You are reading a single comment by @Rik_Van_Looy and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Rik_Van_Looy
I sent a link of this thread to my brother (also riding L'Eroica but on a 70's Santi with full super-record) - his comment was "If it helps you come to terms with Dawes ownership"
Work Package 1 (Bike Build)
Found some old red spraypaint in the shed and painted the rusty seatstays
Dished rear wheel to centre in realigned stays
Built front wheel - wheel & tyre come in below 1kg!
Cleaned & fitted original Suntour Perfect 5spd block - the only degreasing agent I could find in the shed was A1 Jet Fuel (worked a treat)
Fitted a cottered Solida 3-pin chainset from a a Freecycle donor bike - a BSA Tour of Britain courtesy of the forums own Sandbags. A chrome chainset is a bit of a weight penalty, but the 70s SR Apex I'd planned to use really looks too "paperboy 10 speed" the Solida is in excellent condition and is a 70's version of a much older design and looks more in keeping
The wheels have been a real highlight of this build, high quality, lightweight, low cost and most importantly, both the rims and original wheels would have ended up at the tip! The hub rebuild was interesting -every washer, cone, and lock nut is stamped CAMP 77 (which understand to be the year of patent) and the cones are marked M10 x 26tpi (a curious anomally which I believe goes back to the Marshall plan where US-supplied lathes could only do imperial pitches - 26tpi was the closest fit to M10x1mm).
Work Package 2 (Fitness)
140km ride on Saturday riding the olympic road route.
I wimped out of multiple Box hill loops as the storm clouds were gathering, but still hit by a monster thunderstorm in Richmond park (ended up eating chocolate cake at Petersham Nursery! before heading home on flooded roads). Not a bad start and the knees/back seemed to hold out! (If I did the route again I'd probably fit a brake as the descent to Shere was a bit sketchy in the wet - I had the back wheel locked and was still doing about 20mph - Great route though and the road surfaces were a joy to ride on!)