Congratulations Tenbellies
Tenbellies started her new job today, so I would like to take this opportunity to say congratulations and good luck you will make a great teacher and will without doubt take up drinking very soon. Well-done I'm so proud to be ya fella.
Carlton Fixie
I have had the bike finished now for just over a week and it rides like a dream. One or two teething problems at first but nothing a few spanners couldn't fix. As
you can see it very much stripped down compared to a standard road bike, the big difference is that it has no brakes this is controlled by your legs and the drive. I am looking at putting a front brake on as a fail safe having had some hairy moments already when going down hill.
you can see it very much stripped down compared to a standard road bike, the big difference is that it has no brakes this is controlled by your legs and the drive. I am looking at putting a front brake on as a fail safe having had some hairy moments already when going down hill.
So I have tried to keep as much original parts as possible, the forks, drive wheel chain and
pedals, the head set and the seat post. I bought new wheels; handlebars and my Brooks B17 saddle which a got at a great price. The paint didn’t come out as I had expected but it’s grown on me and even though I was wary of the decals I really like them now as they give an impression that the original bike is not lost. I have had a bit a stick from friends for the bike and various things but building this has been great fun and I’m already starting to look to my next project as this will not really be suitable once winter really sets in. The BSA is going to be a lot different and although it will be fixed I am looking at a coaster brake hub for the rear wheel and going all out on a new paint job.
why?
I have never felt as sickened as I do right now. I have no words except I feel for the two poor victims and their family. Where dose it go so wrong that society breeds pure evil?
Have a Little Faith
So maybe summer wasn’t a complete wash out as I kept saying to thud all last week the rain, it will blow over and sure enough a little faith and it did giving us a few hours a day of the lovely sun but that never really enough. I moved my toms over to Thuds new castle and in to the worse for ware Victorian greenhouse in the hope that this may help my little beauties to ripen I also took over the chillies to keep them company. When I moved the Toms I left one plant at home as it was little worse for ware and looked like it would surely pop its clogs like my unfortunate grape vine.
But low and behold , give a little faith the little trooper has produced the goods, as you can see it has given me two little fruits, in fact its given three but someone’s little princess scoffed it before I could get a look but it seems it tasted good as she asked for more. Just goes to show have a little faith.
I hope no ones scoffing my Toms in Castle Over the Water.
Back to work
Its official the summer holidays are over and its back to work, and somewhere under all these boxes is my work bench. I spent the day working my way through paperwork ringing suppliers and opening the countless boxes of new equipment for a department we will be setting up in September. It’s a bit like Christmas come early only I don’t get to play with all the toys. Never mind I have my new TIG welder and pewter casting kit among those hundreds of boxes, that should keep me happy for a while.
Any regrets?
10 years ago today Mr Martin shot dead a burglar and wounded another in his own home, he was sentenced to jail for first murder and then manslaughter after it was found that the burglars had over 100 other convictions. The after math plus other gun related incidents caused new laws to be thrown down and there was a ban on fire arms.
Still it’s a controversial argument should guns be banned? well let me see, it has changed nothing since as there is as much gun crime now in the uk than there has ever been and it’s the criminals like the two who broke into Mr Martins farm that are now the armed. I see it like this, every man or woman has a right to protect themselves, their family and their property by any means necessary. So when Mr Martin was asked if he had any regrets or remorse he rightly said no.
Brooks since 1866
Well the bike is all but finished with a final touch of adding the saddle; I set out to turn the bike into a fixed wheel commuter as that is what I will be using it for. But it was also important that try to replace all the parts that can be used with the original, in some cases this hasn’t be possible and therefore it’s been replaced with parts for the specific spec. All in all the bike has come together really well and after a small test ride as proved to be very fast.
So the saddle, the final touch is important to the bike and the saddle needs to comfortable and add a little style and sophistication. I like things old and with some history about them so i choose Brooks, from new these can be expensive so I bought a slightly used one at a fraction of the price. The model is a B17 and has a long history of being a handmade quality saddle that ages to perfection, after all its all about the comfort.
So the saddle, the final touch is important to the bike and the saddle needs to comfortable and add a little style and sophistication. I like things old and with some history about them so i choose Brooks, from new these can be expensive so I bought a slightly used one at a fraction of the price. The model is a B17 and has a long history of being a handmade quality saddle that ages to perfection, after all its all about the comfort.
Ants in ya Pants
Feeling a little poorly since returning from my holidays I blame the air con from the plane as I hate to think of having to share the air with 200 passengers for 4 hours, and with our present infatuation with swine flu it makes matters worse. So much so I think I said to tenbellies this morning that I think I have it hahaha oh dear I’m delirious. So as I sit on sofa cold sweats aches and pains I am wound up even further by an unwanted visitor to the flat. It seems the crappy weather of rain and warm temperatures has meant there has been an increase of Lasius Niger otherwise known as the flying ant. This little blighter keeps appearing from nowhere; either walking along the floor or across the couch and I kid you not if flattened dozen or more today. We have had issues with ant in the past and I have tracked these down nuked them but I just can not find where these are coming from.
This aint bike riding weather
Returning back to Blighty after some well earned rest in the Greek island of Crete we were welcomed by wind and rain, ah home sweet home the boys at the met office are doing a cracking job they show as much competence as our PM. but hey that’s a whole other rant. The garden looks great a few more tomatoes have come, chillies slowly and even the corn is starting to make an appearance I just hope they will ripe just a little.
Before I left for Crete I brought the bike home for assembly, the next step is fixing the bottom bracket and chain set. When I was given the frame it had a random chain wheel so I replaced this with an original one that came of the same model Carlton. The chrome was in really good nick better than what was on it already, but I was unsure about the pedals, the ones that came with the bike were in a bit of a mess so I sand blasted these and then polished them up so that I could use them, I cant quite make out the make of the pedal but they are track type pedals that were common on race bikes.
A Touch Of Paint
A few weeks back I started to fix up my BSA but in the process I was given an old battered Carlton racing frame that I planned to convert into a fixed wheel. Well the BSA took the back seat and I got totally sucked in to this little fixie project. Scouring ebay for parts and stripping the frame right down so that I could re spray. Well I finished the spraying this week and it now stands for a couple of weeks for the paint to completely harden. It’s important to me that I try and keep as much of the original parts as possible so I left the original brass tag on the head and also had the idea to keep the existing decals that were worn and scratched. I have not done this before so everything is an experiment and so far I am happy with paint finish but im unsure about the colour as this is not the colour on the tin and the remaining decals have not given the desired effect I was looking for. The forks look great and these I found on ebay exactly the same as the originals which I had to cut off because some bright spark had used a fixing (ironic) agent on the stem.
