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Almost lucked out
Wordle 293 5/6

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Thanks, those look like more appropriate terms, I just took a lazy guess. I expected the worst, with the non-straight angles and all, so I'm actually pretty happy with the result. And with a house like ours it blends right in anyway. Gonna be a nice room I think.

Doing a room's worth of ceiling skirting like this with somewhat lacking woodworking skills was kind of a pita. And all the corners are a bit wonky, so that didn't help either. End result isn't perfect, but at least it's done :-)

Pleasant symmetry

Wordle 228 3/6

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Ha!

Finished this one quickly, usually I get bogged down for much longer.

Wordle 221 4/6

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Sure, and one perk of this frame is that I can just about get away with using a road chainset. At least for me personally this makes for much more pleasant riding compared to a wider stance MTB set. Though not everyone is similarly bothered by wide Q factor, from what I've gathered.

Did an image search on the Trans Pennine trail, looks lovely.

Ta! I genuinely like the aesthetics of early MTBs, but I suppose for me part of the attraction is precisely in the obsolete design. I'm not much of a mountain biker, but I wouldn't want to ride this in the same places that I've ridden confidently on a relatively modern 26er hard tail -- and that's firstly because of how the bike handles rather than the brakes. (Sorry if I'm stating the obvious!)

@motoko Thanks! The purple/green reference dawned on me only after I put the saddle on, and I'm not sure I can get behind it. I was thinking I could either balance it out with bright grips (like pink or yellow), or swap a black Dynamic from my drop bar tourer.

As you happened to mention Drakon, I was actually wondering whether Dynamic was the best choice for such an upright position, but maybe I'll need to do some more riding. Also I don't live in the UK which could make posting less appealing.

Maybe mostly finished for now. Some random thoughts:

• I'm not 100% sold on the green saddle 😬 (my excuse is that it cost a little less than the normal retail price).
  
• Installing mudguards was the usual joyless bodge fest. Feels a bit like a wasted effort since I couldn't get the stainless GBs.
  
• Handlebars and associated paraphernalia probably still need some tweaking. I think I'll at least lower the bars. Other than that the bike feels fine, relatively speaking :-)
  
• Super C saddle bag with the quick release support rack seems great for my commuting needs. Size is perfect for a 14" laptop, and a D lock just about fits in a side pocket.
  

The bottom bracket is really high. Obviously I knew this, but it still managed to surprise me a bit when riding the bike (or getting off the bike to be precise). Brakes are pretty much as I remembered them. They work, but I don't see much of a betamax effect here. Of course it's possible I haven't set them up perfectly.

Next up mudguards. I wanted to use stainless steel Gilles Berthouds. A local shop sells them, but 60mm wide 26" guards were out of stock and apparently GB aren't making the wide version at the moment due to material shortage. I had unused SKS guards in the parts bin, but they turned out to be some extra wide version (I have no idea what I've meant to use these for). I guess I'll try to grab something cheap, and think about the GBs later.

Honestly I don't think they make much sense, but these are actually pretty nicely made parts and fun just because. From what I remember braking power was comparable to cantilevers. An obvious downside is that there's not a huge amount of clearance for mudguards under the cam.

Rebuilding a thing after a few years of disuse.

The frame is a size 22" Cannondale SM from 1987. Wheel size is 26" both front and back, as opposed to the mullet version with 24" in the back (the rear drop-outs are helpfully stamped 26). I got the presumably original fluted Sugino seatpost with the frameset, which based on the 1987 US catalogue would make this either SM500 or SM600 -- though I assume the difference between the models was just the groupset / finishing kit. Colour looks like "lavender" listed elsewhere in the same catalogue.

I found a photo of my original build from 2017 in the CP chat thread:

Later I tried old 3TTT dirt drop bars which didn't quite work for me despite the massive head tube, so now I'm going with upright bars.

A few more photos of the frameset in flickr.

@brokenbetty I felt a bit self-conscious posting the track, so I appreciate it.

As always, it was nice hearing everyone's submissions.

This was largely just about trying out whether I can record usable trumpet bits (haven't been playing for long 😬), but I was aiming for folk horror soundtrack vibe. Festivities equals fun, right?

https://soundcloud.com/user-248674115/village-festival-paradroid

Won't be quite a fully-fledged track, but I've got something I'm planning to finish up today.

Thanks once again. You're too kind / much appreciated.

@ough Not really expecting to, but sure, I'll keep that in mind. Also I'm really bad at selling stuff. Which in a roundabout way brings me to this next sad and neglected bike. The bars probably don't make sense here, unfortunately. Or at least I'd need a taller stem :)

New brakes installed. So far I've just ridden up and down the street, but I could lock up the rear wheel on tarmac so I'd say that's an improvement. A few snaps -- not too many changes besides the brakes, just new pedals and handlebar tape. I expect I'll need to consider more puncture proof tyres for commuting.

Decent dredge, and thanks! I'm actually in the process of recommissioning the bike after a fairly extended period of disuse. I think I was originally too precious about it, I guess on account of how much effort I put into it. Both these things amaze me a bit looking back :-)

It was embarrassingly obvious that a V-brake wouldn't work with the front rack, so the current plan is to try low-profile cantilever brakes. I'm hoping the different brake geometry will work better with the wide tyre + mudguard combo. Coincidentally I gave up today after waiting for a month for Shimano cantis to arrive from wiggle (br**it and/or hermes, take your pick I guess) and splurged on Paul Touring cantis.

I'll definitely update when I get to try out the new brakes.

The Genelec point source speakers felt like a life goal / holy grail kind of thing to me when they first appeared, they just seemed so futuristic. But retaining some semblance of rationality I went with the more pedestrian 1032Cs when I finally upgraded my old 8030s earlier this year (I'm not using them as desktop speakers, mind :-)

When we bumped up the price, the Genelecs were huge!

Genelec do have 8331 in their three-way point source series, but those are 2k€ a piece. Personally I can't agree on the PC speaker look, I see them as pleasantly tool-like with a strong "form follows function" vibe, but I guess it's not surprising that everyone won't like them.

I've got a pair and like them for what they are -- I see them more as a smarter alternative to sneakers than "proper" boots. Comfy in a leisurely sort of way. The uppers are really soft, but the heel is reinforced with sturdier leather. Maybe due to the soft suede it seems like stones have a tendency of finding their way into the shoes, more than anything else I wear 🤷‍♂️.

Thank you!

Channeling 80s sci-fi, maybe?
https://soundcloud.com/user-248674115/proximity-warning-paradroid

Can someone forward me the soundcloud login details, thanks.

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