Search results for:

If you can collect together a super cheap hub and derailleur I'd say give it a go, worst that'll happen is you break the derailleur and I guess use one of those conversion kits to turn the wheel into a proper fixed wheel. I'm sure some people in here will have useless derailleurs/shifters/cassettes that they can give you.

Make sure you take a video when you try to ride it though so we can see why exactly it fails

That'll do it, cheers. On the shopping list it goes.

Any suggestions for a -17°-ish 110mm stem? One that won't result in my smashing my face into the dirt. Don't mind buying something non-Chinese, but everything I've found seems to be £50 or more which seems outrageous for a small piece of metal

If I can manage a shit version that'll make someone laugh it'll be worth it!

Edit: I think it's drop D tuning and the bass part doesn't seem too hard by itself. But I only spent 5 mins looking at it.

Well I know what I'm learning all Christmas

Negative feedback rating I won the auction at a good price. Seller cancelled the order 3mins later! Buyer: e***t

Negative feedback rating SELLER OVERCHARGED POSTAGE. NOT IN THE SPIRIT OF EBAY'S POLICIES. REFUSED REFUND Buyer: n***1

Negative feedback rating SELLER REFUSED ANY COMBINED SHIPPING SO CHARGED £6.80 FOR £3 POSTAGE. Buyer: n***1

One person had an auction cancelled presumably as it didn't sell for what he wanted, two reviews from the a second person who was charged twice for postage (to be fair, why wouldn't you arrange this with the seller first?). I've encountered much worse on eBay to be honest

Might do.

Obviously the big thing that's missing is the seatpost so I don't want to go too mad optimising my position yet. You never know, it might feel great when you can sit on it...

Also I kind of expected it to ride like shit, and that was part of the idea in building it; to deter thieves and hopefully injure my friends when they try to get on it

I'd just like to have the option of a front rack, that's all. I'm taking them at their word that the fork can handle it. It's not the end of the world if I can't use a front rack.

It lives.

I managed to ride it around the car park anyway. Please ignore the bars as I'm still moving them around. The chainring I was going to use is a 44t but turns out it's 1/4" width so doesn't fit the cog/chain. It's on the 50t ring for now; I like the ratio but I haven't tried going up a hill yet so we'll see. It also turns out that because the cog is at the disk mounting points the chainline is really wide (I think it was 53mm?) which means the big ring position is better. It's an 18t on the back.

Headset is very wrong. It barely turns but at the same time it's not tight enough as there's play when I hold the front brake on. I expect I'll have to replace the whole thing although it's possible I've somehow assembled it incorrectly.

No seatpost still. I think if I get the back brake working I'd be willing to ride it to the shop to get one though.

Will probably replace the cables/chain with new ones once I've decided how long everything needs to be (I'm using offcuts at the moment).

Edit - as it stands it rides like absolute shit as well. Flexy in all the wrong places, extremely sluggish to turn.

I've never needed one until now (and let's be honest I don't really need one now). In fact I think the temptation to start drilling random holes in the doors and walls of my rented flat is a very good reason not to get one.

It's going to be a road bike first and foremost, gravel bike second, touring bike distant third. As long as it can take the weight of my touring gear for one week out of the year why would I not want carbon?

And anyway, it's a £300 frame, it's not like I'm going to keep it for 20 years.

Either not able to spin at all (which I think is probably very bad for the motor), too slow, or not enough pressure to actually do any damage.

Like I say I think it might be alright with a drill perhaps. My dremel was £20 or something stupid.

For anyone who was interested, I tried the technique with the rotating coat hanger/steel wool, couldn't really get it to work at all. I think my dremel just has nowhere near enough torque. Others might have more luck with it. Went at it with a round file instead as it was pretty rusty in there.

I'm pretty sure it does take one as they mention it several times

Aluminium frame and carbon fork with rack / guard mounts

Camino Al delivers the same geometry of our titanium Camino constructed from 6061 grade aluminium with a carbon fork with full pannier rack and mudguard mounts.

Carbon fork: Lightweight, strong and responsive with an alloy steerer; fully kitted out with pannier and mudguard mounts.

But definitely let us know what they say!

Edit: the reason I personally am so bothered about front racks is that I want the bike to work as a do-anything bike; conventional touring, bikepacking, gravel rides, road rides. Front rack or lowriders would be really handy for that.

You're right. Photo from the titanium one but I assume it's very similar.

Arkose 3 has an aluminium steerer according to the Evans website. Yeah, through-axle is nice...

Do you know what the difference between the Arkose 4 and LTD is? Also what are the bosses up at the front underside of the downtube for?

Yeah they're remarkably similar. Camino has bottle cage bosses under the downtube, looks like straight steerer rather than tapered (although I don't know), and I'm pretty sure the London Road doesn't take a front rack. Camino is about 300g lighter too. London Road takes 31.6mm seatpost whereas Camino takes 27.2mm. And the PX is half the price of the Camino at the moment.

Also I think the new Camino paintjobs are immeasurably improved over the old ones:

Probably can't go wrong with either of these or the Arkose to be honest

Camino Al can:

Carbon fork

Lightweight, strong and responsive with an alloy steerer; fully kitted out with pannier and mudguard mounts.

I'm looking for a new frame and am leaning towards the Camino Al over Arkose purely on the basis of the carbon fork with front rack bosses. Seems good value.

Superficially, differences to consider are that the Sonder can take a front rack whilst some of the Arkoses can't, and some of the Arkoses have internal cabling. Can't speak to ride quality or whatever between the two.

Yeah, I've actually come across his website before whilst looking for lights. Didn't realise he did the batteries too. Will get one ordered, probably will wait til after Christmas though as I'm feeling rather more poor than I'd have liked

Ah right, yeah saw it listed as an MTB and couldn't figure out how you're supposed to stop without cantis or disks.

Sleeping bag hunt is going well, you think that last item in the results is suitable for vegans?

Looks alright. I'm mainly concerned about the capacity being far less than what's usually promised by dodgy Chinese sellers, so was wondering if anyone had a recommendation. That guy looks reputable though, and he's in Glasgow so I could always go and fight him if he rips me off. Cheers.

No back braking?

What I mean is that I can't get access to the batteries without somehow wrapping it back up in shrink-wrap or something like that. And I expect swapping the batteries might involve soldering/de-soldering which is a level of faff that I'm not sure I want to deal with.