Weight weenie dream tourer

New cat is such a beauty!

I’d recommend tub tape rather than glue. Super easy to install and much less faff when you need to change a tub.

I’ve used this stuff with success

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/p/effetto-mariposa-carogna-sm-tubular-rim-tape

I think I've bought some of that. If only I knew where it is. New cat darts around like a missile. Everything goes flying.

Progress report for today. Trivial stuff but it helps me get out of my funk.

Dug out my tubs. 4 kinds. Inflated them to stretch them. Might mount one tomorrow. They're all described as 27 or 28 but they get to 32 or 33 when inflated on their own. The Dugast one (which is labelled Mavic) looks a bit unhappy, as if the tape is coming off. Best to ignore it I think.

My dodgy Ciamillo brakes are not wide and have no quick release. So the wheel will only go on when the tyre is uninflated. And there won't be much clearance, if any. Fingers crossed. I know the cable end is a disgrace, please don't put me in the anti-porn thread.

I introduced the cat to her prototype compartment. It's just cardboard and tape, and hangs off the tri bar clipons. It needs to be ultralight and aero, so I went with the 3rd Stage Guild Navigator design. But I don't really like it. It's overwhelmingly ugly.

Good to see some progress again:)

Thank you!

What about making the cat box more Rumpler Tropfenwagen ala Metropolis?

All the best for this build, it's eccentric but magnificent in equal amounts.

For the tubs - Vittoria Mastic is nowhere to be found last time I checked, but Continental Tub glue for carbon rims is. You can use it to glue the Mavic base tape back on and save it. Also, if you're not sure about clearance dry mount them and check?

I may as well try the Dune one to find out how the cat wants to position herself. Here's a cat on twitter for reference:

I'll do that. The glueing. I suppose it's the same as what you do after you've cut the tape to mend a puncture? Nothing to worry about. I have a batch of these Dugast fake Mavics. I wonder if they all have haphazard glueing? They were made for a Mavic-sponsored team to do the Paris Roubaix. Probably in a mad rush during the night.

at least if one of your tubs goes flat you can just get the cat to fold space to your destination

How did this work out @nick_h.?
I miss this thread

I miss it too. I'm sitting around like a pudding because of ME and depression. A ten minute job on the bike seems to take 3 months. I'm part of the way through fitting a front brake. The depression and ME got a lot worse, so everything is gathering dust. I also got DVT and Covid. Didn't help. The rest of my life is in worse chaos than the bike. Filth, bills, awkward landlord. Exhaustion after doing the smallest thing. It's all shite. I'm just marking time until something kills me, or I do it myself, which I think about all the time.

I'm sorry to hear that, I have no idea what having ME is like. Are you getting any support from people in real life or any professionals? I can't imagine seeking help through the NHS is easy though.

There's no actual treatment. No cure. Just private therapists who may be able to alleviate symptoms, if you're lucky and can afford them. The cause is unknown. The most you get from the NHS is CBT to help you accept your situation and be patient about pacing yourself. Pacing is important because if you have a good day your instinct is to do as much as you can. But if you use all your stamina it makes you ill for a few days. It's called post-exertional malaise. You're supposed to prevent it by never using more than 80% of your stamina. It's frustrating. And friends and family lose sympathy because they think you're lazy. They see you walking to the shops and think you're healthy. They don't realise that a short walk is your big achievement of the week. Most people with ME end up with no friendships and fractured family relationships

Then there's the mental stuff. It's mainly brain fog. Difficulty with concentration. Needing to read everything 3 times. Being unable to follow a film unless it's got subtitles and you pause and rewind a lot. I need to think slowly and revisit everything, otherwise I make mistakes. But I forget that I'm not clever any more, and if I make a decision at normal pace, even something very trivaial, it's often a regrettable mistake. I have to remind myself that I'm quite stupid, not the clever person who ran a business and wrote for newspapers. I can't have a productive life. No ambitions. No achievement. No money. No eating out or going to the cinema. It can be hard to convince yourself not to give up. Life has been stolen from me. It's like prison, but prison would be better, because I'd socialise more and maybe study something and the sentence would have an end date. (Open prison obvs, not high security.)

That sounds very terrible. I hope you can still find some small moments of happiness and get some support.

It's hard to write anything that doesn't sound disingenous when you're replying to someone on the internet that you don't know. But what you describe sounds harder than I can imagine and I'm so sorry that you're going through it.

However you're doing, we're grateful for the thread and your quest for cat-based bike adventures! Please give her a belly rub from us :)

What about support groups with other people suffering from ME? That might be somewhere to talk about what you are going through with other people going through similar things. Like I said, I don't know what it's like to live with ME but things can always get better.

I don't think you should think of yourself as stupid, from what I have read of your posts on here, you are eloquent and very knowledgable on a range of subjects.

Have you thought about an ebike? Maybe doesn't fit with the weight weenie dream tourer ethos ;) but it could be a good way to get out without expending too much energy and getting to see a bit more outdoors, I don't know whether that it something you could manage.

Please give her a belly rub from us :)

Will do! If she doesn't get enough of them she gets a bit militant.