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Nice find!
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Great find.
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Dip-dyed fabulous:)
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Hah yeah it was very satisfying - the previous owner had kindly had it serviced recently at a reputable local workshop, so everything was well greased and popped out nicely. Even managed to salvage a basically new UN55 BB in the length I needed, too, so that's a right bonus. The headset was the notchiest I've ever met, sadly, but good excuse to get my preferred Stronglight A9 in there anyway.
The less said about the crankset the better, though... anyone want the world's ugliest double for postage?
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First coupla nice things have arrived… Kalloy Uno compact bars for max comfort. They seem nicely made, and the excessive branding should come off with a razor blade and patience.
The saddle choice was proving tricky, as I wanted something with silver rails that could take a saddle bag (either natively or with an adapter). This Swift popped up on Amazon for £66, which is the cheapest I’ve ever seen it, so I jumped. The leather seems thicker than on the B17 it’s replacing, and I’m banking on the copper rivets mellowing to something closer to the decal colour. The Swallow looks nicer in my mind, but it’s likely a bit narrow for my purposes and financially out of reach - overall happy with this bargain.
Will be cleaning the frame up this weekend so detailed photos to follow
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@ltc - sooo I've got prior with Kalloy's logos, as I wanted to debrand an Uno seatpost last year. I didn't have acetone to hand and didn't fancy buying some, but a (careful) ten minutes with a discarded doubled edge razor blade that was no longer sharp enough to shave with got it gone. I found that keeping the blade as flat as possible meant no scratches left and no polishing needed. Will report back this time though!
@kjlem - these were a fortunate eBay find, as I'm not sure they're sold at retail in the UK. They're all over Aliexpress, though, mostly in the 31.8 version: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003692412074.html
Also eBay if you don't want to mess with AE: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113855450941
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Merry Christmas slash happy eighth night of Hanukkah y’all! Just spent a quiet hour stitching some highly sentimental patches onto the Carradice zipped roll that’s going to live on the bike. Cotton duck is a total pig to sew though, especially when just freshly waxed… now to cover my poor bloodied hands in plasters
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I used this stuff as recommended on here to fix a patch to a baseball cap. Worked a treat.
https://adventurepatch.co.uk/products/badge-magic-patch-adhesive-square-for-one-patchCool frame btw
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They were second hand off eBay, but there’s a few new listings about - see https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/113855450941 for example
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Now for sale! Argos fillet brazed space rocket audax bike of my (broken) dreams
Posted by
@trigs
Howdy folks - bit of a funny thread, but this project has gotten me very excited and thought it worthy of sharing.
Roll back a couple years, I bought a very nice Lee Cooper fillet brazed frame off here, in a delightful sparkly blue. This was going to be my forever bike, as I'd wanted a fillet brazed frame for years but could never afford to have one built to my specs. I built it up somewhat adequately, and then rode it for the first time on the way to work. A very friendly but inattentive driver decided to plow right into the side of me, leaving me bruised and the bike somewhat mangled. The frame was intact, but it felt cursed and I passed it onto a friend to get it gone - they've done a much better job of building it up, anyway, so it's worked out in a sense.
After the crash, I reacted to the trauma of the thing by abandoning road riding as fast as I could. That meant I learned to mountain bike for the first time, which has been really cool, but now I'm feeling the loss of long days on quiet lanes, audax riding, and all that business.
So, a few days ago, while browsing Facebook Marketplace, I happened upon this 'touring bike':
It checked all the boxes: fillet brazed, long seat tube but shorter top tube, tight clearances but also rack and mudguard mounts, and holy heck that paint job. £250 later, I picked it up from a lovely bloke who had been using it to commute, and it's perfect. The frame stamp tells me it was built in 1992, and it's exactly what I would commission myself if I had a few grand laying about.
The paint job is way braver than anything I'd risk, but the silver/red fade combined with the ornate gold lettering speaks to my love of early modern sci fi art, like what you'd see in Astounding magazine back in the 30s and 40s, and makes the bike look like a space rocket in my mind:
More photos and plans to follow, but right now the frame is stripped down and looking in great nick - aiming to have this on the road in January with an initial build combining new and old parts to keep it affordable. Right now I'm just feeling so grateful to have stumbled upon this frame - I'm hoping it will help me revive my road fortunes, and maybe I've finally found my forever bike.... we shall see!
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