The jungle

It's rapidly becoming a struggle to get from the front door to the gate, so just about perfect from my point of view! The bananas have definitely made it through the winter, all bar one midget anyway. They're showing surprisingly rapid growth considering the temperature in April. Growing Gunneras in pots is fine until you realise their daily water requirements. Hopefully no hosepipe ban this year. Bloody unlikely in Glasgow I know.

Update

Quick update on the Viking build. I'v acquired a brooks B5N saddle. It looks unbelievably uncomfortable, but it actually feels great. The chain could do with an extra half link to let the rear axle sit more nicely in the dropouts, although it's perfectly safe. One of those gold Charge jobbies will do it I think.

On the decal front, Nick from H Lloyds replied, but doesn't have the exact matches, so I'll pick from his stock.

I've just acquired a 1975 Carlton frame, same age as me! I'm in two minds what to do with it at the moment. I think currently I'm going to stick some 700c wheels on and ride it as is, fixed, with the original mangled cottered cranks and a Chater Lea 48t chainring I've got lying around, until I decide if I like the beast. On a cosmetic/framebuilders note the frame looks very poorly finished compared to the Viking.

Some pics.

On a non-bike related note I've unwrapped the bananas and gunnera in the garden after their overwintering. Most of the larger bananas seem okay, the gunnera as ever seem indestructable. It's good to see the garden starting to grow again after the bloody miserable winter. Still a long way to go from last years extravaganza.

AHHHHHHH the post brings good things occasionally.

Look what the postman brought! Oh boy I can't wait for the childs bedtime. Peace will descend, and I can tuck myself into the sofa for the evening. It may even precipitate an early rise and a spin on the summer bike. It's been gathering dust over winter. So much thanks to thewashingmachinepost :: velo club d'ardbeg :: robert millar :: societa colnago for reminding me of its imminent release.

It'll be good to get back out on my lightest machine. Not top-end by any means, but cetainly as good as I need. Let's put it this way the bike isn't the limiting factor in the speed stakes.







Speaking of summer, the fair weather singlespeed has been stripped, polished, repaired, and brought back to life. Curtesy of much grease, new ballbearings and a lovely set of Vittoria Rubino's; more for bling than performance. I never ceased to be surprised how bad a headset can get when a bike is ridden in the wet without full 'guards. Really it could do with a new bottom bracket, a 103mm JS taper sugino, about £20 fromHubjub--Fixed gear in the UK I think. The bike now matches the dog, both pictured in rare clean moments.

This is a 2007 Genesis Flyer,

The dog's a 2001 pedigree Border Collie!

The build nears completion

Obligatory chain line shot.

It turns out yesterday I was being an idiot. I had the left hand crank on the wrong way round/inside out whatever you want to call it. Anyway it turns out that the axle is millimetre
perfect.
So the cranks have been installed with a modified vice from my drill press to push in the cotter pins. I got the 27" wheels cheap off ebay for £40 the pair. Consequently they're really nothing special. Plain gauge spokes and non-machined alloy rims, they're raleigh branded NOS and seem fine. I've had to re-dish and respace the rear which was set up for a 5-7 speed screw-on freewheel. Given this, at the moment I've put on a singlespeed 16t freewheel to go with the 46t front. When finances allow I'll build a track hub on a 27" rim so that I can run it fixed. I don't subsribe to the loctite and bottom bracket lockring idea; been there got the scars.

The pedals are the original salvaged philips with new bearings, the cones were fine, and they look great for 65 years old!

I chopped three inches off the bars last night with the old pipecutter. unbelievably easier than a hacksaw! I've wrapped the bars with yellow tressostar cloth tape, which, once they're covered in shellac will match a Brooks honey leather saddle, again when finances allow.

I've had a quick test ride, it turns out that I obviously get a lot of power from SPDs, and 16t may have been a bit adventurous, although normally I'm on 48x16 and happy, hmmm. 18t cog coming I think. It's a nice relaxed feeling frame. Certainly not track geometry nippy, but comfortable for steady cruising. So far so good. I'm probably going to leave the bike like this for a while and see how I go. I'll be on the lookout for a leather saddle next payday.

Well, I picked up the frame from a very friendly chap at ESP this afternoon. I have to say that I'm delighted with it. The pics don't really do the job justice, as there are various greasy fingerprints on it. Mostly mine. £40-£70 depending on what colour you're after. Nae bad.

There was a fair bit of surfacing pitting and they've done a great job of smoothing these out. This particular colour is "Candy Green" It looks a hell of a lot better than it sounds, I reckon it's fairly close to British racing green really.

Frame after powder coating with various bits for the build.

Originally I'd planned to lug line the frame. However, after seeing the job, and the way the coat thins over the lugs I've decided to leave well alone, as I like the look. There's various parts here. Some NOS some just new. I've managed to salvage the original pedals and that's about it unfourtunately.
The original forks still have the seized stem in them, and 1. I couldn't be bothered with this job, particularly as I found a nice new set on ebay for£18! 2. the
dropouts looked pretty knackered, I've still got them if I feel an overwhelming urge for authenticity at some point in the future.

I'd already installed the fork crown race. An easy job with a hammer and block of wood. No fancy tools for me.

The frame cups took a couple of minutes. Again, wood, hammer, controlled force, nae bother.

Here's the fork in with steerer still to be cut to length. Various people make a big deal of this, but honestly just measure carefully and cut. Two minutes with a blunt hacksaw from B&Q. Sweet. Loads of grease and then tighten.



Here's the cottered chainset, tried out for size. Turns out that the frigging salvaged axle doesn't have enough length. The chainring just clears the chainstay, but the left hand crank hits it's chainstay. Bugger. At this point I wish I'd purchased a sugino maxi chainset and bottom bracket etc. from velosolo for £30. I'm going to try and source another axle. I got the cotter pins from Willy Bain, so he may be worth a shot, although he did make a comment that the pins were "really going back in time." Still, no biggie.

I put on some of the rest of the stuff to cheer me up. I got the bars from Fresh Tripe. They're Velo Orange tourist North Road style bars. I kinda wanted Lauterwasser bars, so they weren't quite what I'd wanted.

I'd read that Jack Lauterwasser used to just bend his own by filling the bar with sand to prevent creasing and going for it. This is what I did! They've turned out okay, although I think I'll cut about two inches off each end. I'll see how the bike rides first.

I'm fairly pleased with it so far. It looks better in real life. Flash photography always brings out the worst in stuff. Obligatory kitchen shots of course.


I love the slack headtube angles.

Well First blog. I thought I'd start with a current project. This was sold to me as a Viking "Tour of Britain" approx 1955. Through no fault of the selling ebayer, I'm pretty sure that it's actually a Viking " The Hosteller Model" Probably meaningless to most, but from my point of view the first was the top of the range model, the one I actually have is the bottom of the range.

Still, a nice frame with okay lugwork, however it isn't getting the Argos cycle/Mercian full blown £250 respray. It's getting a £40 powdercoat from ESP powdercoaters in Glasgow, and is being built up with budget/scavanged/refurished components for a beater bike.

I pick up the frame today so I'm going to detail the rebuild, for my own interest more than anything. I wish I'd taken better shots, pre-coating, but these were for a polite enquiry into decal replacements from HLloyds. No reply from them whatsoever, and their published email address on their new website seems to reach an entirely different company. Weird.