Latest version of the Specialissima - so far it's longest run has been a hilly 23 mile ride with my daughter on the child seat. As the pictures show, she had fun, and so did I!
The bike handles comfortably, as I've been adjusting the fit now for over a year, and fits well.
The current drivetrain is the most successful yet, a Sakae "ovaltech" mountain triple coupled with vintage Suntour Mountech FD and Suntour V-GT Luxe Rear Derailleur.
The "ovaltech" cranks, a knockoff of the Shimano biopace cranks, work fine, despite my concerns with setting up a functioning front derailleur. I dont have any stance on whether or not the "biopace" style non-round cranks are actually functional over round cranks in any way. However, this was the cheapest triple I could find, the tooth counts were what I wanted, and I figured (1) I like weird, gimmicky things, and (2) if I hated the rings, i could always switch them out with the round rings I had from a Sakae double I have in the parts bin.
So far, they've worked fine, and I don't really notice any difference from round rings except under load on a steep hill on the smallest ring. In that situation, I can actually feel a difference, and do like it. I have a feeling the final setup will end up being round large and middle rings with the ovaltech granny gear for hills.
After researching the V-GT Luxe RD on disraeligears.com, I chose this derailleur to be my functional, unbreakable retro derailleur. Mated to Suntour barends, it works flawlessly and still picks up alot of cable.
Next on the list is a possible upgrade to 700c Rims, possibly an internal geared hub I've had in the parts bin for a few months, and possibly a dynohub setup.
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