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Jonaent - check the end of the Japanese bikes thread for a pic of my (massive) BJ Vigorelli. I reckon BJ and Mercian are fairly similar quality, although I think Mercian have slightly better painters for fancy stuff. I have read about some quality control probs with BJ but I think that's not a problem any more.

Is the "fluted post" the seat tube (ie part of the frame)? It's weird that they offer that as anything other than an extra option. You could find more pictures of BJs on bikeforums.net or velospace by the way.

the-smiling-buddha

nope no brakes, no rack, no bottle mounts, this bike is built to go fast, look at that clearances on this thing

on no I don't subscribe to that new fangled nonsense

yeah course you don't ...;)

You totally got me there! I mentioned the thing about brake holes necause my previous bike had really steep angles and tight clearances but was drilled for a front brake. Sold it cos it was too small as this photo shows:

In my defence, this is my other bike and is the one I use for longer rides. It's a track bike (designed for grass track), but has bottle bosses, front brake and would have mudguard eyes if I ordered it again:

As Hippy has said the presence of brake holes doesn't mean a bike is not a "track" bike, although it may not conform to the whole "ultra-tight clearances, ultra steep angles, crazy paint job" track bike look. To be honest there's been a lot of variety in track bikes over time and also depending on the events they are designed for. The whole 75/75 geo and tiny clearances is mainly for mass start races and sprints. Look at the bikes for longer races and six day stuff and they are a bit more relaxed, pursuit bikes are more like TT bikes than anything else and modern bikes tend to have slighly slacker geo than the bikes from the 70s and 80s.

The Witcopmb posted above looks like it has typical road angles, but it's a long way away from being a touring bike.

That's a damn good deal on the Fort and I'm sure that Aidan will use and abuse it in just the right way! Bring some pedals when you pick it up and you'll be golden.

It was damn good fun, although the hospital people say that I might have fractured a bone in my wrist. Time for me to stop falling off my bike...

That was a good laugh, although my wrist doesn't work now. Ah well...

I will come as soon as I can - I expect to be spooned

Running the headset without the locknut (the top six sided nut) is gonna be a real pain in the ass cos there is nothing to stop it all unscrewing. You will have to hand tighten the top race (the bottom round bit that has a six sided nut on its upper part) every few minutes. It will still be always too loose and so you will knacker the races really quickly. Better get a longer fork as soon as you can.

Don't want to labour the point, but...

It's European. It has a lot of style. Europe is good.

It might be worth your while checking an online fit calculator (I think competitive cyclist have one) and plugging some numbers. Remember that these only give a rule of thumb and that you should compare with what you currently ride and how it feels.

Trampsparadise - I know what you like so I know that you know that not all Euro frames are purely functional!

A grand for a Ganwell Pro? Fuck that. Anyone else who wants to spend a grand on a pretty frame should check this out

built by this guy http://www.robinmathercycles.co.uk/

I realised the same when I posted it. The saddle angle is more level than that actually - I think the angle of the photo makes it look a bit funny since the bike isn't parallel to the camera and is slightly higher as well. The seatpost is super adjustable actually, it's pretty good considering it cost a tenner or so.

David - that is a very nice bike. Looks like it would be great to ride

Here's my latest. It's an Eddy Merck track bike that had been repainted and stickered up as a U. Scanini (Belgian bike co). I took the stickers off cos they looked horrible. It's got a mixture of mostly European parts on it at the moment - Goldtec/CXP33 rear wheel, Mavic Cosmic Elite front with pitlock, Campy Record Cranks and BB, TTT bars and stem, Flite + Selcof seatpost, ATAC carbon pedals.

Rides like it was made to go fast

Budget another £50 for a respray and it doesn't look like a very good deal. You can get a nice frame for £150 with full info about maker etc and without needing a respray

It's not just that we aren't their target market or that they don't have the right stock. Many of the staff in the Evans that I have been to (all central London) don't know about the stuff that they do stock and compound this with making stuff up rather than admitting ignorance (see comment about brake cables above). I know that a chain store like Evans won't have the same kind of knowledgeable/bike geek staff as the specialist shops but it can get annoying.

Also, if their role is to get people on bikes then it would be better if they were bikes that were set up properly and didn't have scratches when new.

Actually not all 3/32 chains are the same. The ones for 9 and 10 speed systems are thinner cos the gears are so tightly packed and so sometimes don't work on 3/32 track and SS stuff.

I'd receommend sram chains cos they are good quality and master links are easy to use. pc-48 is the lowest quality, pc-58 is better, pc-68 is better again. They're all pretty good - the better models are a bit more expensive and (maybe) a bit stronger and/or corrosion resistant.

Mario Vaz in SE London does pretty cheap resprays (£40 - 60) and frame alterations, apparently quality is ok but not amazing but he is a bike specialist who used to paint for Holdsworth.

Otherwise Colourtech are used by Roberts but they are a bit more expensive (c. £100 - 120)

jhclare

I don't understand what's going on! Are there issues or are Evans just incompentent?

Can anyone recommend a decent bike shop that can set up my Flyer fixed for me so I can use both sides of the hub?

There might be chainline issues but it should be easy to fix with a different length bottom bracket. Evans are shit - only go there if there's no other choice or you want to try on some shoes before you mail order.

Decent shops that will help you out: Condor (Grey's Inn Road), Bikefix (Lamb's Conduit St), Brixton Cycles (by the skate park). Brixton Cycles is the friendliest of the three but the other two are more central. There's also Brick Lane Cycles which sounds ok, but I've never been there.

I think some black nipples are brass - in fact the blog entry says these ones are brass so they should be plenty strong.

Front brake only on a SS isn't gonna dump you over the bars any more than on any other kind of bike and you'd have to be a bit of a muppet to let it happen. The thing is that you lose the fine control you need on gravel, water, ice etc plus you're screwed if the cable breaks.

dicki

how easy is it to knock one of those up ? where the heck do you start ?

Read the instructions and work out which bits to glue together first...

Sounds like you are being a bit of a fashion victim!

I bought one, rode with it for a while and got an idea of speeds. Thing is that after a while I never looked at it and it was just another thing to worry about someone nicking, so i took it off. Now I have three speeds, slower than normal, normal and faster than normal.

It looks wicked now anyway