Custom Orlowski Workhorse

A few small updates, a twin Orlowski and a bike trip:


My friend got his new frame and fork delivered just in time to throw a build together for the trip.


Not too many changes to mine: I fitted gp4000sII tyres for the Nocturne and can't bring myself to take them off, what a difference fast supple tyres makes. I applied the Tester novatec axel mod to the front hub so I no longer have to carry a wrench. For the trip I added another bottle cage and a 23t cog for spinning up the mountains. 48x23 for the way up, 48x17 for the way down.

We drove down to the Pyrenees with the bikes in the back. We managed to get in three days proper riding and wanted to concentrate on the mountains rather than the valleys as we'd both done enough riding through bread baskets and flat lands. When we finally arrived in the Spanish Pyrenees after 48 hours in the truck we were greeted by thick cloud rain and cold and almost didn't get on the bikes but decided to put in a few hours. We rode two cul-de-sac climbs and descents, Artiga de Lin and Bassa d'Oles, both spectacular and largely traffic free roads weaving up the sides of the two mountains.
Day two we rode a more well known popular climb, the Guardader d'Arres, which snakes up 1,500m out of Spain and drops down into France in full tour fever. This climb has perfect surfaces and km markers but again the weather was not on our side until we dropped back down into the valley to loop back around the mountain to the car.
Day three, everything was perfect. We'd driven east the previous evening and made camp about a third of the way up the the Lac d'Aumer climb.

We rode from camp up to the first of three lakes, suffered a puncture and walked back to fix it then rode to the top on the most spectacular closed roads with dead-man drops to one side, switchback after switchback, past crystal lakes and in bright sunlight. One of the best days I've ever had on a bike.

Had a blast and the bike performed admirably, shocked a few roadies too: shouts of "Zut Alors! Le fixie" followed us down the descents. The gearing was light enough to keep it spinning pretty freely on anything up to 10%, beyond that it burnt a bit. Coming down was awesome apart from the front rim getting super hot but really I was just wishing I could freewheel and let it fly.

In short: I'm gonna need to buy a road bike and return next year.

Looks like an amazing trip, your bike is fast becoming one of my forum fav's!

Looks great

That is a bloody fucking loooong legs!

Just read this entire thread.
Great stories, great photos and a fucking great bike!
Very inspiring

This bike might actually be my favourite forum bike.

Pretty set on getting myself an Orlowski at some point in the not too distant future now haha.

Thanks all, high accolades indeed.

I've been out of London and off the bike for a while but just started doing some long slow rides to get back in shape. It's been great settling into long days in the saddle and pootling around the countryside. Almost as much fun as blasting up and down mountains.

Poor thing's been having a hard life…

Heard an odd noise from BB area while riding on Friday, subsequently quiet creaking occurred when under load. Took it apart to clean and regrease last night, expecting the noise to be coming from a slightly loosened chainring bolt or something. Put it back together and went to work today, noise still there/getting worse/requiring less power to make it happen. After properly cleaning around the BB area, noticed what looks to be a crack all the way around the weld where the seat-tube meats the BB.

Exhibits A & B:

What do we reckon? Cracked?

Have emailed Jacek, we'll see what he says. In the mean time I'm gonna head up to Talbot for a second opinion/option. Do they do repairs?

Fuck this sucks.
Hope its not a crack. Sure talbot could do something. If not Oak maybe?

Yeah it sucks…

But…I've been exchanging a few emails with Jacek this morning and his attitude and response has been great. He basically said he's as sad as me to hear about this and I should send it back to him for repair and repaint…free of charge! Looking forward to having my minty fresh frame back

In the meantime I'll be dusting off the Dolan and putting it back to work

Amazing news.
Thats good at least!

Exhibit C:

Def cracked, back to Poland it goes

Glad to hear Jacek is doing the correction effort for you without any charge. But did he say how is he going to repair this?

A lugged BB should strengthen this considerably for its purpose - taking a beating!

Yeah he's been great about. Not sure what his plans are for the repair but we'll be talking about it

Magnets, surely.

sorry to hear about the orlowski but glad i got to read this thread again! it's pretty crazy that the orlowski cracked before the dolan. hope all goes well with the repair and good to see jacek being so helpful.

That's a shame to hear. Sounds like Jacek is responding in the best way possible though.

Yeah it's a shame but at the same time I'll have a brand new frame again, which is good as it's taken an absolute beating it the time I've had it. Courier is collecting the frame on Monday, at Jacek's expense, can't say fairer than that!

News from Jacek is that the frame has been repaired, some small modifications I asked for have been made, it's been repainted and is winging its way back to me - free of charge!

In the meantime I've been riding the Dolan for work, training, general duties and while it doesn't have that same ever so slightly springy feeling and leaves me a little beaten after long days I've really enjoyed it. It's been nice riding a bike I don't care about quite so much, using a beater for beater duties basically.

So I'm considering building up both the Dolan and the Orlowski when it arrives. The Dolan with cheaper parts and keep the Orlowski nice for long stuff and track use. I've got a few bits in the parts cupboard and a posh set of wheels for the Orlowski are in the pipeline but the budget for the remaining bits is pretty small so if anyone has parts surplus to requirement let me know.

I need:

• Carbon forks (1 1/8 with 270mm steerer)
  
• 27.2 layback seatpost (ideally Thompson as I like the clamping/adjustment mechanism)
  
• Cranks, 144bcd, 165mm (ideally Omniums so I only have to deal with one BB standard)
  
• 3T Ergonova bars, 420mm c-c
  
  

Beater spec is fine with me.

Anyway here's the old Dolan built up and back in action:

Guessing the new posh wheels for the orlowski would be the flo30s I spy in the corner of the picture? Also have you kept the same paint as before the repair?

I'm looking forward to seeing a posh build on the Orlowski, still my favourite forum bike.

Good eye, yeah there's a small pile of Flo wheels and rims in the corner there, just need to get the rear wheel laced up and they're ready to roll.

I haven't actually specified what I'd like for the re-paint, I assume he'll have done it the same again but we'll see

Cheers, it is such a nice frame, I'm really looking forward to getting to ride it again.

You still considering getting one made?

Yeah. One for the future though. Probably going to end up with something cheap to tide me over first (probably an FXE).