FF1 Part 3 - On and Off the Road

Here's how the bike looks folded up. I haven't done too much experimenting to optimize it.

Folded

To fold the bike:

For a fast fold, strap into bundle and put in bag. Maybe remove the pedals to get it narrower and optimize wheel placement. Pull the QRs if needed.

For air travel:

Initial rides and thoughts

It rides nice, and I mean that not due to a lack of better adjectives. It's literally 'nice', comfortable to ride, the handling doesn't result in any surprises from handling to quickly or too slow. It feels very civilized to ride, but not in a comfy cruiser way. It's still sporty and you feel like you're getting where you need to go without extra effort. The frame tubing has just enough wiggle to let it ride smooth but it doesn't get vague.

That it rides this nice and can fold/break down has me wondering if I should add folding or breakaway functionality to all my future frames unless it really doesn't make sense.

Having the pedals at a road bike height isn't the greatest on trails, but it will be nice if you're scootering the bike somewhere where there's lot of pedestrians. If I had to rebuild this bike maybe I'd bump up the bottom bracket 10 or 15mm. Trail riding isn't really what the bike was designed for, it's just something I tend towards locally.

The Softride stem turned out to be the real winner, making the 650 x 47 tires feel bigger in width and diameter on and off road. It will probably stay on. I might try to acquire more. I'm also considering 3d-printing some TPU bottom-out bumpers that fit inside the spring and maybe see if I can work out some sort of top-out bumper too.

My buddy Cam has a Vecnum stem on his Jones and it seemed nicely made, so there's always that or the Kinekt if I want to spend the coin. AliExpress also has some options.

I now have a quill stem adapter so I will eventually try it with my 31.8 swept back bars, and maybe some other modern drop bars I have. I do like that suspension stem though, so I'll keep an eye out for swept back bar options in 25.4.

Changelog

Parts are bound to change and while notable changes will probably end up in my "oops I haven't posted anything it 6 months" updates, I thought it would be interesting to track how the parts selection evolves here:

2026-08-24

Switched the Nitto Noodles to Fairweather 174s. The reach of the Noodles to the hoods was just a little too long, and though the stem clamped around the 26.0 bars just fine, being chromed it couldn't get enough friction with an imperfect fit. So on harsh bumps the bars would slip a few degrees. The Fairweather's reach was about right but they felt cramped in the drops, so I 3D printed some 15mm extender plugs to get more support for my hands. The SMP Extra was a little too squishy so it was replaced with a Selle Italia Model X Comfort Green Plus Superflow, a mouthful of a saddle I seem to get along with despite its oddball construction. Dropped the chainring to a 40.

2026-08-27

Switched the rear derailleur to a CUES 6000 to get a clutch to reduce chain slap. I picked the CUES over my usual Deore 5100 since it comes with a cable adjuster, a requirement with a down tube shifter. I have used those plug-in cable adjusters from Jagwire but they eventually will bend, so not a great idea for a travel bike. This derailleur is a better design for 1X and is happy to shift a 48 cog since it was officially designed for a 45 or 51.

The shifter was moved up higher on the down tube and I think I like it there better.

2026-09-06

As it stands:

FF1 in September

The back tire spins on anything steep and loose. The brake pads are indeed terrible. But it gets you from A to B in all but the most underbiked conditions. The flexstem is quite the hero here, protecting you from regretting some of your underbiked route choices. The bike is comfortable in a lawn chair kind of way and should be a nice basis for touring and having fun.