Yak's Muddy Fox Courier, Trek Multitrack and other bikes

Some progress on the partner's raleigh royal today. Shifters, grips, cables all sorted, parts bin decathlon pedals and a comfier saddle. Used the stem & adapter combo that I was using with the woodchippers on my trek. It's now a 'finished' bike, and if you squint I think it looks really lovely. Plan is to swap out bits (e.g. stem & saddle) for some more boujie parts once I know she's happy with the general fit etc.

One day I'll learn to take nice pictures of bikes, but not today:

Well the cockpit view looks great! And the Trek is also spot on.

ha, balls. managed to screw up the pictures again. Should be working now?

Cheers though!

Ah, so there's more! Bike looks good from the side too. Maybe rotate the bars down a bit? Sorry for being a smartass.

No smartassery taken! Yeah everything was a bit thrown together yesterday evening, will be sorting out bar/lever angles etc when she takes it out for a test ride later

Just found this thread. Great tinkering and writeups.

Glad you ditched the woodchippers. I had the too, but they’re really hard to love the sight of. Classic nitto looks way better.
I would also recommend something like the VO porteur bars. A classic shape that would look great on the trek, and work with bar end shifters

Thanks!

Yeah I agree, it's a lot nicer to look at now, although not quite as comfortable. A combination of a slightly longer stem and less compact bars means I'm stretched out a bit further riding on the hoods. Maybe it'll just take some getting used to but I'm going to keep an eye out for a shorter stem and more compact bars. I think something in between the woodchippers and the nittos would be ideal really

The VO porteurs are a great shout! I'd been thinking about moustache bars as well.

New username who dis?

I finally got round to putting these compact Nitto M109AA bars and a tall stem on the Trek, both courtesy of @passhunting. It's definitely giving 'classic tourer' more than 'budget gravel shredder' now, but tbh it's unlikely to see anything gnarlier than the lea river towpath that often, so I'm happy to lean into its new identity. I recycled the bar tape and cables from the woodchippers so it's all a bit ratty and the cables are probably a bit too short now. When I replace them, I'll also pop some crosstop levers on. Also I think it's about time it got some guards and flaps

I also did a bit of work on my partner's Raleigh Royal. The front derailleur was giving me issues, mostly due to me installing the cabling the wrong way. I sorted that, but it's still being quite reluctant to shift. Not sure why, having spent a good half an hour fiddling with limit screws and cable tension I've concluded it's beyond me so it's off to a shop for some TLC. I've heard good things about clever mike, which isn't too far from me so we'll be paying a visit soon. I also wanted to replace the stem with a nicer looking riser quill, but when I tried to install it it wouldn't go as far as the minimum insertion point. Slightly bent steerer tube? Also wondering if clever mike can fix that, but the quill adapter that's currently on there will do in the mean time. Thankfully it's a bit shorter so will go in just beyond the min insertion point, but these things are always more nerve wracking when it's not your bike

Also added a new tortec rear rack, and will be ordering one for the front soon. Think a nitto M18 would look real nice, and we've got a spare wald 137 to strap to it

Loving the muddy fox - looks very similar to my roadrunner! https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/379221/

Ta! That roadrunner is lovely. I get the feeling we have similar taste - can't beat a worn in brooks and bouncy tyres for that #supplelife. Ride photos look lush too, it's given me a hankering for a ride somewhere with actual scenery

Speaking of the muddy fox, it's now sporting a lovely stem bag from the forum's own @user71349.

I'm also planning on upgrading the lights. Make the cabling a bit less visible and get a brighter and less bulky front light. I'd also like to fit a rear light to the seat stay, so I can have the option to quickly remove the pannier rack when I don't need it

I've been riding this nearly every day for the past month or so for commuting/big shop/pub duties. Since my MH wobble earlier this year it's so good to have the energy for cycling again, and this bike is just so fun. It's like a stupidly heavy cross between a bmx and a sofa, and puts up with my overly ambitious attempts to carry everything on it without a fuss

The Trek got some new mudguards this week. Some nice matte black SKS alu ones from on here. Really pleased with them, but they were a right faff to get on - they have a square profile so they wouldn't fit neatly under the fork crown. Had a go at bodging an extension thingy with various bits I had laying around, but there was no way I was getting the front wheel in. I don't own (or trust myself with) a dremel so was a bit stuck really

After a bit of swearing and crying I decided to take it to Clever Mikes based on a recommendations from a few other people. What a great shop! The guy was super friendly and accommodating, did a far better job on the guards than I would have done if I had a dremel. 10/10 would buy the wrong mudguards again. (he also trimmed the stays on the rear guard but a combination of super stiff alu guards and funny shaped stays meant this is the closest fit he could get)

Yesterday I also added some cross top levers and replaced the bar tape and cables. Also having removed the racks for fitting the mudguards, I realised I hardly ever used the pizza rack, and I had a lovely but under-used carradice and QR support sitting in a box somewhere, so that went on. Annoyingly I've had to move the saddle back about 2cm to accommodate the bagman, so thinking an inline seatpost would solve that issue and give me an excuse to #buy more stuff

Nice ride out to epping via walthamstow marshes today. Had planned a longer ride using a suggested route on komoot but got freaked out when it suggested joining the north circular, so opted instead for a mindful cup of tea by the frozen over hollow ponds... Much more zen.

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Made some progress on the Raleigh royal this morning, thanks in part to helpful people on the mechanics and fixing thread. Found a stem which will go in past the min insertion point, so I'm less worried about it being road worthy. Also tried out some jtek thumbie adapter things to use with the bar end shifters that originally came with the bike. Annoyingly I didn't realize they don't come with barrel adjusters, I managed to harvest one from an old derailleur but need another one for the left thumbie. I think it looks great with these shifters and a proper quill stem, but will wait and see if my partner is happy with this setup...

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Just went through the whole tread! What a story. Great bikes, really love the Trek multitrack, there's nothing more good looking than nitto bars and a lovely quill.

Ah cheers!

Yeah I'm really enjoying the trek with the new bars. Inline levers are a revelation too, nice to be able to feel a bit more chilled in upright position when I'm getting through traffic etc

Just read through the thread as well, excellent stuff and I really like the new/old mish mash on the Trek, very much my cup of tea.

I have a very similarly set up bike as the Raleigh - surely the joy of the the friction shifter for front mech is no need for indexing, therefore no need for barrel adjusters?

Hello @yak I have a bike called Y.A.K

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Thanks a lot!

Yeah you're absolutely right, but the jtek thumbie adapters don't have a cable stop, so I'd just be using it for that rather than adjustment. Could probably get away with a stepped ferrule or something like that, which I also don't have

Strong name, strong bike

Ah I see, makes a lot of sense. Good MacGyvering with rd parts!

Every time I find a nice thread like this I would think to myself: How great would it be to find an old steel canti bike and use it for old-man-paced rides around the parks and woods and to the stores. And then I remember that I tried that four times already, from Pompino and old Cannondales to Specialized and even carbon Belgian CX frames – and every time I swear to myself to never-ever-ever buy anything with cantis again.
But that Trek looks so good... Not as good as Raleigh, obv, but very good.

old-man-paced rides

I am frequently overtaken by old men, I prefer the term 'party pace', please.

I've grown to love (accept) cantis tbh! Never been a conscious choice, they've just been on the only three bikes I've worked on so I don't know any different. But they stop me and I don't need to touch them once they're set up. The third hand tool has probably saved me many hours of tears tho.

But that Trek looks so good... Not as good as Raleigh, obv, but very good.

Thanks ☺️. They've both been ridden more than tinkered with in recent months, hence the lack of updates. Raleigh is due some larger tyres and guards soon, and I've been contemplating upgrading the chainset on the Trek to the spa cycles triple (or similar). Chainrings are getting pretty sharktoothy.