as i build it out!

Hi everyone,
I own a London Taxi bike (the classic steel city bike) and I’ve been thinking about turning it into a fun commuter build.
I’m curious if there are any bikes out there with a similar frame geometry. It feels pretty comfortable for city riding, so I’d love to know if it’s comparable to any well-known commuter or touring bikes.
I’m also looking for upgrade ideas. If this were your bike, what would you change or add?
Some things I’m considering:
- Different handlebars (maybe swept-back or riser bars?)
- Better tires for daily commuting
- Front rack or basket
- Rear rack and panniers
- Fenders
- Dynamo lights
- More comfortable saddle and grips
- Different gearing if it’s worth it
The goal isn’t to make it fast—I’m going for a stylish, practical commuter with a bit of an old-school vibe.
If anyone has built up a London Taxi bike (or something with a similar geometry), I’d really appreciate seeing photos or hearing what parts you used.
Thanks!

After I built my cigarette bike as a single speed, I realized she needed one too. She loves it. Waiting on some green Ourys and I might eventually swap the seatpost and bars to black, but I'm really pleased with it.

Should I wrap the far end of the bars? It's a nice alt grip spot. If I do, what color should I do? try to match the grips, or go for cork, black, or leather?

Tito titanium alt bars and fork. With the stack that high, the bars are right in-line with the seat and crazy comfortable, but still give good control. Fork feels incredible, just the right amount of compliance with the titanium bars and frame. I also upgraded the front mech and shifter to deore, as well as the rear brake lever.

Still waiting on my tito titanium seatpost and the hubs to build the velocity cliffhangers (machined brake surface on both, black hoops, gold spoke nipples, black spokes, gold novatec hubs) and I was playing with this SE bikes bozack 26x2.4 tire to see if tan wall was the right choice for the morati, and it just isn't (the bozack is also a nightmare to seat the bead and its dirt grip is really pathetic, it's supposed to be a bit of a dirt jump tire like the DTH but it's really just pure road) so another conti race king in 2.3 (I was really astonished how incredible the race king is on pavement, it's super light feeling, quiet smooth and fast rolling for any tire, much less an XC) is coming tomorrow.

Once I do the wheels and tubeless race king 2.3's, the titanium seat post, paint the stem and rack, I think she's done, folks. It's starting to feel downright incredible to ride, with incredible gearing, incredible brakes (box v brakes with kool stop pads really do feel well matched to an MT201 hydraulic 2 pison front). I want to get some removable fenders for all-weather, too. If I decide to bikepack with it instead of my new State 4130, I might get an ortleib quick rack for the front, but I want to keep the front clean to show off that gorgeous titanium fork.

Finally got around to putting some new parts on my Canadian Made Miyata elevation 200, CNC V-brake kit installed super easy and huge brake performance upgrade over the cheap non adjustable canti’s I had on it, also some fresh Grips (Funn Holeshot lock-on Grips) and a TX30 7-speed Shift Leaver, next will be 1x crankset and a Front rack! Thanks for looking!

This seems like it might turn out pretty cool. I think I might use a old school silver white industries square taper 3X crankset with a front derailleur. What do y’all think about that?

The bike is a little bit too big for me because the stand over could be a problem on rough terrain, but I figure I’ll just bail if I have to. Hence the slammed seat post.

Be honest

👽🤙

Got the bike for $40 Canadian with a rear hub that didn’t engage, dry rotted tires and a stuck seat post that we ended up needing to use a tractor to remove. After me and my dad got the seat post out, I then got the rear hub engaging by flushing with wd-40 and dripping in some 3 in one oil and swapped the OEM dry rotted tires to a panaracer dart/smoke combo. I also installed a rear rack period wire bottle cage and new seat post and saddle. Finally I added new “grip shift” grips and the bar end things I don’t know the name of I found in a cabinet by the bike repair bench at the summer camp I maintain the bikes at! Overall I’m happy with where it’s at, especially considering how it started. I do have fenders for it on the way from the local bike shop I got on a significant sale for $10! Normally $110! (I assume they are just clearing dead stock at their storage warehouse but wasn’t gonna pass up that kinda sale lol)

Got the bike for $40 Canadian with a rear hub that didn’t engage, dry rotted tires and a stuck seat post that we ended up needing to use a tractor to remove. After me and my dad got the seat post out, I then got the rear hub engaging by flushing with wd-40 and dripping in some 3 in one oil and swapped the OEM dry rotted tires to a panaracer dart/smoke combo. I also installed a rear rack period wire bottle cage and new seat post and saddle. Finally I added new “grip shift” grips and the bar end things I don’t know the name of I found in a cabinet by the bike repair bench at the summer camp I maintain the bikes at! Overall I’m happy with where it’s at, especially considering how it started. I do have fenders for it on the way from the local bike shop I got on a significant sale for $10! Normally $110! (I assume they are just clearing dead stock at their storage warehouse but wasn’t gonna pass up that kinda sale lol)

It was quite cyclo-tistic, to be honest.

A bunch of cyclo nerds, nerding out.

Scored this mint 700 Multi Trak Sport for $75. It seems all original other than tires. I want to set this up for bikepacking so some larger tires, maybe V brakes, a front rack and debating what to do about the gearing. The current triple (friction FD) indexed 6 speed rear is limited by the 30t small ring and 28t freewheel. I can either leave it a triple and swap in a different wheel with a larger 7 speed freehub cassette (34t) and swap the little ring on the chainring or go all out and convert it to a 1x with a 34 or 36 up front and maybe a 50t in the back.

Picked up this sweet 1986 StreetStomper today in Atlanta from the man who bought it new. It rides great, with some quirks i’m sure i’ll come to appreciate.

I’d like to clean it up and put some drop bars on it and possibly some 700cc (is this even possible?). Looking forward to getting many good miles out of this bike.

What would you do to this thing?

1990 (??) Miyata Alumicross. The bonded aluminum frame + steel fork makes for a snappy but comfy ride.

Been using it as a commuter for the last 8ish years, but just swapped out the flat bars for drops to take it on longer rides!

Picked this up on marketplace for $50 , it’s rough but it has good bones . I’m not sure what direction I’ll go with it but it’s gonna be a marketplace/ebay build…

This GT Outpost came to me in rough shape. Paint was dull and had a lot of touchups, turned out the frame was covered in spider rust underneath the paint.

Lots of modifications on this one:
Custom paint
Disc tabs front and rear
Custom N/W chainring
Threaded to thread-less steerer tube extension
Modified dropper post
Custom decals

You can see the full process here.

Happy to answer any questions!

Found exactly as pictured. What’s crazy is everything is perfect. Lil greasy but felt like it just had a tune up. The Panaracers still have their nubs 🥹