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What a shit bit of design the bit round Tower Gateway is. I want to ride along Tower Hill and turn right to go over the bridge. I either ride across into oncoming cyclists then into traffic to get across to the junction, or I ride to the end of it then dice with death trying to get across without being cut up by a bellend on a Boris bike. It's even better going the other way and guaranteed that the light is always on red with the shortest possible area to stop in, if you can guess which lane you need to be riding down.

This morning I decided against riding down it and instead kept to the road - far safer and quicker, although far more annoying for the cabbie trying to pass me. How can they spend so much monies yet get it so wrong?

I'm doing Fenchurch St to Sevenoaks 4 to 5 times a week and have been for about a year - mainly because I hate SE Railways with a passion and refuse to use their stinking piss-boxes to get to work on.
Plus - mileage is up and I'm in better shape than I have been for years.
Cons - my food bill is nearly as much as my season ticket, I can sleep standing up and I'm wearing out bits of my bike like its going out of fashion.

Interesting.....I bought it of these people http://www.ebay.com/usr/velosaloon-com?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

who seem to do quite a few 'vintage' frames with some pretty decent feedback. Knowing my luck, this is the one that slipped through the net.

Again, appreciate the heads-up. I'll maybe have it as my 'man-about-town' bike and save the groupset for something else.

Oh, and to answer the questions above, it has an English BB thread and the post is 27.2.

Well, what a surprise - it looks like I've bought a duffer! It's been dispatched now and is on its way to me, who knows if it'll turn up this side of Xmas. I've dropped the seller a line to see if he has any proof it is what they say it is. I'll report back with my findings.

As it stands I'm loathed to spend much money on it until I know what it is. I nearly bought a Colnago Master but got this because a)its not a Colnago and b) it was 10% of the cost of the Master.

Anyway, appreciate all your help with this. Will keep you posted as to the outcome

Well that was what I was wondering. The ad stated 120mm but, well - I know nowt about older frames. The big decider for me is whether it is in fact 120mm or they had a typo in the ad. If its 126 or 130mm then I'll go for a geared roadie build. If it's 120mm then I might just build it up fixed instead.

Hmmm decisions. At least its an english bb #brexit

If I do go gears, then I think it'll be this group set

Bored = check
Internerd connection = check
Money that should be spent on Christmas presents = check
Cyclingtips article on the new Campag groupset = check

Result? I've just bought this. It's marginally too small, which is a great start. It's also has a 120mm spaced rear end, for which I don't have any hub's that'll fit. Again, not ideal. So on that basis thus begins my first ever retro build. Only it won't be because I'm a luddite and don't get on with vintage group sets and I've got a pair of shallow carbon tubs that need using.

Inspired by the bike in the cyclingtips article half way down the page here https://cyclingtips.com/2016/12/campagnolo-potenza-mid-range-groupset-review/, I'm hoping to build up something similar. Merlin don't have the Potenza groupset in stock yet and if I'm honest I'm not altogether sold on Campag anyway, certainly not the cheaper stuff. I also need to work out if I can 'cold set' the rear end to 130mm (or thereabouts) so that I can use later gearing. 6 speed doesn't really appeal.

Other stuff - I've got bars and seatpost already and the wheels as mentioned. I need a headset and notice that you can still pick up a 1 inch King in various colours. I want everything black if possible but we'll see if that's achievable keeping in mind the 'issues' with the frame.

I really need to stop going on ebay whilst at work...

Cheers!

We'll I've still got to fit the Challenge tyres that I bought, and the brakes still aren't brilliant even with new pads. I've got di2 hydro on another bike which would be cool on this, but I don't really want to drill the frame and external wiring looks crap. So maybe etap hydro depending on a) how much it is and b) whether the cold will kill the batteries.

If one of the ten people in the world who run tubs and have a frame wide enough to accept these tyres wants them, then let me know. They're 28mm Dugasts, pretty new and leak air like a bastard (not punctured, they all do that sir). You can have them for gratis, unless you want them posting. This is on the basis that I can get them off without ripping them

Bloke in a little smart car on Old Kent road this morning, steering with his knees whilst texting. Clouted into me and continued to text. Knock on the window asking him what the fuck, to which he went mental shouting at me not to film him. Which threw me a bit as I don't have a camera. Can only assume he thought the light on my lid was a camera. Anyway, due to mad skillz/luck I didn't fall off and he carried on his merry way with his phone in one hand and flicking me the bird with the other, steering with what I'm assuming/hoping was his knees.

Made up for by the hot girl in transparent leggings waiting at the lights on Tooley st. Unfortunately I was sporting the clear lenses in my glasses and not the tinted ones. Rumbled/10

Fizik bars are a bit odd - hella short on the drops. Might change the seatpost for an inline one at some point too, its a bit stretched at the moment.

Anyway, it looks a bastard so I did a bit of buying. New saddle, bars, stem, tyres and I cut the steerer down. Also re-wrapped the bars in white bar tape (I'm sure there's a rule about not doing this). Also swapped out the frankly wank Tektro brakes for some duel pivot shimano ones I had in the garage in day-glo black. I've got an Ultegra chainset to go on once I get the stupid BB converter and I've got a set of shallow crabon tubs, but the Dugasts fitted won't fit the frame so I'll need some new tubs before I can fit them. Then maybe a groupset upgrade, possibly to Di2. However I need to start riding it a bit first.

So, I've clocked about 1000 miles on this so far and its working out quite well. Longest ride so far is 85 miles, which was the 'long' commute for me to and from work. I've got a much longer one planned for 23rd December as part of a charity thing where I'm riding to and from my mums house in Suffolk, around 120 miles each way. Grim

Anyway, there isn't much spending I can do on this so I took to improving the Cervelo R2 I bought a while ago on a whim but don't ride much. When I bought it I had a 'professional fit' done which felt comfy for about 10 miles, then it just felt odd. So that needed changing. I also swapped in a set of DT wheels I had in the garage. It currently looks like this, which I'll class as 'inflexible pov-spec MAMIL'. 1.2w/kg all day long

Baltic/10 this morning. Hats off to the bloke in the LV jersey last night, titanium Enigma winter bike with power meter who absolutely destroyed me riding through Chislehurst. Apologies for sitting on your wheel all the way to Orpington - I would have done a stint on the front but frankly I didn't have the minerals.

Mega thanks to the bloke in the Focus estate who brake checked me twice, the second time so hard that his Sat Nav fell off the windscreen. Lost in New Cross/10.

Scraped a lever along the wall outside London bridge road works this morning trying to filter through the traffic. My own fault for being impatient, however I do now have a cool scuff mark on my previously immaculate 105 shifters without having to fall off.

4/10 would probably do it again, but the other way so I can have matching scuffs.

BOR are an offshoot of Tune, I've had both BOR and Tune cranks on the MTB and they're nearly impossible to tell apart.

I envy your bearing puller...

Interesting on the Challenge front. Will try mounting mine again on the Hunts tonight.

Be interested to know how you get on fitting those Challenge tyres. Mine were an utter pain in the arse to get on the rims, dreading a puncture. Tried on both a set of Hunts and a set of Mavic Ksyriums and they were as tight as fook on both.

1x11 is interesting (well it is to me, the Mrs says I'm dull as fuck), I've run it for ages on the MTB's and also raced a season on the CX bike - the simplicity is definitely a bonus as is the weight saving. Plus I never use the front mech apart from trimming to stop chain rub (#humblebrag) so it didn't hurt to ditch it. The Sram Rival 1x chainset I've fitted to the Grade is the first time I've used it on the road and to be fair, I'd have been better with the 42t setup rather than the hero combo I've gone for with the 50t (note:I am NOT a hero).

My round trip commute takes in only about 1000ft of climbing but if I extend it, its 42 miles each way with Sevenoaks hill to contend with. At this point I definitely need something smaller as its misery going up there on 50/28. However my brother also uses 1x11 in the Peaks (lowest gear being 42/36) and he's not had any issues at all.

Long story short - yeah, its ok.

Really like that wheel/tyre combo, wanted to do similar on the Grade but not enough space apparently...

Anyway, 11 speed - My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that an 11 speed XT MTB cassette will fit on a 10 speed freehub. Obviously that then opens up the opportunity to go for a bigger cassette and run 1x11. If that doesn't work, you also have the option of swapping to an XD driver and running a Sram cassette which will give you (potentially) a bigger range of gears.

I've been running 1x11 on my 5800 105 set up for about 700 miles now and its mint (admittedly with a 12/28 rear block). As for 5800 vs 5700 - i'd go 5800 every day of the week. It's miles better than 5700, in fact its miles better than the old 10 speed DA stuff I had.

I hope she buys a pretentious cup of coffee from a pretentious coffee shop and when she takes a sip, the pretentious lid fitted to said pretentious coffee cup doesn't fit very well and it pisses all down the front of her shirt.

Hmm wonder if the grade would take 650b then? Might buy the wheels and tyres first and try it out...

Scrap the above - cheers Andy. Tyres bought!*

(*well, about to be**)

(**GAH out of stock)

Nicely! Will have a look at that then as that could be just what I need.

Found the horizons on...the WTB site. Surprise! $69 dorra which doesn't sound too bad. Until they slap on duty of course...Thanks BREXIT!

So, with the GT pretty much done (Carradice turned up yesterday) its time to start on a new project. I'd planned to build a HHSB of some description but then realised that I already have something similar and I don't ride that a lot at the moment anyway. I'm also doing some much longer rides and would like something a bit comfier, but still with quite a low front end as I can't get on with the meerkat head-in-the-air stuff that seems all the rage at the moment. Also, the Grade covers the geared long distance stuff quite well so what I blatantly need is a single-speed version of it for no other reason than SS/fixed bikes always look better than gears.

As I've got older, I've started to realise that I can't be doing with spending millions on a custom frame and fancy components as I just start getting precious about stuff and end up never riding it. Therefore whilst custom for the frame would be nice, it doesn't make a lot of sense on something that'll either get flattened by a taxi or nicked by some scrote.

Anyway, I could (already have) waffle on for ages with the back story, but my requirements come down to this

Horizontal dropouts
Plenty of bottle/rack bosses
The ability to run 650b road plus tyres
Discs
27.2 seat post

Pomp can't run 650b tyres so thats out, although would have been my first choice for much cheapness. My brother has recently done quite a bit of work for Cotic so he recommended the Road Rat. The new version looks quite cool although it does have some funky lengths on the top tube side of things. I've dropped an email as to replicate my road fit I'd be looking at a small frame. I'm 6ft2..Anyway, I want a black frame but they don't do black. They do do (do?) Gloss gunmetal though which looks ok so I'll maybe go with that.

Wheels and tyres - I want the WTB Horizons with the cool tan walls. They look mega on the million dorra Open below, so I'm sure they'll look just as cool on a £350 steel single speed. However they're not in stock anywhere that I can find, so I may have to go with Compass switch hills instead in a meaty 48mm flavour.

Other stuff I've yet to think about but it'll be Thompson finishing kit cos I like it, and a Fabric saddle because it suits my fat arse. It'll have a rack, possibly some guards and it'll definitely have brakes. Which ones I'm not yet sure.

Having checked the pictures you're right....bastard, that was the only bike there that I properly wanted...

Anyway, the show was....well it was OK. Bit poncy - I was there for about an hour in total. Had I not been bought a ticket for my birthday I wouldn't have bothered. I spent longer in condor afterwards trying to talk myself out of one of their ex-team bikes.