Roberts 853 Audax

BB height look normal, look to be around 72-75mm drop, it's an audax bike after all.

Looking great mate.

Oooooh, the groupset's arrived!
That's very exciting news.

Almost there, except my inability to get the front derailleur working makes me want to cry. It's rideable, just won't shift into the big ring. This may require a trip to the LBS. Once I get that sorted it's just mudguards and bar tape.

Dat shifter angle.

Bars up, shifters down!

This may require a trip to the LBS. Once I get that sorted it's just mudguards and bar tape.

For the love of God, when you say a trip to the LBS please tell me you don't mean your actual LBS on Creek Road, you'd be better off asking my dog to have a look at it!

Looking great BTW.

It's SRAM- you need to give the left shifter paddle one big push, then stop, grab the chain and pull it across onto the big ring.

For the love of God, when you say a trip to the LBS please tell me you don't mean your actual LBS on Creek Road, you'd be better off asking my dog to have a look at it!

Don't worry wouldn't trust them to fit a valve cap.

Bars up, shifters down!

and yes will sort this later

This is gorgeous, may have to look into a pair of those rims, I'm pretty new to this but they're basically exactly what I'm after.

So, knowing that my incompetence is not irreversible, I took this to see Krisz at Cyclelab off Old Street, who has done some small work for me in the past and I know a bit from the Saturday training sessions at Herne Hill. He is a mechanic I would recommend if you need work and are around that way. He quickly sorted me out, and so now it looks like this

Well pleased, I have only had time to ride it home and a bit last night, so 10 miles or so through London, but it's incredibly comfortable. Far more so than my track bike, which also is 853. I am sure a lot of that is in the bigger tyres and wider rims. Unfortunately, I had plans all day today so though the weather was lovely I only had time to take a picture, no riding. It may look a little off due to the camera angle, I will try to take better pictures next weekend.

Still needs mudguards and probably a little fiddling, but very close.

Sweeeeeeet. Hate the Brooks, but I always hate Brooks. It looks great pharaoh.

I'm not sure how I feel about the stem/headset colour combination, but I understand why you wouldn't want black.

Thanks JB, really pleased to finally get this rolling.

Yes, I went back and forth on the bars/stem decision whether to go this route or black stem and bars. Since I already had these bars and the stem was only 25 notes, it was a small investment to go this way. And it will be easy to change should I want to.

Looks sweet, great build. What mudgaurds are you planning?

Probably SKS longboard in silver.

This is looking really nice.
Which brake stirrups did you fit...R451s?

Lovely

Flippin envious of this lovely machine.

Silver's always better than black.

I have to say, I feel duty bound to say that saddle needs some tension, currently looks like a hammock. It's why they have that tension bolt! For some reason loads of people think it's a fail to add tension. Naturally I wouldn't expect you to do what I say if you like it like that. But I think it's a fail. And so do the fellas who make them.

^^^ Brakes are Tektro standard reach. I looked at the TRP version of these and couldn't justify an extra 100 quid on them, as nice as they are, especially after I splurged on the group and CK hubs.

Skully I know what you mean, one of those things I have been meaning to do but just haven't gotten around to. As I said up there, there are a few things to fiddle with....

Beautiful!

Slightly trivial query: what's the best way for me to acquire a Friends of HHV water bottle, and does it dribble? :-)

Thanks. We have a stand with merchandise at most events at the track or track related We will be at London bike show for example. Also at Good Friday meeting etc. Mine dribbles a bit but mostly because 10 year old son chewed the cap.

Cheers, I'll pop by some time. Might go mad and buy some socks.

So. Pretty.