MAJs gay bikes [she’s in her fitness era]

I wish that were me, I have a bunch of andwander catalog pics in my "aspirational fashion" folder and I hike in Dickies.

@rawmeat they’re no different to decathalon if it’s comforting to hear, was v blessed to have a friend with a trade price

I now have free electric on my bike, thank you engineer house mate who saw me nearly strangle myself with the cables and cut a toe off with pliers and took pity on me, and welded? Taped? Glued? The cables together

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Ohhh nice safety Lego dolphin...

Very comforting thanks, and your write up has me looking at spending pants money on a hub dynamo now...

@rawmeat if you can just make it till march without buying a setup the evenings get light enough for dynamo people to stop feeling so smug

in other news, I have been on a bit of an ordering spree for the new, yet unnamed or finalised new bicycle.

i done a bit of meditating over the holidays while cat sitting, looking at my past builds and what i did like about them, two themes emerged.

1) nice parts are nice but i hate paying/ replacing them
2) i never actually notice if the parts are nice? (non visually)

i must have ridden 6-7 different wheelsets over this year from buying and selling bikes and i could not tell them apart, 4-5 different drivetrains and unless they were just set up could i tell you which one was best? could i fuck, they all shifted.

i could tell you however, that a Thomson seat post and nice bars really itched the sicko part of my brain, as did nice crank sets

what this resulted in?

for wheels i went for a deore t610 hubs and some discounted VO escapade rims, i'll get them laced with silver spokes and nipples down the road

drivetrain is m4100 with trigger shifter 11-42 cassette, cost the same as trendy microshift but germany stopped shipping them for the time being

i was days away from buying some profile bmx cranks when @whatfriends linked me to some square taper middle burn rs7's with chain ring for a bargain price on ebay, so i go those

i took the thomson inline off my pomp and replaced with a ratty one and a dropper clamp so i'll have this and a spare flite for seating

bars and brakes will be stooge moto's with deore levers and v's, i really liked how shimano vbrakes set up vs other brakes and these seemed nice, can hit them with some acetone

some VO cables, yellow for brakes, the metal look ones for gears

it's all getting delivered down south for when i move (sorry manc, you're too hilly), so im quite excited to have all the parts mature in the shed for a few months and completely change my mind.

but i feel good about it? all used bling parts i got exceptional deals on previously or currently, all the new parts were cheaper than i could find used! i'm undecided if i will get "nice tyres" or "practical tyres", maybe i will be tempted in the final hour if the right 700x2/2.2 terravail comes along, maybe i will just order some 2" conti double fighters and forget about it.

stem will come with the bike, colour scheme im pretty set on mentally but no need to finalise a decision any time soon, think i need a chain? bb, then a headset? headset will likely be a semi internal bmx one (conical oddesy one i think) after some discussions with bike maker in chief, mr mv

alas, enough rambling, here's the pic of my pomp which i took at a wonky angle and a friend straightened

update: thanks to the blessing of the sales, now i just need tyres :relieved:

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If anyone wants some of these stickers, dm me what 2 and I will give you the address to send a SAE to

If you would like to offer something for having them printed/ made, please make a donation to a charity and screenshot with your dm, I’ll Chuck in some extra or a doodle of your bike if picture is submitted, if it’s over £10 or over, add your address I’ll mail the stickers direct with a drawing and some extras

If you need charity ideas

https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/ or your local food bank

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I need those in my life!

As a lifelong teetotaler

I've got mad respect for this.

moved back down south, huge pile of packages awaited me with parts to eventually go on the new monster picnic bike thing

first port of call however, put some drop bars on the pomp ready for those sweet Berkshire lanes, grinding up 6% inclines and never above 400ft on a loop, paradise. for me at least, if only they can ban all cars except the ones i need to use, amirite?

she's not wrong!!!

i also took the opportunity to put this silver Thomson on from @dglshrn , looks snazzy. just waiting for some luminous green cables to arrive and then will lose my mind doing that.

Thought i lost a bolt to my ridea hub in the car moving (nissan note, monster boot space, super mini which folds flat in the back to offer 1.7x1.4m of room, over 1000l etcetc), but was tucked behind the seat release when i was just about to give up.

kind of like how practical this frame is, can just swap between stuff as you feel like, i think next month i might finally buy a hacksaw and a steerer guide and chop the all day fork i have for it, turn it into a little lane roller. put lots of spacers underneath, make it real upright, maybe a small rack for a basket, put the king cages i have tucked away on, take off the frame bag and use the WW bag which currently stores parts.

it's lockdown, what else is there to do?

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Nissan Note project thread when. Could put one of those roof tents on it, chemical toilet in the passenger seat, park up in lay bys to ride the abandoned footpaths that run next to a roads.

the beauty of the nissan note is there is no project, it's already perfect

it would simply be a single post thread, featuring a picture of a nissan note, with a window sticker

then 8 pages of "absolutely unreal boot space that" from assorted forum goers

Hang on though.....what's the window sticker of? That's the key question when it comes to perfection....

I never started so I never gave it up, which doesn't feel much like an achievement to be honest.. I think its must be harder to stop than to never have started. Personally I've way more respect for those that choose sober....That's a battle right there...

Best build yet, looks great

interested in the carbon footprint of making these vs a stamped crimp out of alu, is it like a tote bag where you have to use it 5000x before it offsets a plastic one?

respect the grift tho, £10 for a bolt, my guy a mamil wealth extractor and we stan that

@whatfriends definitely one which says "baby on board" right below a "manchester bee" to let everyone know i drive like an ass, and as such, am one of them, please don't think im a cyclist

i've set up so many vbrakes over the last few months that i can finally do it without wanting to garrotte myself

kinda like that it's a little ugly, can't wait to get passed by a canyon bro in the lanez

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first ride on this and in the queens county over lunch

rides lovely, little lane action, little cycle path, little a road, great

got under took by a top cap staring canyon rider who made no sound and all the cars gave me a lanes worth of space on an overtake

feels good to be back

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canyon riders are the worst

If only they were less Canyon, and more Canyonero

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI_Jl5WFQkA

hard to actually separate this add from most American gravel brands doing it unironically,

Introducing, the CanyonAero

Edit, didn't realise the Canyon Aeroad actually exists haha

little update about the Raleigh replacement, @M_V has been very patient with me faffing about and throwing things i want at him

"needs to be as stable as a truck but feel like a rocket"
"needs the compliance of a noodly 1950s frame but the stiffness of modern carbon"
"the moccamaster coffee maker cabling has to be internal"
"i would like an asymetrical chainstay, one long, one short, to have both stability and snappy acceleration"
"i would like a modular fork system, so i can adjust the rake similar to an adjustable stem"
"can we use high power magnets for bottle cage mounts? i dont want to look like a dork"
"what if i said "monster cross track bike""

but alas we've agreed on a design, and the deposit has been paid, so i guess it's quite real now

all the parts are waiting in my shed, i found a new local wheel builder who has bad enough website design and enough pictures of hybrids to assure me he's very good at what he does

below are some pics, you'll have to guess which is the spec i sent mv and which is the one he sent me

got these great middle burns thanks to a heads up from @whatfriends

and these velo orange escepade rims on sale! so wide! rim brake!!!

i actually think i still need a 10 spd chain, but lots of time to acquire that

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sigh

sticker concept

"middlebooeerrns"

Will this be SS??