The Lotus has been a pretty awesome bike all around for me, being a frame that fits well and having fatter tires than once allowed. There are a few things that I would like to do to this bike though that would make it significantly more useful and safer. I have some ideas, but not sure if all of them will work. If you see any blaaaring deficiencies in my plans, you should let me know.
These are the Imperial Oval fork blades from Compass bicycles with a wide fork crown. I held on to these when my frame building project was brought to an unfortunate halt... I think I would like to use these for the Lotus, specifically to give it a low-trail design, 42mm tires with fenders in the front, brazed on center pulls if possible or cantis if not, and internal routing for generator lights. Given how damn big the bike is, I would be able to use a giant h-bar bag, probably a Berthoud. However this is worth consideration on top of headset choice: http://tommatchakcycles.blogspot.com/2007/03/frame-neutral-replacement-fork.html
In order to get the changes in the front to match the rear, I'd like for the rear tire to be about 42mm as well. The current 32s have a fair amount of room left, but definitely not enough for tires that big. My big hope is that by indenting the stays and messing with brake and chain bridges, I can accommodate enough...
While I'm at it, some brake post for the rear would be nice, significantly improving the brake quality, as well as a brake hanger that is simply brazed on (the Surly one is off center a tad...)
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