GoatSurfer Retro MTB and other ramblings...

Out Door 2011

Billy Goat — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:23:56 +0000

I already should have sold a bunch of stuff this year but I am super lame with such tasks normally, preferring to indulge in other more exciting projects and hobbies and just 'talking the talk' when it comes to ACTUALLY photographing bike parts and selling them

This guy was a REAL super lazy deal. I had stripped my little M1000 Cannondale maybe a year ago and sold off the Manitou III's and probably a few other bits too and Mr Frame was just hanging up in the Man Cave alongside a bunch of other frames that I keep telling myself I will build and ride one day when out of the blue I got an email via the Goatsurfer website asking about the M1000 and would I consider selling. He was a new member of RetroBike from Germany.

I said "yeah maybe, but I have to remove the stuck M900 brake bushes first" and dithered around for a few weeks before taking some pix and sending them him, along with serial numbers and frame measurements. Time passed and negotiations were about complete then I had to leave the country for a while but guess what, I pulled my finger out my ass and shipped the frame this week and today he landed in Germany...his new home, so look out for a project build on RetroBike sometime in the new year.

Now to get rid of some more crap.....

DeathStar - Part Two

Billy Goat — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:59:40 +0000

Second and most likely final part of this article. The hardware was put together in a previous post and this part is about setting it all up.

I jumped a couple of steps before I started taking screen shots but basically you plug the box into your network and run the utility on the supplied CD, it finds the box on the network and then you can start configuring it. I chose to have a static IP address for the box as I intend accessing it remotely and also if you only have a few devices on your home network then static IP is neat and tidy.

So here its about to reboot after I gave it a static IP address

You use the Synology Assistant to access the box initially:

Here its formatting its own system partition on the disks

Now the initial config is done it asks you to log in properly

Your newly named and configured NAS box should now show up in the assistant:

Enter the IP address in your web browser and log in !!

Now you can set up your disks and create users:

Two choices on setting up disks, use Quick if you want it all done for you or Custom for manual RAID options

Here I'm using all the disks for one RAID volume

Going for RAID5

Surface check on disks (this will take FOREVER on big disks!!!)

These were my choices, you can pick whatever you like !!

Go find something to do for this bit...it takes a while

About 14 hours later......seriously!!

All up and running, this is the Main Menu with all the stuff this box does

Oh, don't forget to get the latest firmware update for the DSM

That's it all finished and ready to use, you can now create shares to backup your other computers or follow the wizards to have an iTunes server or a Mail Server etc.

DeathStar - Part One

Billy Goat — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:33:17 +0000

I started digitising my life over a decade ago as I could see the way things were going, it started with converting all my music to high quality MP3, drifted into digitising TV recordings, DVD's, movies etc. etc. I like the idea of having everything in one place, at my fingertips so to speak (via a Remote Control) and also the ability to copy stuff to my car, my phone or my MP3 player as I wished.

As a result of this it was only a matter of time before I reached Critical Mass and I ran out of places to store stuff, that time is NOW...

My Media Centre had 4TB of storage (1TB for films, 1TB for TV episodes, 1TB for music/photos and 1TB for recording TV) but the problem was I was running out of space AND it was getting too big to backup......enter Project DeathStar or in plain English - Network Attached Storage

I've had to wait a while to do this, mainly because I needed technology to catch up with my wishes, and that was for HUGE hard drives to be invented because what I wanted was something L-A-R-G-E. It needed to automatically backup and synchronise my Media Centre, my PC, my Netbook and two Android phones and still have some space for 'future growth' so I splashed for a Synology Diskstation DS411. This thing will do all of the above plus loads of other neat stuff like CCTV, Mail Server, FTP etc.

You buy this thing 'empty' so you can stuff whatever hard disks you fancy inside it. In my world there is only one hard disk vendor and that is Hitachi Global Storage, they are always at the forefront of product design and their stuff never goes wrong (unlike Western Digital or other crap). I can speak with authority on this because I have personally built several hundred PC's for corporate use that get spanked 8 hours a day and they are all still working years later.

Anyway, I won't bore you with the techno babble, if you want to find out more about Synology go to their site, they make loads of different NAS solutions to suit every budget.

Here's some pictures of Part One of my NAS build (Part Two to follow):

Nasty flash shot but I wanted to show you inside

Bags of storage :-)

Disk Trays

Full of disks

The front panel lights

1 RIFLES Wristband Appeal

Billy Goat — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:38:18 +0100

I'm not normally one for politics or war but I've been following these guys for several months now and have become sympathetic to their cause after learning a whole bunch about what they are doing out in Afghan both inside the wire and outside the wire by way of official MoD sources and officially sanctioned blogs.

If you want to read something eye opening, emotional and about as real as it gets please read all the deployment posts by RAF Sgt Alex Ford (who thankfully got back alive this week after completing his tour). Lots of soldiers stay inside the wire out there but Alex spent lots of time outside the wire on patrol with the Military Stabilisation Support Team working with the Task Force Helmand Battle Group and his blog posts are heart felt and real.

RAF Airmans Blog

1 RIFLES are currently deployed in Afghanistan on a seven month tour of duty. Casualties are sadly part of the job (the 3 RIFLES Battlegroup lost 30 soldiers and many more seriously injured). Please take a few minutes to read the following pages and support in any way you can.

1 Rifles Support

In memory of the Fallen

GoatCam Live

Billy Goat — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:25:04 +0100

Lame excuse to update this Blog but here's some hot live goat action:

GoatCam Live

Live until 4th September

eBay Stock Dumping...contd

Billy Goat — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:37:47 +0000

Clearing more 'stock' on eBay...this lot flew off the shelves and into new homes around the planet last week...

Answer Manitou 2's, XT Thumbies and some very rare Pace RC36 Evo Pro Class Limited....gone!!!

The Goats Are Trying To Kill Me...

Billy Goat — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:06:55 +0000

Social event yesterday.............meet my family:

Insane Goat Posse Take One - Mad Cousin Eddie

Goat Imposter 1

Goat Imposter 2

Insane Goat Posse Take Two - Mad Cousin Eddie Redux

Local Rideout - Rowney Warren

Billy Goat — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:38:29 +0000

Local RetroBike mini-meet @ Rowney Warren (Chicksands)

Kudos to the Overbury's Pioneer with Rollercams...

EWR Project - Phase Thirteen

Billy Goat — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:43:08 +0100

After several months 'off' building bikes I finally completed one of the last tasks on this project, switching the 'test' stem for the proper Syncros CattleHead and cutting the steerer down on the new AccuTrax forks. In reality it didn't take too long, most time was spent employing the '2p trick' to separate the Syncros stem from the Race Face Air Alloy bars that had been sitting on my CD shelf at home for the last six months .

Measured twice just to make sure, knocked the old Star Nut through and out the bottom then got the Saw Guide out and sliced off just over an inch from the steerer, quick rub down with emery paper and on with the spacers and stem....dialled in perfectly at my magic 590mm dropout to bottom of bars measurement I have on all my bikes . A few more minutes faffing with preload and here we are....a nice pair of Period Correct Answer Alumilite DH bars from 1994 fitted to the NOS Syncros CattleHead stem.

Voyage d'affaires

Billy Goat — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:14:24 +0100

Work took me to Paris for two days recently and in between the endless business meetings was a whistle stop 'route march' tour of some of Paris' tourist attractions while we went looking for food and wine one night.

Picture quality is atrocious as they were not only taken on a BlackBerry but also at gone 9pm at night and while walking (fast) trying to keep up with the CEO, but I still thought they were of sufficient interest to post up here as the architecture in Paris is amazing.....hope you agree

Pavillon de Marsan (Palais des Tuileries)

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

Pyramide du Louvre (Palais du Louvre)

Pavillon Mollien (Palais du Louvre)

Cadenas d'amour on Pont des Arts footbridge

Notre Dame de Paris

Pont Saint-Michel

Le Boss

Salcey Forest Sunday Mini-Meet (July)

Billy Goat — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:50:57 +0100

Apologies for the lack of bike content here recently, been concentrating on 'other hobbies' that are very much Off Topic for this Blog. Bike builds have all but stalled but am getting out and about now and again on some rides and need to do more riding !!

Last Sunday was a little jaunt over at Salcey Forest where we have a couple of non-technical, scenic loops we do on a Sunday morning sometimes. On the ride was my EWR, a Klein and a Park Pre.

Loop One - Ride details
Loop Two - Ride details

Grave of the Sundew

Billy Goat — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:46:43 +0100

I visited East Carlton Park a few days ago as we had to entertain a young family member for a few hours. As well as being the location for East Carlton Hall it also houses a Heritage Center for the Corby Steelworks.

Some history (Copyright Wikipedia) on both the Steelworks and the famous Sundew Dragline:

Stewarts & Lloyds Ltd moved to Corby, Northamptonshire in November 1932, enabling them to make use of the local iron ore to feed their blast furnaces and Bessemer steel converters. The new construction was carried out to a very tight timetable, from the clearing of the site in 1933 the first of the Corby blast furnaces was lit in May the following year. This was followed by coke from the new coke ovens the following month and the ore preparation and sinter plants in September. No.2 blast furnace was lit in November and the first steel came from the Bessemer converters on 27 December. The last of the originally planned blast furnaces (No.3) was lit in October 1935. Following a rebuild to increase capacity of No.2 furnace Corby works became the third cheapest pig iron producing plant in the world.

The end of Stewarts & Lloyds ownership ceased in 1967 when the steel industry was nationalised for the second time, and they became part of the British Steel Corporation. Due to the high cost and low quality of local iron ore, steel production at Corby was set to close in November 1979. This was delayed until 21 May 1980, due to a national steel strike, when the last coil came off the mill. In nearly 40 year of steel production they had produced almost 2.5 million tons of steel. Tubemaking continues to this day, initially based on steel supplied from Teesside, and today Corus Tubes is the largest customer of steel from South Wales.

Sundew Dragline
Built by Ransomes & Rapier and named after the winning horse of the 1957 Grand National (Sundew), it began work in a Rutland iron ore quarry belonging to Stewarts & Lloyds that year. At the time of its construction Sundew was the largest walking dragline in the world, weighing 1675 tons. With a reach of 86 metres and a bucket capacity of 27 tons the machine was able to move a substantial amount of material in a relatively short period.

Propulsion was via two large moveable feet which could be used to "walk" the dragline forwards and backwards, while directional control was provided by a large circular turntable under the body of the machine.

Sundew remained until operations at the quarry ceased in 1974 and plans were then devised to relocate the machine to a recently opened British Steel quarry near Corby. At a cost of £250,000 and taking two years to complete it was decided that dismantling, moving and reconstructing the machine was not a viable option, and so over a nine week period in 1974 Sundew was walked thirteen miles from its home near the village of Exton in Rutland to a site north of Corby. During the walk the dragline crossed three water mains, ten roads, a railway line, two gas mains and a river, before finally reaching its new home.

As part of a major restructuring of British Steel in the late 1970s the Corby site was closed down and there was no longer any need for a large dragline to assist in the recovery of iron ore. On 4 July 1980 Sundew walked to its final resting place and the huge boom was lowered onto a purpose built earth mound. There it remained for seven years until being scrapped over a six month period from January to June 1987.

East Carlton House

Mould for a 7 ton ingot

The finished 7 ton ingot

Old bucket from a Ransomes & Rapier W1400

More Bucket

Even more bucket

A Ransomes & Rapier W1400 Dragline (similar to Sundew)

Shunting engine used in the Steelworks

A Black Box

Billy Goat — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:32:42 +0100

This little side project is still ticking along and I'm sure you're bored of waiting for updates but finally some news

I have decided to axe the original Server Cube that currently house my Media Center and go a bit more minimalist and sleek so I will be investing in one of these.

It's about the same size as my Onkyo 607 so should sit under this just nicely

What this will allow me to do is build the new Home Theatre PC offline and more or less move it into place once its done.

.

Sweetheart of the Rodeo

Billy Goat — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:45:11 +0100

Sunday was a RetroBike Mini Meet for three Northants members (me, Gruff and GT-Steve). We did two loops in the Salcey Forest area of Northamptonshire, 1 at 9.47miles and a wind down loop of 4.50 miles.

The first loop became massively entertaining when GT-Steve overcooked it on a loose gravelly downhill section and vaulted into a large rocky pothole. What ensued was an arm/leg flailing 'rodeo' ride where he managed somehow to stay on the bike and assume control. At the bottom of the descent his seatpost was slammed right down in the seat tube and the front canti's were nearly torn off

Loop One: CLICK ME for trip details

Loop Two: CLICK ME for trip details

The day was quite overcast so these pix were 'dipped' into PhotoShop for some tweaks on Colour Saturation.....this, like Steve's downhill run were a little 'overcooked' so apologies for the slightly psychedelic 'LSD Glow' to some of the shots

Farm bridge crossing the M1

The M1

Glowing crops...

Mellow Yellow

Whoops...Rodeo damage

The damaged Alpinestars

Gruff's Kona

More Power...!!

Billy Goat — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:14:45 +0100

New delivery today, the CPU for my Media Center rebuild is here

W-A-Y too much power really for what I need but I'm not a patient person so the new system WILL go fast if it wants to or not

Next on the shopping list....a new chassis.

Geeky box shots...

Vintage Pins...

Billy Goat — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:56:14 +0100

As well as hoarding vintage Mountain Bikes I also hoard Mountain Bike memorabilia/collectibles so I was quick to pounce on these neat Rocky Mountain pins featuring the original 'Whistler' logo from back in the day.

I scored these from a fellow RetroBiker in Canada, neat huh?

Mystery Bike

Billy Goat — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:44:50 +0100

This is a genuine request for help in identifying this bike. It's steel, most likely the 531 as stated on the decals (it is 'pingy' steel and appears to be butted) and it is almost certainly British. What's not sure is the framebuilder....is it a vintage Overbury's, a very old Saracen or is it something a little more esoteric and bespoke?

It belongs to a fellow RetroBiker and is a very fine build indeed, check out the circa 1980 M700 Shimano Deer Head, the amazing Nitto stem and the H-U-G-E amount of space behind the seat tube

If you can positively ID this bike then contact me via Goatsurfer.com or via RetroBike

Sunday Ride @ Salcey Forest

Billy Goat — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:43:04 +0100

Due to previously reported 'issues' bike riding hasn't featured on my agenda for some time but now things have changed I intend to get out and 'do a bit' again.

I figured the best way for this was to start gentle so I hooked up with fellow RetroBiker GT-Steve for a few laps of Salcey Forest ) which was probably the last time I rode a bike back at the start of March).

It was the start of a VERY hot day for the UK so we started the ride at 10am and did 17.674 miles of hot dusty trails. GT-Steve tore a valve off his front tube about 5 minutes out but after he switched tubes we had no more 'mechanicals'

I did a lap of the woods on his Alpinestars Cro-Mega and I must say it rides brilliantly, much better than what I was riding on this day...

Speed King.....not!!

Billy Goat — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:18:53 +0100

I'm a speed king you go to hear me sing
I'm a speed king see me fly

If you are in the UK then you might well have heard of BT 21CN, this is where BT are finally putting some massive investment into UK telecoms by changing their Core Network.

To minions like me it means the possibility of 24mb DSL in my house as equipment in BT Exchanges get switched to the new network. Further down the line they will be putting Multi-Service Access Node's into PCPs (in plain English this means the green street cabinet (PCP) that your phone line currently connects to will get its own mini DSLAM (broadband equipment) and hooking these back up to the Exchange with fibre (FTTC) and then finally there will be fibre to the home (FTTH) where you might need to go get a funky new router or at the very least have BT come and fit you a new linebox as you will have 100mb internet in your house! (this last bit could take a while with BT )

If what I just wrote above doesn't make sense here is a nice picture explaining how FTTC will end up

Image Copyright - BT Openreach ©

This is a 'new style' DSLAM enabled PCP - If you see one getting fitted in your street its good!!

I've been with my DSL provider Zen Internet forever, they might not be the cheapest but they are without doubt the best ISP in the UK, that's why I'm still a subscriber

So I've seen speeds go up over the years but have been 'stuck' on 8mb ADSL2 (ITU G.992.4) for ages now so I got real excited when they asked me if I wanted to be on the priority list for a free 'Regrade' to ADSL2+ (ITU G.992.5), this is supposed to take me from 8mb to 24mb (if the line quality is good and the line length is short) and will get me on the first step of BT's 21CN

I said yes, waited for a bunch of time and finally this week the regrade took place, a few tweaks to my Router/Firewall later and here I am on BT 21CN.

Sadly even though I am very close to my exchange I cannot seem to connect any faster than 8667kbps and my bRAS Profile is flapping between adsl8000 and adsl7150. It is getting slowly better though as before the weekend it was adsl6000 so my current maximum download speed has gone from 6000kbps to 7150Kbps

So I never got my 24mb 'Speed King' internet connection.....back to waiting

EWR Project - Phase Twelve

Billy Goat — Fri, 21 May 2010 10:48:00 +0100

OK so the NOS Accutrax forks went back in ok, first time this bike has had the correct sized forks in it since I bought it!!

The steerer is still uncut so short term I have switched the stem and bars so I can use normal stem spacers until I am 100% happy with the length, then I will cut it down. I couldn't use my current stem as it's a Syncros Cattlehead with one of those pesky angled tops on it, preventing me from using stem spacers above the stem

I'm thinking about modifying a stem spacer but that involves diagonally and accurately cutting a stem spacer to work with the angled top of the Cattlehead stem and I only really need to do this if I'm not 100% happy with the bar height.

So for now we have this ugly silver Specialized stem paired up with some VERY cool and scarce Answer Alumilite DH bars (still with the original gold shim ). I actually really love these bars and might stick with them, the only thing I'm not sold on is their colour as the rest of the bike has a black and yellow thing going on...

Here's another neat trick to use with Oury Grips on a hot day...roll them off 'condom/prophylactic' style and roll them back on the new bars.....yep, you guessed it......'condom/prophylactic' style

Rolling rubber...

Rolling it back on...

Continuing with the 'body parts' theme, what comes off the bike just looks sick....in fact do I need to spell it out or shall I just say "Pass the Butt Plugs"

So here we are with the temporary stem and bars and a mile of steerer tube...just while I convince myself the bar height is 500% correct...then the hacksaw comes out

So, for the first time ever maybe () I have two bikes in working order (just need to get the other five done now....)

Fat Larry says Zoom...

Billy Goat — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:29:52 +0100

The master plan has slipped timescale wise but it's still intact....the Quiver IS being thinned out and I am gonna 'Roll a fat one' (so to speak), the fattie in question wears some REAL big rubber and when I say big I mean B-I-G .

A cyberbuddie of mine from the UK was out in Nevada recently with some spare luggage allowance and he agreed to bring one of these back for me (and one for himself) as at the time they were rare in America and totally unavailable in this country. (It's not needed just yet but I couldn't pass on the opportunity )

This is the Surly Larry, a front specific tyre for 'you know what' , the 'other' tyres are available here but they don't really cut the mustard up front on a 'you know what'

Check out this fattie.......

I know I could have cleaned the Syncros beer glass (its only used to store decals in though) but I wanted something to show the sheer size of this bad boy...

(cue Acme Rolf Harris accent) "Can You Tell What it is Yet?"

Red Light District...

Billy Goat — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:02:07 +0100

If you can cast your mind back to February when I bought these toys for my Home Cinema, you might recall me talking about an issue I had with the Kef KUBE-2 Subwoofer....or maybe I never posted this up here .

Anyway, there is a fairly well known issue with Onkyo AV Receivers and KEF Subs, maybe other subs too (just try Googling 'Kef Kube red light issue') so I've been suffering with this for a few months. Basically you turn all the kit on, the Kef KUBE-2 sits there with a red light on it (not working!!) and about 20 minutes later it realises its purpose in life and starts delivering the deep rumbling bass it was designed to do. I roughly understood what was happening but I didn't know how to fix it....basically the KUBE-2 was consuming lots of signal and the Onky amp wasn't giving it what it needed.

Me being lazy just posted up a question on an internet AV forum and forgot about it after adding it to my 'chores list'. You see, I have a Zen like approach to my chores list, just like every self respecting male should have. My chores list just 'Is' (If you have Zen figured then you will understand this phrase ), things appear on the list (normally added my Mrs Billy Goat !) and they just 'are' .

Eventually someone replied to my post and this is the official line from KEF:

In the test tone menu of your AV receiver, set the subwoofer output to
maximum, then you can come out of the AV receiver's menu.

On the back of the subwoofer itself, set the crossover to maximum and
put the volume at a level which you are comfortable with as some people
prefer a bass heavy setup, but some prefer it more subtle, at the end of
the day it is personal preference. Set the phase to either 0 or 180,
whichever sounds the loudest. The 'Bass Boost' switch is also down to
personal preference and room conditions. What it will do is give you
either a flat response through the subwoofers frequency range, or give
you a raise of +6db or +12db at around 40hz.

This should then stop your subwoofer from going into standby as the
signal output from the AV receiver will be higher.

On the Onkyo 607 OSD menu's you go to Speaker Setup>Level Calibration, scroll down to the sub and up the db (try starting at +10), then drop the volume on the KUBE-2 itself. Well, this works for sure, in fact the way I first had it set was insane...the whole house was shaking .

I'll tweak the bass levels over the next few days and fine tune it but the problem is now finally over.

EWR Project - Phase Eleven

Billy Goat — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:08:11 +0100

So, where were we.......?

Ok, yeah, about a month ago I had just got my NOS Accutrax back from the paintshop and then all hell broke loose at home, so I'm picking up where I left off...

My friendly neighbourhood decal man had mailed me a bunch of repro decals a while back so task one was to get the new forks 'decalled up'. I opted for black screen print onto a single clear sheet this time instead of pre-spaced lettering on a clear sheet as they are more robust, especially on the outside edge of a fork, plus I got two sets so I have a spare to use later when 'trail damage' trashes the first set.

Fatty & Skinny - 1" and 1 1/8" Accutrax

New decals

Spot the difference...

Decals now on, the next task was fitting the Chris King crown race to the forks, this was done using my custom made 'Crown Race Setting Tool'

Perfect fit, ready for the EWR frame now...

Green Light

Billy Goat — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:26:06 +0100

Ok, time to breathe again....

Things have been very stressful since February, Mrs Billy Goat was suspected of having a very serious illness and all this time has been spent at hospitals getting loads of tests done, waiting for results, then getting more tests done, waiting.....blah blah.

Bikes (and pretty much everything else) have been on hold, hence the lack of posts here but on Friday we got the letter we have both been waiting for and luckily for us she has the all clear

So its Green Light time at Goat Central.....normal service will resume here shortly....stand by for a bunch of new posts

Status change...

Billy Goat — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:56:31 +0100

Now breathe.....

Billy Goat — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:12:23 +0100

Without airing my private life online, lets just say the last three months have been among the worst I can remember for the last 15 years....hence me 'Going Dark'......

To summarise....my life has been like this since February:

And now it's like this:

Normal service will be resumed shortly

EWR Project - Phase Ten

Billy Goat — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:47:21 +0100

The Paradoxes of Motion (Zeno's paradoxes)

"In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead.”

—Aristotle, Physics VI:9

So, we ALL know i'm slow, but life is throwing shit at me currently so slow has slowed down to 'More than slow' so bear with me and try not to fall asleep

EWR Project....remember that in the depths of your mind?...well, here's another small step for mankind. My NOS 1 1/8" Accutrax are now back from the paintshop and the fresh decals have been ordered. I'm currently trying to figure out how to cut down a stem spacer diagonally so I can play with bar heights using a Syncros Cattlehead stem....then we are in business

In the meantime....here's some freshly painted Accutrax that have been out of harms way while the clearcoat hardened.

It's Tool Time...(Contd)

Billy Goat — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:15:09 +0100

There's a bunch of 'heavy' stuff going on at Goat Central, hence the lack of Blog posts but here's a quick update on the continuing 'Tool Time' post from a few weeks back .

The second task on that list (M100 'Dale - Remove 1 1/4" Chris King NoLogo (bike being sold)) is now complete and I have this beautiful 3DV King No-Logo headset back in the spares box. Harsh economic times says sell this badboy but my heart says I should keep it stashed as locating another one of these would cost $$$ if I ever have another 3DV project

Resurrection Joe...

Billy Goat — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:37:00 +0100

'I said hep cats, sinners, brats
Suck on this for sunshine
This is the resurrection
Yea, of the good times
I said hep cats, sinners, brats
Sunshine
This is the resurrection
Yea, yea, yea, of the good times...'

No time to play recently but some hastily grabbed time allowed my first love to be rebuilt from the pile of parts that has been thrown in my shed for the last 8 months. It's a shame to have such a nice bike all broke up so now its back up and running, alive an kicking....maybe one day I will get to take it out for a ride....

No more words....just lots of pictures.....enjoy

EWR-less.....temporarily :-(

Billy Goat — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:33:19 +0000

For the first time in six months I have been separated from my EWR

It has gone to the paintshop for a few weeks while the new Answer Accutrax get colour matched to the frame. It's a task that needs doing but I'm gonna miss that legendary ride and will have to bring this old friend back from the dead as a stand in.

Sadly it does not currently look as nice as it does in the picture below, its been partially stripped and flung in the back of my shed since September 2009 when I started a wild love affair with my yellow EWR, turning my back on my first love......my Pace RC200

Never fear, it will be back but for starters this is how it DID look earlier last year: