Madame's new grips

I had half a bar's worth of Fizik tape in my box from taping up from bar ends way back, so when I saw it recently I hatched the idea to tape up My Darling's grips and bung the end with corks.

A few botched attempts at trimming champagne corks down, I noticed the cork on the bottle of Rioja we were enjoying was just about the right size. Snipped in half, one half per side, turned out to be a perfect fit!

Neat, huh?

My new bike!

Crazy weekend. I finally managed to get the seized seat-post out of the old GT Palomar frame this past Sunday. All other methods having failed, I resorted to Sheldon's cut method. 6 hours of hard labour later I'd got it out. The feeling of achievement was sensational.
But we were due to get to my Darling's birthday picnic in an hour, and I really wanted to get the bike going so, after discovering that a spare 27.2mm seat-post I had lying around wouldn't fit, I popped out to raid the local stores for a 26.8mm post.

That sorted, we realised there was no way we'd get all we needed to take to the picnic in a pannier and backpacks, so the trailer was hitched to The Pig, and it was off to Hyde Park, fighting the gears that simply needed a good deal of attention.

Sunday night, mellow from a few beers, I raided my box of tricks for a new gear cable and got the drivetrain running sweetly. The Palomar was a fairly low end model, so the running gear is cheap pressed steel Shimano 7-speed; but it does amaze me how sweetly it works, specially given how little attention it needed and how much neglect it has had.

I've been riding it all week on the commute. I've discovered that the right crank arm is bent, and that riding on flat pedals is no fun at all. But that aside, it is a barrel of laughs. It reminds me so much of how I felt riding my BMX; it is just such simple fun. Plus, competition on the commute is so much more fun on something slower - there are so many more other commuters to race!

I'm determined to resist the urge to upgrade, but will allow myself a new crankset and a pair of Eggbeaters. And maybe some new grips...

Project Pig - My new commuter

Having converted my commute bike into (what I think is) a very nice cross race bike, I have a terrible problem that I am not able to just ride it around and take it places the way I used to with the Genesis for worrying about it. Not that I have necessarily let this stop me getting around on the bike, but I do find myself anxious to get back to it or getting overly protective over it when taking it places.

This is not healthy. The thing is, I am perfectly happy to give it stick for its intended purpose, but somehow I feel that if it is going to gain scars, they'd better be in competition, or at very least training. Not from some inconsiderate toss on the train dumping his heavy MTB on it. Hence Project Pig.

A while back I picked up a late 90's GT Palomar mountain bike on eBay. It wasn't the best spec, and certainly the frame wasn't a paragon of all that old steel frames could be, but it was in good working order and would be a good basis for me to try a few things out in terms of renovation and refinishing. Since then I have discovered that the seat post has galvanically welded itself inside the frame, and the best efforts of Byran and I have amounted to little else other than a trashed seat post stub stuck in the frame. This is particularly annoying because, other than a bent crank, the GT is in surprisingly good mechanical condition.

The solution was simple - a new frame. But it had to be cheap as the budget had been blown on the crosser. 15 quid sees me as the proud new owner of a ratty (but I believe solid) GT Tequesta frame (to be collected this weekend), and another 25 gets me two new tyres for the commute. I have a set of new gear cables in stock. I may need new brake cables, and the chain is questionable, though I will try to re-use it.

My goal is initially to get it on the road for 50 pounds. If I like it, I might make it a bit special further down the line. Watch this space.