What to do with a steel mtb that's a touch small that I don't really need?

The bike looks cool with pink cables. You could use these with lowriders https://www.rosebikes.nl/artikel/tubus-montageset-voor-lowriders/aid:113539 .
And maybe add a seatbag as well.
Just curious, if your touring with your gf wouldnt it be nicer to go camping instead of sleeping in a ditch?

Lol, sleeping in a ditch was reference to a crap joke upthread. We will, of course have a tent. Probably a Coleman cobra3.

Mounts look good but tbh I think a p-clip on the fork with a tubular rail bolted to the basket stay would work perfectly for mounting front panniers.

Another nice Wald equipped MTB.
I reckon you'll need to attach your p-clips above and resting on the brake bosses. Your forks taper so I think if they were mounted anywhere below the brake mountings they could end up sliding down under load like a pair of baggy socks.

That's a point I hadn't considered actually.
Another option was to bungee a couple of bits under the basket and a pair of anything cages on the struts in lieu of front panniers. Plenty of time to think about it tho.

What about ...
A MTB Brake Booster from ebay for a couple of quid and bolt something to that and you basket legs?

1 Attachment

You can use kojaks if the budget doesn't stretch to compass, great tires

I think we'all stick with the BigBens for now, they're practically new and Scoble approves of them for the task at hand.
Far more important crap to acquire like tent and luggage.

Also, big bens are rock solid and hard wearing. And at a 2 psi they are pretty subtle.

Well my folks have confirmed we can hang onto this bike for the foreseeable future so don't mind making it even better for touring.
The original Vetta saddle is perfectly acceptable for Liz's commute but for touring it'll get a Smp trk lady from one of her other bikes. She has a black and a white so can make that choice on aesthetic grounds.
The grips are cheap and hard: serviceable but might get some ergos to try out.
The Wald will stay and I'll either try and make some rails at work as discussed above for front panniers or not worry about it and put luggage elsewhere. As the main triangle is tiny I don't think it's worth having a framebag made.
Have rear rack, doesn't clear the rear Crud guard but will ditch that when we go touring in favour of the rack.
I have a SON hub on my Lht so power is covered. Liz has plenty of usb lights that I can charge during the day when req. Have looked at some cheap 26" dynamo wheels on eBay but not worth it for the amount of use it'd see. The lx/araya wheels are wide, lightish and spin for days so no need to swap it out anyway.
Og Cyclodelic Saddlebag matches the cables perfectly which is ace and fits tools and waterproof.
Will acquire cheap n cheerful panniers one way or the other.

Pics tomorrow.

This is on eBay at the mo, looks voluminous but probably massively impractical.
It does have a real whiff of 'early 90's mtb world tour dude in sandals and cut off denims' about it which does appeal.

1 Attachment

^made a low ball offer and it got accepted. Bargain.

Bag is a winner.

Cheers Jake!
For £30 posted next day recorded you can't go wrong. Will hopefully keep light but bulky items on the back and smaller, heavy bits bungeed in/under/behind the Wald basket. As it's massive there'll always be the risk of overloading the pannier. Potentially shonky but cheap solution and should do the job for a 2 week tour.

Truly disgusting/rad colour on that bag (to anyone who suffered through the early nineties), I can see the appeal. Nice project!

It's going to clash horribly with the paintjob and cables. Gonna be dope.
The rear crud won't clear the rack. Can't decide whether to fit real guards or just let the pannier do the job instead.
Wondering if a brake booster might be an idea to stop the bag getting involved with the rear canti.
Total spend so far inc panniers is still well under £100. Bike was free tho..

Get some cheap full guards and be done with it.

Will do eventually. Won't be fitting the rack til it's finished it's job as winter commuter so will sort guards then. Suspect only 65mm bluemels would clear the snow stud tyre that's on front right now.

I have 2 pairs of 26" mudguards and some other vintage 26" stuff.
You are now , I believe, a resident of Walthamstow as I am.
So do let me know if you are interested.

fuck tha bag is so sick!

Wow

It's so beautiful in the flesh!
Thanks to @Peter_Carter it'll hopefully have some proper guards over the weekend so will pop the rack and pannier on for a few pics. I kinda want it for my bike :/

That bag is epic. I swear I had a shirt that matched it.

Hi Yasi!! Xxx

Well, this bike returned to France when Liz bought her troll as we decided it wasn’t ideal for touring due to lack of mounts.
However, it is still one of the best riding bikes Liz has owned so will hopefully be returning to London very soon for commuting and general fuck around purposes.
It never got the full length ‘guards it deserved but other than that it’s golden.

It means liz will be selling a nearly new charge mixte v soon if anyone is interested.

1 Attachment