Current Projects chat and miscellany

My Pug; Put together last summer in a hasty fashion. I was pretty desperate to get out riding. My challenge this summer is to sort out the spacing, stem and headset. Also to get her powder coated as I wet/dry sanded, painted and lacquered as quick solution to get on the road last year. Although the finish is nice and shiny, its not perfect! Hope its good enough (hahah waiting to be shot down now)

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p614/etearle/Photo03-06-2011183155.jpg

http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p614/etearle/Photo08-06-2011073808.jpg

Sorted one spacing issue's on the crank
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p614/etearle/Photo08-06-2011073808.jpg

How it looks currently
http://i1158.photobucket.com/albums/p614/etearle/photo.jpg

Improvements to be made

Got any bigger pictures?

I cant see the photo's for some so I'm sensing they're to big?

They're far too small I'm afraid.

Oh really! Damn, dropbox fail. I'll try another method!

Sorted the image sizing! So correct size images should show on my original post now

Ditching the Profile Airwings from my Mottram, in favour of some Bontrager SSR VR-C drops. Just need to find some pedals now.

Just finished this weekend. Pleased with the end result. Just had a quick spin and as you'd expect, it's bloody lovely.

Two points,
I would have liked to put italian gumwall clinchers on but the cheapest I could find were £40 a pop so those'll have to wait.

Yes I know they're SPD's! They're all I've got at the moment too. I'll probably change to SPD-SL at one point although putting Shimano on this would be blasphemy right?

](http://www.flickr.com/photos/61731644@N02/6976446533/)
IMG_4254 by RhysCarrington, on Flickr[/IMG]

So a pair of ventos came up on ebay and I couldn't resist. Seemed reasonable price wise and were in OK condition. Plenty of autosol (thanks Hunterlaar!), elbow grease and a new cassette later and they don't look half bad in my opinion. Had to get some veloflex to go on them. Bloody nightmare getting them on though, three pinch flats with the rear as the bead is so tight!

^Nice frame, and a good size. I love riding my colnago.

Are they the older logo Veloflex Masters? Where did you find them?

Messing about with the Rourke today, still can't decide how to set it up...

^Nice frame, and a good size. I love riding my colnago.

Are they the older logo Veloflex Masters? Where did you find them?

Got them here: http://www.wiggle.co.uk/veloflex-master-22-clincher-folding-road-tyre/

And yes they ended up being the ones with the little italian flag on them. Which was nice.

Hmmm, noted. Cheers! Getting harder to track down.

The Rourke is like Brutalism on wheels, I want to ride it.

yes the rourke is very nice, looks like something you could throw about without worrying about it

new touring setup finished and tested on cuban roads. works!

this was the shifted upgrade to my previous fixed tourer:

more here on flickr

Not really the place for this perhaps, but I have pretty much decided that I'm goig to invest in a custom nagasawa, and was wondering, apart form the obvious price deterrent, it there any reason I should think twice? Cheers

^^ As you say, it works for you, but wouldn't a little of that weight moved forward stabilize the whole operation a bit more? I've run a Carradice seat bag up front hanging from north road type bars and on a small rack using drops. Just an idea.

new touring setup finished and tested on cuban roads. works!

this was the shifted upgrade to my previous fixed tourer:

more here on flickr

Lovely! Is that Raleigh a Royal? My Randonneur's further up the page, it needs a respray and I love the job on yours. There's something about the Brooks Honey and Royal Green though that stimulates my inner old man.
Do you not have an issue with the Dura Ace rear mech not handling the drop in chain tension between large and small front rings? Maybe the cassette is too varied on mine but I found it would skip with a 600 mech, which is why I put the XT on.

that raleigh tourer, my god. so good

Not really the place for this perhaps, but I have pretty much decided that I'm goig to invest in a custom nagasawa, and was wondering, apart form the obvious price deterrent, it there any reason I should think twice? Cheers

I think this is a pretty good place to put this, and the only deterrent I can think of is I would prefer something English, but thats just me.

yes the rourke is very nice, looks like something you could throw about without worrying about it

i sold something to one of its previous owners and apparently its seen lots of use including work use so i reckons its already been thrown around a bit

Nice Pug. You must be pretty far North, where abouts?

Yea. I live in Finland.

^^ As you say, it works for you, but wouldn't a little of that weight moved forward stabilize the whole operation a bit more? I've run a Carradice seat bag up front hanging from north road type bars and on a small rack using drops. Just an idea.

it works really well, allthough it doesn't look like it. handling is perfect, the bike does not lift the front when going up hill or carrying it down some stairs. guess this is due to the design of the carradice bags, very narrow (front-rear) but wide and low. had ortliebs before and they where shit. all of the stuff mentioned above...before starting in the morning i had to manually weight them and distribute the weight. with the carrdice i simply don't care about packing.

Lovely! Is that Raleigh a Royal? My Randonneur's further up the page, it needs a respray and I love the job on yours. There's something about the Brooks Honey and Royal Green though that stimulates my inner old man.
Do you not have an issue with the Dura Ace rear mech not handling the drop in chain tension between large and small front rings? Maybe the cassette is too varied on mine but I found it would skip with a 600 mech, which is why I put the XT on.

thanks! it is a 1978 worksop build, full 531 frame. model is in this case a "record", seems to be build for the german and dutch market. i have the frame 3 times (it simply justs fits for touring) and is 100% similar to the "competition" frame for the same market:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/multiburst/4784972694/in/set-72157622797505986

guess at that time, the components made up the model name.

and: no problems with the rear mech running 34/26, but it's also not a dura ace one, instead it's the much more skinny suntour cyclone.

your raleigh also looks really, really nice and deliberate functional- thinking about sti's on the traveller also, but am afraid i may run into problems when something is broken on a trip...

I think this is a pretty good place to put this, and the only deterrent I can think of is I would prefer something English, but thats just me.

Cheers, I kinda agree with the English preference, I would love it if I could find something of equal quality and condition so readily in my size, but the fact of the matter is the truly great English frames are quite hard to come by, and there is an appeal Nagasawa's have to me, that I can't quite place, maybe the fact that I know exactly who made it, and that they made it for me, blah de blah...

Get yourself to this next weekend if you'd like to meet some UK frame builders.