bikeworkshop
Old School Grand Master
That's a rule in the cycle industry that
"Handlebar finishing tape must not work"
"Handlebar finishing tape must not work"
Today's Ride
- Thread starter FairfaxPat
- Start date
That's the bargain of the year.Thanks. I actually found this tape in a charity shop for a fiver. The cloth finishing tape and bar ends came with it as a kit.
https://www.brooksengland.com/en_uk/leather-bar-tape.html
£60 from Brooks but I now see the full kit includes the nifty fabric tape.
I got my Brooks bar tape, second hand but unused, in a job lot with a matching B17 saddle, I think I paid £60 for saddle and tape...so I got the saddle for free!
Didn't include the cute little cotton tapes though 
GLB
Dirt Disciple
I've been in and (mostly) out of Retrobike for a good few years and had strangely never found this thread before. I'm not a bicycle collector, still less a rebuilder. I'm 75 now, I've got two bicycles that are Retrobikes, both of which I've had for 30+ years, from new(ish) and which have gone through various spec changes and upgrades over the years, so I don't really think of them as retro. I've written them up in earlier posts eg https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/1990-ken-bird.99773/
I've no plans to add to the stable, or delve into newer technology. After many years and thousands of miles, why change now?
Most of my year round riding is on a superbargain Fuji fixed gear but this Ken Bird is my favourite dry sunny day only treat of a ride.
So that's just a bit of background and I'll look forward to dropping a few pictures from my usual 20 - 30km trips round North Kent in future. Like these from the weekend.
I've no plans to add to the stable, or delve into newer technology. After many years and thousands of miles, why change now?
Most of my year round riding is on a superbargain Fuji fixed gear but this Ken Bird is my favourite dry sunny day only treat of a ride.
So that's just a bit of background and I'll look forward to dropping a few pictures from my usual 20 - 30km trips round North Kent in future. Like these from the weekend.
bikeworkshop
Old School Grand Master
Thanks for adding
It's worth thinking of this thread too -
I actually go riding places i wouldn't think of just to get a photo, and more famous ones are a worthy destination
Tom
GLB
Dirt Disciple
Bikes and Bridges? I've book marked it thanks, and have a few ideas for future trips. Actually, if you zoom in as far as you can on the horizon on the far right of my second picture, you might just make out the QE2 bridge/Dartford crossing. So I suppose I'm almost there already. I've also found the bicycles and churches thread which got me digging out my old login. Bicycles and postboxes anyone?Thanks for adding
It's worth thinking of this thread too -
I actually go riding places i wouldn't think of just to get a photo, and more famous ones are a worthy destination
Tom
Bit of an experimental ride today and one for the Sussex bridleway completist rather than the byway aesthete. Loaded the Chickens up with my tent, sleep mat, sleeping bag, pillow, book, and all the other essentials for a night under the stars and then rode it up and down some of the most rutted and overgrown bridleways we have round here. It passed with flying colours. I love the Ortlieb fork bags.
Probably a night under canvas on Friday if the weather holds.
Probably a night under canvas on Friday if the weather holds.
MattiThundrrr
Kona Fan
Drove 45 minutes only to find out that my doctor's appointment was canceled, so another 45 minutes back home and the afternoon free. Selected the onespeed for some singletrack therapy, all within a few kms of home base
Perfect weather, not too hot, not too buggy. The usual rooty rocky, mostly dry, but some mud pits and swampy spots at lower elevation. Short ups and downs on tight old trails that twist back on themselves through narrow tree gaps. A few hike a bikes, a big fallen tree to climb over, clothes covered in prickleys, a great adventure that felt a little like a kid on an afternoon of playing hookey from school
Perfect weather, not too hot, not too buggy. The usual rooty rocky, mostly dry, but some mud pits and swampy spots at lower elevation. Short ups and downs on tight old trails that twist back on themselves through narrow tree gaps. A few hike a bikes, a big fallen tree to climb over, clothes covered in prickleys, a great adventure that felt a little like a kid on an afternoon of playing hookey from school
Little bit further this morning, not massively at 13.09 miles compared to the last few 10s but slow and steady wins the race etc. Bit more on the road but just on the 30mph limit roads as I can spin pretty close to it, but would feel like a bit of a dick pottering about on an mtb dropping to 10mph in some cases on a single carriageway. Then again, holding 29.8mph on the home stretch on a 30 road and ofc the average Audi driver still somehow feels the need to overtake. Is 0.2mph too slow for you? In a rush to sit at the same red light as me? Normally I don't really filter and especially not with 770mm bars but today I made an exception for that tool.
Personally my favourite kind of gravel to hit, small aggregates that's dry and dusty.
Nice chrome piece from Rigs.
Even did a lap or two of the pump track.
The eagle eyed (or anyone with any form of vision tbh) will notice the stem change which is a good segue into a bitch about ebike parts. Last post I mentioned getting the hangar aligned, when I took it in the guy had a Haibike up in the stand. Bosch Gen 2 CX so I think coming up on 10 years old? Full motor swap, freehub, the works. From what I was told and could frankly tell from the state of it, the owner was less about preventive maintenance and more so hammering it, dousing in mucoff and hitting with a jetwash once a month. This leads to massive, massive problems when you want to actually crack the lock ring off the motor which needed to be done to put the sprocket onto the new motor. Best guess water got in and corroded the lockring threads to the point two of us, a vice and a 4ft breaker wouldn't budge it. The annoyance is that it has a plastic bash guard which the tool goes into to unthread the lockring. Price of a sprocket? £10-15. Price of said plastic dinky little bash guard? £40! Places selling the full assembly for anywhere from £80 up to £150. I ended up ordering a Miche sprocket for him via Amazon, called it square on the hangar alignment/indexing, then threw in the stem when I'd mentioned wanting something shorter.
Turns out the bash guard isn't needed at all and you can fit the sprocket and lockring alone with no ill effects, so if you ever happen to be working on an absolutely battered pushing 10 year old gen 2 bosch motor, save yourself £40
Not that the guys saving anything as his total bill was around £340. 27.5x2.6's with three tyres stuffed inside, freehub that'd collapsed and the inner race had bonded to the axle, lockring issue. Can't say I'd blame any bike mechanics for packingup shop these days..
Personally my favourite kind of gravel to hit, small aggregates that's dry and dusty.
Nice chrome piece from Rigs.
Even did a lap or two of the pump track.
The eagle eyed (or anyone with any form of vision tbh) will notice the stem change which is a good segue into a bitch about ebike parts. Last post I mentioned getting the hangar aligned, when I took it in the guy had a Haibike up in the stand. Bosch Gen 2 CX so I think coming up on 10 years old? Full motor swap, freehub, the works. From what I was told and could frankly tell from the state of it, the owner was less about preventive maintenance and more so hammering it, dousing in mucoff and hitting with a jetwash once a month. This leads to massive, massive problems when you want to actually crack the lock ring off the motor which needed to be done to put the sprocket onto the new motor. Best guess water got in and corroded the lockring threads to the point two of us, a vice and a 4ft breaker wouldn't budge it. The annoyance is that it has a plastic bash guard which the tool goes into to unthread the lockring. Price of a sprocket? £10-15. Price of said plastic dinky little bash guard? £40! Places selling the full assembly for anywhere from £80 up to £150. I ended up ordering a Miche sprocket for him via Amazon, called it square on the hangar alignment/indexing, then threw in the stem when I'd mentioned wanting something shorter.
Turns out the bash guard isn't needed at all and you can fit the sprocket and lockring alone with no ill effects, so if you ever happen to be working on an absolutely battered pushing 10 year old gen 2 bosch motor, save yourself £40
Not that the guys saving anything as his total bill was around £340. 27.5x2.6's with three tyres stuffed inside, freehub that'd collapsed and the inner race had bonded to the axle, lockring issue. Can't say I'd blame any bike mechanics for packingup shop these days..
