Current Projects chat and miscellany

still love my nature boy as citybike

Yeah I think they are cracking bikes.

I do really like that Rose CX bike though. I like a lot of their stuff actually.

New build, first purchase - base bars

Realistically, how much dorrah is required to put together a reasonably decent CX bike that's also suitable for winter commuting? (The commuting bit may be a bit of a non question as I imagine any CX bike is fine for winter commuting - bar tubular tyres anyway)
£500, £1000,£1500?

New or secondhand? You can get a decent CX bike secondhand for £500. New you'd be looking at that magical £1000 price point.

This arrived in the post today.


Going to change some components, Mafac cantilever brakes. I would like some shocking pink Rolls saddles..........Unfortunately the last owner had used a 26.0 seat-post in a 27.2 tube and over tightened it. The result is a crack about 1cm long in the seat-tube.......Any advice?

The usual solution is to drill a 4mm dia hole a couple of mm under the crack and file the slot smooth with needle files

do you think its something i should do? or take it to someone with experience in doing this. i cant imagine it would be that expensive......i am quite handy, but don't want to bugger it up.

↑↑This

I'm surprised it left Mercian without a slot to start with.

↑It's not hard to do, and hard to fuck up. However, you'll want the tube reamed afterwards, which will need a framebuilders' tool, so you might as well get it all done at once.

i think thats what i will do. can anyone recommend a frame builder/shop that could do this? how much would it cost. london area, as i would like to ride to the work shop. postage on this frame in not cheap.

triathlon bars on a tandem - that's a curiosity

triathlon bars on a tandem - that's normal for time trialling

ftfy

Double tri-bars:

See, what you want to do, is get a real frame ;)

So you clearly haven't ridden one....

The Mercian came from a San Fairy Ann cycling club member and was used for time trialling. As mdcc said, quite common. i hope to continue trialling with it, but not sure what club to join as yet.

Coooool^^^

I almost bought a race tandem from the San Fairy Ann but it was annoyingly undersized :( will you be TTing the Mercian, or just pootling?

Anyone know where I can get a quill stem bar clamp bolt from? Tried Mosquito and Cycle Surgery so far.

Which quill stem?

New or secondhand? You can get a decent CX bike secondhand for £500. New you'd be looking at that magical £1000 price point.

I'm happy to go second hand - would probably prefer to as I can't justify new at the mo.

£750ish go a reasonable distance then you reckon?

Also to reiterate: is steel a good or bad idea at this price/level?

Surely any old bicycle shop would do than the modern one will have some old stem bolt lying around.

Also to reiterate: is steel a good or bad idea at this price/level?

more of a personal preference rather.

discovered that knobbly 38c tyres are awesome on a commute

I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Which quill stem?

No name from a Langster Steel. Reckon it's a case of having to trawl round LBS' till I find one that does have them?

^How's the track champ coming along?

Started a new project:

According to the serial nr it was built around '94/'95. Previous owner had it built with mirage/veloce/athena parts, so am thinking of swapping all that with an almost complete 1st gen chorus group I have: need to find a matching seatpost (diameter is 27mm) and pedals.

Also bought a pair of shamals recently, but they might be a little too beater for this.. I'm not there yet, I haven't even seen them in broad daylight yet.

^So nice