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Yeah you're right - had another look & noticed that - ended up ordering the Geoff as they were still cheap (and the obligatory half dozen inner tubes & some wild socks) wider = betterer right? Plus there'll be bells / lights etc. etc hanging off it so more space for bar furniture might be handy and the backswept bits aren't too useful for lights

Now I need a bar bag to fill with enough snacks to appease an angry 2 year old who thinks a nice cycle through the countryside is a load of horse-shit (She can get into the rucksack & demolish all the good stuff before I even notice ...)

Grand - I think the Mike's are effectively the 31.8mm clamp version of the Mary, probably won;t make much difference if I go for them or the Geoff - the bar offer appears to have been extended, was supposed to end last night - that'll give me time to pick an assortment of lurid £3 socks to stock up on too...

Has anyone tried the PX Mike bars in comparison with the Geoff? Look similar in profile (more like Jones H bars) without the front section, slightly narrower & less sweep (but more rise) - was going to order some for £10 but if the Geoff are more useful for attaching stuff to then i'll grab those while the £15 offer lasts, not for any mad touring expedition - just for a hack bike / child mobile

They're spot on for the money - seem to work well on most frames too unlike some of the other stainless cages, even modern carbon stuff - I have the Elite Ciussi on another bike and i'm still undecided - a bit too much going on, although I should maybe take the little sticker off and see if that helps

(not my bike)

Cheers - cage is a £9 planet X stainless number, works really well & pleasantly surprised how nice it looks once mounted - it's developed a couple of little spots of corrosion, probably from some weird luminous sports drink I had recently but seems pretty solid

I've upgraded my commuting options slightly - picked this up in the classifieds (cheers @BirdBrain) - swapped a few bits over from my 631 Equilibrium disc and we're off! Didn't really need another bike but had just gotten rid of my car due to lack of use (old Volvo S60 which cost about a grand a year just to keep on the road, before diesel) so it's kind of a replacement for that, and it's much more environmentally friendly.

Only had a quick 5 miles shakedown ride this morning but i'm liking it alot! Stiffer and smoother than the previous incarnation, sitting at roughly 9.5kg right now but definitely rides lighter & the hydraulic discs are a world apart from any cable offerings i've used, haven't ridden a mountain bike for a couple of years & had forgotten just how nice hydro discs are, plus the big wonky shape of the RS505 shifters suits my big wonky hands quite nicely.

Liking the polished finish on that better than the previous brushed finish, subtle graphics on the fork are really nice

Also - if someone has been fucking about with the scales this causes problems too... people believe they're getting something when they're actually being shafted #notadrugdealer #stopfuckingwiththescales

£20 for a pair of Zaffiro pro (25c flavour) from wiggle can't be bad

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/vittoria-rubino-pro-clincher-25c-black-tyres/

Bet the saddle had that inimitable TT salt crust round the edges - it's making me feel nauseous and I can hardly see it... can smell it though

Block of polystyrene for a saddle?

Is that one of those vanmoof things in the background with the tanwalls? Looks... functional

Might be a bit late to the party, but when I needed a frame re-done I found this https://www.flickr.com/photos/pure-bros-cycles/albums Flickr page pretty helpful, all the individual photos are tagged with the RAL colour code - the bikes all have minimal logos so it's a good way to see how the colour works on a bike and the photos are nicely arranged - an exercise in functional German efficiency

Nice - those the matt bluemels? I need 'guards for mine but can't stomach £££ for some fancy alloy ones...

Cheers!

I know - they'd probably look nice & neat on an integrated mount without any adapters but this is defo not the most elegant solution! The rotors came with the wheels so I decided to work with them & see if they were any good before swapping things round - they should be fine in theory as i'm not overly heavy & this bike won't see any epic mountain descents.

Popped the pads out there to check & they're looking a bit glazed, the rotors were a bit scored too so that won't have helped either - everything's now been given a good rub down with wet & dry so hopefully there'll be some front end braking on the way home as i'm planning to leave work early & turn an 18 mile commute into about 30 to give this a bit more of a test run.

@hoops - reassuring, cheers - in retrospect I should have clicked when the rear was more powerful than the front...

Finally finished putting this thing together - first commute in this morning & first impressions are pretty good, needs a bit of tweaking here & there and the front pads need upgraded, badly, but overall not too shabby. Still needs mudguards. The fork / disc mount area looks like it's melted due to the curve of the fork combined with the droopy looking 140 mount - this will annoy me & eventually be replaced with a 160

Standard rubbish photos:

Cheers - got 5800 gears & shifters with a Praxis chainset, test fitted everything at the weekend & should all work out quite nicely I think - would have had it finished but ran into a few niggles...

Had ordered the only 5800 front mech adapter I could see to fit the 28.6 seat tube but when it arrived it was for a 31.8 mech & mine is 34.9... found a 34.9>31.8 adapter in a box of spares which was pretty chunky so I tried it with the extra reducer to see how it felt, seems fine so on it went - not the prettiest solution but if it works i'll overlook it for the sake of getting it on the road.

The matt finish bars were annoying me before I even started putting it together so I unearthed some polished finish Deda rhm01 from the loft from an old build & set about taking the scratched logos off with acetone - came up pretty fresh looking so on those went too.

The spoke clearance with the Spyres / 140mm centrelock rotors was a bit iffy - the actuation arm on the brakes was hitting the spokes with the caliper centred over the disc & the inner pad was rubbing if I moved the caliper out enough to clear the spokes - so quick search online & a rummage in the magic spares box unearthed what looked like a couple of old freehub (possibly) spacers, the hard plastic type - one around 1.5mm and the other probably about 0.5mm (absolutely no idea where / what they came from) they slipped over perfectly with a bit of persuasion, the bigger one centred the caliper perfectly over the disc but the lockring was catching the fork leg very slightly (plus i didn't really want anything that would push the rotor too far across the splines either...) so I went for the slimmer one & wound the outboard pad across slightly to make the pad gap even. Tightened everything up & all seems well - another look online suggests Bontrager make a 1mm spacer for this very purpose, might pick one up in future but for now this seems like a solution.

This is with no spacers involved - there's really not much of a gap between the lockring & the fork, although this shitty phone-camera angle makes it look worse than it is

Slow progress - but chipping away at it, pretty pleased so far but the fork curve combined with the weird angle of the 140mm front rotor mount makes it look like the front end has melted, will see how the 140mm rotor is - a 160mm might give me slightly better braking, more clearance and less ugly, but we'll see how it pans out...

The bearings are pretty easy to replace - 2 x 6803 2RS bearings I think you need if it's the 17mm axle - the circlip can be a pain to get out & replace (a good sharp pick should prize it out) but it's doable & will only cost ~£8 for a couple of bearings

The Campagnolo freehub is alloy & some boiling water poured over the shell swells it enough to push the bearings out/in by hand - never done it with the Shimano version but might make things easier than simply lamping it with a big mallet

Looks like a Novatec hub, had some similar in the past - on Evans website the spec sheet for the 2017 model lists "Rear Hub Novatec D772SB, 4 sealed bearings" so you might be in luck re. adaptors - the end caps may just pull off, can't quite remember if they unscrew or not.

For Novatec spares i've used BDOP in Taiwan a few times - https://www.bdopcycling.com/Wheel%20Parts-ALLOY%20THRU%20AXLES.asp

Looking for a pair of mudguards for new commuter build, too cheap to throw £50-£100 at some new ones, anyone any spare decent mudguards lying around gathering dust & not rain? Would need posted as i'm Glasgow based. Also, moon on a stick.

Cheers!
John

Have just started one in current projects - not much excitement yet i'm afraid unless you want to see the grubby insides of some TRP Spyres i've just rebuilt! Have most of a 5800 groupset & Praxis Alba chainset I picked up pretty cheap waiting to go on - been on the look out for some unoffensive mudguards that won't break the bank, however the wheels appear to have been trued by someone with a wonky truing stand at some point as they're both dished ~3mm off centre - so that's something else on the to-do list

Always fancied the original 2014 Equilibrium Disc with the steel fork - so when a pretty much mint one popped up recently I took the plunge, build plan was going to be as cheap as possible to get rolling but I decided to slow down & do it right (ish) first time instead of constantly changing parts.

Will be used in the West of Scotland year round so frame internals got a blast with some spray wax stuff from Toolstation for £3.50, nozzle is compatible with the straws from WD40 etc so you can get it right into the breather holes, will be better than nothing at least - balls to paying £20 for framesaver!

A mate sorted me out with some old (to him, not me...) Aksiums with 140mm rotors so they'll do nicely on the wheel front, picked up some Thomson bits & had some Deda RHM02 bars spare so they're going on too - would have preferred a polished black finish but I wont lose sleep over it. I probably will though.

Next addition will be a pair of Spyre SLC, because shiny, once i've put them back together - they all tend to come pretty dry from the factory so it's worth an hour of fannying about to strip & grease them up good every now & again as once the tiny thrust bearing race starts to rust up it's a pain to get smooth again - the 3 bearings on the cam assembly are apparently 3mm so these can be replaced if need be but dunno how easy the other one would be to replace...

New project gaining speed - might even start a thread!

Essentially gonna be 5800 / Praxis cranks / Spyre SLCs / Thomson finishing kit & bigger tyres than those on it just now

Yeah, almost like the old 70's amber-wall jobs once they get a bit of road-filth ingrained, guaranteed to turn a once meek bike rowdy (am I doing this right @Tijmen)

That Volare has become my most-ridden bike, love it - one day i'll nab a stainless disc version for peanuts on ebay but until then it'll keep getting dragged out ahead of anything else

J

I haven't... but fuck it, I shall!

Nice, go for the Lithions - they're really cheap right now so worth the experiment, I stuck a pair of them on my Genesis recently & they've been excellent - £15 paid for the pair!

Most importantly they annoy one of my mates who is offended by colourful tyres & spends more on bike tyres than I do on car tyres... they've dulled down slightly now due to riding on crappy Scottish roads so look more yellow than YELLOW, also only come in 23 but after a few rides i can't really tell the difference between the old 25s I had on

J