Jipang Spirit

J for Jaster Mereel

I’ve been using this custom corner bar by from Indonesia for over 3 years now, and I’m planning to stay with that geometry for a while. But lately I’ve been shaving as much weight from my bike to prepare for long distance bike packing/touring, and this existing bar + GT stem weighs almost 1 kilo 😳

I recently got an FSA carbon stem for a steal rm60, so decided to change to a lighter aftermarket alternative for the bar too. And that would be an aluminium corner bar from a Taiwan brand, Sagmit. Combined with the carbon stem, they only weigh around 500g. Thats more than 200g lighter than the original handle bar alone. (Swipe for reference photos) Not to mention the price difference too! It’s like SEVEN times cheaper…

So now the question of reliability and safety. Considering even the original Surly bar is manufactured in Taiwan, I think it’s worth to try Sagmit. From a material POV, I think of course this bar is going to be more ‘crunchy’ on the vibrations, because it’s now aluminium and not steel. Hence, the reason I chose the carbon stem, so I can add some flexing, if there’s gonna be any.

Since I’ve shaved over 400g now, the rides feel more nimble, also coz this bar is 40mm narrower that the old bar (on the hoods). The only downside is the ‘hood’ part is a bit shorter than the original or even the previous replica bar. Other than that, I am enjoying the s**t out of this new bar.

And I will continue building my bike this way. I don’t wanna go fast, I wanna go far. I’m not chasing brands, I’m wanna find sustainability.

Life.

Almost my final form super saiyan 5.

The new and upgraded slimboi haha. I finally swapped the old cracked up super fat 2.3 Specialized tires, with this cheapo RM26 skinwall Verolli from Shoppee to test the look and feel of slimmer 1.9 tires. Loving the brown detail on the rims, and the lighter ride so far.

Reorganised the layout for storage/bags too. Always in favour of compact bike-packing bags with no bulky metal racks/baskets. Currently loving this brand from Indonesia, SatSet. The design and material used for this top tube bag, in comparison to the price, is WAY beyond the local brands that we currently have now in Malaysia, in my opinion.

Only time will tell, as I use up and trash this new lean mean machine.

The idea was to fit the 700c tires into the 26” frame, by replacing the cantilever brakes with the longer V-brakes arms. Little that i know, even though I managed to clamp the rear wheel into place (forcibly), the chainring wasn’t aligned properly for gear shifting.

The Spinergy hub’s width is 100mm, like a road bike normally would. I guess i would need a wider 29” MTB hub for it to be able to work properly. But most modern 29” wheelsets are meant for disc brakes… so now i have no choice but to lace a custom wheel set specifically with brake-lined rims.

So then I to transfer balik ALL this stuff onto the thiccboi again 😑

Got this new frame/bike for a steal, just RM200. Apparently it’s from the Netherlands, after some Googling. This MTB frame fits 26” wheels with cantilever brakes, but the seller showed it being fit with 700c wheels.

So the idea was to kacukkan and jam my two bikes into this big guy. Take all the stuff from the thiccboi and mix it up with the spinergy rims, on this new frame. Theoretically, the 700c would fit, but I’ll need to swap with v-brakes with longer arms.

Unfortunately, the result of this was not as simple as i planned (obviously) hahaha

Drove all the way to kajang tengah2 malam tadi..ada penampakan. After midnight, and then cloudy, so gelap ah. Masa balik nak masuk rumah, rasa macam ada benda ikut balik.. seram.
Rupanya terbawak balik basikal sebijik.

Drove all the way to Kajang tengah2 malam tadi..bukan sebab satay. But ada penampakan. After midnight, and then cloudy, so gelap ah. Masa balik nak masuk rumah, rasa macam ada benda putih ikut balik.. seram.

Rupanya terbawak balik basikal sebijik.

Since the day I got this frame in 2020.
We've come a long way, my friend.
Everything's falling into place.
A little bit more. 🙏

Got this lovely reflector keychain from .corp that now goes onto the Vagrant frame bag.

Also got this pretty cool looking Taiwan rims from .cyclist to swap with my current ones. Although it's a bit of a downgrade from Shimano STX to Quando hubs, and from Trek to Rockbike rims; I can finally fit in a 10 spd cassette and the XT derailleur.

From a rusty old frame in a dumpster.
Now my best rat bike 🚲🧡

Serviced this wheelset. Boleh nampak the quality of Shimano. Parallax STX ni from the 90s, dah around 30 tahun. But with a little degreasing & polishing, changed the bearings, and it's as good as new again.