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Update:

• The Seta is still desperate for new wheels and now new pedals as I keep pulling out of them but they wont tighten.

• The Pompetamine is still in bits in my cupboard

• Still cant stop thinking about hardtail mountain bikes

• I sold a bunch of stuff on eBay and the bike room is looking a little more organised

• I have finally bought a dynamo light for the Steamroller

Tip top, next rainy day task.

Yeh its a 56, I am 5ft 11 and it fits well.

What's the plan?

Going to use the parts to build up a rigid MTB and sell the frame and wheels. I have the feeling that I will keep hold of the frame for a bit for no reason other than I might want to build it SS.

Yeah, umm'ed and ahh'ed on that. You can only get carbon disk forks with a straight steerer in mountain bike flavour and the A2C on those is a little long. Plus no mudguards mounts also turned me off.

Brothers Cycles do a carbon Kepler Disc fork that would fit.

Haha no worries, running a Sram Automatix hub with a coaster brake.

Saved from the skip, welded up and ready to take me to the pub.

Not much has been happening in terms of bike fiddling so just a short update:

With the threat of the on coming winter months I have finally got round to finishing the Charge beater to a point where its rideable(ish). Cranks are terribly worn and wobble off after a few miles so will be changed at some point. I also need to find some appropriately cheap mud guards and a grippier front tyre. Automatic hub is excellent even if it does change at the wrong time, I believe you can fiddle about with a spring to change this.

The rack life is the good life.

Other news:

• I raced, got 3rd in the SS category at Grinduro and 38th at Ard Rock

• The Seta is still desperate for new wheels

• The Pompetamine is still in bits in my cupboard

• I cant stop thinking about hardtail mountain bikes

• I bought a set of road wheels and I don't know why

• The office desk has moved out the box room so I now have loads of bike space in the flat

• My girlfriends bike is finished and is probably the best looking Steamroller ever, photos soon

BIG NEWS.

Its finally happened!

The Steamroller consolidation has finally progressed and where there was two there is now one. Test rides have proved it still rides like a bike and is still loads of fun. It actually rides better than I expected considering that the fork is 20mm-ish higher a2c.

Its ready to rock at Grinduro this weekend. If anyone is going, come say hello as I will have no friends.

I wrote a wee bike check thing and there is more pictures here.

Other news,

• Karate Monkey has gone home and I miss it lots although I have some ideas for a replacement bikepacking mountain bike project.

• Pompetamine is in bits cause I stole its fork.

• My girlfriends bike actually looks like a bike now and will hopefully be finished as we are planning on riding the week after. Also custom frame bag came today and is perfect.

• Rode my Canyon and fell in love with mountain biking again.

Went for a wee tracklocoffee outing to give the Dolan a shakedown. Feels great to be back on a no nonsense aggressive bike. I hadn't realised how much I missed riding bikes like this since I retired my Kagero a few years back. Frame is lovely, stiff and responsive. You can definitely feel the weight of the current wheels though which sort of deaden the acceleration, light weight affordable wheelset recommendations welcome.

This is the future, one where we only experience other people’s lives through their Instagram stories cause that’s the only pictures they have.

I dont think the SL in SL42 means super light.

Final bits for the Dolan Seta came through and were waiting for me when I got home. Just needed to wait for the socket that should fit my torque wrench.

Amazon disappointment.

Too excited not to make a get it going.

Cranks and BB came off the old bike and threaded on which is good. Looked at chainring, probably
need a new chainring. That can be worried about another day. Then the first problem...

But I am not going to let that stop me now.

Wheels on and fancy chain on.

Thomson goodness.

Done! (Except nothing touching carbon is actually tight and it doesn't have a brake).

YYYEEEAAA...oh.

Well that is a little disappointing. Hopefully my old chinese happy scale isn't calibrated accurately anymore but I am not holding my breath. Better photos and more accurate scales readings to come...

Good luck. I am being made redundant soon and am contemplating doing something similar.

Now that I dont really have any big plans and my knee is still a little sensitive its time to get the projects back on track.

• Crabon bike is one Royal Mail delivery from having all the parts and I can begin building it. Hopefully have something to share before the weekend.

• Karate Monkey needs to go home and I have realised that the Cross Monster Pompetamine is not satisfying my tyre clearance and shred needs and I now want a MTB. TBC.

• As I will likely be selling the Pomp I am going to transfer the fork to the Steamroller and the disc dream will be achieved ready for Grinduro in July.

• Transfer of the fork will initiate the long overdue Steamroller consolidation.

• BONUS CONTENT, my SO has almost finished buying all the parts for her Steamroller build and its shaping up to be a dream machine.

Havent really had a whole lot of time to do things to bikes as I have been fairly busy with other stuff like riding them. Here is a brief summery of some going ons:

• Rode the Dirty Reiver and the hills didnt kill me. Bike ran sweet and it was all round a great day. I wrote a thing here should you be interested.
  

• Decided to ride the Highland Trail 550 so spent a whole bunch of time worrying about bikes and bags and stuff. Got a lend of a lovely Surly Karate Monkey for the trip, it is a rowdy machine on the trails.
  

• Rode my friends Badger Divide route (a gravel route between Inverness and Glasgow) on the Monkey as a shakedown ride, day 1 burst me but a good night sleep on a picnic bench sorted me out and I was feeling much better on day 2.
  

• Tried to ride the Highland Trail 550, got to the 400 mile mark and had to bail out due to knee and pooing issues. Attempting the HT550 was the most immersive and intense experience I have ever had on a bike.
  

• Finally got round to replacing my super worn out drivetrain on the scruffy Steamroller. The Dirty Reiver was definitely the last straw and my chains and rings were really toasted. New Omnium ring, KMC chain and Surly sprocket and I now have the worlds quietest bike. Also the thread got stripped on my 80mm X4 so had to swap put to a 70mm X4 till I get it rethreaded.
  

Thats awesome, you got a link for reading?

Didnt want punctures, didnt get punctures. Bumpy success.

I rode it fixed, 35c Gravelkings f&b at 60psi and 48x21 ratio. Could have probably got away with a slightly bigger gear but I was very comfortable on the gear I had. Although the downhills were super spinny. I wrote a blog post and bike check about the DR 200km if your interested -> mostlybybike.wordpress.com*

*Link fixed

Standard black, its super tatty so has lost its gloss finish

Its a custom bag made by a guy based in edinburgh, his insta is here, measured it a bit bigger than my Restrap (large) and I can fit so much more stuff in it.

My Steamroller setup for Dirty Reiver a few weeks ago

The goal of consolidating the Steamrollers and converting to disc in time for the Dirty Reiver has failed. There has been a little progress, rear hub has new bearings, front wheel has been rebuilt ready for discs and i got a big 21T to help me up the hills. The scruffy one is now running very smooth ready for the weekend.

#TUKT

I did get a new custom frame bag which has all the space for jackets and snacks and stuff.

If anyone is riding the Dirty Reiver tomorrow say hello, I will be near the back.

Due to low funds there have been very little in the way of any progress. I still have two Steamrollers however some spare parts have been sold and soon progress/consolidation will be made.

Until then another much delayed project has been making some progress. The winter beater was meant to be finished ready to face dark wet mornings and the brutality of Edinburgh councils salt obsession. However its summer now so nevermind.

This Charge Tap came to me through a friend whose colleague had rescued it from the skip. The original plan was to use as a fixed gear gravel shredder as I would be able to fit decently chunky tyres and it had bottle cages. Everything my fixie skidder didnt have.

I dont know what happened to this poor bike but most of the parts were ruined, it looked as if it may have been part of a hefty crash.

A test ride with some temp wheels confirmed that the frame was fine and most of the parts were stripped off and thrown in the bin...

Apart from the seatpost which was seized and a bit too low just to live with. A little gentle persuasion and a lot of brute force nothing budged. I wasnt keen on sitting and sawing the post out so I sent it off with my father and a big bottle of caustic soda.

2 weeks that thing stewed and still it wasnt free. My dad then got a bit impatient and managed to batter a large screwdriver through the seat tube. My enthusiasm was lost and the frame was tossed into the garage.

Roll on 6 months and I mentioned the above story to a friend and he was super keen to practice his welding. Nothing to lose, dropped it off with him and two days later it was all patched up to an excellent beater quality.

Pieced together a bunch of parts and picked up a SRAM Duomatic number for casual shoe pub and shop dreams. All that is needed now is a seat post and some time to batter everything together.

We have been through a lot that Steamroller and me.