Gideon's bike life - Genesis, Graham Weigh, Cinelli, Land Shark & Ritchey

Last ride on the Donohue's 105 groupset yesterday, & it went out with a bang on a hilly 125 mile ride in the Dales.

Today, I'm WFH & wrestling with some horrendous build issues (I'm a software engineer), so in the gaps between those failing, I'm sneakily getting in some more fun building instead. First does need a bit of a clean though.

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Great stable, looking forward to seeing the Ultegra on the Donohue.

What's the stem I.D on the Don? Might just be the length but it looks like it has a relatively slim profile.

Cheers! I've had a busy week, so still need to index, cut cables & tape the bars. Undecided on bar tape, might go for something tackier than the Fizik soft touch stuff I usually use. Hopefully getting it finished next week.

The stem is a 130mm Deda Elementi Superleggero. I managed to get it for £30 on Facebook & is a bit silly in its length, but I changed to compact bars too so it feels fine. I really like the stem, it's quite sleek & suits much better than the Fizik one I had before.

This roadie is really lovely ! Please give it a deep clean and degreaser, then a bit of shiny coat. ;=)

Cheers, yeah it's very nice but wow that retail price! £30 was a score.

I like supacaz tape, it’s a bit tackier than fizik and comes with sweet bar end plugs.

Cheers! It really does need a strip & a respray at some point - thankfully Bob Jackson is just across the valley. It's one of those jobs which I'll get around to at some point as it's not super concerning - the current paint is good quality & is pretty tough, so is protecting the frame well. It's just starting to look a bit worn after probably twenty five years of riding. Love the style on it though, fades are fun.

Yeah, i wasn’t considering a respray but kinda deep clean and polishing. However if you do paint it, go for a nice green racing or purple !

WFH again today, so finished off the last bits at lunch. Put the full carbon fork on my brother gave me a while back & it feels really quite light now (I'm not really all that used to light bikes though)!

Looking forward to riding it! Am away for the next four days on the Croix de Fer though, cycling up to Kielder for Dirty Reiver.

Edit: Oh & I know @TM will complain about the front brake nut - can't find the medium length one I have somewhere, will find it at some point though.

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excellent

Cheers! Ultegra R8000 feels like lovely kit just from installing it.

Looks good, glad you found a use for those forks.

Wrote up a bit of our Dirty Reiver experience. Croix de Fer performed perfectly except for the shifter giving me a bit more stress than I was after on the way in (got so stiff it required two hands to shift, thankfully easily resolved with a dumping some wet lube into the shifter). Slicks worked way better than expected. I still need to get better at more-technical-than-road descending, but at least I can catch up on the climbs.

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Was just about to take the Donohue out for its first foray & was redoing the cleat positioning to avoid causing heel rub on the new cranks. Looks like I need new pedals - seems I've ripped a chunk off the clip on the drive side pedal. Was wondering why they felt a bit floaty, barely clips on! Anyone got any LOOK Kéo recommendations?

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The more I think about it though, I have worn through three sets of road shoes because the heels couldn't keep up with the walking, & my current set are currently fixed with a dab of glue on the heel - not the best look.

I was really happy touring on my road bike on SPDs last year, & with doing more all-road type cycling, I'm kind of swaying towards just sticking with SPDs. Don't want to invest further in a system which I essentially only use on one bike. I read somewhere on here that the Shimano PDA600s were pretty well regarded. Might give those a shot instead. Would certainly look better than whacking a set of M520s on.

I have the pda600s on my tourer. They hang vertically when unclipped so feel pretty similar to sdp-sl when engaging. Pretty light too. I really really like the xt spd pedals though, they just engage really solidly.

Did a chill sixty miler yesterday with the PDA600s & am really impressed too! They feel secure & look decent - though they'll scratch up quickly I imagine with metal cleats - wanted something SPD which looked pretty similar to a road pedal.

Got a friend who has the XT pedals, on his all-road bike, mind. He really rates them. Will have a look myself for my Croix de Fer, & I keep coming unclipped on that at the mo, which is limiting radness!

Unfun news for the Croix de Fer. On a generally painful ride last weekend (got caught in a thunder/hail storm on top of a very exposed moor), I found that my front brake completely stopped working at the bottom of a gravelly descent. Eventually got around to taking it into my LBS today & the diagnosis is that the master piston in the lever is shot, & they recommended either buying a new shifter (~£300) or they can order the part but there's an eight week wait for it. They did say that it was going to go soon when I last had the brakes bled six months ago. Glad it didn't happen while touring/on a bigger ride.

Particularly sad times as I was hoping to gravelly bikepacking next weekend with some friends. Looks like I'll have to take the roadie route & rendezvous at cafés & pubs.

I'll go for the cheaper option as I can afford to wait - got three other bikes, I'm away for three weeks of June & currently buying a house. Still a pain. Has me looking on eBay for new gravelly bikes now though, hmm.

On that note of being away in June, part of what I'm doing is cycling from Paris to Madrid in nine days for charity - PLAN International - with work. We're raising money to support PLAN's program in south America where they're helping give equal opportunities to young girls & boys, it's a great scheme.

See below

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Cheers for the suggestion, but wrong lever.

Popped into Woodrup on Tuesday after work & they seemed hopeful that it might arrive before their original estimate. Was going to take my bike home as I thought it might be inconvenient, it cluttering up their workshop for eight weeks, but they were fine with it. Saved a bit of faff.

Eventually got around to doing some maintenance on the MASH yesterday. I've been treating it as a beater for a while now & winter has been hard on it. The rear wheel is out of true & all the spoke nipples have rusted, so don't think I'll be able to get it straight again, plus I rounded one of the nuts on the front wheel, so can't remove that now. Fun times. A least it's a little shinier now.

Also realised that the other bike I was interested in on eBay ends on Sunday afternoon - when I might be at the Tan Hill Inn with more than likely precisely no signal. Inconvenient. Least the forecast for rain up there has abated a little.

Just got back from riding the 900 miles from Paris to Madrid last week, where we got beeped at by drivers maybe five times. Today, on my first ride back, I got 0.1 miles down my road before a driver beeped at me because he couldn't get past. Fun to be home.

Anyway, it was a fantastic experience & I've managed to raise >£800 for charity, so that's great! My Donohue road perfectly, & was by far the oldest & heaviest bike in the team, but I still managed to be ahead on the flats, climbs & descents, heh - Yorkshire riding is pretty good training. I'll write some more about it & riding in Mallorca later in the week.

Someone is selling a Donohue weirdly similar to yours on ebay, 853 blue and white frame, ultegra groupset and hunt wheels. Had to double check it wasn't yours, although on closer inspection doesn't look anywhere as nice as yours

Considering the fact that mine is currently in a van somewhere in London, you had me worried then! Got a link?