Hi, this is my bike

As of this writing I’ve been riding (homophone alert!!) this bike for about 13 years, which is the longest I’ve consistently ridden any single bike. I think (hope) it could last another 13 years.

The process of putting it together was kind of slow and took about three years total. As with many useful skills, though, the struggle was kind of the point — I ended up with not only a rideable bike that I had built myself with my own two hands, which felt awesome, but also the ability to maintain 90% of it myself, since in the process I learned about every single component and how each works. I’m pretty proud of that!

I also learned a lot more since then about what to do when things break or get worn out and how to fix and replace them. A lesson for life, perhaps.

Maybe in another world I would have been a bike mechanic?! I did try to be a people mechanic a.k.a. a general surgeon for the first part of my career and although the stakes of general surgery are ah not the same as the stakes of bike maintenance, they are otherwise not that dissimilar in terms of the actual work. Diagnosing the problem is often half the battle. Stuff needs to be repaired or removed or replaced. I remember finding out, live in the OR, that identifying the exact location of an intestinal perforation can be successfully achieved using the same technique as finding the hole in a punctured tube (methodically run it, submerging each section in water and look for the bubbles), lol.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to talk about intestines so much (classic kwon)… this page is supposed to be about my bike.

I don’t ride as much as I used to when I was younger and had a higher appetite for risk (and didn’t have the lower back of a middle aged woman), but I do take it out on the streets every once in awhile. There’s still no other feeling like going down a smooth hill on a smooth bicycle on a warm night and feeling the breeze on your face.

— July 2026

Body parts

Whoops, I mean bike parts. Here's a list of current components. Not listed below, but definitely on my actual bike: chain (whatever the local bike shop stocks), brake (Shimano caliper brake, front wheel only), spokes (whatever the local bike shop stocks, in a radial lacing pattern), tires (Continental Gatorskins), pedal straps (Hold Fast).

Component	Make & model	Weight	Key specs	Kwon notes
Saddle	Cinelli Unicanitor	296 g	Plastic, 7 mm rails	This saddle is made of hard plastic (although some of the marketing materials call it "calibrated technopolymer" lol). It is quite rigid, but on the flip side it's very robust when left outside in NYC weather, and it's not as uncomfortable as one might assume.
Seatpost collar	Salsa Lip Lock	34 g	31.8mm, aluminum, orange	Isn't the name "lip lock" cute?
Seatpost	Civia Microadjust	330 g	27.2 mm, aluminum, silver	No complaints about this seatpost, although I don't think they make this model anymore
Rear wheel rim	Velocity B43	722 g	700c, 43 mm, nonmachined sidewall	Rear wheel was originally an Aerospoke, but I liked it so much that I put it on my everyday bike (the one I was using while building this one up), and that bike ended up getting stolen :(
Rear hub	Velocity track hub	337 g	32h, silver	Durable, never gave me any issues.
Cog	All-City Track Cog	262 g	16T x 1/8", stainless steel	With the 46T chainring my gear ratio is 2.88 (=46T/16T), which works well for (mostly) flat city streets without killing me on the bridges
Front wheel rim	Velocity Deep V	580 g	700c, machined sidewall	These were super trendy in Brooklyn around 2010. People would leave the stickers on the rims, like how people would leave the stickers on their New Era caps in the '90s.
Front hub	Phil Wood front high flange hub	262 g	32h, silver	I always wanted a Phil Wood hub because they seemed super high end (read: expensive). To be honest, I can't really tell the difference between this one and the Velocity track hub which was half the price. Marketing!
Cranks	All-City 612 Track Cranks + Chainring	726 g	165 mm, white	Pretty solid crankset. I remember I initially got it in silver but then exchanged for the white because I liked the look better.
Pedals	Gusset Slim Jim	640 g	White, sealed bearing	I love these platform pedals. I used to have them in mint green on my old bike that was stolen, and the manufacturer no longer makes them in that color.
Bottom bracket	Shimano UN55	286 g	English, 68 x 113 mm, square taper	Never gives me a problem. I've switched it out exactly once in 13 years.
Frame	Nada Bike	1,900 g	52 cm steel (chromoly) frame, horizontal dropouts	Nada Bike was a project where you could get a simple single speed steel bike frame for $150 and build up your own bicycle.
Headset	FSA Orbit X	95 g	1" threadless, silver	I never knew what a headset was (or that it even existed) until I was building this bike.
Handlebars	Origin8 Bullhorn Handlebar	320 g	31.8 x 400mm, silver	Rode with flat bars chopped down to be comically narrow for a while, which is what is depicted in this image, but I currently ride with the bullhorns which I find lot more comfortable for switching hand positions (and let's be real, I'm not squeezing between cars in rush hour traffic in my 40s anymore)
Stem	Thomson Elite X2	150 g	31.8 mm, silver, +-10 degree x 70 mm	I love this stem. I also felt like this was super high end when I bought it. (The drawing is not to scale; my actual stem is shorter.)
Fork	Soma Straight Blade	890 g	1 1/8" threadless, 300 mm steerer	I like the look of a straight blade fork. It's probably more practical to have some offset but I'm not too serious about it tho.