Current Projects chat and miscellany

http://cranxwork.pinkbike.com/album/Road-Bike-for-Uni-project/

Some photos of my old road bike which I will convert to SS for Uni use. Any tips much appreciated thanks.

Do pinkbike photos embed? My attempts so far have just resulted in the small red x rather than the photo.

Yeah they do ^^^^^

Sorry thats a bit of a large photo.

Shortened my forks last year (excuse the shit brazing)

tidy job that.

terrible job that.

Thanks

seriously, it's look alright man. Big up yourself, it's not easy brazing things.

seriously, it's look alright man. Big up yourself, it's not easy brazing things.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

I do have to say that was my like third go. I'm lots better now..

Looking for a tube set so I can build a nice track frame soon. as my new bike is silly tricky.

Just coaxed new rando onto new wheel... Just bloody realised I haven't put rim tape on yet. FFS!

Just finished this, need to take better pics outside and all but thought I'd chuck up for now....

That actually is a midge bar on there, with levers on the flats. It's the weird angle making the drops look deeper than they are.
Perhaps it's just because i've never ridden any kind of drops before but the angle of my back/neck when in the drops doesn't seem all that comfortable to me, which is why I'm considering something a little more upright (think the way the bars are on a guvnor, swept back with a tiny drop)
Will give these a proper go before I decide though.

I actually considered the 2 speed kickback hub, but looking at the weight/gear range compared to the 5 speed hubs I'm not really sure whether I'd really gain much from having it.
At the moment i'm running 71 Gear inches which is mostly fine but I'd love some lower options for when I'm lazy or can't be bothered to crank it up a hill full pelt.
I looked it up, and with the 2 speed I could get around 50 and 70 gear inches from it, or with a 5 speed I could be looking at around 86, 72, 54, 40, 34 Inches.

Decisions!

I think you should try one cog up and see what happen, spin to win (and kinder to your legs) before resorting to internal hubs.

as for the drop bar, try flipping the stem upside down and put brake hood instead of cross brake, those midge bar are different to normal drop bar and require a different set-up.

you should talk to sopariva or smallfurry (I think) as they have midge bar on the bike.

moglix, you either have to sell me a front wheel or cranks
given i have super mighties already, you could figure out the rest....

nice build :))

Just checked the dumpster behind my favorite copenhagen bikeshop.. And guess what? Besides the typical 3-5 not punctured tubes and the usual just a little bit used as front Vredestein Fortezza TriComp, there was a: MINT CONDITION VELOFLEX RECORD tub.. Thread looks new, and I can only see a bit of wear on the label, and it holds air no problem.. Looks to be a 20mm so I think it will just about work on the PlanetX.. I think I just found my front tub for this winters track training :) weeh! I love dumpsterdiving... :) (and I hope it's not a 26")

£60 tub you got there, what on earth made them throw it away !?

maybe it's cursed

So you'll just sneak around behind the shop in the middle of the night? Ever had trouble with the police?

Lavvly little ride a second ago. with The most spinny as shit gear... 23 15. I'm getting a new sprocket tomorow i just could not wait.

Also doing the obvious stuff to it.

what do you think?

I may be wrong, but i think you need to look at your cranks......i think they are a spline out......could be wrong tho'.

ah shit.. the tub have a minor puncture.. I think I'll just latex it though, should be no problem.. It's still a nice tub ;)

TheFinalHour; Yah basically... It's not really a problem with the police
I did meet them one time where the officers was trying to tell me that it wasn't legal.. problem is, it is legal.. So we didn't quite agree about it.. :)

Most of the time the bikeshops don't care anyways.. I only dumpster behind shops that sell expensive roadbikes, and I have noticed that they don't smash up parts for racers when they throw them out, but they do smash stuff for shoppers.. baskets and such, guess they don't want other bikeshops dumpstering.

Sometimes they throw out crazy amounts of kind of useless old crap.. One time I found like 200 NOS Vittoria cross-tubulars... But who would ever want to use those? (I did take 4 of them, and I sold to some guy ;)

Was just rubbing my bike down and noticed quite a few of these marks on the top tube. That is probably the largest but there is a few more around that size, they are pronounced enough to be able to feel them with a fingernail. Should I be concerned?

it's going to break, you better give it to me for safe keeping.

@moglix mean looking piece of machinery you got there! What stem / bars you running on that? Nittos?

it's going to break, you better give it to me for safe keeping.

I think I am worrying about nothing, just didn't think I had seen them before

Before...

After...

(Also - no one said anything about my pizza. Philistines.)

^^Like both.

Before...

After...

nice one aroogah, what group did you use there ? absolutely lovely.

I like it, the black crankset look splendid on it.

Yeah. The black crank was SopaRiva's idea. I picked up the Chorus groupset from the forum and then got lucky on e-bay with a NOS wheelset of Mirage hubs on MA3s.

It just sort of fell together but sometimes that's the most enjoyable result - "looks better than I planned."

Finally sorted an aero seatpost for my leader, along with new bars and a half link chain to pull the wheel in a bit tighter. Seatpost was a bit of pain as the clearance was too tight for a normal allen key to tighten the clamp so i had to grind one down so it would fit in the gap but its worth it. I'm thinking of dropping my ration fro 70.3 to 66.4 to give me a better chance on the hills, in which case i'll get a nice black cog too.

and my new build is a Raleigh Royal I picked for in mint condition for £50, I did a quick conversion with some spare parts to give me something a bit more relaxed to go to the pub on. It'll go back to 10 speed touring mode once the bad weather sets in.