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

@launchpadboi gave me these, wbase revolution risers they picked up from japan some time ago.

now need

31.8 to 25.4 shim
new brake cables
grips
new chain

and it should be able to be built

they're a bit narrow, will i be even able to fit a brake on?? i think if i chop down a grip it will be fine, maybe an esi?

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Thanks @lt , the new gt got a nice ride out - here it is next to a 29r.

bf seems to enjoy it a lot more and has been talking about “getting out on it”, smashed me up the hill on the way home.

Let’s not forget my sisters new Indy classic - Halfords special, she loves it, has a spreadsheet going on how many rides she needs to take instead of the tube to offset it.

With the cost of living rises it’s surprisingly very little!

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Wanna B Amey

:) happy pedallin'

dibs on the GT if it ever goes for sale

That GT is great!

The gt is great! They’re loving it, dubs duly noted

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Took this to bits today,

Was rolling in my sleep wondering what to do with it, and really I have all the “situations covered” between the pacer, xcheck and homer.

I found a good home for it with a friend, wants to do a capital P project on it, and all their other bikes are lovely, seemed more fitting than me botching out the same steel hybrid I make.

I’ve kept the Thomson on it for whatever comes next, not sure really, but after having 8 bikes or so in the house the other day I freaked out so that’s getting cut right back, 4 to start with including the partners.

The wheels, tektro cantis, sram cranks, look pedals are all up for grabs, we all saw it as a bargain on the classifieds so I’ve mentally subtracted what I would have paid for the 3 Thomson bits, if you can swing by n1 to collect dm me an offer and I’m unlikely to say no

The sram levers and deda bars are going to @yoshy for the langster he’s finally having picked up, will be nice to see what he’s doing with it.

The other xl white pomp? I loved riding around London on it last summer and was considering doing the same this year, but I should be getting rid of it. really I’d just ride the x check, I love it, it’s great and has gears and has all the fun the pomp did.

Part of me wanted to keep the frame and rebuild it a bit special down the line, but really I’ve built so many types of pomp I know ultimately I just wanted a 9 speed steel cross bike and I have one. If someone can collect from n1 and wants the whole thing? I’ll list it in the coming weeks, maybe do one more falafel ride on it.

What’s next? No idea, might have more stuff to clear out, I think if I build another bike now, now I have bikes I actually enjoy riding not just looking at?

Well it has to be a little bit dumb and quite absurd so I’ll keep an eye out for something that tickles my fancy

Would like some nice clicky wheels for the pacer tho

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Originally planned a short ride to Walthamstow marshes, which turned into a longer ride to the cafe at Wanstead flats, nice day out, lots of ice cream, lots of dogs

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Good bye white pompino, glad it has gone to a good home with @tjmw !

Now let me see your size 56 alloy track frames, sell me a pre cursa 👁👄👁🤙

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On stand by with 29er recommendations!

After riding a 29r round London all weekend my legs could do with less 29r recommendations

Probably just not comfortable enough

29+ it is then

Thanks @Maj, nice to meet you!

I have purchased a set of hope/tune hubbed wheels for the pacer, they look ace and were quite cheap.

THE FORUM MEMBER WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED, however forgot to inform me of a slight detail.

I agreed to take off their single speed kit and colour me surprised when I went to put my lockring tool in and it did not fit, odd, under close inspection it said “campgnolo” and I’m like whuuuhb?!

So I message them an ask “honey, if I take this lockring off am I going to find a campag free hub”, queue them frantically looking for the original listing they immediately confirm my suspicions

I let out the longest sigh in history and start Googling free hub bodies, they offer to buy them back but to be quite honest even after buying a new body and tool or shop to fit it the deal works out ok, they’re v nice wheels for little money

The hub is a pro 3, I believe I need the hope pro2 evo/ pro 3 shimano body

https://www.merlincycles.com/hope-pro2-evo-pro3-rs-replacement-freehub-body-51254.html

This to be exact

I also believe to change it I remove the end caps by twisting/ pulling, then twist and pull the body before pressing and engaging the new body into the hub shell, and use the hope free hub hammer tool which is £11 to tap it into a snug fit?

All seems very fun (please read this as anxiety enduring)

Funny indeed.

Never buy hopes/DT swiss unless they are EXACT fit of freehub and QR/Thru-axle you want.

You live and learn. Like that one time I had to take my bike into Edwardes to install a saddle.

Depends what you're gonna put on there instead. If you're moving into the present and plan to fit 11 speed on there, you can just use a campag cassette with Shimano or Sram everything else.

on more helpful note; yes you can pull the freehub body on hub, just be careful not to lose the thin spacer and pawls in the process, its quite easy but paying for hope freehub always seems false economy to me, you could sell the wheel/wheelset and get exactly what you after and lose less money than buying a freehub at RRP.

@amey Free hub body is £75? I paid £150 for these with tubes and tyres, seems fine. I’m quite attached to them, nice old logos, good brake surfaces, tb14 rear, ambrosia excel lite front, nice silver spokes.

Last wheel-set I bought near equivalent to this was £200, really not losing anything once you factor in time, if this was a £400 wheelset etc would be just selling back/ to someone else

thanks @PhilDAS , sadly I’m still being a Luddite with friction, so my first thought was “oh it doesn’t matter anyway I can just use a campag casette” but as you will know (I did not) 9 speed campag doesn’t do 11-32 or equivilent

But, am wondering if I am using friction could I use a 10 speed casette with a 9 speed alvio mech, or even a 10 speed mech and 10 speed campag casette might be easier/ cheaper than a free hub switch

Much to think about

decided to get a miche campag 12-29 casette and lose 3 off the top of the casette range, not a big deal for the pacer really considering it only gets ridden in london and has a 38t chain ring. even with lockring tool and shipping comes to £40 - which tbqh is pretty swish considering i can keep the shimano casette for my xcheck.

i suppose having 2x hope wheelsets of the same era should make servicing at some point easier? that's what im supposed to say at a time like this right?

anyway

spent good friday tootling around north, strongrooms and ice cream at romeo and gulietta, partner wanted to stop by tokyo bike to oggle the blue lug stem bags, notably as they have a cat on. however, after touching them sighed and said they will be ordering two decathlon ones instead as they "did not spark joy"

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finally ordered the parts for this last night,

have also gone through a bit of a "philosphy of use" switch up on bike luggage lately - rackless is out, racked and modular basket is in.

weight is increasingly less and less important to me, gearing increasingly so. with this in mind, in addition to the casette and tool from sjs i ordered the infamous jtek rack to strap my wald to for the homer.

i enjoy the rackless bag but it's not good for actually carrying anything more than a day trips worth of stuff, and useless for carrying things you buy out and about. having the rack on the cross check i find myself using this much more if i need to pick something up or take something somewhere, than the handlebar bag.

and when fully loaded it's the gearing which gets me up the hill, not the kg or so saved from the rack.

with this in mind i've asked @Tijmen to make me a basket bag, i previously had the ww one which i didn't get on with, it was fine but it seemed over built for my intended use, my intended use at that time being what i desired a rackless bag for. coffee and a sweatshirt, aesthetics. maybe i hastily wrote baskets and racks off after this.

however returning to the racks i have been using a bag for life in a wald with a cargo net, this can't be improved upon, it's modular, expandable and cheap. nothing can beat this. however one must buy objects to keep the fear at bay and somehow distract themselves from living on gremlin island. realm dark label makes the perfect wald bag, so it started there, but even then i thought it was a little over built for my needs, padding at the sides? side straps? none of this needed once you're carrying stuff. at least i found from chugging my bag for life too and from south norwood.

speaking to tijmen they agreed with me and pushed me into the not needing the side straps especially as i use a net everywhere (get a basket net, they rock).

i think the downside of the design is it doesn't look as good off the bike, but im only ever going to use it on the bike. why would i use my bike bags when im not taking my bikes? i have other bags for those occasions

Anyway here is the rough sketch, seems fun, the design is v guady but i assume will age well. part of me wanted a tasteful dark grey with olive green taping, but i just thought this looked funny.

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I dunno. I rode around with random bags cargo netted into baskets/onto racks for years and found it pretty annoying compared to side straps, but I understand that you have to do this before you realise you just need a rear rack + ortliebs.

I've been through a lot of basket and rando bags over the years in that search for perfection.

The closest I came was working with macworkshop.

However I now firmly believe that magnets are the best way of attaching bags to racks. Resteap rando bags use them, but I think there is a better solution out there somewhere.

Maybe magnets sewn into each corner of the bottom of the bag, and their partners on the basket neatly. Correct strength magnets of course.

Benefits - no rattle, secure, zero faff in/out basket, last forever, interchangeable.

I approve of this basket journey. I went on one myself once, and I had a great time doing it.

being able to tuck my beanie into the net, or random crap under it on the fly is what sells it, no good in rain ofc, but obligitory, who is riding in the rain.

@King_Saxlingham what size magnet are we talking gotta have a lot of pull surely, not a lot of metal to attach too

thank you for your support as always @youramericanlover

restrap uses fidlock "snap" size L

basket and net is the easiest way, been using this with a drybag over winter.

still wanted a bag for the wald

...
diy, a bit rough finish, but will do.