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New: close to Eden, this route is older and drier than it sounds

Old: our lady and St. Joseph's primary school, culford road

Great thread! Sorry to hear about the injury - hope you have a speedy recovery.

The Giant looks absolutely ideal for a gravel grinder conversion, so much potential in those older hybrid/tourer things. Looking forward to seeing how it shapes up!

Anyway, back to bikes. Fitted this tiny wee stem yesterday, I was kind of shocked how smol it was when I opened the box. It's totally improved the riding position though, so thanks to Maj and MisterMikkel for the help with that. Wrist is still feeling a bit sore so haven't done a proper test ride yet. This thread is starting to become a cautionary tale of a 30 year old man riding drop bars for the first time since my teenage fixie skidder days. Been smashing Yoga with Adrienne recently though so hopefully that'll help a bit

Yeh she's a real sweetie. Sadly not ours but she spends 90% of the day in our garden. Seems to like watching me work on the bikes. Very cute until she starts shitting in the plant pots

Haha, rack-mounted garden chair for giving backies? Need to improve my bike photo skillz tbf but the cat was being cute

Also replaced the 7s cassette with a new 8s cassette and chain on the muddy fox. Not the most exciting update but I'm happy it's got a silver cassette again. Garden cat wasn't that impressed tho

Fitted the pizza rack & SPDs to the Trek yesterday, did a relaxed Epping forest ride with a pal with a bit of towpath action at the end of the day

The 60mm stem hasn't arrived yet, but I'd moved the seat as far forward as possible and readjusted the handlebar/lever position which definitely helped with not feeling so stretched out. Worryingly, my wrist became pretty painful towards the end of the day and is still pretty sore today. Reserving judgment til I've tried the shorter stem and possibly some cushy gloves or gel pads under the tape, but still slightly worried the frame's just too long for drop bars and trying to make it work will just be playing bike fit whack-a-mole.

On a positive note, got 'nice biked' by someone yesterday evening on a lovely black surly in Tottenham marshes, possibly 'on here'? Nothing lifts the spirits like spontaneous IRL bike approval from strangers

There's something very satisfying about how well the rear mudguard fits underneath the wishbone seatstay. Looks great, equal parts rad & gentlemanly with the springy brooks

Close, but not as cute. The tree is called 'The Friendship Tree', not much about it online but you missed the plaque:

I remember reading somewhere that it was due to be removed when they first built the estate but after residents campaigned they re-designed the road layout to preserve it. No idea if that's true though as I can't find where I read it now

Haha. Turns out shouting 'zoom, enhance' at my laptop doesn't work like it does on the telly

The whole controversy has a smell of thinly veiled racism to me

Yup, sounds about right

Agreed. Lovely colour! Wish I was as good at taking pictures of bikes

This was fun, I felt like I was in a dodgy 00s cop show doing a 'zoom, enhance, rotate' on the original image:

Some more info on OR Tambo's statue that helped me find the clue: https://www.haringey.gov.uk/news/statue-anti-apartheid-campaigner-oliver-tambo-unveiled-haringey

New: The ship that never sinks

First time tagger here! Hope this is right. Recognised so many of the recent clues but haven't been able to get to them in time until this morning.

Old: OR Tambo's statue in Albert Road recreation Ground

While I was waiting for the gravelkings to arrive at the weekend, I gave the folder/pub bike a bit of attention. Managed to work out how the positron-style internal gear hub worked so I was able to remove the rear wheel, for tightening up the hub and truing it. Seems to have solved the play in the hub for now but I've read that these older shimano 3-speed hubs were prone to just wearing out with no way of servicing them, so might just have to chuck it eventually. Chucked on some old MTB levers and grips and some leftover jagwire brake outer. Wasn't sure if I was going to sell my wald 139 but now it's on this bike I'm really glad I kept it. Great little local runaround/beer getter/destination for free stickers.

Still needs a rear brake cable and some new pads, and I'm on the lookout for some serviceable tyres, but want to keep it a parts bin special to soothe my guilt about what I actually paid for it in the first place

Meant to write in my last post "angling the bars and getting a shorter stem" should sort it, not just angling the bars. don't know why I wrote it like that that.

Having a fun morning procrastinating with the stem calc tool MisterMikkel posted. I checked again and my current stem is 80mm, not 90. Thinking of ordering the 60mm version of this stem from sjs to try. This might make finding a nicer looking quill stem in the future a bit more tricky as the VO/nitto ones don't seem to go much shorter than 80mm. Might just take the hit on positive affirmation from this forum and keep the quill adapter 😬😬😬😬

Should have some SPD pedals sorted soon and have a second hand spesh pizza rack to fit, so bike-wise should be all sorted for the scottish tour next month. Personal fitness-wise I am feeling verrry creaky after bank holiday weekend so I'm scheming some big loops round epping forest plus at least one london-cambridge ride between now and then to get a bit more in shape / iron out any last bike fit problems

Amazing, thanks both. This is exactly why I started this thread in the first place! based on how it felt to ride yesterday, I reckon just angling the bars/drops as in the photo above should sort it. The seatpost was just what came with the bike so definitely not against trying out an inline post either

Ah cheers! Very reassuring to know, think I'll try some shorter stems and maybe raise the handlebars a bit

A few more pics from the first test ride and the towpath yesterday:

Lots of progress made on the Multitrack this weekend. New cassette from on here, gave the rear wheel a bit more attention as I kind of rushed the truing/tensioning when I replaced the broken spokes a while ago. Took it for a quick test ride round the park and realised the brakes were doing bugger all so spent a while getting the pads just right. I've read and re-read that sheldon page so many times but still haven't quite got my head round what 'mechanical advantage' actually means.

Fitted some new 38mm gravelking SKs, and had a first attempt at wrapping the bars, wasn't aiming for perfection as I'm likely to be swapping bars/recabling before it's finished. Had to go for the slightly less 'aero' cable routing option for the shifter cables as I'd cut them too short to run along the bar.

Trip to the pub yesterday called for an inaugural towpath ride into hackney:

Trying to be objective about what works and what doesn't is tricky. I'm extremely jazzed about how this bike turned out, given that it's the first bike I've worked on with no help from an LBS it feels like a nice accomplishment. I loved riding it, so much lighter and nippier than the muddy fox, fast on roads but still super comfy on the unpaved bits of towpath.

But, it is loooong. I guess that's what you get for putting drop bars on an upright hybrid frame? but I did feel quite stretched out riding on the hoods and finished up a 40 min ride with a slightly sore upper back/neck. Going to try out a shorter stem, this one is 90mm so not sure how much shorter I can do without getting some weird handling. Also thinking that the Nitto bars from @TheConCon666 might help a bit as I believe they have a slight rise?

Cheers. PMing you @Jay242

Interested in both cassettes of they're still available, PMing

2nd dibs on the pedals if poss?