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It's been nice to hear people saying that if they got one of the bikes they'd top up or make donations to other charities and other ideas. It's good for the soul :)

That's a lovely thing to say. I've been pretty overwhelmed by how positively this has been received. I'm glad that I can celebrate our time together this way, and also hopefully provide other people with a lot of good memories and feelings in future.

And it looks like it's already gone :)

I built this as an eventual replacement for the very first frame I made, which got nicked from outside the workshop I was using. You can take the bike, but you can't take the skills.

Although I say winter bike, it's really a bike for when the roads are a bit wet, or unpredictable. It's a Columbus Zona tubeset with a Columbus Hiver winter fork. It's the same geo as my Rourke, I just lengthened the chainstays to allow for mudguards, plus I made the appropriate head tube adjustment to allow a longer winter fork blade length.

Full spec is:

Fillet brazed Columbus Zona with Columbus Hiver fork, Hope headset
SKS chromo plastic mudguards. RAW spray flaps to keep your friends/wheelsuckers happy
Ritchey WCS alloy bars, handles, stem
Ultegra 6800 mechanical groupset, 172.5mm cranks, 52-36 chainset, 11-28t cassette.
Ultegra composite pedals
Mavic Ksyrium Elite S wheels, Conti GP4000II 25mm tyres (not an obvious winter choice, but they were in a box and I like them)
TRP long drop calipers
Fabric Scoop shallow saddle
Arundel carbon fibre bottle cages

Loads of great memories riding this one. On the 2015 Dun Run pretty much rode the first half with a tandem piloted by two people from London Bike Kitchen. They couldn't get into the small ring and had no GPS/wayfinding, so I did directions and hills, and they motor paced me on the flat :)

£600 collection from North London N4. All sale proceeds going to charity. If you don't know the background to the sale, it's here https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/3618­97

Big thanks to everyone who's been sending me messages - it means a lot. The 54cm TIG Tourer and the 52cm All Seasons are now on hold.

I'll post the 54cm winter road bike and the Cube CX later on today, once I've had time to pause for thought.

Mike

This is now on hold for someone. My private messages went a bit hectic there.

Mike

This is now on hold.

I'm pricing them to sell because I really want them out in the world and being ridden again.

Your wish is my command :)

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/362250

I built this one as a birthday present. If you want to know the background to the sale, it's here https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/361897/

Geo wise, a fairly normal 52cm road frame. 535mm effective top tube, saddle height is set at 715mm in the images. Paint is black and white with an aged copper detail band, by Fat Creations. Really good condition.

Fillet brazed Columbus Zona tubeset, Whisky No. 7 carbon fork, Portland Design Works mudguards. Paragon machine works dropouts. The cable runs are external clamps, so you could switch this to hydraulic disks at some point if you wanted.

Spec is:

Columbus Zona tubeset, Whisky No. 7 cf fork. Paragon machine works dropouts
Hope headset
Ultegra 6800 mechanical groupset, 50-34 170mm chainset, 11-32t cassette
TRP Spyre mechanical disk brakes
H Plus Son rims, Sapim Race spokes, on Hope Evo 2 hubs with Hope QR skewers
32mm Vittoria Randonneur tyres
3T stem and bar. Unbranded carbon seat post. Thompson seat post clamp
Bontrager women's saddle (Affinity RL) that can be swapped out if needed
Arundel carbon fibre bottle cages
XT SPDs

£550 collection from North London N4. All sale proceeds going to charity.

I built this one for me for wandering around on and off road, and also to put my TIG welding skills to good use. Fave moment on this bike - riding those converted railway tunnels outside Bath.

It's Columbus Zona with a Kinesis CXD fork and colour matched Portland Design Works mudguards. Paint is metallic grey with a petrol (that not-quite-turquoise blue) top tube detail. Paint was by Cole Coatings. The TIG welds were finished with a very fine coat of 55% silver brazing rod that was sanded smooth.

It's a pretty standard 54cm road geo, with a 550mm effective top tube. The frame has headtube-mounted gear adjusters, and it's eyeleted for a rear rack if you fancied putting one on.

Saddle height is set to 730mm in the pictures

Spec is:

Columbus Zona tubeset, Kinesis CXD fork. Paragon machine works dropouts
Hope headset
105 5800 mechanical groupset, 50-34 172.5mm chainset, 11-32t cassette
TRP Spyre mechanical disk brakes
DT Swiss X392 rims, Sapim Race spokes, on Hope Evo 2 hubs with Hope QR skewers
32mm Gatorskins
Ritchey comp stem, bar, seat post. Thompson seat post clamp
Charge spoon saddle (I have a couple of Fizik ones knocking about if that's more your thing)
Unbranded Arundel carbon fibre bottle cages

No pedals at the mo, but I think I have some XT SPDs in the loft I could stick on.

£550 collection from North London N4. All sale proceeds going to charity. If you don't know the background to the sale, it's here https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/361897

Thanks for the positive comments everyone. Had a decent amount of interest so far on this one, and there's more stuff coming up soon.

Mike

Following on from my intro thread here this is the Rourke Cycles custom frameset.

Image library here

Gloss black frame and fork, white and silver banding. The frame is TIG welded from Reynolds 853, the fork is an Enve Road 2.0 (inch and eighth) and the headset is Chris King. Stainless steel dropouts, and a stainless steel chain pip. Built for mechanical caliper groupsets.

Unused. Why? Well, I had a Rourke made for me about 7 years ago, and I rode and rode and rode it. I sent it off for a repaint and it vanished. As far as they could ever establish, stolen from a momentarily unattended van. Rourke remade the frame, but by the time it arrived I'd built the components onto another frameset for a holiday, and then life got in the way.

Takes a 27.2mm seat post and will run Hunt Aero rims (24mm) with 25mm Vittoria Open Corsa tyres no problem.

Dimensions are:

Effective Top Tube - 550mm
Seat tube 565mm (centre BB to top of virtual top tube) drop to (actual) 525mm
Seat Angle - 73.5
Head angle - 73
Fork rake - 44
BB height - 10.5
Head Tube - 138mm
Free steerer length is 55mm, enough for 10mm spacer, stem and a 10mm on top. It's an inch and an eighth fork.

I'm looking for £700 for the frameset collected from North London (N4). As mentioned all of the proceeds of sale will be going to charity, and I hope to price things to sell. I want them used, and it's important to me that they are passed on.

If you would like to make your own donation to charity as well, that's cool with me, but I don't want anyone to feel obliged.

The Rourke is in a box in the loft, so I need to take some new shots. It's a re-make of this one, so paint job is the same, although the Enve fork is now just sprayed up in gloss black.

Thanks for all the incredibly kind and supportive words. I'm going to put some full posts for the sales together soon, and I thought I'd put up some images so people have an idea of what I'll be selling:

All-season road bike (54cm) wheels are now Ksyrium Elites.

TIG tourer disc (54cm)

All-rounder road disc (52cm)

Karate Monkey in drop bar bouncy mode

Maybe I should clean it Cube CX bike

Mike

It's a bit stale @Skülly :)

Thanks everyone for your kind words and support, it means a lot.

Mike

Hey LFGSS, long time no see.

Since 2010 I've variously been a paid-up member of Touring Club, Cyclocross Club, Cargo Club, Mechanicing, and The Noble Fellowship of Frame Builders.

But for the last few years cycling has had to take a bit of a back seat for me. Because of cancer. That's not an easy thing to write. And this probably isn't going to be an easy read for a bit, but I hope you'll stick with me.

My wife, Emily, died of metastatic breast cancer in April 2020. A few of you might have met her, if you were part of the group who went up to Yorkshire for the Tour de France many moons ago, or on other random cycling occasions.

Emily loved riding bikes for the freedom they gave, and the opportunity to see or experience something new. The Milton Keynes round of the CX World Cup, riding the Coast to Coast, doing the IoW Randonnee. Chatting to people at the beach waiting to pick me and friends up at the end of the Dun Run. Or you know, just going for a pedal and a wander around London. Point the wheel, see where it takes you.

Over the next little while I'm going to sell some of the bikes that we collectively owned. I'm simplifying my life a bit, so I (only!) need a fast road bike, a cargo, and AllSeasonRoadGravelAdventure bike, or whatever you want to label the category that used to be called "Surly Cross Check".

The money from the sales will be donated to charity, spread across The Whittington Hospital charitable trust, Macmillan Cancer Support, Crisis, and London Cycling Campaign. They get money, you get a nice bicycle or frameset. Simple.

I started my journey in frame building with The Bicycle Academy, then spent many a happy hour sharing space with Saffron Frameworks. I'm a qualified mechanic too, and worked as the mechanic at Pretorius Cycles in Shoreditch before they closed up and emigrated.

I've built things that have survived the Paris Roubaix Sportive and the TCR, so I'm alright with joining bits of metal and turning an Allen key. All the bikes are used, so to be clear, there's no warranties but they've been looked after well.

What will be I selling?

Three bikes made by own hands:

A winter road bike, Ultegra, Ksyrium Elites, decent Ritchey finishing kit. Fillet brazed by me in Columbus Zona. 54cm equivalent

An all-round road bike. TIG welded by me (with some silver over the welds for a bit of a cleaner finish. I got that tip from Jason Rourke.) Zona, 105, mechanical disks, Hope & DT Swiss. 54 cm equivalent.

Another all-round road bike, fillet brazed in Zona, Ultegra, H Plus Son on Hope wheels, mechanical disks. 52cm equivalent.

And also:

A Surly Karate Monkey full-spectrum adventure bike. Hub gear, flat bar, hydro brakes, switchable to drop bar mechanical brakes, suspension and rigid fork, plus a pair of SS wheels. It's weird in a good way.

A canti-braked Cube CX bike, Alloy with Carbon fork, Fulcrum wheels, 105. Has been raced as I explored my Functional Vomit Threshold. Looked after, but at times ridden like I stole it. That's CX for you.

Finally, an unridden Rourke Cycles custom frame (there's a story there) in Reynolds 853 with stainless dropouts, an Enve 2.0 road fork and Chris King headset. 54cm equivalent, pretty standard road geometry.

I'll post them up over the next two or three weeks, with pictures. I'll do a post for each to keep it simple to follow.

For now that's enough typing. If you got this far thanks for sticking with me.

Mike

Thanks very much! I'm a hobbyist, but I've been building things for a fair bit of time so I'm reasonably well practiced.

I'm glad the Cross Check's serving you well - nice to hear.

The slot heads came out OK in that they didn't break, but it's slow going removing them as the flat bit does tend to spin out, and there's a chance you then dig it into the timber. Not a concern if you're doing demolition work, but more of a worry if you're lifting bits to fix stuff underneath.

If I had the choice between the two I'd pick Torx. Torx has the added benefit that the heads can be smaller, so the fixings are less visually intrusive too.

Hello! @withered_preacher & @Sharkstar - I've not been around for a little while. Funnily enough I completely redid the decking last year because the wood had hit the end of its serviceable life (almost 15 years, to be fair).

To build it this time we used fixings supplied by Jacksons fencing - stainless self-countersinking torx head. I used easily over 300 of them and didn't have a single failure. https://www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk/product/sc_809902/60mm-decking-screw-stainless-steel-t25-torx-drive.pail-containing-200-pcs-driver-bit

For the underlying structure we used a range of fastenings, but I'd thoroughly recommend the TimbaDeck & TimbaScrew products from Screwfix.

Here's the fruits of my labour on this soggy spring morning.

Um, I think you might have misinterpreted the chart.

Some seat tubes are externally butted - that way you can get the thickness you need around the seat - top tube joint for strength, and the seat post itself is supported via contact to the inner diameter for its full length. Best way to verify is to measure the ID of the tube.

You don't want to go too close to the transition zone on the butting in case you compromise the strength. That's why they give you a 245mm plain wall thickness to work with, you can change the seat tube length by up to 165mm without breaching their guidelines.

The red circle just lets you know which end is which - on an externally butted tube you can also tell because you can actually feel the transition on the external butt.

I used an SLX 1x11 groupset on my Bullitt if you wanted to reduce the budget a bit. I've been very impressed with it.

Mudguards maybe on the build?

To do the downlighting on my cargo bike I bought some LED strip lighting off Amazon that's meant to provide ambient colour behind TVs. It had 4 strips, but I only used 2. It was about a tenner for the LED kit, and I hooked it into one of those USB battery packs for charging phones.

It came complete with a remote that lets you change colours or do sweet disco fx. The LED strips have a self-adhesive backing and can be cut to length.

Yep - the kettle belongs to my mate. It's collapsible and has a metal base, you can get them off Amazon for less than £20 (other retailers are available) - first time he'd used it, and we were impressed.

The stove is an MSR PocketRocket - had it for years, it's excellent.

Yep, that's mine!