ojwithbikes

hahah yeah it does seem a bit silly, a little nitto m18 thing would be perf. But the saved weight is kinda nice I can’t lie.

although nothing i say about the kinda bikes i like or the kinda riding i like to do seems to last very long:
i am kinda seeing this bike as it sits now as a useful stop-gap or pacifier to my dream of having the kind of rigid steel mtb/bikepacking rig/atb thats made for bags n racks n shit. That dream exists along side a bigger dream of living somewhere where I could get the proper use out of it.

i am jealous that you know about uk politics and i know nothing about german politics

service works x uniqlo(?) socks might just be the summer look for 20 something men about town

I also have an m18 I need rid of if you’re still wanting one :)

hahaha the ID on the socks is particularly impressive - they’re cheap what can i say!

and i like to maintain an air of false superiority by wearing service works but not like all the normies cos i work in food
(im the idiot spending £50 on trousers to cover in shit at work bcos i want to express my ‘cool’ and ‘individual’ style)

And i don’t think this fork is rated safe for a rack sadly - is that a guideline or strict advice…?

im the idiot spending £50 on trousers to cover in shit at work bcos i want to express my ‘cool’ and ‘individual’ style

I feel seen.

we’re all silly, every last one of us.

Had an early start/early finish at work yesterday so I planned to go out for a little ride down south in the afternoon as im really desperate to make the most of the weather and try to get back any little scraps of ‘fitness’ I had back before my last job sucked all my life away for the last 8 months.

Conditions were a bit muddy, weather was perfect, roads and bridleways quiet. The ‘ergonomic grandad grips’ as a mate called them, were nice for long road sections. The riser bars are really so much better for descending on the bumpy stuff and the big ol’ cassette meant that any depreciation in stamina was compensated for. But my body right now feels the same as it felt after riding double/triple the distance this time last year. Kinda sad, but also ya just gotta keep riding for fun and the legs will come back i guess.

Gonna make these few hour jaunts south after work a regular thing to help that along .

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also, providing this is legit, has anyone built a bike around a light bracket before?

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What was the comment?

that would be revealing too much

hint: it was dumb

if Thomson and Salsa seat clamps are out of stock in my needed size of 30mm and silver preference, what’s the other good option?

Out riding at the minute and im so done with this dumb Hope clamp.

Does the Brother ‘oak leaf’ avoid the pitfalls of the Hope one?

Superstar make a nice one. Looking at it, they probably make them for Brother!

Not really.
You want one that is barreled i.e. this wolf tooth for example:

I had the same conundrum, got one cheap locally ere in Berlin from Goldsprint but Google is your friend. As said, wolftooth does one.

Actually I just followed the brother link and the Brother one and the superstar one look like copies i.e. Taiwan with different logos.
They both have a hidden barrels. That's actually quite good looking.

ah sweet, needed confirmation from people with better brains than i.

I realised the Hope one was shit two weeks after buying it last year, but some carbon grip paste and cranking the fuck out of seemed to do the job. I had to alter it slightly with my multi tool whilst out today and couldn’t the do the bolt back up tight enough again. I keep faffing like every hour re-doing it… 🤪

save for the moaning about my seatclamp, today was actually a nice ride.

Having built an expensive hybrid bike, I thought I’d take it on the kind of route where hybrid bikes really come into their own; one with a lot of canal path and disused railway line.

My brother’s place in Brighton was the destination. I left my place in SE London at 6am to get out before rush hour which worked, but there was a lot of fkin joggers and dog walkers on the canal paths. To be expected I know…

I had actually planned to re-do a much more interesting but much more hilly route that I sussed out with a friend last June, but then I woke up feeling pretty sleepy so sacked it off for the old faithful Downslink. Though I have in the past described the Downslink as like one of those infinite side scrolling games or something like temple run in its mind numbing repetitiveness, today the boredom mostly kept away. I was just happy to be riding a bike a reasonable distance again. And i think it was probably sensible to do my first litepacking longer ride in a while on a chill and easy route.

I did fall in some stinging nettles though, that bit did kinda suck

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the prize for the first instagram competition I’ve ever won came today.

it is very pretty. so many nice little details.

definitely saving this one somewhere safe until i inevitably progress (maybe descend?) into getting dynamo bike

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actual bike update, post above had a lil clue

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Still struggling with a bit of a slipping seatpost. Less slipping now with the Brother/Superstar one than with the Hope clamp but it’s definitely still creeping down and it never used too, even with the Hope clamp. Should I be worried?

Think I’ll try properly degreasing the inside of the tube as much as possible then go back in with carbon grip paste and tighten er up? Is that smart? Anyone have any ideas?

yeah that's about all you can do at this stage before considering any more drastic measures like a beer can shim. Clean post and inside of frame super thoroughly and then some sort of grip paste; Park Tool anti-seize compound has worked well for me in the past with slipping seatposts.

BBB postfix?

I don't know your seat post size requirements, but these are the best I've ever found. Put them in everything now and never had a post slip. The hope ones are garbage.

https://www.bikemonger.co.uk/salsa-lip-lock-seat-clamp-v2-1990-p.asp

yeah would love to buy one if there was a 30mm silver in stock anywhere

honestly I’d crave a lil’ seize at this point.

I’ve cleaned both and reapplied some cabron paste. Quite possibly rounded the bolt head a little in the process… If the seatpost doesn’t slip now then it’s my distant future self’s problem. If it slips on the way to work tomorrow I’m gonna smash my head into a wall 😁