No longer a pepper grinder.

You've made a fantastic job of that! I have a couple of Flites that'll be ready for re-covering in a year or two, so I'll bookmark this to help me in the future.
 
kanerdog1x1":1wikemu0 said:
For reference, here Is the Aples that I had 'professionally' recovered a few years ago :/


I would take your newly covered saddle to 'professional' and say this is how i wanted it done !!!

then charge him a few quid for a lesson

your work is MINT!
 
Cheers guys. I had another go this evening with the alpes, I got some black leather today. It turned out good, but not quite as nice as the brown one. I put this down to my using a 'evostick' adhesive, it's not as nice to use as the trim fix. I have ordered a can of trim fix fit the next one.





You can see here the aluminium plug I made to hold the nose tight while the glue sets.



It just holds the leather together so I can carry on with attending to the rest of the job.

I'm not sure which bikes to put these back on. I know the brown one will look perfect on my town bike, but think it's too good to waste on it. The black is better suited to the Curtis... :/
 
Still refining the fit of the bike. I knew i wanted a longer stem, 80mm instead of the 70mm borrowed from the
Lynskey. That arrived last week and while trying it out I also raised the stem 10mm. When I look at the bike it looks odd, really high on the front, but its the best way to get the most out of a single speed, my Cove used to look odd too.

In other news, I have gone tubeless too. I bought a kit a couple of years ago, tried it on the front tires of two bikes and didn't get on with it. On the Lynskey, it let me down in a big way on a group ride in the middle of winter, and since then it has been banished to the back of the spares box. Whilst looking for more grip in the wet on the front, I ordered a Contiinental trail king, which is the same tread pattern as the 'rubber queen' I fitted to the front of the Lynskey. I knew this pattern cleared well in the woods near me, so it was a pretty safe bet. When it arrived, I noticed that the side walls felt a little thicker than a Continental usually sports, so this got me thinking it might be a good contender for tubeless. No problems for the last few rides, so I also converted the rear but this seems to lose 5-10 psi over night, but doesn't lose any pressure while riding.


I thought I had better take a proper photo of the bike, before I do any more work to it. The only pics of it are either ropey iPhone pics, or pics in the woods. Usually both.





In a few weeks time I plan to strip the bike, sort out a couple of niggles on the frame and get it painted. I have been to the local sticker chap who has a list of things I want, which may be ready next week.

Yesterdays ride was odd, part way round I noticed that the brake levers were in a funny position, rather high up. I put this down to my fitting them weirdly when swapping the stem, so I just readjusted them to a more usual position and carried on. Then after the next rough section, I noticed they had moved again! On closer inspection, the stem bolts had worked loose, which is a pain as my multi tool doesn't have a 3mm key on it! I tried to persevere, and didn't want to miss all of the best bits of the ride, but it was starting to get dangerous. Luckily(!) two bolts has loosened them selves almost out, so I upgraded the two bottle cage bolts to stem duty, and carried on. :)



:)
 
I had a blast at BPW last Thursday, first time I'd been this year. Very cloudy(!) but very fun. I forgot just how good it was, we promised to go more this year but stuff has just got in the way, work mostly.



This morning, I decided to finish the frame. Having thought properly about it, I realised that I still wasn't happy with the position of any of the cable guides, so cut them all off and started afresh.



With all of the cable guides off I could make sure that the whole area was flat and perfect before adding the new guides.





The brake hose guides I have positioned on the top of the top tube, centrally. I have also biased them more toward the front so that the brake hose flow more tidily from the master cylinder. I have also decided to keep the facility to add a dropper, tho I probably won't bother getting one. There are now two guides on the lower left hand side of the top tube, hopefully you can see here the routing the hose would take.



I've made a video of the proposed hose route, but my phone has gone flat and I can't upload it to potatobucket..

The hose guides on the seat stays are also redone, I have arrowed the brass telltale where one of the previous guides was so you can see just how much further up the stay I think they needed to be:-



While the frame was apart, I took the time to sort out a couple of other little niggles I had. I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a small dent near the top of the seat tube. I could have filled it with brass, but as it was so easy to get to I decided push it out from the inside. First I made a short sleeve to sit where the seat post usually is to stop the seat from distorting, this way I could fasten up the seat clamp and it would all stay true and round.





You can just about make out the dark area which is the dent. I used black paint as a guide coat to see the dent. Here is the steel bar I used to push it out. You can also see the sleeve installed.



And done, perfectly flat.



So the frame is now pretty much ready to go to be painted. I think red, and have a couple of sticker options in the making. :)
 
Just managed to get the video uploaded. There are yellow dots of paint on the hose, signifying 100 and 125mm of travel.



:)
 
I had spotted that on eBay, and in the classified section, but it's a tad too big for my liking. I did see a 17 inch one on eBay last week too that was keenly priced, but with collection only and it being 1.2 million miles away it was just too much messing around.

I had this bead blasted last week locally, and picked it up from the powder coater this afternoon. Not bad for £15? :)



The sticker man did me some in black and white, but I'm holding out for black and yellow, should be ready tomorrow. Then the earliest chance I have to get the head tube and bb faced is Friday, but it'll probably end up Saturday.

I do like red.
 
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