Lotus 110

this is going to look fantastic. I vote you give it yellow tyres like the front one. Matches the Lotus decals nicely.

Haha, cheers! The yellow's growing on me but I think I'm just gonna rock tan walls - will be super nice tying all that together though...

Anyway, round-up from the weekend:

With the BB soaked, wrapped in some rags & grabbed with the big grips it spun off pretty easily. Fitting it was easy as anything, couple firm taps with a mallet and it was in. Can definitely feel how tight it is to the threads but it didn't protest too much - friends reunited I suppose!

Tooling for the final fit was the next question (currently only hand tight) - fortunately another Lotus owner runs a shop up in Ipswich and has the proper tools for it all, so I'm gonna pop up there this weekend coming and get it tightened / aligned properly. Cost of tools vs cost of 30miles in the car with something I hope I'll never have to touch again is a no brainer! Quite nice to have a 'final form' build for a change, everything else I've ever had is always guaranteed to be changed again with my mood.

BB in (sort of), I couldn't resist getting the cranks on. I picked these up cheap from a group on FB, then spent almost as much as the crankset on a replacement dust cover - says a lot about their respective prices! Tarty bit, but it really completes it, great copy from some dude in Poland. Spot the original:

Project (dogject?) manager checked in on progress:

With those on, I could get the chain replaced and give the front derailleur a tentative set up. I'll run new cables when I get the bar extensions mounted, so for now just doing a little recycling. Deeply satisfying before & after of chains:

Plus a look at the old cassette - fair to say those teeth have seen some things. I switched it over to the 3g but will absolutely be next on the replacement list. The Sugino it came off will also be making an appearance til the stars and my bank balance align on a Comete. I still think it's a massively cool and thoroughly bizarre thing, this was always the 'no breeze on the A127' wheel and must have done thousands and thousands of miles over the years.

With the drivetrain loosely assembled, I started running some new cables where I could. As mentioned previously, I rather zealously took the OG 600 groupset off and pulled the inner brake line through. Fortunately my dad had the good sense to run an outer the whole way through the frame when building it, so replacement was a breeze. Old outer was looking sorry for itself, so that was replaced thanks to the magic of insulating tape.

Things got a bit bendy at the bar end - the bullhorns are drilled for internal routing which is 1: rad and 2: awkward. Fairly easy 'til you try and mount levers and get everything butted right up to what it wants to be.

Was also a nice reminder that I need to give the frame some love and repair the 25+ year old crack coming out from under the calliper mount. It terminates at a circular hole though, so the learned engineer / former trials rider in my head says it's no drama. Rear brake feels super nice though - going to leave the front off 'til I've decided on the stem for ease of swapping.

And that's about that, for now:

Next up is to decide on a stem, tighten the BB up, replace the cassette, remember where I put the bar extension brackets & elbow supports (somewhere in the abyss of the garage), run new gear cables, tyres, bar tape... Then it should be good to go.

Only outstanding parts to find are a 305 headset and some shoes to match these Time pedals... Think that may be a dream for another time, so I've got some Mavics which take Look cleats which I can revert back to.

All in all, much more straightforward than I anticipated. No doubt when I swap the headset I'll take the front of the frame off or the forks are gonna snap on the next ride or something. More soon.

Looking good!

I vote for a Look Ergostem

Bit of an update following the first ride this weekend!

Got invited down to Thruxton for the 10 mile TT to mark 25 years since the weird and wonderful were banned by the UCI along with a handful of other pre-96 bikes.

Was a great day out meeting people and seeing how a proper TT is done (people take it a lot more seriously than I did, apparently 'training' is a thing you should d0?), was my first one and I'd definitely like to do some more. Slow as fuck but it was great to have it back out. Didn't realise quite how small the frame is, so going to put some work into raising the seat next, it's a good 3-4" below where I'd like it to be and my knees are not thanking me for it today!

Some photos below - have put the bike back more or less to its '94 spec. Cinelli XA with Tempos, 3TTT Bio Arms, Comete sourced from France and a replica GAN graphic made up for it. Bonus pic of me going full-kit wanker because someone had to.

The bike does, however, now need a new front wheel as I managed to drive over the cosmic on my way out. Always check you've put everything in the car before leaving...

Looking forward to putting it back into slightly more frequent use! If anyone's got a front Mavic 3G tucked away, I'd give it a very good home here.

Cheers to everyone who's helped get it to this point :)

So good!

Always amazes me with these bikes the technology they put into design and construction yet they just shove a standard stem on there

I just saw some pics of this and you on Facebook. Nice one!

Bravo! Very very cool.

this is fantastic..,

Incredible !

Amazing stuff.

Awesome! The bike, the full Gan kit and the fact your dad commuted on it back in the day. 10/10

Thoroughly enjoyed reading through the journey so far! What an insane bike, pretty cool to see its influence on the new Hope/lotus track and TT bikes