59cm Graham Weigh 853 road bike build

Jack, why didn't you watermark this one?

I like this bike. Maybe I'd have included 'Graham' in the decals too.

As soon as I put 'WEIGH' on the downtube I realised how good it will look if it had 'GRAHAM' emerging from behind the crank. Such a wonderfully unsexy name, a man after my own heart. Or maybe actually I should scrap the lot and get Donohue decals. (I'm not actually going to do that).

Jack, why didn't you watermark this one?

It was too good, he thought no-one would ever believe him if he tried to pass it off as his own work.

I well remember when spotter was a fledgling urbanite drowning in the silent valleys. Now he's Billy Big Bollocks in teh city galavanting around with his own watermark. A few years down the line when he's showing his work to a room full of paranoia he'll cock a snook to us miserly lot stood outside in the freezing cold, still desperate to know which bars he uses.

Thanks for having some belief in me paul.

is this 59ctc top tube and seat tube Tom?

I think the top tube may be 58cm, I will have to double check in a couple of days.

my one has a 59.5 tt

I fucking love this bike. I've had it over 18 months now, which is pretty good going for me, and I still can't name anything I would change about it - except perhaps the wheelset. And the bar tape, which is being replaced with pink Lizard Skins tape in the week.

93 sunny miles to Herne Bay and it handled them beautifully:

The only slight issue is the cabling - having properly set up shifters with compressionless, lubricated housing on my Genesis (with Apex) has made me realise that this bike, with Force, should have far better and smoother shifting. That should also be getting sorted in the week, with a Sram shifter cable set I got for cheap off Ebay.

Still looks ace Tommmmm. Good ride?

Sort of. Miles 30-50 were really hard work, I think the only reason I didn't give up was because I was too lazy to find the nearest station. I've found it really difficult to get the miles in recently and my climbing ability has suffered. The scenery was great though, and after a lemon drizzle slice and iced latte at Costa in West Malling and a pub called the Elephant in Faversham life improved a lot.

Only one massively cunty driver, who came up behind me in one of those VW Toerag 4x4s as I crested a horrible climb, and started beeping and sitting a few inches behind my back wheel, as the road was too narrow for her to pass. I just carried on at about 20mph in primary and hoped she didn't just run me over, and though she carried on beeping for a few more minutes, she pulled off eventually.

Current status: Still underused. Hoping to properly try out the new SRAM shifter cables tomorrow if it's dry, with a round trip up to the Henry Moore Foundation and back.

I went for a ride on this today. I was thinking how much I still love it, and the ride was brilliant. It's such a smooth and comfortable bike.

Then, during a seated climb of no real gradient, I felt a sudden jolt and the back wheel locked up. The chain had slipped, or the derailleur had caught in the spokes, either way the derailleur was blown apart and the hanger has pulled the dropout well out of shape. I couldn't even ghetto SS the bike because the hanger had bent right into the cassette and the chain was wedged hard between the big sprocket and the hub.

It now looks like this, and may be terminal:

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I wish I didn't love the look and feel of this bike so much, then I would just write it off and buy something else. But it'seems painful!

not definatly terminal, may well bend

Should bend and chase, if not, Ted.

I reckon that should bend back. I've got a large adjustable spanner if you want to give it a try.

I've tried it with mine and with a pair of pliers, but it's pretty tough. I'm worried about being able to do it properly, because at the moment the dropouts aren't aligned.

Go see Dave

Clever Mike Dave?

@CleverMike dave

Take it to a framebuilder.

I've got one of these if you want to give it a go. Does look pretty bent though.

https://www.amazon.ca/Park-Tool-Derailleur-Hanger-Alignment/dp/B0028YWHPW

NB. Not actually the Park Tool one. A cheapo one that does the same job.

Based in Vauxhall.

@tommmmmmm ouch that looks bad. Wouldn't say it's terminal for sure though. We've got hanger, dropout and frame aligment tools so happy to take a look and see what we can do.

I have the same frame I'm not using if you've not managed to resolve this.

only issues are a previous owner has put a dent into the chain stay to clear either a larger spider or chainring and I've put two small holes in it to run di2