GoatSurfer Retro MTB and other ramblings...

It's Tool Time...

Billy Goat — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:51:41 +0000

"Does everybody know what time it is?"
It's Tool Time but sadly I have no "Tool Time girl" to assist me with my duties....

Ok, so there's a mega 'Headset switchfest' due to take place here at Goat Central, here's the moves, try and keep up

EWR - Switch Chris King Devolution for Chris King Classic (now I have the correct forks..)
M100 'Dale - Remove 1 1/4" Chris King NoLogo (bike being sold)
Funk Pro Comp - Switch non period-correct Chris King Classic for Chris King NoLogo
M700 'Dale - Remove remains of WTB Greaseguard headset (bike being sold).

I like to use the correct tools instead of Caveman Techniques when I can so the following weapons will be deployed...Star Nut Tool, Headset removal tool, Headset Press.

Last nights job was the EWR, the current Accutrax have been sold to another collector and I need to convert back to 1 1/8" headset so I can use my new Accutrax

"More power!"

Brakes off

Magura mounts off

Bars and stem off

Just the pesky crown race to remove

No more riding my EWR for a while

Incoming....

Billy Goat — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:39:29 +0000

I know I am not supposed to buying, I am supposed to be selling but............sometimes things come along that you just HAVE to have and some of these are just that, the rest are 'just in case' purchases (well, a man can't have too many items of M650 DX laying around can he?......).

First things first, we have a NOS M650 DX Rear Mech in the most handy Long Cage version...just a 'spare' you know....

Secondly we have a used M650 DX Rear Mech, again in Long Cage flavour and great for spare parts or fitting to a beater.

Thirdly and getting cooler by the minute we have a set of Syncros Revolution cranks in Compact Drive......about bloody time too as I have spent embarrassingly large amounts of time trying to track one of these badboys down for my EWR and this will be among the final pieces of the jigsaw required to complete that project. They are missing a few items which is a bummer cos I'll have to rob them from some of other sets of Revolutions but maybe I can live with that......just

Ok, now these ARE special. Firstly they are Answer Accutrax in 1 1/8" flavour, something I have been hunting for since this time last year and only found these in California back in November. It took a while to piece the deal together but they have now arrived in the UK and I can set to work getting them ready for my EWR.

Maybe the cooler part of this story is these are technically NOS and.....wait for it.....hand made by Chris Herting only last year .

The story goes that he found a bunch of Accu Trax legs laying around in some dusty storage facility and word got out, he figured there might not be much demand but rumour has it the demand was HUGE and he set about making them up in 'custom' variations. This set have passed thru a couple of collectors hands before arriving at Goat Central but believe me, you can still smell the 'new metal' smell and they are spotless.

Naturally I will be sending these to my trusty painter soon to get them matched to my yellow EWR before getting them decalled up and fitted on the bike.....these are so cool and I am so pleased I finally got a pair

Salcey Forest - Sunday Ride

Billy Goat — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:57:26 +0000

Met up with another RetroBike member yesterday for a leisurely ride around Salcey Forest in Northamptonshire, despite the cold temperature, some of the first sunshine for months drew the crowds so it was a little busy there and people were blissfully unaware they were walking on a Bike Trail .

One of the big draws at Salcey Forest is the Tree Top Walk, one day I WILL ride a bike up it

We did 17.5 miles before going our separate ways.......some pix:

Klein & EWR

Tree Top Walk

The tide has turned...

Billy Goat — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:43:23 +0000

There's been way too much 'Goods Inwards' over the last 2 years and My Cup Runneth Over as they said in the Hebrew Bible so, three months later than planned the first items have left the Goat Shed

This week this lovely Syncros Cattleprod quill stem left my 'stores' where it has sat untouched since I bought it back in 2007....'just in case' (). The neat thing is this....the guy I bought it from three years ago was looking for one last week on RetroBike so I sold it back to him .

There's a big bunch of top drawer parts soon to be leaving the Goat Shed in the next few weeks, including bike frames, 2010 is the year of the cull

Get your Tits out.....

Billy Goat — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:49:06 +0000

I've been sitting on this for a week out of courtesy but now that Jay is waving these around on his site I guess its safe for me to show these neat pix....I hope so anyway

Eastern Woods Research have not only resurrected the EWR E-Motion Race but they've done it in Ti and as a 29er

One sole 26" E-Motion Race exists in Ti and belongs to Mr Ed but now the legendary 'Emo' will soon be available to mere mortals who like 29ers.

I don't personally own a 29er but I've ridden one and it was better than expected to be honest so these would be high on my list if I was seeking one out.

Keep an eye on EWR Bikes.com for more news

Sneak pix of some nice Tits

Frank, it's a Revolution...

Billy Goat — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:31:18 +0000

Todays post is just for my 'virtual Buddy' Frank who lives in Canada and is a lover of vintage Canadian bike components, as is yours truly!!

I owe him some information and am famously slow at performing tasks like this so I figured, surprise Frank and also do a little piece on these, my most favourite of vintage MTB cranks. The Revolution Crank first showed it's face in the 1991 Pro-Series Component Group (as far as I can remember) and it stayed around for several years with Syncros eventually making Road and Compact Drive versions. Material wise the early Revs were made from tubular Columbus Nivacrom and weighed 400g, which at the time was pretty damn light. Later on they were constructed from Tru Temper OX4 and tipped the scales at 410g.

The cranks were cold forged at 125 ton pressure which was supposed to make the metal even harder and stronger.

Syncros Cranks are either loved or hated, after all they are rather bland and boring looking when compared to something bright and garish like Kooka trash or Grafton etc, but they do the business and are very strong. They don't look good on every bike but are a good match for any early Rocky Mountain, Brodie, Offroad Toad etc and they also look kind a neat on my EWR

For some unknown reason the value of these has gone sky high in the last year or so and its not uncommon for these to change hands on eBay for insane money, in fact a NOS set sold in Germany with the elusive Crank 'o' Matic crank bolts for nearly £400 just after Christmas 2009.

I am lucky to have three pairs of these, well in fact when I started typing this post I only had two pairs but I've just received news on closing a deal for a third pair so I now have two pairs in Standard Drive (110bcd) and one pair in Compact Drive (94bcd)

So, Frank....to get back to you, here are some pix for you, take note of the inner chainring bolt pix. The bolt is 14mm long by the way, let me know via RetroBike if you need any more info

Blog Weapons

Billy Goat — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:57:57 +0000

Just thought I'd make mention of some of the 'weapons' used to build this Blog, in case anyone is interested...

Prior to Christmas 2009 all the photo's on here were shot with a Fujifilm FinePix S5600 Ultra Zoom digital camera, this is a fairly bulky 5 Megapixel camera with a 10x Optical Zoom lens (38 - 380mm equivalent) and a 1.8" screen. (If you want more info on the FinePix S5600 there is a full review here) . It was a neat camera that took great pix but for the type of pictures I take (mainly out on a bike) it was too big and cumbersome and as a result it often got left at home. Based on this I was on the lookout for something better but smaller...

Enter the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ6....I picked up one of these over the Christmas break and ever since then all the photo's you see on here have been taken with this little baby. It's a 10.1 Megapixel 'Ultra Compact Super Zoom' camera with an f=4.1-49.2mm (25-300mm in 35mm equivalent) LEICA DC VARIO-ELMAR lens and a large 2.7" TFT LCD Display. The pictures are the the proof as all the pictures you see here have had no post-processing done whatsoever so are 'as-is', give or take the odd 'crop' (but that's rare)

Size wise its perfect for slipping into a Camelbak or a jacket pocket at 103.3 x 59.6 x 32.8 mm so as a result it gets taken out on every ride.

For more info on this camera there is a full review here.

I've tried carrying this while out on the bike in a variety of ways, my preferred choice was in a Chest Pouch attached to my Camelbak straps but I couldn't find anything suitable to hold the camera due to its small size, the closest I found was a Blackhawk 'Tactical Ops' magazine pouch which was the perfect size but offered no padding or weatherproofing.

My searching eventually led me to a Berghaus E-case Large which I believe is marketed at carrying GPS devices and is a hard protective case that you can open with one hand and has a pull out rain cover, plus loads of fixing options. I slung to one side the various straps and fixed it to the waistbelt on my Camelbak so it sits right on my hip and out the way of my legs while I'm pedalling but still staying accessible for those 'out on the trail' photo opportunities.

When I get back to the ranch the Lumix gets plugged into a Samsung NC-10 Netbook to dump and resize/rename the photo's and also to write this blog with. The Netbook is neat, has a long battery life and great Wi-Fi and most importantly it matches my TV

The 'Old Toy'

The 'New Toy'

Berghaus E-case (Large)

Samsung NC-10 Netbook

RetroBike Thetford Meet - 13th February

Billy Goat — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:30:41 +0000

22 RetroBike riders braved the weather for the first official RetroBike Anglian Area meet on Saturday, lots of cool retro machinery on display and getting used properly. I had a great time but my fitness is off (again ) so the day ended with tired legs for me, the EWR rode like a dream and no technical issues and the SDG Ti Comp Kevlar was very comfortable. (In fact it looks so similar in profile to the Flite that I really must take some precise measurements to compare them).

Here are some pix from Saturday, all taken with my new Panasonic Lumix TZ6, there is many more pictures from me and other riders over at RetroBike in THIS THREAD

Nice Grello

Is it a Transformer? Is it a scaffolding experiment?....no its a Cockroach!

Orange Elite

Day Glo alert

Call Me The Breeze

Pork Pie

'Ange'

Name those parts

Yeah right....

Honey, will you pass the lube?

Billy Goat — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:36:43 +0000

Call me old fashioned or maybe even call me wrong but I've been using GT85 to lube my bike chains since the early 90's, somebody back then must have told me it was a good idea...

Anyway it seems things have moved on in the lube world quite a lot since then so its time to get with the times.

One of my riding buddies (Chris) talks highly of Rock 'n' Roll lubes, specifically Extreme Chain Lube which is some strange, gloopy blue stuff so I thought I'd give it a go so the Rohloff SLT-99 has had a nice bath in the stuff and tomorrow i'm off to some really shitty (mudwise...) forest down in Suffolk that has some nasty gritty sandy soil that really gets into the chain and mechs so this will be a good test!

Man sized, Extreme lubrication

So, once the chain had a birthday I gave the whole bike a check over and paid some attention to something that many people leave untouched....the saddle clamp.

If you think about it this is an important piece of kit, you have your ass sat on it for long periods of time but it gets blasted with crap off the trail and probably doesn't get cleaned real well. So I stripped mine down, coated all the threads and brass inserts with Anti-Seize Compound, put a big bunch more on the rail clamps and put it all back together again....nice smooth bolts and no more creaking Ti rails

Cleaned and greased Syncros clamp

As the Flite Ti was taken off the bike to clean up the saddle clamp I figured I'd swap in the SDG Kevlar Ti Comp that I got from the USA, I've been curious about these (as mentioned in a previous post on here). To be honest the profile doesn't look much different from a Flite but its gonna stay on for two big forest rides tomorrow so I'll report back later...

Nice rails

So the bike is more or less ready for tomorrow, just gotta get some air in the tyres.....watch this space for a ride report over the next few days

Shot down in the night...

Billy Goat — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:24:19 +0000

Back on topic with a bike related blog post after all this Home Cinema stuff getting in the way, been trying to amass a bunch of stuff to sell recently but had to score these couple of items when they were dangled under my nose.

SDG Comp Ti Kevlar - I've always been a Ti Flite man but my curiosity has been aroused by my 'virtual EWR buddy' Utahdog 's obsesession with these things so I thought I'd try one out. It arrived last week fresh from Florida but so far I've not had time to mount the thing and try it out, maybe this will get done for this coming weekends RetroBike forest ride.

Pic gratuitously stolen from Utahdog

Another thing I've had on my Hitlist for ages is an original 1st Generation Answer Alumilite DH bar and I had all but given up looking when one cropped up in Germany, complete with the all important 'golden shims'. I had it mind this would look neat on my EWR but in hindsight it might not look so cool as its bare aluminium and everything else on the bike is currently black. These bars have the most amazing wall thickness and weigh an absolute ton

Home Theatre Makeover Project 3

Billy Goat — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:42:00 +0000

I didn't really want to without studying all the documentation and pondering over it for a while (I'm a bit like that ) but I dived into this on Friday night and got everything lashed together then proceeded to run the Audyssey 2EQ 'room calibration' routine on the Onky.

Audyssey 2EQ is used to counter distortion created by walls, furniture, and other objects. This technology detects speaker distance, and then sets levels, delays, and crossovers, while also measuring room acoustics so your speaker system is set up for your specific room. Following from this while you are using the Onky to watch TV, movies etc it uses Audyssey Dynamic EQ to make constant correctional tweaks to the output.

Stunning technology but not if you overlook one small thing. If you are using a 5.1 system then you must ensure you wire up your rear speakers to the Surround Left and Surround Right outputs instead of the Surround Back Left and Surround Back Right Outputs (which would be the logical ones to use ), if you don't do this then Audyssey 2EQ will throw a Speaker Detect Error which basically means you're stuffed .
It took me several frustrating hours to find this out so basically I didn't get the damn thing working until Saturday night. Everything is now roughly in place while I figure out where to actually put all the kit, here are some pix

Home Theatre Makeover Project 2

Billy Goat — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:51:45 +0000

Sorry to all the Retro/Vintage bike lovers for posting another techy/geeky article, I promise there will be much more bike related stuff in the coming months, I just had to post an update on this long term project

Last time I chatted about getting a bunch of new kit and last night I fetched some nice new shiny toys from my local TNT depot. An online Pro Audio store called A-1 Sound are running a brilliant promotion on Onkyo/KEF bundles at the moment and I couldn't say no to an offer that saved me £680.00 on the retail price and got me nearly everything I need to complete my project.

I scored myself an Onkyo TX-SR607 AV Receiver, a set of KEF 3005SE K2 Speakers, 40 meters of Chord Campana Speaker Cable, a 3 meter QED Sub Cable, a Chord 1 meter Supershield HDMI Cable and 2 x pairs of KEF HT3001 Satellite Speaker Stands.

The Chord Campana cable isn't anything too flash but it is 40 strand Oxygen Free Copper and its light and flexible so will suit my particular installation for the time being and be better than the copper bell wire i've been using

This little lot weighed in at 61kgs and filled the back of my car, to give you an idea of scale the KEF speaker box below is about the size of an under counter fridge

The Onky was way bigger than I expected it to be so the original plans for sitting it atop the Media Center are no more so I'm contemplating getting something cool fabricated out of Lexan Polycarbonate and standing him on that instead, guess it will kind of ruin the vibe a bit but maybe not as I need something to balance up that big fat sub that's about the same size as my Media Center.

Sadly this weekend is not going to be giving me much free time but tonight I will be making a start on assembling the speaker stands and measuring up cable runs......will keep you posted of any developments but in the meantime, here's some pix of my new babies

Boys Toys

Heavyweight speaker stands..

More outputs than you can shake a stick at

Individually sewn soft cloth bags and styrene sandwiches....top packing!!

My (not so) 'little babies'

Big Daddy - The K2 Sub that my neighbour's are gonna hate

Recycled 'Dale - End of an era...

Billy Goat — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:45:03 +0000

Buddha said 'Everything changes, nothing remains without change' and how right he was!

My Cannondale M1000 has been sat in the shed fixed to a Turbo Trainer for about 12 months now, I'll never ride it on the trails again as it was too small and it's bristling with expensive/desirable parts which is pointless on a Turbo Trainer so it's time for it to go

This year I'm 'thinning the herd' and concentrating on stuff that I will actually ride and enjoy and all the other 'junk' that's laying around is going to follow the same path eventually. I've got my eye's on 'something else' (), that WILL get used and theoretically will be bags more fun (watch this space....)

My M1000 in its former glory

Mid way thru the strip

That 2p trick employed again to stop scratching the Pro Series bars

Home Theatre Makeover Project 1

Billy Goat — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:10:55 +0000

Apart from bikes I've always been a big fan of Microsoft Media Center and have been using it for years and years, in fact I'm still running MCE 2005, having avoided Vista Media Center at all costs. Technology improves however, particularly hardware and this year its time to totally rebuild my Media Center box with some serious horsepower

Currently I have an old Pentium IV with 2gb RAM, 160gb system disk for the OS and 4 x 1TB drives for media content (1Tb for Recorded TV (700 hours capacity), 1TB for DiVX/AVI movies, 1TB for TV Caps and 1TB for Music and Pictures), 1 DVD ROM, 1 X Plextor DVDRW, Card Reader, Gigabit Ethernet, Hauppauge TV-Nova PCI TV card and a 512MB HDMI out graphics card. This is hooked directly into a Samsung Series 9 46" LCD TV and the sound runs into a fairly low rent 5.1 Surround Sound.

The stuff that's gonna get changed is as follows:

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EX58-EXTREME which is an Intel Core-i7 X58-Express board with DDR3 RAM.
CPU - Intel® Core i7-920 Processor (8M Cache, 2.66 GHz)
RAM - Kingston KHX16000D3T1K3/6GX DDR3
TV Tuner - Hauppauge PCI Express Dual Tuner WinTV-HVR-2200 MC
AMP - Onkyo TX-SR 607 AV Receiver (Full 7.1 HD Audio/HDMI Outputs)
Speakers - Kef 3005SE K2's in gloss black

Acquisition wise I already have the mobo and RAM and hopefully next week will have the KEF's and Onkyo. Most likely I'll use the Onky and KEF's immediately on my current system until I splash for the i7 CPU, at which point I can rebuild my Media Center and reload it with Windows 7 Ultimate. I'll post up some more pix when there's a bit more progress but below is some of the kit that's either coming or already in use at Billy Goat Towers.

KEF 'Eggs'

Samsung Series 9 46" LCD (LE46A956D1MXXU)

Onkyo TX-SR 607 - Front

Onkyo TX-SR 607 - Rear

The 'Onk' has plenty of future proofing built in, I can add two more satellite speakers and turn it into a 7.1 system or I could add these, plus a second sub and have a full 7.2 system (my neighbours would hate me though ). There's several extra HDMI inputs here that could be used for Games Consoles, Blu-Ray players etc, it also handles Sirius Satellite Radio too and has fill support for all of the current HD Audio standards!

Abandon hope all ye who enter here

Billy Goat — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:05:46 +0000

First proper Sunday ride since Xmas so I thought I'd make it a good one, headed out of town and across to Geddington to ride Clay Dick, then over to Fermyn Woods, then Aldwincle, Lyveden Way, Bear Gate Track and home.
Clay Dick is an old Byway that links Geddington to Brigstock and possibly the site of a Victorian Brickworks (hence the clay reference...). Anyway usually the top end is virtually unpassable, with the trees hanging so low over the trail that in some places you cannot even push a bike through......except this time the Byway had been 'repaired'.

By 'repair' I mean they have bulldozed the whole thing flat, about 40 feet wide, ripping out all the trees, bushes, rabbit and foxholes and turning it into a mile of sticky wet clay that will take months to settle . So I rode as much as I could until my EWR stopped working and my feet started to look like Swamp Thing and then I carried my bike for 3/4 a mile .

I fought my way to Brigstock and crossed thru Fermyn Woods which was another, barely rideable shitfest before aborting the ride near Sudborough

Wildlife count for the ride was still good, four or five Red Kites (all eluded my camera sadly), 5 fairly big deer in Fermyn Woods and six Llama's.....yeah It's true, although they could have been Alpaca, Clovius Hoofus isn't my area of expertise

Nice beginnings

Mud stops Play...

Magura 'Mud Magnets'...wheel locked

'Repaired' trail - The Long Walk

Mud Magnets Part 2

FUBAR EWR

Kapitan Billy Goat says "TARFU, Mission Aborted!!!"

Being upfront pays off...

Billy Goat — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:21:37 +0000

So you guys and girls all know the score....Xmas/Thanksgiving comes along, family and friends all do that "Hey, what do you want for a present?" thing, you Ummm and ahhh, suck air through your teeth...say "Hmmmm, I dunno" and weeks later unwrap something mundane like aftershave, nasty socks, wine you wouldn't pour on a skunk, a hideous sweatshirt....you get the idea

So this year I decided to be more assertive, I needed a bunch more bike and DIY tools so I assembled a wishlist of tools, added the exact Part Numbers, prices and web site addresses and stepped away, telling people to "Please be precise, or fallback on the skunk wine/socks route..."

Et Voila....it worked

Santa Claus brought me:

I'm one happy goat....everybody wins

World SPD Stamping Championships 2010

Billy Goat — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:50:04 +0000

For a year or so now my riding buddies have been extolling the virtues of SPD's and trying to sell the idea to me, you see, I still live in the world of the Toeclip so I can't see the sense. I never fall off my bike, never have much trouble 'getting in' to my toeclips and to be honest, in recent months I've gone back to flat pedals with no clips at all.

Yesterday was what turned out to be a large RetroBike meet at Thetford Forest, the largest lowland Pine Forest in Great Britain, down in deepest Suffolk with 22 riders attending. Also present in large quantities was snow and ice.....LOTS of it, which, much to my amusement, seems to be THE Achilles Heel of SPD pedals

The tranquil, picture postcard 'snowscape' scenery was shattered by the sound of dozens of MTB riders furiously stamping on their frozen/useless SPD's, wobbling and dabbing the ground...hence the title of this blog post

Joking aside a great day was had by all during the two sub-zero rides we did yesterday......some pictures:

Chin Wag

Art Haus

Wobble Fun

Watching the 'Bomber Kidz'

Snow Road

All Along The Watchtower

Iced Mech

Xntrick Machinery

Alien Sunset

More pictures and words can be found HERE

This is for when the Föhn Wind rattles the telegraph wires like a handful of bones...

Billy Goat — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:09:37 +0000

Apologies for 'Going Dark' for the last few weeks.....it has been a tiring and stressful time full of Terminal Illness, Hospices, Hospitals, thousands of miles driving and sadly a family funeral, I haven't seen or touched a bike since the Thetford Forest Ride

Lots of other 'hard stuff' is also seeming to be rearing its head too so its been all energy focussed on these things recently and it really doesn't feel like time to celebrate Xmas . Anyway, enough depressing bullshit, hopefully I might get out on the EWR next week (it's my Birthday on Monday...Yaaaaay )

I'm negotiating on a set of Accu Trax forks in the correct size for the EWR so I can finally ditch the King Devolution Headset and nail the bar/stem height demon forever, I also now have some NOS Campagnolo Mirox to get laced to some NOS Shimano DX hubs so this bike is getting quite close to completion

Thetford Forest Ride - Primordial Shitfest

Billy Goat — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:28:55 +0000

Main Entry: penis en·vy
Pronunciation: -"en-vE
Function: noun
: the supposed coveting of the penis by a young human female which is held inpsychoanalytic theory to lead to feelings of inferiority and defensive or compensatory behavior.

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.

...a little twist on this:

Main Entry: 29er en·vy
Pronunciation: -"en-vE
Function: noun
: the supposed coveting of a 29" bicycle by a man which leads to feelings of inferiority and defensive or compensatory behavior by owning a 26" bicycle when the fact dawns on him he has just been 'outgunned' by superior technology.....so, NEVER try and keep up with someone on a 29er, especially when you are on an early 90's fully rigid 26" MTB

It was like a Roadrunner cartoon....Jango was off into the distance, casually pedalling while still seated, as if he was on a genteel Sunday amble. I was Wile.E. Coyote (Pure Genius) pedalling crazily like a schoolkid on a BMX, bouncing off tree roots, slipping all over the trail, vibrations from the trail jarring my body, repeatedly looking down at my gears as if there was something wrong or about to fall off.....there wasn't, I was just riding 'Old Tech' and the 29er, as horribly modern and soul-less as it is, this was was the superior machine on the day.....it was like trying to follow a Cruise Missile in downtown Bagdad (remember the Speederbike chases in Star Wars?)

Thetford was cold and wet but the sun was out and the clouds had gone, only two of us turned out for the smallest Mini-Meet in history. Thetford Forest's trails had turned into Primordial Ooze.....it was a Shitfest of the highest order, gloopy brackish slimey puddles, slippery trails and a cold wind but it was great riding. We did most of the Dusk Till Dawn route, plus some of the Black Route and The Beast in the morning (12 miles) then back to Brandon for Macaroni Cheese and unedible Bread Pudding before hitting the trails again after lunch, our bottom brackets feeling like someone had packed them full of sand and refitted them and our rear mechs complaining bitterly about all the gritty shit they were being force fed

The afternoon was a shorter 7 mile route on the Visitor Center side with some great flowing Singletrack.

A brilliant days riding, cold wet legs and some very dirty bikes!!

Daddy Tractor and Baby Tractor

Sunny Fire road

Dangerous times?...Health & Safety paranoia

Oh well.......not NOS anymore

Halfway point

A cold, wet and HUNGRY Billy Goat

Shitfest got my EWR

Shitfest got my EWR - Part 2

Shitfest got my EWR - Part 3

Vintage Saracen Catalogue Mother Lode

Billy Goat — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:03:00 +0000

On Monday I spent the day at Saracen HQ as a guest of Simon Wild, the designer of the relaunched Saracen bike range. Saracen has been brought back from the dead by Madison Cycles and they have launched an entire range of bikes in the last two months.

Of interest to any Retro MTB fans might well be the 2010 Kili Flyer that I reported on a while back on this blog . This bike is going to be fillet brazed in the UK and available in small numbers next year.

The purpose of my visit to Saracen was to scan in all of their catalogue archives from the original Saracen company, these will prove to be valuable documents to anyone with an interest in this iconic British MTB company, or anyone restoring an old Saracen MTB.
I was given an office for the day and took in my own equipment but despite scanning non-stop from 9:30am until late in the afternoon I only managed to get from 1987 to 1998 (somewhere in the region of 350 Hi-Res scans ).

Simon was kind enough to let me take the archives home with me so I can complete this mammoth task over the Christmas break. The intention is to tidy up and crop all of the scans and create a high quality PDF for each year. Once this is done they will be hosted on both my site, Saracen.co.uk and also in the RetroBike Archive

Some teasers

1 x 7 Beater Project - Pt 4

Billy Goat — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:15:09 +0000

Some minor updates on the Beater Project.....got most of the parts now for the brakes, had to go buy some items as I seem to have given away too many Magura parts recently and left myself short . Gear cable outers have now been cut to size and fitted in the cable stops and I've found a rough-ish Mavic 231CD/Shimano DX wheelset laying around that will do just fine for this build.
I'm still searching for the crown bolts I put in a 'safe place' when I traded some Pace crowns earlier in the year....if the damn things don't show up I'll have to source some replacements from someplace. A friend of mine has some tatty old bars that sound just right for this bike, hopefully I'll get my hands on those soon then I can cable up the one Thumbie, fix up the Magura's and get them bled. I'm kinda concerned about them stem as it does look to short but we'll have to see how it rides...

Bike shaped at last

Wot no crown bolts.....

Mavic 231CD's....Mmmmmmm

No Sleep Til Hammersmith.....or Leicester even....

Billy Goat — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:24:45 +0000

Non bike related blog post here.....me and Mrs Billy Goat had a Rock 'n' Roll Road Trip at the weekend and guess what? We ain't as young as we used to be and now we're both tired

Drove down to London and parked up in Park Lane, took Mrs Billy Goat round Covent Garden and bought some of her Xmas presents (warning....don't go in the UGG shop ), we then went round Seven Dials in Holborn (great shopping area!!) before heading back to our hotel room in the Barbican. That night we went across town to the Hammersmith Apollo to see Girlschool, The Damned and Motörhead. Girlschool were pretty lame but they did do Please Don't Touch and Lemmy came on for this...
The Damned played a 'greatest hits' type set, opening with New Rose and ending with Smash It Up, an unexpected nicety along the way being a cover of the MC5's Looking At You. I'm not a massive Damned fan but they can still 'do the business' as they say.

Motörhead were not the best I've ever seen them and the sound at Hammersmith was pretty lame for some reason but they did a fairly good set (apart from the guitar and drum solo's...)

Set List:
Iron Fist
Stay Clean
Be My Baby
Metropolis
Over The Top
One Night Stand
I Got Mine
Guitar Solo
The Thousand Names of God
Cradle to the Grave
In The Name Of Tragedy (Drum Solo...)
Just 'Cos You Got The Power
Shoot 'em Down (Twisted Sister cover)
Orgasmatron
Going To Brazil
Killed By Death
Bomber

Encore:
Whorehouse Blues
Ace Of Spades
Overkill

Photograph: © Clemens Bilan/AFP/Getty Images

Some cellphone YouTube footage of Ace Of Spades (not mine btw)

We stayed down in the Barbican overnight and called in to visit relatives in Hackney the next morning, before driving up to Leicester (Du Montfort Hall) to see Ian Brown on Sunday.
Brown was his usual arrogant/brilliant self and despite the fact that he cannot sing very well, soon had the virtual capacity crowd eating out of his hand as he delivered a great set taking in material from most of the old albums and encoring with The Stone Roses Fools Gold.

The crowd went wild and got so drunk so fast the security staff closed the bar by 10pm

'King Monkey'

250 miles, lots of cash, hotel rooms and five bands later we are VERY tired

Laugh? I nearly fell off my chair....

Billy Goat — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:30:30 +0000

No intro needed....regardless of where your allegiances lay...this IS funny

Help From The VRC

(sound required.....)

1 x 7 Beater Project - Pt 3

Billy Goat — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:08:25 +0000

Not any riding currently going on at GoatSurfer Central, still suffering from dental trauma (with more on the way this coming week )

Some minor updates on my 'not to be taken too seriously' Beater project.

The trashed Kona Racelight saddle has been 'sympathetically' repaired and I've found a stem in the parts bin that will do for now. I reckon I have some old Mavic 231 CD's that will do for wheels and I'm sifting round for some suitable bars.

DUCT tape repair one...

DUCT rape repair two...

Et Voila

Old Spesh stem

EWR Project - Phase Nine (Part 2) - Dang Stems...

Billy Goat — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:53:23 +0000

My dentist put pay to my Sunday ride (an un-blogworthy story) but just think Texas Chainsaw Massacre and you'll get close to the Codeine popping pain I'm currently in...

So, where were we?....oh yeah, continuation of Thursday's Steam Tweak.....Ok, anyone that has fitted a Syncros stem and not wanted to damage/scratch their bars will be well aware of what we call in the UK 'The 2p Trick' (some of you might well know this as the Dime Trick or Euro Trick ). It's the one where you unthread the alloy bolts from the bar clamp, feed them in from the underside against a coin and force open the bars wide enough so that they don't scratch your beloved NOS-ness as you slide on your new stem. Well, I'm using riser bars on the EWR so we have all those bends to negotiate so we're into a whole bunch of fun with these!!!

You see, the 2p Trick spreads the clamp using the maximum of the bolt thread, plus the thickness of the coin......and the stem is aluminium, which don't like being bent....EVER!!

The '2p Trick'

So, we start with the 2p Trick and voila, the Cattlehead stem glides round the first bend gracefully

Round the first bend

I start to feel confident and everything on earth was at peace......UNTIL, we get to the centre bulge on the bars .

This is where you need to grow a set of balls as big as that Bull I posted up on here a while back and go for the 'Open Wide And Say My Name' 8p Trick.

The 8p trick is FOUR 2p coins and my NOS Syncros stem stretched wide open to heart stopping, this baby's gonna crack, proportions

If I open any wider I'm gonna split asunder

Someone was on my side, I got round the second bend and quickly cranked the stem back up tight. Not had a chance to ride the bike yet and I'm into that whole messy, sloping top cap rubbish you get with Syncros stems (say goodbye to another lovely King Top Cap...)

Third stem on my EWR, third time lucky?

EWR Project - Phase Nine, another week another stem...

Billy Goat — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:27:25 +0000

We're still deep in Dial Time on my Woods Bike so here we are with yet another stem, the third one now

This one aesthetically is perfect for the build as its a NOS Syncros Cattlehead in 10° rise flavour so it's the right amount of rise and will match the cranks and seatpost, however, for me its all about how it rides so if it doesn't do the job then it's off the bike. I only collected it last night so sadly it won't be installed for tonight's weekly Night Ride but I'll try and get in on for the weekend.

I was trying to avoid Syncros on this build, not cos I hate it but cos I've got Syncros on every other bike I own and I wanted to shake off the stigma, oh well I'll just have to make sure the next build is Syncros Free

Mmmmmm NOS Syncros

Mmmmmm...more NOS Syncros

Happy Birthday Wallace and Grommit

Billy Goat — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:55:51 +0000

I dunno if this stuff reaches outside of the UK but I must say I'm shocked to realise that Wallace and Grommit celebrate their 20th Birthday today

This makes me feel really old as I can remember A Grand Day Out as if it was yesterday and remember the tears rolling down my face as I split my sides laughing. To celebrate in the coolest manner Google have given over the Google Doodle to them for the day

Happy Birthday

Back From the Grave - Saracen Kili Flyer

Billy Goat — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:27:10 +0000

If you were into MTB's in the UK back in the 1980's then no doubt the name Kili Flyer will bring back misty eyed memories of a long forgotten iconic steed.

Well, I had an email from Simon Wild at Saracen today and he tells me they are re-launching the Kili and its going to be Fillet Brazed Tange Prestige and built around a modern 120mm fork. There's not much info around so far but Singletrackworld have some pix available here: http://www.singletrackworld.com/2009/10/saracen-revive-the-kili-flyer/

It certainly has a nice clean look to it, the bike will be available in either SLX or XTR flavours when it hits the streets.

Picture - Copyright 2009 Singletrack Mountain Bike Magazine

EWR Project - Phase Eight....tweaks & eBay scoreage

Billy Goat — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:39:26 +0000

No Sunday ride today, just some minor tweaks on my Woods Bike. I've been having problems with shifts to the granny ring, the Front Mech has been throwing the chain.....turns out to be a schoolboy error, I had the granny ring on the wrong way round

If you look at the picture below you can see the profile of the ring is raised on one side and I had it fitted the other way, closing the gap between the middle ring just enough for the chain to 'miss' the ring when down shifted from middle, I switched this round and tweaked the stop adjustment and its near perfect.

SGX Granny ring showing profile

Previously fitted.....wrong !!

Got a good result on eBay recently, a pair of NOS M-650 DX hubs, complete with Quick Release skewers for £15 . A fellow RetroBiker in the USA assisted with getting these to me as the US seller wouldn't ship out of America. These are gonna get laced to the Campag Mirox in place of the black LX hubs I have on there now.

Mmmmmm.....NOS hubs

1 x 7 Beater Project - Pt 2

Billy Goat — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:22:25 +0100

Found the original rear mech that came with this bike back in 1991, this badboy has covered at least 10,000 miles and is still going strong

Then I found some spare cranks I had laying around and also an old 36t HyperGlide ring

And last but not least a saddle in......erm.....rather a distressed state