GoatSurfer Retro MTB and other ramblings...

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Tuesday, September 22

Summertime, and the living is easy...Fish are jumping, and the cotton is high

by Billy Goat on Tue 22 Sep 2009 10:17 BST

Well almost......actually we never got much summer here but Friday was a rest day for me so to contradict the term I went out and nailed 30 miles of local trails on my Pace RC200.
Lyveden New Bield is a bizzarre thing to stumble across in the middle of knowhere (Aldwinkle St Peter) and is an unfinished Summerhouse built for Sir Thomas Tresham back in 1604. Nobody knows for sure why it never got finished but it looks very surreal in the surrounding landscape. The route took me 2 hours 45 minutes and I never saw another human on the trails, instead I watched Red Kites gliding and calling to each other in the midday heat, saw squirrels and rabbits going about their business and enjoyed the silence....

Lyveden Way Trail

Lyveden New Bield

Bearshank Track (Green Lane) - Red Kite territory

Byway near Aldwinkle

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Monday, September 21

EWR Project - Phase Four

by Billy Goat on Mon 21 Sep 2009 10:57 BST

Sorry for the lack of recent updates, have been busy and got a little sidetracked on riding bikes instead of building them

I'm still on the hunt for some NOS Mavic 231's to lace to the NOS DX hubs I have in transit but in the meantime I've switched back to the Campy rims I was playing around with before. They were drilled for Presta but a little encouragement with an 8.5mm drill and now they fit my stash of Schrader tubes.

The idea with this stage of the build is primarily to find out where the bottom bracket height is as I want to re-create the exact ride experience the bike was designed for. As a result of this I have grabbed the first pair of tires that came to hand that are going to be similar in height to the end product. I don't think it's quite where it needs to be as it currently measures 12.5" to center of BB axle and I think the measurement should be to the base of the shell (I'm just checking this out with Kenn and Jay from EWR). I figured I would be about 20-25mm out with these forks anyway so it's no real surprise.

This is the first time I've been able to throw my leg over this bike since I bought it and its great to have gotten this far. I'm part way through setting up the brakes and next on the list after that is fitting the gear cables and chain and taking her out for a test ride

It's bike shaped Jim, but not as we know it

The sun sets over my yard....my OWB basks for the first time :-)

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Wednesday, September 9

EWR Project - Phase Three and a half :-)

by Billy Goat on Wed 09 Sep 2009 09:16 BST

Not much to report today, ran into several problems that I need to resolve before I go any further

The tyres I had down for this are too big (certainly for the back anyway).
I bought some Mavic/DX wheels from RetroBike and when I fitted them they were very badly out of true

.
So I tried a spare set of Campy/LX rims I had stashed in my shed but these were Presta drilled and all my tubes are Schrader

.
Also my rear hydraulic hose is about three inches too short so I'll have to make up some fresh hoseline and bleed the rear brakes.

All this is a drag because I was planning to take it for a test ride this Thursday in my local forest........you don't mind while I scream a bit do you?

I'm off to find some Zen like calm (and some more bike parts.....)

My big steel pig is putting on weight...

But doesn't she look cool...?

NOS DX Thumbies and Magura 'Tomac'

Overcrowded looking Answer Accu Trax

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Tuesday, September 8

EWR Project - Phase Three

by Billy Goat on Tue 08 Sep 2009 08:51 BST

Finally after a few quiet weeks some progress with the EWR Project

The temporary Accu-Trax are now fitted and I want to see where the Bottom Bracket height ends up once it gets some wheels on, then take it for some test rides and see how it handles. The steerer has intentionally been left long for now so I can try out a few different stems and bar height combinations, then I will cut it again when I have picked a stem/bar height. Apologies for the poor pictures, I was losing light rapidly, wanted to avoid using the flash and the camera produces poor pix when you turn it off

Steerer/spacer mock up prior to trimming the steerer

Saw guide time!!

'Test' stem configuration (lots more to be cut, don't worry!!)

Handlebars.....finally !!

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Monday, September 7

EWR Project - Answer Accu Trax Re-wired...

by Billy Goat on Mon 07 Sep 2009 11:34 BST

If you've been following this you will recall I wanted to use an Answer Accu-Trax fork on this build. I wanted a rigid EWR and I believe this fork suits the frame well as it has nice chunky legs and is made of the same 4130 Cromoly as the frame, another thing I dig about Accu Trax is having the offset in the dropout as it gives a nicer 'straight' look to the forks, as opposed to the alternative which was a Kona Project 2 which have the offset at the crown.

I picked these up from the USA via eBay and got them for a great price as they are 1". Also they were threaded so I had a bunch of work to do getting these converted to threadless (see HERE FOR DETAILS) . The whole thing is a temporary fix cos the EWR is 1 1/8" and is suspension corrected so these 390mm forks might drop the front end too much.

Long term I will get the geometry/BB height 100% with a cunning plan....

I got a fellow RetroBike member to strip and repaint them yellow so they matched the frame better, I didn't leave the frame with him so all he had as a reference was a tiny chip of paint. The result, plus some repro decals is ok for me and when I go for the permanent solution I will leave him the frame so the next set of forks can be matched 100%.

Some progress shots of the work:

Back from Dave Yates Cycles with ahead steerer conversion

Sandblasted ready for repaint

First coat of yellow over white base coat

Finished article with repro decals

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