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

Glasgow in late September? I'm sure the weather will be lovely, wouldn't worry about it.

That looks like a really nice trip!

Ha, yes, I know, we're risking it a bit. Provisional reports this week put high pressure in charge, possibly even dragging some warm air up from Europe. Fingers crossed!

Also hoping that it's late enough in the season for the midges to be less of a concern.

Love living a convenient distance from the Dales - makes almost spontaneous trips like this so easy!

That's understandable !

New 18T Phil cog makes this bike easier to ride, fewer skids so nicer tyres.

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Had to sack off the Second City Divide due to the weather.

Went up to Glasgow on the train on Saturday & rode out to Lanark through countless windfarms in gorgeous sun. Bumped into a group who were coming into Glasgow, having done the route, who told us how excellent it was & tough in sections. Filled us full of excitement for the week ahead, but we knew the weather was going to change, & by 'eck it did.

There was a board in our hostel in New Lanark with a weather forecast on it - rain every day for the next ten days. It was fine in the morning so the now two of us set off (one friend just went to the train station to head home as his cold had got worse). First twenty miles were great, but while we stopped near Abington to fix a puncture, the weather came in. Friend joked at least it wasn't lightning & literally the next second there was a flash. From that point we climbed to ~550m through a wind farm through strong winds & strong rain, dropped down again & headed past the Talla reservoir. I've done the climb at the end of that reservoir over to Megget twice before (& the LSF sticker I put on the sign the first time is still there!), & it's rained both times I did it, but nothing like we had then. Absolutely horrendous. Soaked to the skin & shivering when we arrived at the halfway point café a little down the road. Couldn't face another fifty miles of wet with a bovvy at the end so sacked it off & rode down to Lockerbie & got a train home. Annoyingly, weather was much much nicer when we left the mountains, so it felt like we abandoned for no reason, but it really was horrible up there.

Going to try it again at some point, maybe next May. It's unfinished business now!

In other news, got solar panels fitted on the house yesterday, & today is similar rain to we had up in the Scottish mountains on Sunday. Not getting much draw from them right now! We would've been aiming for Greg's Hut on Cross Fell today - fat chance of that happening, would've been dangerous attempting in these conditions.

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Second iteration of getting the dynamo light to mount on the handlebars of the Ritchey. Much neater than the first, using a spare part which I bought solely for the specific bolt it came with, glad I kept this bit!

Since the weather is actually good today, a friend & I are restarting our nightlocross series of doing autumnal evening off-road rides. Set up the dynamo light for that. I used it last year & it was pretty good. It does introduce the interesting situation of technical bits being easier the faster you go, otherwise there's not enough light to tackle it.

Hoping to do the PennDURO at the weekend if the weather is acceptable (& Transpennine trains with their frustrating bike policy let me get over to Huddersfield). Anyone else giving it a go?

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New Restrap bar bag came yesterday. Could fit all my tools in, two large inner tubes, food, buff & a spare pair of gloves. Impressed! No Noticeable affect on the handling as well, I totally get the small bar bags now.

Forty hilly miles with more gravel than mud. Proper cold last night & the same this morning. All this rain recently has been keeping the temperatures up, quite a shock when it drops like that! First picture has the tower at the top of Norwood Edge in, where we watched the elite women race on Saturday - amazing atmosphere up there, could've been Alp d'Huez.

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So PennDURO was bloody hard. Started at eight in the morning & rolled back into Huddersfield at eight in the evening. I thought we'd finish much sooner, but then again I was under the impression that it was mainly road riding with a few gravel sections when the proportions were thoroughly the other way around (cheers friend who gave me that impression!).

Was also pretty great. Interesting routes, very gnarly ascents & descents, & the weather was better than I expected. Also managed to get third place (places were decided by cumulative times on the five parcours). A friend who had done a few other of the Racing Collective events said that this was the toughest one he'd done, so pretty chuffed with my position!

Ritchey with the small bar bag worked perfectly for this. It's now a very dirty bike, no idea why I cleaned it before the event!

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Would've liked to have done this. Was it all on public land/bridleways or were there some sections on private land similar to the Pre Peaks?

I think it were pretty much all public access paths. A lot of pennine bridleway signs.

Thanks, I might have a crack at it solo.

Another new project. My brother works in a bike shop & this Triban RC520 frame was going spare, just so happens to be my girlfriend's size, & with decommissioning the Croix de Fer, I figured I'd use the parts to build a gravely/CX bike for her. Quite pleasantly surprised that this frame fits 40mm tyres!

The groupset still has the front brake issue I agonised about a while back, which drove me to the Ritchey. She works in a bike shop & is essentially getting a bike for free, so told her that if she wants a new bike, she can solve that problem. The mechanics at her shop might have a better chance of success than the bike shop I tried.

Still needs a few things - headset, chain, appropriately sized finishing kit, things to use hoses on cable stops etc. Hopefully finished by the weekend.

(Geo looks slacker than it is as there's no headset currently).

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This is probably something I should worry about, isn't it?

Urgh. What can I do about it? Guess a visit to a workshop. Can any framebuilders on here give me an idea? Is replacing a headtube a thing?

I bloody love this bike, I don't want it to die!

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My pessimism overtook me there. Tried to clean it up & took a chunk of paint off & it was just the paint cracked, thankfully!

I think I'm going to strip this bike down & get the frame serviced/repainted over winter. It really needs it.

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Lukcy you.. Looks like it would benefit from being media blasted and powder coated though.

Would this solve your lamp mounting situation?

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I've thought about something like that, but it's quite ugly & wouldn't work with the bar bag.

Certainly! Ordered some decals yesterday & going to fire off an email to Bob Jackson soon to ask about what they can do.

it's quite ugly

Touché. It's not a permanent feature now I have new, non-dyno wheels for the Ritchey.

Any ideas for the paint job?
Sick fadez or something less shouty?

I'm considering going for what it currently is, which is admittedly a bit uninspired. Probably should look at some other options.

Will definitely have some fadez though.

I mean, unless you really like the current paint job, I'd say this was an excuse to get something better - or wilder..