Half-hopping the Nanolight

46t will work well, it's just on the theshold of nearly being small for a road bike, but plenty for everything, you just need to gun it up steep hill standing up.

Thanks for the ring reccos. Ordering from the states is a bit of a faff, but if that's how it's got to be.

I've taken the 48T off another bike, which is a Velosolo 3/32 and will try that out for size before ordering.

Here's a teaser of the frame

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Unfortunately I've fucked up a bit.

I've painted a couple of bikes before and have always laid the paint on thick then flatted it back for a nice orange-peel-less finish. I didn't want to put too much paint on this for fear of adding lots of weight, but I took it too far to the extreme and apparently put too little on. The lightest of sanding has gone through to the white in two places.

Bum.

So I've had to stick a load more paint on and it's back in the garage drying again.

Ah well.

I found a new, still in box SRAM 46T ring today (when looking for some carbon assembly paste which I did not find), it's their version of drop-stop, but it's a 110 bcd. Dunno if that's any use to you?

I got excited until 110. I'm pretty sure FSA are 130.

Try Raceface or Superstar Components. They can be had for a half decent price and come in various bcds.

Thanks. They look like more local possibilities.

This afternoon I have been mainly beating myself up over not being as good at painting as @JamesNQ

It's difficult to capture, but there's still some texture in the paint:

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But then I see stuff like this Mason:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/301243/

And it's at least as good as that so maybe I'm being over critical.

Couldn't resist putting in the seatpost and fork so it looks a bit like a bike but I now must resist touching it for a week to let the paint harden fully.

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Looks great. What do the graphics say?

Looks great and love the wheel barrow planter. What do the graphics say?

The wheelbarrow planter is actually just a wheelbarrow full of plants while I rebuild the flower beds in front of the house. Once that's done the plants will go back in and the wheelbarrow planter will be a plain old wheelbarrow again.

The GFX are little excerpts from the logo of my shop, so they don't really say anything unless you're me. :)

Graphite blue metallic wheelbarrow. Do it!

Paint looks really good for a rattlecan job. What prep did you do to the frame before you sprayed it? Guessing you didn't strip it back to the carbon but did you rough it up a bit first?

Yeah, I didn't see the need to take it all off just to then prime it again so I used 180 grit to key it well then 400 grit to get a smooth enough finish to paint on.

Sadly there's not enough left in the tin to colour code the wheelbarrow. I could maybe do the wheel.

That's cos all your dough is in vintage Porsches and camper vans...

Trudat.

Though strictly the 914 is a VW-Porsche so not as poncy as all that.

Also. I have a plan for a fun Sunday. Will PM or text or something.

Couple of rattlecans and stickers and it looks like boutique instagram fodder. Excellent work

Wait til you see the wheels. All kinds of generic 'gram worthy slavery.

Hopefully tomorrow.

38mm x 25mm UD Chinese crabon clinchers via CX Ray blades to Hope RS4. In orange. Obvs.

Just under 1600g the pair (715 and 881 for 20 and 24 spoke) so not the lightest of all time but the rims are very robust so I hopefully won't come a cropper.

Latex tubes and GP4000s should come tomorrow.

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Should have said: built by Andy at Bicycle Ambulance in Cambridge. Cos that's where I live.

Jesus! That's heavier that any of my aluminium wheels! PLUS the usual carbon brake surface dramas... look nice though.

But they will get more likes on the gram so who cares?

And make a nice noise when you tank it down the road to the cafe with 120psi in your fragile gumwalls.

I'd take wide + aero > weight all day long