Geoff Roberts Framebuilding course - first and second, and third frames. And fourth (now finished). And fifth.

So, to continue the tale of the Brommers Bike #2, I finished building it at about 11 pm last Friday night, weighed it (7.9kg), rode it down to the end of the road and back (1.5km), decided that since it stopped, started, and turned it was good to go, took it to pieces and packed it away in my bike box. 10 am flight to Mallorca the next day, and I've been riding it for the last 5 days.

It hasn't fallen apart yet (the frame, anyway) and it handles rather well though I say it myself. And it turns out it is possible to do Mallorca on a singlespeed bike, as long as you don't spend too long on the flat bits - not with this gearing (48x23) anyway. Here's a picture of the finished bike, standing on the headland above Andratx, with the light setting off the flip paint rather nicely.

Current spec is as follows:

Homemade fillet-brazed frame (Columbus Spirit, Life and Zona tubing) with wishbone rear stay and 44mm headtube. Red/gold Chromacoat paint over black base.
Custom painted 3T Rigida LTD forks
Chris King Inset 7 headset
3T Apex LTD stem (as built, Pro XLT in photo - that's another story...)
3T Aeronova Team Stealth bars
3T Stylus Zero LTD seatpost
Fizik Arione R1 saddle
SRAM Omnium cranks
White Industries 23t freewheel
Ultegra 6800 SPD pedals with Garmin Vector 2 spindles and pods
SRAM Red brake calipers
SRAM S900 brake levers
Custom Mack superlite hubs on Kinlin XR31T rims and CX-Ray spokes
Schwalbe The One tyres
Izumi 1/8" chain

Nice frame.

I love the 23t freewheel.

I'm growing quite fond of it. On climbs like Sa Calobra its dinner plate size comes in handy.

I've had to fit a new stem while we've been out in Mallorca. When I built the bike I added a probably-unnecessary 10mm stem spacer, just in case I'd been over-optimistic when designing the frame. After the first day's riding the spacer went from underneath the stem to on top, and it was clear that it wasn't necessary. As shown in this picture (compulsory shot of the bike at the Tunel de Monnaber), with the stem spacer on top of the 120mm 6 degree 3T stem.

Confident that the spacer wasn't necessary and feeling offended by its presence, I borrowed a hacksaw from the owner of the hotel we're staying in and chopped the top 10mm off the fork steerer. All went well until I tried to refit the stem, at which point one of the retaining nuts for the stem bolts snapped in half. They're little top-hat shaped metal pieces which go in the stem clamp opposite the bolt, presumably due to the fact it's a carbon stem and 3T don't think that threads in carbon fibre are a good idea. The trouble is, the top-hat shaped bit appears to be made not from an engineering material like titanium or steel, but from something more akin to a mature soft cheese. I was using a torque wrench, and was nowhere near the 4Nm I was aiming for when it snapped.

So, emergency stem purchasing time. No stems were to be found in Soller, so I got a replacement from the bike shop in Bunyola. The closest size they had which wasn't available only in white (I'm not fussy, but I have some standards) was a PRO XLT 130mm 10 degree stem. Quite a bit longer and lower than the 120mm 6 degree 3T stem I had fitted.

But actually, I rather like it and prefer the position with the new PRO stem. It's a bit noodly and a bit heavy, so I'm now in the market for a decent carbon 130mm 10 degree stem...

I'd come to the conclusion (standing on the shoulders of giants) that carbon is a poor choice of material for a stem: in order to be adequately stiff, it has to be so massive as to weigh more than aluminium.

Have things have moved on?

No, I think you're right. The benefits of carbon in that application are decidedly marginal at best. I should probably just get a decent 130mm 10 degree stem and forget about the carbon bit.

Yeah, but crabon...

Ultegra 6800 SPD pedals with Garmin Vector 2 spindles and pods

I missed this first time around!

Interesting hack: plug & play or much tweak, many swear?

Easy enough with the Garmin adaptors - http://www.wiggle.com/garmin-vector-shimano-ultegra-pedal-cartridges/

Only hard thing was disassembling the Shimano pedals. Those Shimano chaps sure love their threadlock and the nut on the pedal assembly is both slightly undersized and has pre-rounded corners. Once they were apart though it was plain sailing.

Easy enough with the Garmin adaptors...

Oh, I'm slightly disappointed: I was hoping for some Fred Dibnah style, garden-shed engineering.

Gorgeous bike built up, you've done a cracking job all-in.

Carbon stems can be stiffer, or lighter, but rarely at the same time. There's marginal difference for material selection in stems, all about the way its applied. Source:
http://blog.fairwheelbikes.com/reviews-and-testing/stem-review/

Soz. But if I had made the adaptors myself, it wouldn't have been in the garden shed. That's full of bikes. The machine tools are in the dining room:

Cheers. I've seen that study from Fairwheel Bikes and it makes interesting reading. I'm currently bemoaning the lack of 10 degree stems, and wondering if my back could live with a -17 degree stem on this bike. It's another 16mm drop, and I fear the answer may be no...

Incorporate a couple of minutes of touching your toes into your morning routine?

More importantly, -17 stems look daft with a sloping top tube.

Make a stem, pmw gave lovely kits, you've got the know how. Problem solved!

Touching my toes? I told them it was over when I was 16, and I'm not looking back. Seriously though, I've said for many years that I should improve my flexibility. Seems there's a difference between saying and doing. Who knew?

A sloping top tube is basically an admission that you have short legs. I'm good with that. Well, I'm resigned to having short legs...

Touching my toes? I told them it was over when I was 16, and I'm not looking back. Seriously though, I've said for many years that I should improve my flexibility. Seems there's a difference between saying and doing. Who knew?

My left hamstring packs up on longer rides if I don't stretch regularly, serves to focus the mind on including a couple of mins of stretching into the mornings routine. I genuinely feel much better when I've had a long run of taking the time to do it (this tends to go to pot when I travel, getting a taxi at 4.30am doesn't go well with a couple of minutes of stretching, for example).

How can you even stretch in the morning? I need to have done half an hour of warming up to stop my muscles tearing when bending to put my pants on.

#middleage

I'm with @Hefty. Before midday I'm struggling to pour my second cup of coffee, let alone give my hamstrings a good seeing to.

Get up, cycle from Forest Hill to Soho as fast as I can, shower, stretch and dress at the gym, head to work via the coffee shop.

Get up, 1.5 miles mostly downhill to Ely station, large skinny latte and a flapjack, go back to sleep. Pfar with you and your Londoncentric excitable sensibilities. I'm with @Hefty and his more laid-back Fenland way of life. Or I hope to be, anyway. ATM, it's a bit aspirational.

I'm guessing Porsche must do one of these?

SouthLondoncentric