Old bones exhumed...GT Karakoram elite

A little memory..... "apparently nothing"....

So as I was cleaning up these pedals I remembered why I bought them....grease nipples...tee-hee..😊 now one thing I loved to do on this old boy was fording....I loved water! And I loved the fact that just about all the bearings on the bike were pretty well sealed,atleast good enough for a bit of a splash about then give em all a strip down and regrease....plus I'd squirted engine oil into the frame...
Anyway.....there's a little magic place right down the end of Cornwall....a little beach called Carleon cove in poltesco. I love it there you can feel the history...think some remains date back to late 1600s of the fishing industry and later the serpentine works. Well there's a river that runs down the valley out into the cove and during summer it's not particularly deep or fast flowing but it's a proper tricky ride upstream 😁 very rocky.... they're all very smooth and rounded.... Me being me what the hell let's see how far upstream I can make it !
At that time I had one of these ...great companion for mucking about on a bike.. remember em?

Screenshot_20220810-183626.jpg

Yup! I was that confident in my abilities I was going upstream listening to my choons on tape✌️
Progress was good but very slow ....lots of track standing whilst staring at the bed below to plot the next 3 foot of progress....bunny hops here and there flicking the rear around ....you get the drift....bit like rock garden riding on a rigid just wet!
Well there's this big rock so big it's out the water by 3 foot all smooth and angled like a ramp and I think if I can bunny hop onto that and get upto the top that's about 10 mins progress in one hit πŸ‘
Well I made It onto it....and I made it upto the top 🀨
But that's when it went a little wrong.....

So I figured from up on my rock perch all I had to do was bunny hop back in πŸ‘ simple !
Lined up for where I wanted to land and gave it the big hup! ...Walkman strap caught I think the seat ...the launch didn't go to plan...the bike took a different trajectory to me...
I landed hard on one shin on a rock....I felt pain that kinda pain that makes you go oooh and start shivering πŸ™„
So I'm sitting there on my backside upto my waist in water feeling a little woozy and rather stoopid...watching my blood run down stream....when I realised I could still hear my choons...😁
Somehow my Walkman had landed on the bank......and.......
this was playing....


Nothing bust thank god but my shin had been bludgeoned to a bloody double flappy pulp.....

IMG_20220810_194023_816~2.jpg

I'd say it's faded quite nicely that one after thirty years...I'd say it kinda looks like a hicky!? 😘

Right best get back to these pedals...πŸ˜†
 
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A little memory..... "apparently nothing"....

So as I was cleaning up these pedals I remembered why I bought them....grease nipples...tee-hee..😊 now one thing I loved to do on this old boy was fording....I loved water! And I loved the fact that just about all the bearings on the bike were pretty well sealed,atleast good enough for a bit of a splash about then give em all a strip down and regrease....plus I'd squirted engine oil into the frame...
Anyway.....there's a little magic place right down the end of Cornwall....a little beach called Carleon cove in poltesco. I love it there you can feel the history...think some remains date back to late 1600s of the fishing industry and later the serpentine works. Well there's a river that runs down the valley out into the cove and during summer it's not particularly deep or fast flowing but it's a proper tricky ride upstream 😁 very rocky.... they're all very smooth and rounded.... Me being me what the hell let's see how far upstream I can make it !
At that time I had one of these ...great companion for mucking about on a bike.. remember em?

View attachment 651025

Yup! I was that confident in my abilities I was going upstream listening to my choons on tape✌️
Progress was good but very slow ....lots of track standing whilst staring at the bed below to plot the next 3 foot of progress....bunny hops here and there flicking the rear around ....you get the drift....bit like rock garden riding on a rigid just wet!
Well there's this big rock so big it's out the water by 3 foot all smooth and angled like a ramp and I think if I can bunny hop onto that and get upto the top that's about 10 mins progress in one hit πŸ‘
Well I made It onto it....and I made it upto the top 🀨
But that's when it went a little wrong.....

So I figured from up on my rock perch all I had to do was bunny hop back in πŸ‘ simple !
Lined up for where I wanted to land and gave it the big hup! ...Walkman strap caught I think the seat ...the launch didn't go to plan...the bike took a different trajectory to me...
I landed hard on one shin on a rock....I felt pain that kinda pain that makes you go oooh and start shivering πŸ™„
So I'm sitting there on my backside upto my waste in wster feeling a little woozy and rather stoopid...watching my blood run down stream....when I realised I could still hear my choons...😁
Somehow my Walkman had landed on the bank......and.......
this was playing....


Nothing bust thank god but my shin had been bludgeoned to a bloody double flappy plup.....

View attachment 651031

I'd say it's faded quite nicely that one after thirty years...I'd say it kinda looks like a hicky!? 😘

Right best get back to these pedals...πŸ˜†
Next time could you please paint the hex key red to make it easier to see where you're pointing to
 
So whilst I'm tweaking some spokes and cleaning up a wheelset for old bones I'll drop another little gory story...πŸ™„ Cos someone else's stupidity is always funny πŸ‘

Mickey "3 thumbs" first wheelbuild..

Well if your here then you probably had a half decent MTB back in the day ... most likely your first real bike....reliable unbustable bullet proof...a far cry from pig iron tanks that looked like the bike you wanted! And these bikes instilled confidence and bestowed you with jedi bike skills .....right? πŸ˜‚

Haha...ha.🀨

Well this old bike was like the fastest BMX to me it did pretty much what a BMX did and more...I loved trying to climb the unclimbable...

Remember these? Before the world went all nanny state !

Screenshot_20220806-091639.jpg
Maybe like most things as a kid everything was bigger ....bit like wagonwheels...yum...well I'm sure the slide was bigger ....yes...sure it was much biggerπŸ˜†
Well obviously hauling your bike up the steps and riding down the slippy bit had to be done didn't it!?
So me and a bunch of mates all obviously completely tanked on cheapo cider after school are muckin about on the bikes upto allsorts of no good πŸ™„...and I'm betted I can't go the opposite way.....ride up the slide and then down the steps....well you know red rag to a bull...
I think a few attempts were made at getting the right attack velocity to bunny hop on and get them cranks spinning to make it up to the top before I achieved it....but I done it ✌️ I reckon the city jet slicks helped πŸ‘
So down the steps we go.....and down I went πŸ˜‚
Did I get a winding.....ever had a stack hit the deck got to your feet and done the "I'm alive dance" in decreasing circles around your bike till you fall down again?
Hmmm..
Well when I came round there was blood everywhere....oh no ..me thumb...I had two.... on one hand 🀨

IMG_20220812_115135_722.jpg
16 stitches later and nursery tells me I was a very lucky boy to still have a thumb...hmm....Id cut the tendon in half....down its length! Only I can do such silly stuff...
Well a week later stitches have been mostly pulled out by me cos I want to go ride......but ....my lovely ritchey vantage expert rear rim was a mess...no amount of clueless tweaking made it any better! Now I had a Mavic rim a 231 I think I'd pulled out of the skip at the back of marins importer...so I had a rim and no clue how to build a wheel....and only one working thumb...no problem.....two days later I had a wheel of sorts handy cos it was Sunday...and Sunday was race day ! Wheel survived the race....thumb split again tho..... πŸ™„.

Best get back to these wheels...
 
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