Today’s Readers’ Rides comes from Knoxville, TN and is from Matt who shared his Viner Super Rad…
Hi! My name is Matt and I’m the operations director at Two Bikes, a non-profit shop in Knoxville, TN. I present for your consideration my Viner Super Rat (née Super Professional).
The Viner Super Rat exemplifies what I believe to be the next hottest trend/genre in cycling — URBAN ROAD. For too long road bikes have been relegated to scenic rolling countrysides, pricey gran fondos and weekend crits. But that’s not what URBAN ROAD is about. It’s about bringing fast bikes back to the streets. It’s about alleycats, splitting lanes and aggressive commutes. It’s about dissonance.
This bike doesn’t really excel by any sort of metric and nobody would ever call it practical. But it’s fun, fun, fun. Think daily-driving a clapped out Miata. Not that fast, certainly not comfortable and there’s no place to put your groceries. It doesn’t make sense but it always puts a smile on your face.
We had this frameset donated to our shop (check us out @twobikesknoxville), and as you can probably tell it was too busted and rusted to refurbish and sell. But since it was my size and I have an affinity for lesser-known Italian builders, I snagged it for myself.
I built it up using a mish-mash of parts I had laying around: some old 600 cranks with an obscene Race Face 1x ring, a single Shimano 9sp bar con and a plain-as-potatoes Deore rear mech, Soma Highway One bars as wide as they come, unshellacked Newbaums because dirty cloth tape looks sooo tough, and TRP RRL levers (the strangest looking but nicest feeling road levers out there IMO). To top it off, I laced a set of crabon rims I got from my buddy, Josiah, at Nox Composites to a pair of 7700 Dura Ace hubs I’ve been saving for a special occasion.
The overall effect is pretty silly and the bike leaves a lot of folks scratching their heads. Would the bike benefit with wider tires and full fenders? Probably. But creature comforts are not in the spirit of URBAN ROAD.
Thanks!
We’d like to thank all of you who have submitted Readers Rides builds to be shared over here. The response has been incredible and we have so many to share over the next few months. Feel free to submit your bike, listing details, components, and other information. You can also include a portrait of yourself with your bike and your Instagram account! Please, shoot landscape-orientation photos, not portrait. Thanks!
