TomvanHalen's MTB allsorts - drop bars are dead

Essentially, yeah :P Nah, it's just way more conservative (not saying it's necessarily bad, just boring), the only thing that might be comparable is the "Tessiner Schule".

r u serious? I'm fully aware it's not brutalisim but as far as mad concrete architecture goes this shits all over the UEA

see also - walter förderer

Scotland sounds fine :-)

Not too big of a fan of Förderer tbh. Maybe it's also because I've grown up around that stuff and see it as nothing special anymore, idk.

Hmm, I dunno. The appeal of UEA for me is it's elegance in simplicity and the various paths through and around it, how well it works in its setting. That building looks a bit mad. Impressive workmanship though.

Edit: though realising it was built in the 20s, that's really very impressive

this one's in the same village

(apologies for the thread derail)

What is that?
I mean what's the building used for? And what's the bit on the top about?

It's in a village called Dornasch, near Basel. Rudolf Steiner designed, based on his philosophy. First one is called the Goetheanum and is a concert hall, second one is the boiler house (Heizhaus). I assume the bit on the top is a chimney

more here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goetheanum

enough thread derail, on with the rad bikes

Wise words.

We are on a train to Edinburgh, after the most disastrous morning I've had in a long time. Luckily, generous conductors and staff were on the cards.

Rad biek service will resume shortly

You mean virgin let you get away without a bike reservation?! The bars and guards look great, have fun.

While we got away with trains an hour later than our booked ticket, I actually managed to ring Virgin and get bike reservations for the later train while sitting around. I think it's the first time that's ever worked.

Happy it worked out for you. Could have all gone pair shaped. Enjoy Scotland.

gah, I cannot get my brooks far back enough either...

bike is looking rad tho.

The Raleigh 853 Sick Flames Enduro All-R(o)ad Touring Sled performed admirably in the wilds of Scotland. Feels nice and balanced, handles like a motorcycle downhill and seems capable of pretty much anything now. Very happy with the bars too, don't think I'll bother upgrading to a full loop. Only issues that cropped up are with the cheap Silca bar tape, which flattened almost immediately, and a bit of front end speed wobble that I think might be down to the Ortliebs more than anything. But I think the overhaul will stave off any disc brake cravings for the time being, I really love this build.

A few adventure photos to top it off

So nice! Love the chewbaccow 😀

Such a good touring build. Out of curiosity what wheels are you running there. Specifically, what hub/spoke/rim combo?

I currently have some disc hope xc hubs that I might try to lace to a vapour (silver) 650b rim, and trying to figure out what spokes I may want to use. Or whether this combo of hubs/rims is crazy. I want to stick to something classic looking but future-proof for touring purposes.

And where in Scotland did you go?

They're XTR M950 hubs laced to equally retro-tastic WTB PowerBeam rims (<400g! Reinforcing struts! Ample braking surface!). No idea on spokes, stainless double-butted ones, I bought them as a wheelset off Retrobike

Can't see any issues with a Hope/Vapour combo. Seems a nice rim, especially if polished silver is your thing. My go-to spokes are ACI Alpina SS DB, good quality and dirt cheap. DT Swiss Alpine III if you want the toughest spoke money can buy. The wheelbuilding thread is the place to ask, though.

We cycled from Oban, along the NCN route down Loch Awe, south to Tarbert and onto Arran, before ferrying across from Brodick and heading back to Glasgow. Unfortunately missed out on Islay due to ferry miscalculations and sacked the whole thing off a couple of days early due to incoming shit weather, but we had a good time nonetheless

Just saw this on ebay.

Ah yeah, you have to be careful with the ferry times up there. Especially hard as sometimes there's absolutely no signal so you can't check the timetables! They played a huge role in planning my trip around Arran, Islay, Barra & the Outer Hebrides & Skye earlier this year.

We did the Oban/Tarbert leg the opposite way around to you. Lovely route. Was gutted the café in Tarbert wouldn't serve us pizza for breakfast.

Bike looks absolutely fantastic by the way!

Incredibly, we had double-checked the ferry times on the train to Oban but managed read the wrong chart, and were looking at mon-fri rather than Sunday or whenever the fuck it was, so would have had to wait almost 3 hours at the port for the next one. Hence we decided to go straight to Arran.

Rarely seen so many cyclists on the road as Sunday in Tarbert. Lots of groups doing the "five ferries" route from Glasgow.

Christ, they're all coming out of the woodwork it seems. Tempted to buy it just for the headbadge...

Oka updates! The Lyrik, while an amazing fork for plowing through rock gardens, is slightly undersprung for me and doesn't exactly lend itself to anything remotely cross country. I've been waiting a long time for a deal to come up on a Formula 35 or a Manitou Mattoc, and lo and behold, after the last Epping ride, I notice CRC have Mattoc Pros up for £315 with BC discount, which is frankly nuts.

It arrived today.

Obviously the first thing I had to do was remove the massive red M and all the little fussy decals, and replace them with the right and proper white ones.

A bit of fiddling later...

And it looks like it was always meant to <3

Next, I need to find the right axle adapters, reduce the travel to 140MM (which needs some custom tools a guy on the internets is making, because the official set is £45) and rebuild the hubs to some bargain Pacenti TL28s I have on the way from CRC.

https://youtu.be/TCKizxLA5ik

Looks great fun!

From a quick bounce around the back alley it feels so much better. Can't wait to get it out in the dirt.