Current Projects chat and miscellany

That shape is heavy but the colors work pretty nice with the frame. That said I think it’s too beefy for that fork/front end.

This is cool. Looking forward to it, wonder how low of a weight you’re gonna get.

Holdsworth path in ss mode. It’s getting pdws and a carradice saddlebag for winter wetness. Gaston, yes that’s an xa with 26mm bars. I’ll shim it properly before it’s finished.

Stem is totes approved

Guess who's back

With an all new flavour.

Need to move the old headset across, sort the brake rotors, new grips, and do a bit of a Middleburn shuffle.

Favourite bike lives once again

Gorgeous!

Noice noice! Love me some of the Explosif ting!

Hows those E13's?

Maybe one day I'll find one that fits me, haha.

They're really, really nice. And impressively light. The Internet talks shit about BSA30 bb longevity, but who knows eh. Think I'll keep them around for a future project, got a 32t direct mount ring on the way too

Building up a modern groupset on old frame type commuter. Trying to keep it cheap so so far a mixture of Tiagra 4700 and Ultegra parts. Unsure at the moment whether to keep the ratty paint or strip it back to the chrome underneath (whole frame is chromed),. I'm a little wary of this as don't want it to get nicked as it has to get locked up in Central London.

Other than that, just got to decide on what bars - (I was thinking Deda Piega for cheapness unless anyone can recommend anything else more compact with shallower drops?) and whether to go for all black stem and seat post or stay silver? Your two penneth worths most welcome....

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The chrome under the paint will be shit and as that's down to surface prep, nothing you can do to improve it.

keep the ratty paint

^ this.

Nobody is making new chromed bikes in any numbers. And it's shiny. What's not to like?

can't be polished up then?-only seems to have light scratches to it, which may explain why the paint peels so easily in the first place...

I'd put a clear coat of 2k on it to preserve the current rat look as it is quite cool.
As for finishing kit I'd go silver or gunmetal.

Is clearcoat over chrome a good idea. Chrome is very porous. I always though that's why it goes a bit yellow when over chrome?

Don't know, never done it before.
I had a chromed frame shot blasted and powdercoated black. It was shit. It flaked and the chrome was beyond saving after that.

I stripped a Raleigh Nightburner back to chrome. It was a semi translucent black finish before (called superchrome I think - so it may be different to normal paint). It looked fine. No scratches beyond what would be normal of a bike that age.

Looks fun!

can't be polished up then?

Nope, the dullness is down to the preparation of the substrate and not the actual chroming.

At a guess, batch producers found it cheaper to dip the whole frame, rather than just the "show" parts: just as with paint, prep is everything (and costly).

Again a guess, but an actual "chromovelato" (sp?) finish would require "show" chrome even under the paint, which would explain what @tallsam found under the paint of his Nightburner versus what I found on my Olagnero.

How does the finish between the rear triangle and the revealed chrome on the top tube compare?

Went from old da7800 back to tiagra in search of compact, and it doesn't look anywhere near as bad as I'd thought.
All for an audax I didn't ride.

Nice ALBG saddle seat post setup : )
Wy didn't you ride the audax ?

Happy for you mate !

ALBG

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ALBG ???!? Surely not?

Too much work to justify having a day off on a Wednesday, it's okay though - two more hilly ones this month!

LOL
ALBG A Little Bit Gaston
It's an expression that was born here around 2009...
BTW nice Nago CF8 shiffter ; )

Nice stem, lovely detail.

Father-in-law's shed bike up and running again. Schwalbe City Jets for keeping up with burning the hybrids. It ain't pretty, but it's pretty fun.