Search results for:

😍

the two thorns on the last page:

Thanks!

Yeah I agree, it's a lot nicer to look at now, although not quite as comfortable. A combination of a slightly longer stem and less compact bars means I'm stretched out a bit further riding on the hoods. Maybe it'll just take some getting used to but I'm going to keep an eye out for a shorter stem and more compact bars. I think something in between the woodchippers and the nittos would be ideal really

The VO porteurs are a great shout! I'd been thinking about moustache bars as well.

No smartassery taken! Yeah everything was a bit thrown together yesterday evening, will be sorting out bar/lever angles etc when she takes it out for a test ride later

ha, balls. managed to screw up the pictures again. Should be working now?

Cheers though!

Some progress on the partner's raleigh royal today. Shifters, grips, cables all sorted, parts bin decathlon pedals and a comfier saddle. Used the stem & adapter combo that I was using with the woodchippers on my trek. It's now a 'finished' bike, and if you squint I think it looks really lovely. Plan is to swap out bits (e.g. stem & saddle) for some more boujie parts once I know she's happy with the general fit etc.

One day I'll learn to take nice pictures of bikes, but not today:

Interested in the Big One, PMing you now

High praise indeed! Yeah I love this bike, it's my favourite one to stare at. Impractically heavy though, I dunno about yours but mine is a bit of a tank. Been contemplating sacking off its commuter duties and just riding it for fun without racks and guards, as god intended

Cheers! Yeah, bikes really r gr8... kind of dumb that I stopped cycling for so long when it's by far the best thing I can do for the ol' noggin. But glad to be back at it again

Next up, I've been messing about with handlebars on the trek. I've been commuting on it recently and finding the woodchippers just a bit too wide, and realistically overkill for the incredibly tame riding I'm ever likely to use it for. Picked up some nice nitto bars and a quill stem from on here. Haven't ridden with them yet but first impressions seem pretty good, and it's nice to be able to fit it through my doorway again. (yellow tape because that's all I could find, have some black cloth tape on the way)

I also recently bought some VO crazy bars (for crazy cheap) from a friend. It's a bit of an expensive experiment though as I'd have to buy everything else for flat bars, but thought it would be fun to try at some point. Not sure what to do about shifters on these, as thumbies put the cable in the way of the 'aero' bit of the bars. Being a retro grouch I'm keen to reuse my bar end shifters with thumbie adapters, but upside down, a la rivendell. Did a very sketchy test fit before I swapped out the woodchippers, and they feel really nice... think I'll probably just try and accumulate the bits I need at a leisurely pace and sub them in when I've got everything

Back to fucking around with/on bikes again - had a bit of a MH wobble and completely lost interest in cycling and working on bikes. But a few fun rides recently have got me out of my funk and for the past month I've been back tinkering and scheming.

Anyway, got a new (partner's) bike and some handlebar shenanigans to twat on about...

First up, I wanted to get my partner a decent tourer for her birthday. She loves her ratty 80s raleigh mixte (a.k.a 'the Duchess') but for several reasons it's not quite right for touring. She also has her beater trek singletrack but she hasn't really got on with it and finds it too heavy, so we might sell it. So the hunt was on for a small, lightweight, touring ready bike. Found this very nice 50cm raleigh royal in reynolds 708 on this very forum, which luckily ticked the 'nice colour' box (her only stipulation):

It's a beautiful bike, and I'm quite jealous of her quite frankly. It's clearly been well loved with a mixed bag of parts and groupsets (mostly pretty nice though). It's a bit on the long side for her, but she never wanted drop bars anyway, so I swapped them out for risers (BLB bronsons) which put her hand position pretty close to her town bike. Needs a taller stem, then the plan is to bartape the bendy bit of the bars to give her a couple more hand positions. I think we'll go with some Sram grip shifts just because it's what she has on her other bike. Then replace the placeholder pedals and saddle, sort out racks and bottle cages, and job done!

Ha - would never have guessed that. Cheers! Marin's looking lovely as ever btw

What's the shifter thingy on the seat tube for?

Sounds good cheers, at least the bars and levers should be good. Feel free to PM me with prices etc and the stem size once you've found out

bump, updated first post with the following wanted stuff:

• North road style bars (e.g. with rise & backsweep)
  
• Tall, short reach quill stem
  
• Brake levers (for cantis)
  
• grips
  
• these Jtek thumb shifter converters. Will probs just get these new but if anyone has a spare set that would be cool... or Paul thumbies going cheap...
  

Ah, great minds - I'd spotted that earlier too. Definitely fits the "nice colour" objective! Cheers

I'm planning on building up a touring bike for my partner for her birthday.

Must be lightweight, have a wide gear range, pannier mounts. Mixte/step through frames nice but not essential. Ideally something 90s, nice light steel tubing. Basically a Dawes Galaxy or something similar. She's 5'4", so I'm guessing something around 50cm ctc would be ideal

The only catch is that it has to be a "nice colour"... she has flat out refused a couple of recent eBay finds on the grounds that it looks too dark or the decals are ugly. Frankly, I respect her commitment to aesthetics. No point owning a bike you can't sit and stare at

UPDATE: Have now got ours hands on a lovely raleigh royal courtesy of @tomatoe. It's a little on the long side for her with drops, so we're going to try it out with risers. so we're now looking for the following:

• North road style bars (e.g. with rise & backsweep)
  
• Tall, short reach quill stem
  
• Brake levers (for cantis)
  
• grips
  
• these Jtek thumb shifter converters. Will probs just get these new but if anyone has a spare set that would be cool... or Paul thumbies going cheap...
  
  

Will probs get some of these bits new, but thought it worth checking on here first!

Sounds great! DMing you

Interested! Would you mind sending me pics? And how much would you want for the bars?

I'm considering pulling the trigger on a Nitto 50mm technomic stem and 42cm Randonneur bars for my tourer. Anyone got these or similar knocking about before I buy new stuff? Also would consider the dirt drop riser stem or RM-013 dirt drop bars. Either the geometry on my tourer is weird, or I have little arms, so a 50mm stem is ideal, <70mm could work though.

Have had this lot up on gumtree for three weeks and no dice, so trying my luck here before they inevitably end up at the charity shop. Offers welcome. Pickup from Wood Green N22 much preferred but might consider posting at buyers expense yada yada yada.

Apple 20in cinema display (2005-09 model) - £30
Works fine and looks nice, will include a DVI to mini-DP adapter, so you can use it with any of the older macs that have the thunderbolt 2/mini-DP port.

*cat not included (she was sick on the doormat this morning though so offers considered)

Logitech Z333 2.1 desktop/tv/music speakers - £25
Fairly decent 2.1 speakers, ideal for a desktop setup or for budget home cinema. Has a 3.5mm aux cable as well as phono inputs

Google home pod thingy and Chromecast - £10 each or £15 for the pair (dibsed)
These came with a TV we bought from Gumtree, don't need them as we have a chromecast etc already. Nice cheap way to get that 'barking at your TV to play the next episode of Narcos' experience

Behringer PP400 phono preamp - £10
Bought this so I could connect my record player to a passive mixer. New record player has built in preamp so no longer needed. Works fine

I find these crossings to be more hassle than they're worth. There's three in hackney on my commute (two either side of clapton sq and another one crossing morning lane from the bike path next to st john's church). Generally I've noticed that most drivers seem to understand who's supposed to have priority, but I've had enough near misses from drivers who (quite understandably, IMO) don't realise it's for cyclists as well as peds. Sometimes they slow down for road traffic giving the impression they're going to let you cross but then keep driving. V confusing. They've also recently installed one of these on phillip lane in tottenham, but I think drivers are a lot less used to seeing any cycling infrastructure round there so they just completely ignore it.

Ralph & Saffron are nearly back to being best buds, three weeks after a big fight that had them them at each others' throats and Saffron weeing herself during each fight. Still don't trust them enough to leave them unattended overnight as there's been a few hisses here and there when playfighting gets a bit out of control during their evening zoomies, but they definitely seem to have decided that cuddling and playfighting is preferable to being separated.

I've only seen (or more accurately heard) it happen once a few gardens over between a fox a neighbour's cat. Our garden visitor seems pretty friendly when other cats are around though.

Ah yeah good shout thanks