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The ride was a great success and a heap of fun! Managed about 25km on and off road in the end. It was really noodly as expected but rode well enough that I'm going to go to the effort of adding a couple more tubes to improve rigidity. The brakes worked adequately and the drivechain/shifting was smooth, I think we dropped the floating rings twice on the ride, so I'm not going to go to the effort of finding a more complicated solution. A few other minor mods planned including bottle bosses, cable guides, a smaller rear chainring to reduce the gear ratios and perhaps a new front stem so I can have a pair of matching 25.4 bars on the front too.

I'm looking forward to riding it some more with my wife now. We're nearly a foot in height difference so the 20" wheels and small frame sizes means we'll both be able to use it.

Thanks both! Long term it's going to need some more tubing to make it less noodly but I think it's rideable for now. Probably an extra one on each half.

Spacing the BBs, chainrings and cranks was a bit of a faff but it's mostly rub free now, we'll see what it's like tomorrow with both of us pedalling.

Chain tension on the front chain was initially one floating ring, which was a bit loose. Mocked up a few options with jockey wheels and rear derailleurs to tension it then just settled with two floating rings as it's quicker and easier for now. Another thing to revisit when I've got more time. Biopace ring has now been swapped for a round one.

The brakes are surprisingly decent and the gearing ratios feels okay. XT friction thumb shifter instead of the Sturmey trigger works a treat.

Looking forward to giving it a good ride tomorrow, should be fun if nothing else!

Today has seen some good progress. Sorted the best of the wheels and tyres and waved a scrubbing brush in there direction.

Chopped up a couple of tubes and brazed them up. It was very much a rough and ready job on the patio, alignment was done with some high tech string and the tubes were eyeball mitred with a flap wheel on the angle grinder. But it's all together and straight as far as you can tell by eye.

Frustratingly the largest diameter tubing I had in the shed was 28.6mm (though thick walled at 1.6mm) so I suspect it'll be a bit noodly to ride. I'll build it up and can then put another brace in if needed after a test ride.

I've got a few more bits to get from the bike charity (2nd chainring, grips, seatclamp, tandem brake cable) still. Hopefully should be test rideable mid-week.

@Tom13 the ride starts at 10am at a yet to be released place in the town centre and there's an event early afternoon in the Flaxmill with music, parts sale, drinks etc. Come along and say hi if you make it over, I'll be fairly hard to miss..

@M_V I'm hoping it's going to be fun to ride. The paint on your Raleigh is fantastic and I'm digging the dropbars. This has really made me think about picking up another to do up, I think a fully stripped down flat bar one would be ideal for around town and a hanger would be fairly straightforward. I've yet to try making a full fork, so potentially a disc one with a fixed rear end would be interesting too.

@Chaley that definitely has potential! Space for a decent sized cargo platform at the front of that.

It's project time again. There's a local event coming up next weekend, the Salop Sludger, that I've done with a friend a few times. This year it's an alley cat around town and we fancied doing it on a daft bike (yes, bike singular). I spotted the Raleigh Twenty tandem someone was selling on here a while back and thought I'd have a go at doing something similar.

The local bike charity has a stack of old 20" shopper bikes which I had a pick through, initially selecting a couple of Raleighs Twenties. A bit of research showed that Dawes Kingpins would be a better choice though, they have a 68mm English threaded bb, better headsets, half decent Weimann brake calipers, and the frames are nicer quality. So two were purchased last weekend. Budget for the build is near zero and time is limited so this is going to be a ratty, cobbled together from the bottom of the parts bin special.

Both bikes have been almost fully stripped down. A huge amount of weight has been saved by ditching the kickstands, mudguards, racks, light brackets, seatclamps (most of which are made of steel!) etc. The actual frames are reasonably light and well made. The cottered cranks are gone too which will be another big weight saving. I'll be swapping out the original saddles, pedals, brake levers and grips to make some concession to comfort for the ~50km ride.

Next up was the chopping of the frames, everything behind the seatube is gone from the front frame and everything in front of it from the rear one. It'll then have two new tubes brazed in. I was going to keep the top tube of the rear bike (similar to the one for sold recently) but it would have been ridiculously short and upright for the stoker. Handily the seatposts are a close enough diameter (another win for Dawes!) that a 1 1/8" stem works for the stoker bars.

I've got one decent rear wheel with a working Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub which will stay and the drivetrain will be a pair of road square taper cranks. One chainring on the front set and two on the rear so all the chain business is on the drive side, a chain will run from front crank to rear crank on the inner rings, then a second chain from the big outer ring on the rear crank to the hub. I've got a few different BBs to mess with chainline. I'll cross the tensioning the front chain bridge when I get to it, thinking perhaps an sliding tensioner with a jockey wheel on the frame tube or a big chainring in the middle of the chain run. Front rider will do the braking and stoker the shifting to avoid having to buy long shifter cables (I did say this would be low budget!). The route is mostly flat so braking should hopefully get close to adequate with new cables, decent levers and the Weimann calipers.

That's as far as I've got and a big dump of what's in my brain. The event/deadline is Saturday 9th so for once it'll be a project that doesn't go on for months.

Seeing if anyone has anything matching the below before I get some Bitex.

1. Silver
   
2. Rim brake
   
3. Road spacing (100/130mm QR)
   
4. 20h front, 24h rear
   
5. Shimano HG freehub
   
   

Thanks

That's handy thank you, I had looked at Bitex as a slightly more expensive option and he does have the A171/F172 available (albeit sold out at the moment) in silver but only down to 24/28h.
It may be that I just deal with the hubs being black for ease/cheapness.

I'm after a pair of cheap hubs for a road, rim brake wheelset and Novatec A171/F172 seem like a good option. I have 20/24h rims already so need hubs in that drilling and ideally I want them in silver.

I can readily find the above hubs in black and red in 20/24h drilling on AliX, eBay etc. but I'm really struggling to track down a pair in silver and that spoke count, I'm only finding them in 32h.

Any suggestions of other places to hunt for them? Or any links to a 20/24h pair in silver? I'm aware they're rebranded under other names such as Ambrosio, but again I'm not seeing them in 20/24h. Thanks

Thought I'd ask in here before putting a wanted add up on the off chance anyone has one they're looking to part with.

After an XS/14" 26" Inbred frame, any colour, condition or dropout style.

Both bike and bags look incredible! What a treat

What shame about the missing parcel, I'd been very much looking forward to the culmination of the Maj X Hulsroy episode. Heartwarming that we will get to see that happen now.

Thanks, it does seem like it won't work, I hadn't appreciated the bodies were different given both pairs of pedals are at the bottom of my spares box.

Are the axles (without the spanner flats) from a Shimano m540 or similar pedal a straight swap into an m520 body? I've got two damaged pairs of pedals I'd like to combine.

Stem.

Finished re-building the Dolan as a modern (ish) groupset on an old (ish) frame. This is my winter road bike so PDW guards will be going back on in a couple of months. Everything is tatty, particularly the frame, but I'm happy with how's it's come together for a cheap bike and that's fine for wet winter riding. I could do with some fresh bar tape, the old stuff ripped a bit when I took it off to swap the shifters despite not being on long and I'd like the find some Force callipers to match the rest of the group. It's a touch on the small side which is why I went with a bit of positive rise on the stem.

• Late 90's (?) Terry Dolan frame made of Deda tubing (?)
  
• Force22 group
  
• GP5000 28c tyres
  
• Diy steel stem
  
• Super Turbo saddle
  
• Destickered Aksium wheels
  

You'll be more upright than you would be on the gravel bike for sure, I can't imagine it'll feel weird though. Mine is very comfortable set up as above for any length ride.
For reference mine is a Large and I'm 5'11 with a 35mm stem on it.
Thanks! Set up on the most robust side of things at the moment.

About finished and fit. Binders could have been brazed a little more neatly but it's all a learning process. One for the cycletruck next!

Most of the Force22 groupset is on the Dolan now too, just needs chain and cables.

The Solaris looks great with the carbon fork, looking forward to seeing it built up.

I've had one for 3.5yrs as my main MTB now, easily the best hardtail I've ridden, I really love it. It's done everything from bikepacking trips to a couple of rounds of the local downhill series and everything in-between. The faster you ride it the better it feels, it took me a while to get used to the long, slack front end.

Bad pic of current build:

After much procrastinating I've finally got around to brazing and filing the stem. A bit more sandpaper action and then the binders/bolts to sort.

It's been a while since I've brazed any actual tubes so I'm fairly happy with how this has turned out.

Finally making progress with a stem, all mitred up and ready to braze. 25.4 steerer, 31.8 bar clamp in 100mm length with 6° rise for the Dolan. This one will have a removable face plate.

Seatclamps repurposed to hold the various tubes in the right places.

Popped the Kysrium SLs on the Tricross with the slick GKs for some summer back lane fun in the hills.
And picked up an old 9spd X0/X9 drivetrain which, along with a Matchmaker clamp, will pair nicely with the Avid Elixirs on the cycletruck.

Trying to decide what to do with the Dolan, rode it as pictured over the winter. I've got a Force 22 groupset and a pair of Kysrium SL wheels that could go on for the summer (and remove guards) or leave it as is. I do like the look of the old 105 group with the square taper cranks and it's ideal (read cheap) for riding through all the salt and grot of winter. Yet to make a fillet brazed stem for it..

Still got the Geoffrey Butler to pull out of hibernation too.

Cheers, I do love this bike! It used to be a very drab dark blue, I resprayed it with Montana rattlecans. Good to hear 42's will fit in a Crux too.
Nah, it's a cheap Chinese carbon one, I think the frame set and seat collar are the only original bits of the bike now. It's a really comfy, versatile bike, the slick 38s are perfect for the potholed lanes around south Shropshire, I've used it for everything from cross races to all-day road rides over the years.

Always enjoyed the minty Crux and your pink one is great too @Harry. What's the tyre clearance like at the back? I've got an old rim braked Tricross set up similarly but I fancy the racier geo of a Crux for riding the back lanes around Shropshire. Can just about squeeze a 42c into the Tricross. It's been updated to 11spd 105 since the below pic was taken.

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