Raleigh Royal Audax / Randonneur

I'd go fizk.

If you do use brooks I'd wrap. C l o t h tape Underneath as some have suggested.

I haven't tried it myself, but I found brooks tape quite hard... and oddly thought that numbalms tape was more c om fort able.

(Fucking iphone and it's punctuation)

I'm tempted to put some grey soft touch on instead

SRAM is a good choice, they're pretty big compared to the Crane Creek (have them both), you'll notice an improvement in braking performance with a decent levers.

Not sure why you went for a caliper brakes instead of centerpull, the former is generally more powerful with enough clearance.

The Gille Berthoud are excellent choice, they're very strong and held it shape beautifully, surprisingly light despite being made of steel and cheap too.

I like this bike and the setup - the Raleigh Randonneur family make attractive bikes.

Are the SRAM brake levers nice and large across the width of the hoods? I ask because I have DiaCompe levers on my Surly LHT and I find their narrow width a problem with my increasingly arthritic thumb joints - I'm hoping more width and bulk would offer more support.

Not sure why you went for a caliper brakes instead of centerpull, the former is generally more powerful with enough clearance.

because new ones are bloody pricey as far as i can tell.

Are the SRAM brake levers nice and large across the width of the hoods? I ask because I have DiaCompe levers on my Surly LHT and I find their narrow width a problem with my increasingly arthritic thumb joints - I'm hoping more width and bulk would offer more support.

go to your lbs and try any bike with sram levers and see (these are the same, just with the innards removed). Personally i found them much more comfortable than my tektro ones.

because new ones are bloody pricey as far as i can tell.

fair point, they're indeed pricey.

Reckon you got it nicely sorted.

[QUOTE= go to your lbs and try any bike with sram levers and see (these are the same, just with the innards removed). Personally i found them much more comfortable than my tektro ones.[/QUOTE]

Good idea - thanks,

Split in the tape can't be easily repaired and it can't be hidden as no matter which way i wrap it it comes up on top of the bars.

I've done some reading and it seems that:

Brooks products are guaranteed for 2 years from the date of purchase against defects in manufacture or materials

as such I've emailed Evans to see if they'll do me a replacement, because its clear to me that its a manufacturing fault, hopefully I'll get a replacement

winn

Right i'm going to get this bike working properly today, even though evans are being slow with getting back to me about the tape. I'll just use fizik for the moment. I'm also tempted to put bmx pedals and velcro straps on this a la jammies cross check.

To the LBS!

It's not Evans per se, but the manufacturer itself.

I'd advised you to contact them again to make sure they've called them.

I rang them up just now, apparently theres been some staff change over in the returns dept so i've got to send another email directly to them

exactly.

^^^Is that you ed?

If so nice bike!

anyone know how this fucking thing is susposed to go on?

the logical way to do it gives a very sharp turn for the FD cable.

EDIT:

I've found one to go under the bb shell that works better, but out of interest does anyone know?

Yeah, it's supposed to go on the down tube, just before the BB, and you use a cable between it and the FD (I suppose this is what you yourself already figured out, but I had just this on my bike as orig. equip.). Very nice bike, and I enjoy following the development!

Buggering arse monkeys! been playing for hours with the gear to get them working keep getting running into various problems:

• The problem with the above part has been solved with a nice campag cable guide.

• shifters were on backways but wouldn't work when they were the right way round. I had to strip the whole thing apart to get them working again.

• Something seriously wrong with the cable routing. I eventual found the problem to be that the bosses on the downtube were rotating under pressure of the shifting which was causing them cables to suffer loads of extra friction. I'll see if they'll work better with a different set of band on bosses. If not I'll have to buy something like this:

Unless of course someone has one of these:

but they seem to be rather like rocking horse poop.

Also the brakes pads seem right at their limit at the back, even though there at the bottom of the slots its almost touching the tyre which isn't good at all.

I also tried the black tape but it just didn't look good so i've bought some grey soft touch instead which seems to fit much better. I will try and take some photos tomorrow if i drys out a bit.

nice

really liking this project/thread/bike. good work.

Unless of course someone has one of these:

but they seem to be rather like rocking horse poop.

Does it have to be SunTour? If Shimano is close enough, you could have mine for 2£ and postage (bought nos from Keirin in Berlin a couple of months back, still sparkling, and I'll probably take a trip to Berlin again soon, so I could just buy another at €3)

S

subscribed

Is it not just going to be easier to get bar ends?

Would still need some sort of DT cable stops with barends.

Does it have to be SunTour? If Shimano is close enough, you could have mine for 2£ and postage (bought nos from Keirin in Berlin a couple of months back, still sparkling, and I'll probably take a trip to Berlin again soon, so I could just buy another at €3)

S

Thanks for the offer but I think I've fixed the problem now. I used a Shimano band on and changed the lever mounds length with some washers so the bosses seem to sit more securely. ONly problem now is getting the bolt from the suntour one to fit, I just need to file the hole out a bit more to allow its tapered square head though.

Is it not just going to be easier to get bar ends?

Would still need some sort of DT cable stops with barends.

^this is true and also you still have to reach down with barend shifters, that and they're more expensive.