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did you get that Galaxy i sent link for? bargain!

Not until now... got overwhelmed with work and postponed thinking about the bike for the rest of the week - sorry for not being in touch.
That was a bargain.
Now I'm back to thinking about it, I'm contemplating whether I'd be better to just get her some cheap integrated shifters. I know they'll look a bit weird on that bike, but it seems like it might be a relatively easy option.
However I would probably like that sora wheel you had. Will give it a little more thought and then PM you.
Cheers

So something I'm really confused about - I know Deore as the lower end of mountain bike gearing - how does that translate to road/touring type bikes? Is it just the older Deore stuff that's suitable for this kind of thing?
I should point out that I'm considering gentle touring here - pottering around France for a few weeks most likely, rather than anywhere with bad roads/few bike shops.
Thankyou again for all the advice.

I ve a lot of this stuff, including some band on shifters and some bar ends.

Let me know what you might need

I d suggest you use friction not indexing . Your choices are wider.

I am in Walthamstow btw .

Ideally I'm after getting everything in one go - front/rear mech, shifters (and possibly rear wheel and (triple) chainset at the same time). Definite preference for indexed bar-end shifters at the moment, though I'm not ruling out anything. Beyond that I'm really pretty vague - quality/reliability over authentic retro-ness though... she's going to use this bike for touring so I just want it to work.
Inconveniently I'm in Brixton... though obviously I'm willing to travel/pay postage on parts.

ad441- if you're gears are working OK right now i'd not bother upgrading unless you want to go to indexed - in which case late 6 - but most likely 7 or 8 speed is in order. but unless you have shimano style braze-ons on the frame you'l have trouble fitting- it's very rare to find a band on that will take indexed downtube shifters. i'd start by looking for the shifters and then get the rest to suit whatever speed shifters you can get hold of. - bar end shifters are good alternative if you can get / afford them (they always seem to going for a lot)

Thanks - that's really helpful - unfortunately the gears aren't working well at the moment - it's a nice quality frame (531c), but the components are pretty horrible & despite a lot of adjustment I've concluded they weren't ever up to much.
However you've just pointed out something I hadn't even thought about - the shifters are band-on, so that complicates things further...
On the other hand, indexed shifting isn't essential I suppose, but maybe bar end shifters are a neater way of doing it.
I'm not against spending some money on it, as it's a nice frame and I got the whole thing for a bargain price.
Sorry this has turned into more of a mechanics thread than a classified... though I am still hoping someone will come along and sell me the whole lot in one go.

I know the front one's ok as I tried one of my wheels in the frame. Back one may or may not be... but compared to the gears I'm not too stressed about it. Deep drop brakes seem much easier to pick up cheaply than a suitable gear set.

actually it's short cage so probably won't work as i'm guessing you will have larger sprockets.

Yes, long cage would definitely be better i'm afraid.

Pm if vaguely interested!
PM'd!

Probably a little more vintage than I need really, would be interested to see pictures, but I suspect I'll be better off with something a little more modern (as much as anything with downtube shifters can be).
Not that I'd rule it out, but I assume something like that is likely to be more desirable to someone looking to build up an old bike authentically, whereas I just want something that works well and doesn't look terrible...
(however road bike gears are a bit of a mystery to me - I'm much better with mountain bike ones, so I'm likely to be quite wrong on all sorts of things).

If anyone's been converting a bike to fixed and has a suitable set of decent quality gears going spare, I'd be interested in buying them. I'm looking for something suitable for the below bike (which has a mediocre huret rear mech at the moment), I'm much more interested in quality than historical accuracy, but would prefer to stick with downtube shifters. The bike will be used by my girlfriend for touring so need something that's reliable (because I'll be the one fixing them).

Ideally want a front & rear mech and the shifters. MIght also be interested in a crankset.

I'm also looking to ditch the 27" wheels, so I'd be interested in a pair of 700c wheels - or even just a compatible rear 700c wheel.

Sorry if that's a bit vague. It just seems like they'd be the exact parts going spare if someone was doing a conversion, so thought this was a good place to ask.
Willing to pay anywhere between £10 and a £100 depending on what's on offer.
Cheers

You're a bit late... sorry. The horrible saddle is still available...

Yes it's the pair.

Loic

I'll definitely take them then - will PM you.

I'll take the brakes if they're £10 for both?

Has anyone got a spare rear brake they'd like to get rid of?
(I presume the chances of this are pretty high here)
I've decided to switch to aero levers and while I don't see myself actually using the rear brake much, I can't bring myself to have a lever not connected to anything - just doesn't seem right.
I'd like it to vaguely match my front brake (pictured below), which is fairly shiny. Beyond that I don't really care...
Will pay upto about £5 (though will happily pay less) and can pickup in Brixton or Soho.

Cheers

Amazing - exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you. Shorter than I expected as well - was predicting 100 miles+

I'll PM you my email. Cheers.

What the title says basically... anyone know of a pleasant route on quite-ish roads? It seems to be a hard one to google (because it tends to find lots of pages about cycling IN the New Forest).
Cheers

Ok, so I'll give T0m another hour or two to get in touch and if not it goes to Bikeranger.

God this gets complicated...

Ok, I better give t0m and danielj first refusal as they replied quickly, so just hoping to hear back from them...

60cm c2t

If anyone can pick it up this afternoon/evening or tomorow daytime that'd be a a bonus...

Found this frame abandoned outside my block of flats - does anyone want it?
It's got a bit of rust, paintwork's not in great shape, various poor quality components attached to it. However it's got horizontal dropouts and my last frame was Reynolds 500 and I really liked it. This one seems to weigh a lot more, but that's probably down to the crankset. Structurally it looks ok, but I haven't spent much time checking it as I'm a bit busy.

From the sawn-off handlebars and and one fanged brake set up I presume someone was maybe intending to convert this and then gave up.

Anyway, pick up from central Brixton, most evenings/some weekdays - ideally soon (as my girlfriend's going to want me to throw it out again when she sees I've brought it upstairs).

Ok, sorry about that. Whoever told you that miss-communicated that a bit. They probably meant that you have to have had an induction at some point before, not necessarily just before.

I'm expecting, and will mention to some riders that if they can't stay with the pace of the intermediate session then the should be doing the novice session instead.

Judging by Saturday, this new format makes for a much higher quality of novice/first time riders. They have more time and space to learn the skills, and aren't frantically trying to keep up with a relentless pace. Ie, it shouldn't be too erratic.

Ok, that's good news. I'll try the intermediate and see if I can keep up and if not I'll drop back to the novice. Morning session is much more convenient for me so I'm really hoping I'm up to it. Thanks very much

Yeah, new inductees now can go straight into the Novice training session 12-45-2. There's a good mix of skills and fitness riding in the session but at a slightly more relaxed pace than the intermediate session.

This Novice session is aimed at people who aren't particularly fussed about learning to race in the track league and instead just want a good quality ride. Don't feel compelled to ride in the faster intermediate session just because you've been before. You'll learn and improve more riding with people in a focused session, rather than hanging off the back of the intermediates.

I turned up at the novice (12.45) one on Saturday and they told me that was only for people that had just done the induction and that I should do the morning one...
Anyway, I'm going to give the intermediate one a go, I'm hopefully a bit fitter than I was last year so maybe it won't be too bad. Also it will be nice to ride without some of the more erratic riders from the induction (only just missed being taken out in one of the worse accidents last year).

What's the level like on the new intermediate Saturday morning sessions? I was doing the morning sessions last year and the presence of people from the induction class meant I wasn't always the slowest... are they much tougher than last year's morning sessions?

Adrian - Yes you're probably right about the rarity of 29" components, it isn't easy in this country. I couldn't bear to be on 26" wheels though, I've never felt comfortable on them even when mountain biking. Shouldn't be too much extra weight to carry a spare tyre, some spare tubes and two or three spare spokes though.

Antibiotics are definately on the list.

Yes, I'd have really appreciated bigger wheels going up those hills.

I took a lot of spare parts I didn't use at all. One thing you might be able to do is leave spares at a guesthouse in Cochin, as for the most part you'll only be a day's taxi ride away from them if you turn out you need them. Which you probably won't - Maybe I was lucky, but aside from a continually loosening bike stand I had no real technical problems at all.

Just watch out for dysentery.
Chapeau massively to those who have cycled it. I'm in Tala, MP right now and couldn't imagine cycling here at all. Roads are just too hectic for me- obv not here as it is the middle of the jungle.
I can report that it is freezing- today I was wearing two t shirts and a fleece then it soared to thirty plus!
I just had dysentery or at least that's what the local doc said- as far as I could guess- on the BRAT diet right now, and food actually stuck after four days.
On the plus side I saw 5 tigers today.
Good luck Steve and massively impressed by julia and ad441.

Is that near Bandhavgarh? A great place, I remember having to get up at 4am to get tothe reserve and it being unbelievably cold. 5 tigers is excellent. Got really lucky and saw 3 the first day I was there, but no one saw a single one for 4 days after that. I'm very jealous (though not of the dysentry of course).

On the subject of illness - cycling in India I'd carry a good general purpose antibiotic (ciproflaxin?). I talked to a doctor before I went and his view was you should just start taking the pills right away if you thought you were getting something. I had several unpleasant bouts of illness, which always coincided with being in the grimmest, dustiest hotels in the most depressing towns, but none of them held me up for more than 1 or 2 days, which I think is probably down to the pills - though of course it's hard to be sure, maybe I'd have got over them anyway.

I'll be using my singular peregrine with my 29er wheelset and 1.35 hardpack tyres. I'm planning on running it in a 1x6 set up with a 38T chainring and a 14-34 cassette. Luggage wise I was hoping to take two medium sized rear panniers and a bar bag.

To test the setup I'll probably do a 3/4 day domestic tour in July. London to Bolton crossing the peak district, luckily I have friends/family at 60ish mile intervals on the route.

My friend will be buying or borrowing a bike so not sure yet, but it'll be a similar set up albeit with more gears.

That sounds like a good choice - a lot lighter than what I toured on which is quite enviable, but then I think you'll have much better roads in the South. Only possible problem I can think of is that you'll only be able to get 26" wheel spares out there, so carry plenty of inner tubes, spokes and maybe even a spare tyre. But then in 3 weeks you're unlikely to have anything major go wrong.
I carried far more luggage than I should have really - mainly because I took a heavy slr camera as I knew it'd help keep me sane when not cycling.

My bike testing and training ended up being little more than one ride down to Brighton in the end - which was really stupid when i had several months to prepare.

If I could, I would, but neither my girlfriend or my work are going to stand for me taking any more extended leave... I exhausted all my priviliges with my Sikikim trip last year I think.

It'll go quickly. There are lots of useful things you could do to prepare yourself - from learning to eat well with one hand to learning some basic Malayalam (not that I did, but it'd give you a massive advantage if you spoke any).
And it's an excuse for all sorts of bike part purchasing.

What sort of bikes do you think you're going to use?