Self Bike Check: Cyanotype Street Missile

Jan 19

By Paul.D

It is nice to be back! I hope everyone had nice winter holidays and that you got to spend some time with your close ones during these weird times!
I can feel it…2022 is gonna be great, and what better way to start it than with a bike check with a rather interesting story. (You can also just start with our first episode of 2022)

Today we’re checking my own Mash Parallax Cyanotype and its intriguing lore.
To some extent, I do believe that the Cyanotype is the most common type of Parallax with the top spot being obviously the 10-year anniversary edition followed by Charcoal and then Optical. However, I quickly learned that the curious cyan paint job was my favorite of them all. Probably because white bikes are really my thing.

Cinelli Mash Cyanotype AARN pro Sugino 75

Interesting tale with this one since it’s my first brand new frameset. I paid full price for it at the time on Wiggle. They were the only ones with some stock left and were willing to send it straight to Japan without outrageous shipping rates.

And right out of the box this bike was fun.

The Parallax has such a responsive geometry and stiffness to it. It’s like riding on a really light brick. Made, without a doubt, for the streets and playing in traffic, you can easily imagine how much a hyperactive twenty-two-year-old dude was gonna enjoy this in all corners of Tokyo. This was me in 2017 with a HED3, a SRAM Omnium, and some white parts to match the frame. Ha, sweet times…

I subsequently sold it about a year later to a friend from Osaka, (Keisuke is a man of taste, you can find his IG here: @keisuketanaka.), and obviously, immediately proceeded to regret it. I knew it was in good hands and riding daily so I just let it flow and was glad that Keisuke had a cool frame to ride on. But it’s no wonder why a part of me always regretted it.

It was only four or five years later when I saw my friend Patrick’s Parallax, that I got all the feels back for a rigid frame with a foolishly tight geo. You kinda miss that after years on a twisted Mash Work

So after a ride around the block on Patrick’s bike, my decision was set, and I had to find myself one for the second time. I wanted to go fast again, send it down the straights and take corners like a madman.

So like a type of karma, it’s always when you look for something online on the second-hand market that you can’t find precisely what you want. Although I had the feeling I was missing the point. It was only after a few weeks of searching deep in the internet and via some contacts for a decent condition one, that I realized that I didn’t want a Parallax - I wanted mine!

I subsequently asked Keisuke if he wished to sell it back to me or trade it for a Cinelli Supercorsa I had recently bought. We found an agreement and two weeks later my baby was back with the same scratches, plus a few more, with the same stickers, plus a few more, with the same feels attached to it, plus a few more… you get the point.

Keisuke was a new man with a NOS Cinelli Supercorsa in “Rosso Ferrari” and I’ve yet to see this thing fully finished.

It’s been a year since I received it, and after a few builds and tweaks I finally came out with a build I like, and that rides like an absolute rocket. So without further ado, here is the parts list!

Let’s begin with the centerpiece, this 2017 Mash Parallax Cyanotype. If you’re not aware, cyanotype photography is a printing process that produces blue/cyan prints from a photosensitive chemical reaction. If you have never seen one, it's quite interesting and actually pretty easy to achieve. The Parallax itself is just a street missile made for shredding and weaving around cars. In terms of geometry, it’s quite close to a Vigorelli but more aggressive without being completely lopro like a Histogram. It’s a bike I can personally only ride with risers since my back will kill me for even trying to put drops on it. One more personal preference over the Vigorelli is the 27.2 seatpost size. It’s such a standard size, plus, I’m not personally too keen on oversized seatpost just because of how they look.

Talking about the seatpost, let’s go over the various peripherals and a few details on this build. Starting with that Zipp SL Speed seatpost, which, I agree, is a pure fanboy move. I didn’t need the carbon version but got it anyway because I like how the lines of that post flows. This being said, I did not go for the carbon stem because I find it too bulky. So aluminum version it is, and in that very sexy “beyond black” finish. Just under it, you’ll find a SlamThatStem kit. In my case, it’s more of a visual feature than anything else, but since I’m only riding with risers it’s not a big change compared to the original Columbus headset. Finally, the riser is a Renthal Fatbar 10mm rise and the saddle is the only one that fits my butt so well, the San Marco Aspide. By the way, did you know that Aspide is the name of an Italian air-to-air missile? The more you know right?!

For the wheels, I shamelessly ripped them off my Mash work because I’m working on yet another build for that bike(more on that in a future article). But if you want to know more about the ultimate pair of Firecrest 404, you can read it here.
The drivetrain is my usual go-to with a Sugino 75 paired with an AARN ring but this time in the “Pro” variant. Supposed to reduce friction with a special coating, it’s again, more for the aesthetic that my choice landed on this ring. It just perfectly matches with the Renthal Fatbar, in a very unusual anodizing/finish for the cycling industry.

It’s a bike that has seen a lot. Either with me riding it all around Tokyo, my friend Keisuke daily-ing it in Osaka or its new life in Paris. Right now it’s stored at my friend’s place (Thank you Diego) for when I get out from my hermit hut in the south of France. With the extra bit of history attached to it, it’s definitely a frame that I don’t see myself selling or trading at any point. If it came back to me, there must be a reason, right?