Custom Orlowski Workhorse

Last time I checked it was mostly ex-Londonengers keeping the fixie flag flying in Edinburgh.

this

All was paradise until I was drafting the car of my host for the night back to the casa and a monster pothole sailed between his wheels and right in front of mine. My front wheel smashed into the far side of it, a loud bang then tyres screeching, horns and much swearing ensued. I'm still on the bike somehow but all is not well...

Not that I'd ride the fork after a crash like that but does go to show the resiliency of carbon..

Anyways that'll buff right out

fuckfuckfuckity

my condolences!

good to hear youre unscathed!

Yeah it's crazy! That fork is the oldest part on the bike too, it's the Alpina one that came with the FXE 9 years ago and has been on all the tours, courier work etc since. What surprised me was that the front tyre didn't blow out either, that was my first thought when I heard the noise from the impact

Thanks, as soon as it happened my first thought was "I got off lightly there", pretty gutted to miss out on the good riding but as for the bike - I'm always keen for a project

Sad to see the bike like this, but maybe its fitting that it gets retired from a riding incident rather than just being old etc.

Aye it's in a sorry state at the minute but it's not retired just yet.
The plan is to replace the front end with a slight adjustment to the geometry/fit, still rebuild the wheels and generally overhaul and service everything

Even better! I have an old steel frame that I'm planning to do a similar conversion for, although getting some 1" disc brake forks basically necessitates going custom.

Its my go to bike for commuting and most longer rides just with 25s and mudguards. The idea of 30+, mudguards, front rack is really appealing

Sweet, yeah can't imagine there's anything OTP that fits the bill

Here's the new geo drawing based around the old rear triangle and the new fork

It's taller and ever so slightly longer than previously putting me in the exact same position as my road bike (which I've been fitted on and find very comfortable) using a 130mm -10 stem, thinking that I'm unlikely to want to be longer or lower than this but may feel the need to go shorter/higher for touring, off-road or reduced flexibility in future. That said, that's a lot of stem so may stretch the frame to provide the same fit with a 120mm stem and still have a bit of room for manoeuvre either way

Got the Orlo back in the post today so stripped it down ready to receive some much needed TLC. Externally it's beat to hell, aside from the wrecked front end there's many dents, paint is gouged and scratched and there's rust coming through from where I added bosses then just rattle-canned it. However on the inside it's unbelievably clean and rust free.

In stark contrast

I also took delivery of a few bits for the rebuild

First impression of the hub: notchy and heavy but I've been assured I won't notice it

You won't notice it. I have the same hub and it's been faultless for years. Are you going to paint the frame in a different colour or keep it black?

What size tyres will you run? That's a biiig rim for, say, a 28

I'm not sure yet, I was talking to the painter about it saying I like the idea of it being understated and just rattle canning it but he reckoned with prep it would take no more time to do a quick but proper wet-on-wet job. In that case probably just black with no decals. However if the painter has something he wants to try out I could be swayed.

I've got some 38's to go on, doubt I'll ever go smaller than that. They're definitely over kill for this type of bike but they were super cheap and should take a hell of a beating

Yesterdays lunchtime project was serving my Phil Wood rear hub. I've had this thing 9 years now, it's done all the tours, years of courier work and everything in between...all on it's original set of bearings. Since I'm about to rebuild the wheel I thought I'd take the opportunity to give a deep clean, polish, new bearings and bolts.

Before:

Some damage to the side that needed looking after before going any further

Out of the ultrasonic cleaner

Polishing

Ready for reassembly

I know everybody knows this but the quality of these hubs is just next level. I really love being able to use, abuse, service and re-use things. There's something so satisfying about showing a well used and trusty item some love, making it like new again and ready for many more years of service. I hope that for as long as I'm riding fixed I'm riding this hub

I really love being able to use, abuse, service and re-use things

Me too. I like doing it by proxy as well, thanks for the pics!

I'm back in the workshop today to work on repairing the frame. Had a chat yesterday with the bossman about what tubes we're available for me to nab...free reign to use whatever I can lay my hands on.

Originally the frame was made with Zona tubes, 32mm DT and 28.6mm TT. First thought was to use a 35mm Zona downtube and 32>28mm taper toptube which we keep stock of. Good and suitable options...

However on the top shelf in a ratty cardboard box there's a small treasure trove of random tubes providing some interesting options: including 631 28.6 TT, 953 TT, XCR HT, MAX top and downtubes (left over from prototyping Chris Hoy's Keirin track bike) and more besides.

I'll think I'll leave the stainless alone, for another, fancier bike but I do love the Max tubes and think they add some interest to the profile of a bike so think I'll use the downtube. For the toptube I'm torn, the bike will have gained a good amount of weight in the overhaul so (the irrational) part of me wants to keep it light where I can, on the other hand I've found the TT to be the part of the bike that often suffers dents so using something burlier may be wise.

(left over from prototyping Chris Hoy's Keirin track bike)

As you do.

Is this bike ever going to be super light? I feel like peace of mind with a durable tube would be worth more. As a do it all bike

Edit: Oh man, I just clicked on the link to that flickr album. Those fork blades! That paint. What a beautiful bike

I'd steer clear of mixing stainless and non-stainless steel in something that can get wet, because I'm scared of bi-metallic corrosion. Is it a real concern when compared to normal rusting? Not sure.

On another note I'm considering tubesets for my upcoming build and am leaning towards oversized (853) to make the frame torsionally stiff to avoid shimmy when riding loaded. Does this sort of thing factor into your musings?

Serving a Phil hub is a lovely process isn’t it. I use the getto method of a front QR as a press and the old bearings to protect the new ones. How many miles do you think you get from a set. I’ve got through a couple of set is 20k miles of riding.

That's the logical side of the argument. All stripped down it actually used to be very light but I feel the extra comfort, opportunity to road different terrain, peace of mind and dynamo lighting more than offset whatever weight penalty