TomvanHalen's MTB allsorts - drop bars are dead

I'll pop in to the Giant store and enquire about a service kit if that will help?

That would be ace. Was planning to pen an email to Winstanley's this eve

Giant store sayz:

• Giant do not sell a service kit to consumers
  
• These posts can be serviced by a Giant store, but
  
• If parts are missing they cannot be replaced
  
  

Might be worth following an ebay search for a busted post which you can scavenge a new telescope assembly from : /

Sigh. Will try for warranty first anyway. Thanks muchly

I love the chameleon build. brilliant turned out sweeet

Still holding up nicely! Impressive stuff if you apply it evenly.

Just acquired these from @BareNecessities for rigid fork stopping duties. The old levers were sloppier than scrambled eggs and beans from a roadside caff

what fork is it and is the head tube 1''? seeing this has given me ideas for budget hack /fun bike
:)

Normal 1 1/8". Not many 1" MTBs out there. Fork is a Fox 32 Vanilla RLC, at 100mm, which is a preposterously nice bit of kit

its does look really good
1 1/8th ok that's what i thought, scanning ebay for an old frame / bargain.
thanks

Did a mini tour on the ol' Raleigh.

Been out a few times on it this year and just can't get comfortable. Really need to make some alterations. Still thinking longer fork, disc mounts, wankyradavist Jones-type bars or similar, and a saddle that doesn't want to kill me. I hate saddles. FML

That looks rad. I spent all weekend indoors doing homework.

Tough break :(

Four-day weekends are great, but then you have to go back in the lab and ugh.

Had another play around with BikeCAD. I need to measure up the geo properly and then actually try some different forks, but as best I can tell the original geo assumes 400mm a-c. Which is a bit of an awkward length.

I'd like to get a custom fork made up. Segmented forks are obviously the coolest, and all the best bikes have them, like my Saracen, obvs. I would like the fork not to be as bone-jarringly stiff as the one on the Saracen, however. Basically I'd like a rip-off of Sklar's handiwork.

I noticed Transition's 'cross bike has a pretty rad segmented fork, and it's 395 a-c, however I'm not sure if the tyre clearance would be enough, or if I could even get one on its own.

I also don't know what colour this imaginary fork should be. Red works, but colour-matching, ugh. Maybe it should just be sparkly purple.

Sparkly purple and 400mm

Can't buy them that colour on their own tho.

Also not sexy, segmented and straight

I might make that the headtube badge.

Though for srs, they'll probably end up as the stopgap

Ordered way too much stuff at SJS to get the tourer closer to what I want. Saying goodbye to the drop bars and a welcome back to mudguards

While Alpkit Fu Manchu bars remain elusive (and Jones H Bars preposterously expensive) I'm seriously considering one of these monstrosities...

Partly because it looks like a manta ray

got some jones bars from STW for my singular and kinda in love

Finding it hard not to object to them on principle. I don't trawl the classifieds often enough to snag them, and even then second hand prices are basically what other bars cost new

yeah. to be fair I use some zoom cruiser bars on my townie that are almost as good and £60 cheaper

I noticed Transition's 'cross bike has a pretty rad segmented fork, and it's 395 a-c, however I'm not sure if the tyre clearance would be enough, or if I could even get one on its own.

I have that fork lying in a box here. How much clearance do you need? I can measure tomorrow.

You know there's only one real bar for proper cycle tourers.

Well what do you know. I think at least 65mm, probably more like 70-75mm for peace of mind, where a 26" tyre would be. If I committed to 650b could get away with 60mm