Only about 10 days left for an mtb event so needed to gwt wheels sorted. Carbon rim thats beeb saved for over a year, started lacing it to the Hope Pro2 EVO hub that's been saved for a couple months. Pity I didn't realise the washers wouldn't go through the rim holes as I might have gone for summat smaller.

Firat proper carbon rim I'm building in 10 years so a little apprehensive and best stay low (enough) on the tensions. So far it seems to be building up nicely. Weight = 980g (rear) and hopefully it'll be plenty tough for Welsh mountains (God Willing)...

Fitted Crivets for my Brooks



Fitted a 20 tooth out back to help my wheelie practice

First ever full carbon wheel build done with some ultralight (for weight weenie roadies and not recommended for mtb use by) Sapims. Weight as wheel on own came in at 980g without rim tape. Full together with a 2.8 inch rovket Ron (650b) but no sealant = 1990g including the DA skewer

Happy with that Alhamdulillah... Lets hope the BB200 is friendly to it. Next stop: order some spokes for the Kinlin I just ordered for the front...

Took the bottle cages off, so I could make a full frame bag template. Discovered that one of the bottles must have fallen out of the cage and has ground a divot out of the frame...

It's just about 2 years since I entered the L'Eroica Hispania, following 3 postponements it will finally take place next Sunday. Thought it was about time I dug the 1978 Peugeot that I bought locally for €65 and set about making it vaguely ridable. The original date was June 2020 so on the basis of it promising a long sunny day, I signed up for the 188km long course, now in mid October we're faced with 2hours of darkness at the start which is 6.30am and who knows how long at the end of the day. Cue fitting lights, non perished tyres, new old stock saddle, bar tape, authentic bottle cage, new cables and a coat of rattle can paint. The maiden voyage was an eye opener, the bottom gear of 42/24 is a killer, the brakes are non existent and it weighs a ton. God knows how I'm going to get round, the course is 60% gravel interspersed with 20% climbs to hilltop villages where the control points are located. I might re-read one of Tim Moore's books on coaxing a classic bike around various grand tour routes just to remind myself to mtfu.

pistonbroke wrote: ↑Sat Oct 09, 2021 2:50 pm

That looks lovely Duncan

pistonbroke wrote: ↑Sat Oct 09, 2021 2:50 pm It's just about 2 years since I entered the L'Eroica Hispania, following 3 postponements it will finally take place next Sunday. Thought it was about time I dug the 1978 Peugeot that I bought locally for €65 and set about making it vaguely ridable. The original date was June 2020 so on the basis of it promising a long sunny day, I signed up for the 188km long course, now in mid October we're faced with 2hours of darkness at the start which is 6.30am and who knows how long at the end of the day. Cue fitting lights, non perished tyres, new old stock saddle, bar tape, authentic bottle cage, new cables and a coat of rattle can paint. The maiden voyage was an eye opener, the bottom gear of 42/24 is a killer, the brakes are non existent and it weighs a ton. God knows how I'm going to get round, the course is 60% gravel interspersed with 20% climbs to hilltop villages where the control points are located. I might re-read one of Tim Moore's books on coaxing a classic bike around various grand tour routes just to remind myself to mtfu.

That's lovely.i had a red one through my teenage years. Steel everything, cranks, rims, bars 42/52 chainrings and a 5-speed 28 tooth cassette on the back. I could climb all the hills in Teesdale on it . God knows how. It makes by knees hurt just thinking about it now. Good luck on the ride.

Skippy, the bike I rescued from the skip (AKA the Civic Amenity Site) 5 years ago, got a new back tyre, fitted on the pavement outside the shop. 10 minutes - job done. Old tyre into adjacent litter bin.

That has done nothing to cure my hankering for an old racer, preferably one taken from a skip and made good again

Today I have learnt to look on the internet at how to do something before I start doing it. Except I haven't, because I never do.

I needed to replace the hoods on my drop bar bike because they'd gone baggy and kept slipping off in an annoying way, so I bought the relevant bits from an online emporium of such things. So far, so easy. Thought it'd be a 2 minute job to replace them. Went out to the garage to do it, and realised there's no way they were going to come off the front of the levers, so I needed to unbolt the levers, which would require unwrapping the bar tape. Ah well, no point getting frustrated about it, might as well just get on and do it. In doing so remembered that they're double wrapped. Got the tape off and unbolted the lever, only to realise that this was no help at all, unless I uncabled the gears and unhosed the brakes, with subsequent indexing and bleeding.

That was the point I went and found a nice Australian man showing everyone how to do it in about 30 seconds on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdYHylpirJY Turns out you can stretch them over the front if you "leave them in the sun for 20 minutes" and lubricate them. Since I can't wait till next June, I used a heat gun and a bit of silicone lube and the job was done. Apart from the entirely unnecessary rewrapping

Also put a new carbon post in. Is it just me that finds fitting a saddle to a seatpost the only job capable of making it feel like you've never laid hands on a bike before? This particular seatpost has two separate clamps that go over the rails and are bolted to the post, and another separate floating part that goes under the rails. Trying to get all of the bits in roughly the right place, and tightening the bolts up enough to hold them there seemed to need at least 5 hands. I tried doing it off the bike initially, thinking that might make it easier. It didn't, so before I threw the bits across the garage, put the post in the frame. It was marginally easier, and I eventually managed to wind the bolts in to the point where it wasn't about to fall on the floor. At which point I realised the post was in backwards, so I'd set the saddle the wrong way

pistonbroke wrote: ↑Sat Oct 09, 2021 2:50 pm the brakes are non existent and it weighs a ton.

look n the bright side. Steel everything... the chain ring and sprocket will never wear out. .. . so won't need replacing (as you probably can't ).
steel rim brakes are exiting dry - never mind in the wet...
ps it looks the dgs bllcks

. don't you need a red and green Vistalite on it...

Discovered a tiny amount of lateral play on the Krampus front wheel. Looks like the 14 year old SON dyno hub bearing is starting to die.
Had an existential crisis about how to proceed as regards the upcoming BB200.
Decided to switch allegiance to the Fargo which will require a bit of fettling to reach ITT mode from its present road commuter guise.
Job 1. Fit Nobby Nic’s - done.

I just decided to look on the Schmidt website and they claim a small amount of lateral play at the rim is no big deal…
Back to existential crisis.
Now I don’t know whether to carry on with the Fargo refit or just relax and go with the Krampus. Damn and blast

lune ranger wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 2:34 pm I just decided to look on the Schmidt website and they claim a small amount of lateral play at the rim is no big deal…
Back to existential crisis.
Now I don’t know whether to carry on with the Fargo refit or just relax and go with the Krampus. Damn and blast

Isn't it just a cup and cone around the rest of the posh dyno stuff... can't you just undo, regrease, tighten cones to correct play and done?

Negative.
It’s a cartridge buried in the non-user serviceable hub body.
I’m dithering now. I’m sure the Fargo would be fine but I’ve been basing my thinking about riding the Krampus.
I would be off the scale pissed off if I have an unridable mechanical though.

Thrilling battle with some bearings on a hub
Bigger hammer worked in the end
Bleed a Hope 4 pot brake
Chain waxxed my chains ( stinks but works )
The entire fleet is now working perfectly..if only it was as easy to fix me

Lazarus wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 4:16 pm Chain waxxed my chains ( stinks but works )

I've tried this five times for bigger rides... and for me at least, it's sub standard.

Usually about 8 hours in it starts getting grindy and shortly after that it sounds like the chain is shredding (horrible metal on metal noise) itself unless I top up with a wax lube (most of which need time to dry to work properly).

Have tried multiple brands of chain, and properly extreme methods of cleaning them (even beyond the usual meths / isopropyl cycle). Frustrating, as I've never really found a lube I like that much either (Smoove is pretty much my go to right now).

Popped into the LBS yesterday for a couple of packets of L03A pads; one to fit, one to take with on the BB200. They only had the one, thank [insert deity here] for that!


Also fitted a few more teeth to the rear wheel. Might get me a few more metres up the hills before I have to get off and push...


Jobs for tomorrow: fit new thicker bar tape; replace broken Boa dial on shoes; panic more...

added sealant to a dry front wheel, I given OrangeSeal Endurance, a go and fallen out with Caffélatex.
added a new chain to the MTB bicycle. too off a, PC 7 speed Sachs chain oops, I for got to check it. must be years old. fitted a SRAM 750. with a, split link. it seals to jump when putting pressure down. needs further investigation tomorrow or weekend... ...

Just replaced the broken Boa dial on my MTB shoes. It was fiddly, but much easier than I expected it to be. At least I don't have to gaffa tape it my foot in to it on Saturday morning now.

pistonbroke wrote: ↑Sat Oct 09, 2021 2:50 pm It's just about 2 years since I entered the L'Eroica Hispania, following 3 postponements it will finally take place next Sunday. Thought it was about time I dug the 1978 Peugeot that I bought locally for €65 and set about making it vaguely ridable. The original date was June 2020 so on the basis of it promising a long sunny day, I signed up for the 188km long course, now in mid October we're faced with 2hours of darkness at the start which is 6.30am and who knows how long at the end of the day. Cue fitting lights, non perished tyres, new old stock saddle, bar tape, authentic bottle cage, new cables and a coat of rattle can paint. The maiden voyage was an eye opener, the bottom gear of 42/24 is a killer, the brakes are non existent and it weighs a ton. God knows how I'm going to get round, the course is 60% gravel interspersed with 20% climbs to hilltop villages where the control points are located. I might re-read one of Tim Moore's books on coaxing a classic bike around various grand tour routes just to remind myself to mtfu.

Fine looking machine! My brother is a full on peugeot retro-gauch, he'd very much approve of this. He does all his riding on his 1987 fleet of old peugeots. But i'd recommend a bit of a bigger cassette though if you can find one, looks like a max 23t? You could get a 14-28t, pretty gappy but probably better than an exploding knee! ​ Is it 5 speed? Still cheap freewheel options out there...

It's a 24t cassette, 5 speed. Bit late for changing as we're off to La Rioja in the morning for the event on Sunday. Might see if anyone has a 28t for sale in the expo area. I'd need the removal tool as well so unless it's a bargain (unlikely) I'll stick with what I've got, after all it's only 188km and 3,000m of climbing
The whole bike was only €65 and I've spent the same on bottle cage, bar tape,saddle and entry fee. Don't think that I'll do any more similar events so will probably sell it post-ride.

Boab wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:21 am Popped into the LBS yesterday for a couple of packets of L03A pads; one to fit, one to take with on the BB200. They only had the one, thank [insert deity here] for that!

Just swap the pads over left and right.
The left one in the picture is doing all the work. Right?!
If you are persuaded with this 'Tight 'rse' yorkshire spend thrift logic, invest in the other pads- elbows knee etc

oh and get some gumption, lad!
A right good dollop!

pistonbroke wrote: ↑Thu Oct 14, 2021 9:22 pm It's a 24t cassette, 5 speed. Bit late for changing as we're off to La Rioja in the morning for the event on Sunday. Might see if anyone has a 28t for sale in the expo area. I'd need the removal tool as well so unless it's a bargain (unlikely) I'll stick with what I've got, after all it's only 188km and 3,000m of climbing
The whole bike was only €65 and I've spent the same on bottle cage, bar tape,saddle and entry fee. Don't think that I'll do any more similar events so will probably sell it post-ride.

Fair enough - well enjoy the ride regardless

New tyres and a bigger cassette for BB200. Few other bits to be sorted this evening before the off. Nothing like leaving it till the last minute

Pete-G wrote: ↑Fri Oct 15, 2021 3:52 pm New tyres and a bigger cassette for BB200. Few other bits to be sorted this evening before the off. Nothing like leaving it till the last minute

Just cleanwd the chain and applied some wd40 fast acting degreaser (leaves no residue it says). Shortly to add some Smoove and then figure out where goes what to clear up this sorry mess on the living room floor (of gear).