Tuesday, July 21, 2009

New Tools Like

So, this geeza says he's got a few tools and would I be interested in taking them off his hands ?

Sight unseen like.

Sure mate, send them on down, I'll have a look.


So this arrived and I promptly lost it completely for the rest of the avo.


A lucky little piggy one could say.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

New Stuff in the House





Well, the Garage......





1st up - Middleburn cranks 94 bcd/175mm for the 29er.


After reading an article in Dirt Rag (which I can't find online, but try this instead)I thought the 20/30/40 chainrings would bring the gearing back into the range I can pedal....


I put out an ABP to all the bike shops we deal with thru work and had the offer of these gems, if I had something cool to swap in a 170mm, which I did (Suntour XC Pro).


Blackspire came to the party with the chainrings - thanks for the hook up Aaron


Needed a wider bottom bracket - yes, square taper and looks promising so far.


Front Derailleur still needs some attention to drop it down and I may have to relent and make the Struthers family just a bit more financial.





Next is the new 15mm QR Hadley front hub to complement the 2010 FOX F29 forks.





Solving the issue of how to how to hold the wheel in the truing stand - thanks to a few knackered Specialized Brain reservoir internals we have a solution...










A new standard for headsets meant some oversized cups on loan from the Barnyard.



The loose caged balls were stuffed so a new set of Hope sealed races top and bottom means my rough as guts headset curse might have taken a turn...(no pun intended)




Oh, it's on a new Intense Tracer VP frame with a bunch of new components on the drivetrain and brakes.




For those trainspotters out there - the white polytetraflouroethylene white washer between grip and shifter is indeed a Fox Float shock glide ring.



The Fuji needed some loving too, but how hard is it to find a period correct piece of bling?

Thanks to a quick pop quiz with Oli and a moment of rummaging in the corner of his workshop we have the the clip on mudguard circa late 80's ...



After all this fettling I deserve a nice sunny day without inversion layer cloud cover and something warmer than 2-3 degrees.


This is the first winter I feel like it's so freaking cold that leaving the bike parked up for a while longer looks like an option.