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^ You're good at this stuff! Quite inspiring actually.

Did some acid etching and laser welding on this project... fun to try new processes

This is cool too. Love your website.

Head torches are very, very useful. Petzl make a really tiny one, it's about the size and weight of a lemon cream biscuit. It's got a cord rather than a strap which is a bit uncomfortable, but I've usually got a beanie on at night so I don't notice it.

^I'm a bikepacker and I agree, Carradice bags are awesome on-road and tolerable off-road.

On another note, what's a decent, small packing 2-season bag for not-a-lot-but-possibly-some money?

For 2-3 season stuff I have a Sea-to-Summit Trek TK1 - 650 fill power at 900g ish. Works as a duvet in summer and I've used it for sub-bushline stuff to about -5c in winter. It doesn't have a fancy 3D hood and is a semi-rectangular shape so not the ultimate in performance for the weight, but then again, it was not particularly expensive. Being down it packs down to about the size of a small leg of lamb. I suppose you could get smaller/lighter bags for the money but then you're sacrificing versatility - your bag will probably be the most expensive thing in your panniers so it's worth getting something you'll be able to use for most of the year.

I think it cost 130 quid or thereabouts, you might pick one up much cheaper in a sale though.

Ah, Stronglight cranks, they do indeed have a non-standard thread so a normal square taper extractor doesn't fit - the only tool for them is made by J A Stein Company. I had to buy one ages ago which you'd be welcome to borrow but I'm abroad indefinitely.

Don't take this as a guarantee but I think this is the one you need:
http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b217s0p0

Perhaps email that photo to Spa and they might be able to clarify. Alternatively there may be someone on here who can lend you their tool.

^ last three links have been fascinating. Especially the one about the train. Must be frustrating for the poor guy.

It was damaged from the first time it was ridden loose. Next time, tighten it up 'kin tight, take it out for a long ride, then re-tighten it once more, and then leave it.

Come on, someone take this.

EDIT - What are you doing at Pashley? It's a nice part of the country to be in.

Calipers yes, although they are not much good as a seatpost measuring tool in my experience. If you're really buying loads of frames then I suppose the proper tool might be useful, they are quite expensive though. Old steel frames generally group into "27.2" and "not 27.2" anyway.

Yeahhhhh... nah. They haven't put much effort into that one, it's presumably just a technological showcase. I quite like the idea of using smartphones to gather road usage data, perhaps that is already happening though.

Yup such things exist (Schumpf Speed Drive) but it doesn't really solve any problems - you've still got to have some form of drive from the cranks to the rear hub. Having a hub epicyclic would make it possible to attach the pedals to the centre of, say, a 20" wheel (would have to work out pedal clearance), and still have a high enough gear for normal cycling.

The idler wheel works, except it'd bork your tyres and would slip in wet weather, and would probably feel quite horrendous.

I have always wondered if it is possible to make a super-compact folding bike by using a step-up epicyclic gearbox in one of the hubs.

Bump. It illustrates how that grainy hide gets a nicely worn look with time. The lighter bits are newer.

Nice Rotring. What do you do for a living?

Couldn't you wax/waterproof your self?

Yup but it takes an age - to reproof my not-a-Barbour-waxed-jacket soaked up two 400g tubs of dressing. And the jacket already had some wax in it.

Probably best to buy an already-waxed bag and rewax when/where necessary.

On the waterproofness scale, waxed cotton is somewhere between 'showerproof' and 'downpourproof'. Bear in mind that, short of welded rubberised/PU-coated fabric, no textile is waterproof for an extended period of time - even the best outdoors jackets will let in a bit of water at the seams after a couple of days in the rain. So if you're about to take an hour's ride with your laptop on your back, wrap it up in a pack liner/rubble sack before putting it in your bag.

I wouldn't bother buying the tool, you only need to know the seatpost size once per frame.

One weird thing though. 24.0 seatpost didnt fit. Had to use a shim

24.0 was a really obscure size specific to Carbolite-tubed Peugeots. As yours has 501 tubing it'll probably 26.4, but LBS should be able to tell you for sure (measuring with a ruler doesn't really work).

I would sell that 24mm seatpost on ebay and get a correctly-sized seatpost for sure. Not a good thing for all the force to be going through that one little shim.

Only qualm I have with these cotton / canvas bags though is one drop of rain and they are soaked.

Waxed cotton is reasonably water resistant - it takes about half an hour in heavy rain for my waxed cotton jacket to get damp lining at the shoulders. Of course in cold weather it's so stiff it stands up by itself and in warm weather you sweat to buggery, but it looks great.

You might be able to find something with a truck tarp liner and Cordura outer, it looks tolerably close to canvas.

I can say with firm assuredness that those ice axe straps will never touch an ice axe.

This is why I sold mine... it's an amazing super-tough pack for casual/urban use but it's not quite right for outdoors performance.

^ the bigxtop - yeah it's a nice casual rucksack. It'll last forever too. It's small, which might not be a bad thing depending on what you need to carry.

A friend has the Ortleib bag. He said there was a massive design flaw in it but I can't remember what it is, I guess it's not that bad.

I would still use a pack liner/rubble sack to wrap up my laptop in really bad weather, despite both being advertised as waterproof.

The expiry on the ones i've got the canisters from are 2004. (they're really shit quality film though) Am I rich?

No, I am considerably richer than yow.

I generally only take enough fuel for two boils per day. Unless I take the MSR canister stove, but I don't like doing that - it's bulky, relatively heavy, and very noisy.

Back in my old student days I found a box of twenty rolls for a fiver at a car boot sale. They were expired to buggery which art students love because it gives 'unpredictable' results - I think I sold them at a fiver each.

All right Marx.

Like I said, try Turkish... never letting it boil

No good in the back o' beyond, unless you've got fuel to spare for pre-boiling the water the night before. Or boil it over the fire I suppose, if there is one.

*anyone else miss the usefulness of film canisters for camping?

I still use film when touring/hiking - a little Olympus XA, small, tough, weighs not much, takes better photos than anything else its size (for comparable money at least), and only needs new batteries once a year. Great wee camera.

But if you are missing film canisters, outdoors shops sell similar things.

Very much abroad for the foreseeable future, but cheers for letting me know!

I remember watching an interview with some venerable test pilot who said, after years and years of flying prototype aircraft, he came to the conclusion that the most beautiful planes are also the ones that fly the best.

Somewhat related - Don Norman's book Emotional Design (and lots of others, but this is the most accessible for non-designers) cites a lot of studies showing that people perceive attractive objects as having greater functionality than products which are unattractive but identical in terms of functionality. I wonder about the specifics of this - is the ugliness of an object a cause of frustration, or is it merely beauty mitigating poor functionality - and additionally, are highly functional objects perceived as more beautiful? This might be something to research.