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I think the drivetrain looks good. I have another crankset that I considered, but the one that's on now will work better, aesthetically.

I wanted an old xt derailleur at first, but it has a different routing and I couldn't emulate the shimergo tab hack. This one is fine tho, eats up a 36t sprocket. Might get a long cage version in the future. Don't mind the ratty ass placeholder chain. I wisely cropped out the plastic flat pedals, will get some silver m520s.

Some more bits arrived, I pretty much have everything sans pedals to start ridig and tweaking things. Mudguards should arrive soon, I'm planning on Rinkoing this and the pink bike, so will cut the rear when the time comes.

The weird shimergo routing works really well, it's only strugglig a touch in a gear or two, but I'll leave the tweakig for when a new chain arrives (this one is a bit stretched).

I put a camper longflap on a sport bagman a few times, it didn't look totally weird, but it lost some volume obv.

How about a lowsadde longflap with a sport bagman?

Yeah good point, might be a bad place to put leverage.

Maybe look around SJS rack spares to see if they sell some fittings that 'convert' to a single bolt fitting so that you can mount it on the caliper bolt? I can't tell from the pic, but can you run just a bent flat bracket thing? Not sure how to articulate, but just a simple flat plate that attaches to the caliper bolt, bends over the caliper, and has a few bolt holes, one of which attaches to the bottom of the rack platform?

Longer bolt + spacers for the left fitting?

Got a possibly dumb question about the restrap rando bags. Since the attachment system is magnetic at the bottom of the bag, and presumably it's a strong magnet, how would that interact with a phone or a credit card that I might stash at the bottom? Shouldn't strong magnets destroy hard drives? Seems like a bit of a design oversight?

£55 posted Carradice lowsaddle longflap. Fits on the small bagman. Pretty low use, not much marking. Still folds flat a bit like it came in the mail. It went through one heavy shower, laptop inside was totally dry.

[gone now]£55 posted Ostrich F-702 14.5 L nylon handlebar bag. Pockets on the side, front and back, opens on the front. Not waterproof, comes with a wee yellow rain cover. WONT include the VO decaleur fitting, just can't be arssed to move it if it doesn't sell. Nice shoulder strap. Cool bag, bought a basket for commuting and have too many bags.

that's mad, good on your mate.

Got a pic of the brooks?

pics of the chest would be nice, yeah, second dibs pending pics?
Edit:undibs, I thought these open from both front and back.

Pics pics!

fab cable stops on the dt

That sucks, but are you sure the bb7s were road specific? Slow-but-not-stop sounds kinda like what you get when you mess up pull ratios (short levers, long calipers). I hope the bb7 work because they were cheap and I like their clunky look. Will report soon I guess.

Oh this is sick, thanks. I have that same ultegra deraileur, but might try the deore first.

Re discs, no idea, guess I'll find out. I thought it was the same rules as with rim calipers? Road disc calipers = short pull, so that's fine for drop levers?

I also found this company that says it works: https://www.rodbikes.com/articles/9-10sp.html

On some of our touring bikes and tandems we use 10 speed Campagnolo shifters with a 9 speed SRAM or Shimano cassette in the back. We're not the only high-end manufacturer that does this, but we are probably the biggest.

So I choose to be optimistic. It's free to try since I have a 9sp stuff laying around already, worst case I buy new 8sp cassette and chain.
I love downtubes, but I'm curious about whether this would work, and I only ever rode brifters for like 5 minutes, and those were some ratty Soras. I'll still carry a pretty friction dt in a bag for when the campy shifter fails or whatever. I'm paranoid enough.

Campy 10sp shifters miiight work with 9sp shimano? We know that 8sp does, but the cable pull of 9sp is like .3mm off. From another bike, I know that 11sp and 8 sp shimano work well together, and the cable pull is only off by .1 mm. Maybe .3 mm of difference between 10campy and 9 shimano will be fine too? Has anyone tried this?

Coming together nicely. Some change of plans.

Abandoned thesis writing for wheel building today. I'm preeety sure i got the dish in the rear right, but I didn't triple check...

I like how this looks, go for 29. Fixed mtb touches my bizarre curiosity bone, but with slick 47 it's a fixed gravel, and that's really fun IMO. Flip flop hub maybe?

Re the £10 rims, fucking hell I Just spent 100 on a pair of basically the same rims. Where were you a week ago.

Anyone got a rinko bag they don't want?

I get that coordinating between companies or countries is tricky, but it's one company, and one route. I'm sure there are reasons why it's not working smoothly, but still feel it should. Seamless systems for countless dumb consuming activities we don't need, and the boring stuff that actually makes life easy always lags.

Re seat61, that looks like a very lovely website, thanks.

Saw that frame listed, looked amazing. I thought it was a 26/27.5 frame? Might be underwhelming clearance at 29?

I think this info isn't online anywhere so I'll copy what I know from the email. Mind that this might go out of date at some point. Hopefully it prevents someone getting burned:

...
In the meantime, please note that bike and luggage booking service on Eurostar is available between London St Pancras, Brussels Midi and Paris Gare du Nord on certain trains. We are afraid to say that bike and luggage booking service is not available at any other routes. To comply with the travel and customs regulations, bikes and luggage can only be booked and loaded on the same train the passengers are booked to travel on The trains that we service are:

London to Paris: 9008, 9010, 9014, 9018, 9022, 9060, 9024, 9028, 9032, 9036
(Any train departing London between 08:01 and 15:31)

Paris to London: 9023, 9027, 9031, 9033, 9037, 9039, 9043, 9047, 9051
(Any train departing Paris between 11:13 and 18:13)

London to Brussels:
9116: 09:01 departure
9132: 13:01 departure
9142: 15:04 departure

Brussels to London:
9117: 08:52 departure
9135: 12:52 departure
9141: 14:52 departure
9153: 17:56 departure

The fee for bike booking service is:

Bike booking
48 hours in advance
£45 per bike each way
Bike booking
Less than 48 hours in advance
£60 per bike each way

Eurostar whinge.
I wanted to take the train to Amsterdam, so I can ride from there to a conference I'm attending. Website says no bikes to Amsterdam, but Brussels is cool. Alright, adds a 100k of riding, but should be fine.

I book the ticket and email for a bike reservation (as instructed). I email again twice (and using a different address) because I'm not hearing back within a week. I get a response today saying only Some trains carry bikes, and the fee to carry one is £45. Rebooking difference was £63. So that's £100 extra.
Their avg response time is 7-10 days, which means I'll only get a chance to pay for a booking in a week, and then Hopefully I'll manage to get a spot. There's room for 4 bikes on the whole train, ffs.

I'll be dotwatching this year. I romanticised TCR forever, got to ride a parcour in Italy with the pack back in 2019. An awesome day that was. I applied for the bursary one year, but I don't think I'll ever end up doing it because it just seems so unsafe.

I grew up, toured and audaxed in eastern europe, and every time I go back to visit family I realise how messed up the roads and drivers are. People dunk on UK drivers, but compared to home, they're a breeze.

I still have reverence for the TCR and the riders, but I don't know if I'll ever convince myself to do it.