Current Projects chat and miscellany

Few important bits still to arrive for the steamroller. Built from scratch, save headset, with some cost in mind!

BASSO ...... oh er, just wet myself !!!! very nice indeed.
Wheels....Hummmmmmm

Double 3Gs is awesome.

New addition to the collection. Freddie Grubb Routier, early 70s I think, bought it locally to keep at my parents so I can ride with them when I visit the homeland (Yorkshire). It's in lovely nick, with campag nuovo record 5 speed + levers, simplex front mech and TA double chainset, and weinman 999s.

So lovely to ride. Not a lot planned for it, new tyres for sure, maybe new wheels. It has 27" Dunlop Steels, thought they would be a total dog to ride but feel okay - would alloy rims be discernably better? (they'd have to be 27" as I'm not arsing around with long drop brakes).

I also realise the saddle angle looks hideous, but on the clunky old ratchet system the next notch of rotation puts is too far nose-down and feels horrid, as it is feels fine, even for 60 miles or so (and its my first Brooks, and not shaped to my arse - any treatment tips for this by the way? leather is in good nick, but perhaps to help re-set it).

saddle angle look fine, especially when it's almost parallel to the handlebar, don't treat it.

alloy rims will be noticably easier, actually scratch that, a lots easier to ride.

I reckon you can put 700c and some fat 32c tyres on to fill up the clearance.

AYe, thought so. Will leave saddle. You're probably right Ed, but I've got a thing against 700c in 27" frames, it's all a bit Foffa. Will keep eyes peeled for some 27" alloy numbers. Bike was cheap so I am just enjoying for now.

27" alloy rims are a bit like fresh dinosaur eggs though. I'd say 700's with fat tyres like Ed suggest and then some retro looking long drop brakes, like the ones Diacomp do, you could use existing levers. My 2cents.

Also I just finished my build up on this;

Peugeot 753 w. 2009 Veloce Gruppo and G3 Vento wheelset. Maiden voyage will be Dunwich.

This was finished a wee while ago but It's recently got some Look Kéo Sprints on it and a stripped Selle Italia SLR.

would alloy rims be discernably better?

Main difference will be improved wet braking, and if you put a hook bead rim like Rigida AS23 on it you'll be able to use higher tyre pressures/folding tyres.

Contrary to popular belief, 27" alloy rims are not hard to find, you just have to go to SJSC:
Rims
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/rigida-as23x-27-x-1-1-4-630-silver-alloy-rim-36-hole-prod19588/

Tyres
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/panaracer-panaracer-pasela-tour-guard-compe-folding-tyre-27-x-1-1-8-inch-(28-630)-prod1027/

You're looking at close to £200 to modernise your rolling parts, after spokes and building, which might be a bit extravagant if it's just for slow fair weather rides.

AYe, thought so. Will leave saddle. You're probably right Ed, but I've got a thing against 700c in 27" frames, it's all a bit Foffa. Will keep eyes peeled for some 27" alloy numbers. Bike was cheap so I am just enjoying for now.

This bike is made for 27" wheel, but I put 700c with 32c tyres on, the 32c tyres fill up the gap nicely since it originally run 27" tubular.

32c tyres fill up the gap nicely

But on a road bike, you are still stuck with the problem of crappy long reach brakes.

@citygent - was that locked up at the ED sainsbos tonight? If not, there's a doppleganger in the neighbourhood :)

Yeah it was, front wheel taken off as on QR >_<

caught mine and spybot's eye, locked up next to it :) nice and tidy.

.

City Gent - love your work.

Contrary to popular belief, 27" alloy rims are not hard to find, you just have to go to SJSC:
Rims
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/rigida-as23x-27-x-1-1-4-630-silver-alloy-rim-36-hole-prod19588/
...

It's not so much finding new Alu 27" that's hard, but finding them in different hole configurations. If you want to re-use the existing hubs, then your often stuck searching for 32/40h.

EDIT: Incidentally if anyone has, or knows of a 32h Mavic MA2 (or visually similar) rim going around, please let me know.

your often stuck searching for 32/40h

That's true enough - the choice of 40h in 700c is limited enough, let alone 27"

Olly398 - Stick with the 27s if its meant to have them, you'll always notice the little 700s if you do change.
I thought I could build up a decent pair of 27s for around £100. How wrong I was. My wheels (on a red bob jackson a few pages back) cost best part of £200-250 after all the cock-ups because of the odd size, weird spoke length and build cost etc. But they are stunning.
Normally I'm not bothered about weight, but they are actually quite good (for their size). Front is about 1kg with tyre & qr rear about 1.2kg (old heavy anti-puncture city bike tubes weigh same as the tyres, i shit ye not).
When compared to the uber lightweight wheels on my new purchase (650 x 19/20c on triple butted spokes & mavic 4CDs) they are only a few hundred gram more, and yet are physically massive in comparison.
Hilary occasionally gets high end 27" wheels on high flange hubs for about £70-100. But always silver, getting grey ones is neigh on impossible. And you see budget dutch touring wheels/rims through some of the wholesalers which are OK, still better than ancient steels though ;)

No - idea why I bought this, obviously has some delusions that I would put my running shoes back on and become a superstar triathlete, but anyway, it arrived minus the inner tubes (tight seller or what!) and one of the aero-bar pads missing, and an 8spd shifter (original aero grip shift 1990s things), 8spd mech but a 7spd MTB block, wtf? But mostly dura ace with 600 hubs.

Its absolutely tiny, 650c wheels (which are now banned from competitions i think?) and has a monster 60+ tooth big ring, but goes like hell, shame I cant' ride it though, I mean, its a bloody yellow aero bike, and I'm a baggy short wearing mountain bike guy with full 2" deep pile on his legs, a bike only really for people who are serious/competitive freaks I think.

If you don't ride it that often and it feels OK, stick with the Dunlop 27"s. Modern 27"s are pretty crumby and decent old ones in good condition can be a pain to track down.

Anyway, this is my new, very shiny, wet weather bike: a 1960s chrome Pennine. The frame, stem and seatpost came from Edmundro, the bars and slightly silly grips were also off the forum. Pretty much everything else was just lying around my flat, not being used.

The frame is built for 27" wheels, but I'm using 700c + Weinmann 730 because that's what I had spare. I'd like to get some 700x32 Pasela tyres to fill up the massive gaps and make it look a bit nicer, but I'm reluctant to spend the money just yet.

I've got two bikes that were 27's, I use 700's on both.
I've got 28's on this:

TBH I don't know if you'd notice it was orignally 27's, the clearences are about the same as you'd expect with any other bike like this that is meant to have 700c's.

How ever on my other bike, which has 32's, the clearence is a lot bigger:

Just depends on how the bike was built I guess.

I thought all Cinelli 'Champion du Monde' (66-42) bars were 26.4mm clamp, and I also thought all Cinelli 1A stems were 26.4mm clamp size.

So why the f*** can I not get said stem to tighten on said bars?

Rounded out one bolt, drilled it out and using a spare from another stem. Still can't tighten it enough. And there is not enough space to get a shim in either.

Am I just being a pansy or do these bars also come in 26.0? I don't have any vernier calipers so can't measure accurately.

You seriously need to HTFU.

so then you have an excuse to be a dick?

I've got a pair of RS30s. Compared with the others, they have bladed spokes (so do RS20s, but not 10s or R500s), and this combined with the shorter spoke to the deeper rim should make them best aerodynamically. The deeper rim is also stiffer, and the spoke bracing angle is marginally better than the shallow RS20. Against that, the straight pull spokes would be a pain to replace if they ever broke, so the R500 with plain guage j-bend spokes has that going for it. I've had R500s in the past and they are sound, albeit basic.

Depending on what you're using them for, it may weigh against all Shimano wheels that they don't have cartridge bearings, and Shimano's so-called seals are nothing of the sort, so they are not ideal for an all-weather daily driver. Merlin have Aksiums for £126 for account holders, which is my choice for all weather use (I've got them on my winter bike), but for racing the RS30 is probably faster.

Excellent, thanks, It's looking like Aksiums. I'm about 87kg clothed and that will hopefully go up to around 90-92kg by the end of the year, this won't be an issue will it?

Finished the raleigh and the fit is spot on.
This time last month I had a 58 track bike and 56 road bike, it never felt quite right.
Now I have a 56 track and 58 road, feels much better and makes all the effort worth it. Aaaaaaah.