Working a job you hate to buy things you don’t need...

I bought some Challenge tyres about 3 months ago with a view to fitting them to my daily commuter. However, they proved an utter bastard to fit and I didn't end up using them. So they remained on the shelves gathering dust with all the other cast off bits.

The tyres have this picture on the back

Look how easy fitting tyres is! What I did notice missing from the pictures is the one of snapped thumbs, blood everywhere and a wheel being launched across the garage. Challenge lie like a walking lie machine - these tyres are an utter bastard to fit....

Anyway, I'm at my mums at the moment looking after her whilst she's not well. Fortunately she's playing her part and sleeping a lot which means I can spend my time building up shit bikes from bits I have in the garage.

I have a lot of shit bikes in the garage, 9 frames as of this morning (plus 5 completes!). Anyway, one of those is my old airborne Carpe Diem and fortunately said frame will happily accept the Challenge tyres in a fruity 30mm flavour. It's not without its issues though, not least because of the slightly 80's paint scheme. It also has three sets of bottle bosses (so Adventurist) but sadly one has a snapped off bolt very much 'welded' into it. So I dragged it out and stuck it in the stand.

I then realised I don't have a clue what I'm doing and dragged it back out the stand and took it to my mate Widget. Widget is my best mate (ahhh) and collectively we own a paint/body shop in darkest rural Suffolk. I say own, he does all the work and I pay the rent. Anyway, first job was to remove the stuck bottle bolt

Here it is stuck in the frame

After much drilling, using some sort of tap thing and a helicoil we ended up with this

Hurrah - ready for 3-bottle adventuring. Mint.

Widget then suggested we paint the frame. Which involved prep. Now we (he) could have gone down the route of stripping ALL the paints off the frame and then filling any dings and what not for a mirror like finish. However I'm lazy and impatient and wanted to go get some lunch so I suggested we (he) flat back the paint, rough it up a bit and then paint it. Widget wasn't keen on this idea, but I was buying lunch and therefore that decision was made. Here it is being prep'd. It doesn't look much but the paint was crazy thick and frankly I was crazy hungry. Hunger won..Note the P2 steel fork also getting some lovely painty goodness. That thing weighs more than dark matter, however its very strong and its the only straight steerer fork I have. So its going on..

This is Widget masking off the BB. Everyone should have a Widget

He then got stuck into the painting. Now all joking aside he's a bloody good painter and has ALL THE THINGS to paint stuff. Like a mixing scheme that weighs paint and shit, you know - good shit. Anyway, I went with black because..well because it'll look mega with the skin walls. And it covers up the chips a bit better

Widget painting and looking like he's cleaning a crime scene...

So the end result. It looks great, although as Widget pointed out, if I'd spent more time prepping the frame I could have removed all the chips in the paint. Prepping doesn't get me breakfast, so obviously I ignored him

Tonight whilst making mum soup, I shall be re-lacing some rims on to a spare pair of Hope hubs I've got, and then trying to fit the tyres after they've been on the radiator for a bit.

Rest of the build will be whatever I have in the garage. It'll be 1x10, thompson post, BB7's, Fizik saddle and possibly some pimpy carbonz cranks depending on the BCD (I've ordered a Narrow/wide ring which may or may not fit.

Hoping to have it finished tomorrow to be ridden to Lincoln on Friday. From Suffolk...yeah, like thats going to happen

we own a paint/body shop in darkest rural Suffolk

Where/what's it called?

RP Autoshop - in Elmsett. He's only been trading properly for about 6 months but previously worked for a chap who restores air-cooled stuff.

Here's a picture of the stuff he's currently working on (in addition to the two bay windows in the other unit). At the front is an F150 lightening that's being painted as a shop truck, behind that is an F100 with Corvette running gear and next to it is my M6 in for paint whilst the engine is being rebuilt

Change of plan tonight regarding wheels. As much as I love hope hubs, I couldn't be arsed to unlace the rims off them, then lace up another set. So replaced a spoke (guess which one) in a set of novatechs on Alex rims that came with the GT and stuck TBT (them bastard tyres) on. Look mint in my opinion, let's see if they stay on this time...

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My kind of thread this. More lunch updates please.

Lol..!
Great thread.

Where can I get myself a 'Widget'?

Seems like a useful thing to have.

these tyres are an utter bastard to fit....

They do call them Challenge after all.

Always had a thing for Airborne frames, and building a bike around HHSB tyres is always a crowd pleaser. Looking forward to finished build.

great stuff.

would also like updates on the M6 in due course... please.

Sub

This is how you do a biek

This thread epitomises everything I love about the Current Projects section. Hope your mum gets well soon. If my brother saw the amount of space you have to work in, he would vomit with jealously.

Thank you, thats muchly appreciated.

Righty, updates - I got updates. After a somewhat lazy start and running mum down the doctors (I was easily the youngest in there by a good 30 years - welcome to Suffolk!) I headed over to the paint shop armed with breakfast in the form of bacon rolls for both Widget and myself. He complained because I opted for brown sauce and not tomato, I ignored him because I was too busy getting all excited about the now dry Crap Diem. As mentioned, if you look up close you can see the paint chips under the paint, but from arms length it looked mint. The forks came up even better although it was noted by Widget that they weigh more than the frame. I told him if he stopped eating breakfast I could afford a decent set. Queue awkward silence....Such was my excitement that I forgot to take any more pictures, but if you scroll up it looks very similar to the ones above. Only dryer.

Anyway, after picking bits of paint off a battered splitty for a bit I could contain my excitement no longer and headed back to the garage to build it up. Her up? Him up? Anyway, the whole point of this exercise was to spend as little money as possible whilst still using the tyres that I'd bought. Raiding the spare parts bin, I came up with the following list of parts

Stainless Hope BB
BB7's with a new packet of pads
Fizik Gobi (or a special edition TDF Arione which is the most uncomfortable saddle I've ever sat on)
Some no name bars
Bontrager stem
Thompson wonky post
SLX cranks with a Raceface narrow/wide ring (albeit a slightly small 32t)
105 10-speed group set with some shifters that have been down the road at some point.
A new pack of bar tape. Winner!
Some weird SPD's that I used to race XC on (these are actually race winning pedals - true story bro)

Needless to say, I was quite surprised. I need to stop buying shit.

There are some builds that are an utter bastard to put together. Shit just not fitting, or bent, or seized in place. Cables that are too short, or frayed, or just not being able to find bits not to mention cross-threading stuff. This was not one of those builds.

I wanted this to last a while and be solid enough to tour on (I've got a few other bikes that are probably better for quicker stuff) and ultimately not worry too much about if its getting slung on trains or being left outside for any length of time. To make sure bits could be replaced, everything was treated with a liberal coating of grease and I used those fancy Shimano teflon cables to ensure decent shifting hopefully without needing much maintenance. These came from one of my other bikes that got written off by an Addison Lee car, bastards that they are.

Anyway, finished up by wrapping the bars with the tape (BBB stuff - hella cheap but actually really nice to use and much easier to wrap than Lizard Skinz stuff). Pro tip - wash your hands before wrapping white bar tape. Or don't fit a cassette and chain prior to wrapping bars. Either way, greasy marks ahoy!

Really pleased with how it turned out. There's still a fair few jobs to do. Firstly, invisi-tape the frame or at least cover the bits that'll see chain/cable rub. I'm pretty sure I can bodge a set of guards together from the billion half sets I've got in the garage and I need to order a bigger chainring. Also need to finish stripping the wheels of stickers (see big white line on front rim - need heat gun!). Also need a rear tube with a shorter valve - had to pinch this one off a set of deep carbon rims on my race bike.

Luggage is a big question. I've got some Revelate bags for the front and back but I've also got a rack and Ortleib panniers that I could use. Will have to see whether the rack clears the rear brake calliper otherwise that decision may well be made for me.

Will also cut down the steerer at some point once I've worked out the best position on it.

Excuse the decor - its my mums gaff!

And the best bit - total cost over two days = £0!

Three bottles on my wagon..

Possible room for 650+ at some point

Sooooo...... what time are you off to Lincoln tomorrow?

I love boring people about my tales of woe regarding the M6. I bought it two years ago as a minter from a super car dealership in Goudhurst. 1 owner, low miles. I'd actually gone to see an AMG merc they had, but I've always wanted a V10 M series car and this was there. Anyway, I bought it and roughly 100 miles in, the clutch started making some funky noises. The place I bought it from argued that it was me doing doughnuts in it that wrecked. I argued that even if I had (I hadn't) then I'd expect it to put up with a bit of stick. Anyway, they agreed to chip in an £5k later it had a new clutch and flywheel. Running the new clutch in, I heard a tapping. Being the utter pro I am, I ignored the tapping and continued down the A21. At which point the engine seized solid.

So its been sat in the shed since then whilst I fight it out with the dealer and BMW, neither of which want to help (surprise!). Its now having the engine rebuilt in Darlington by a bloke who specialises in V10 BMW's (and apparently the V8 ones now too as they're basically the same engine minus 2 cylinders). It needs a bit of a refresh paint wise and I may or may not change the suspension as the current stuff isn't great. Its definitely getting new brakes as the originals are crap and once all done I'll use it for a bit and sell it.

It's due back at the end of March, fingers crossed it actually works for more than the 200 miles its done so far..

Err, yeah....err, so about that.

If I can drag my fat arse out of bed early enough then it'll be around 10'ish (with the bare minimum done to the bike to finish it). Failing that I'll set off Saturday although I need to be back in London on Monday for meetings so we shall see (we won't, I'll drink too much beer tonight and bin off the whole idea in favour of going MTB'ing in Thetford).

Looks great, but I'm a sucker for a black bike...

Hope everything works out with your mum.

I'll drink too much beer tonight and bin off the whole idea in favour of going MTB'ing in Thetford).

Good plan, join us Badgers

But what's the wheelbase?

Pretty standard judging by the front centre.

Rep ^ ^^

Wow, that was excessive bad luck with the M6.

Good luck with the rebuild - will be great to see it back on the road.

Just go 2jz like this instead: http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/07/the-851bhp-toyota-powered-bmw-hybrid/ ;)

Excellent thread, well done! Bike looks good too. I'll admit, after all that build up I was disappointed by

Anyway, I went with black

Especially with the facilities at your disposal