Morning all.
Not a great 'project' by any stretch of the imagination.I'm hardly re-welding the Titanic, but it's my first carbon bike so i thought i'd stick it in here.
My first bike was an Eastway R4.0, as seen below. SRAM Apex,with Truvativ cranks and tektro brakes. Shifting was a treat, but the 53/39 chainset, and the fact that it was made from what i can only assume to be scaffold poles, meant it was like pedalling a farking car. Still, it was my first bike, bought with my first pay cheque after leaving uni and i loved it.
I should also note that i'd taken extremely good care of this bike and there wasn't a single piece of rust on it.
Anyway, boy meets girl etc. and i decide to build my wife, then girlfriend, a bike. I mean, a friend built it and did an amazing job but you know what i mean. I bought a used and cracked Spec Allez from the bay for £26 and stripped it of all its components. I then got a 7005 frame from a contact at Ribble for £50, and a pair of Planet-X carbon forks from Dave Loughran for free.
Her bike cost me, with an extra chain ring and some new cables and stuff, £130. Here it is in all its glory.
As women are wont to, she got pregnant and stopped riding, so i started using it as it was a bit smaller than mine, actually a perfect fit, and a damn sight lighter.
Roughly 3,000 miles later and i decided i'd quite like a new bike, but i thought i'd use my skills as a Yorkshireman and find stuff for cheap. The component sourcing began.
Fast forward a couple of months and this happened:
As i was dancing on the pedals like Nibali, putting down my usual 900w, the bike suddenly stopped and i went over the bars. The rear mech pulled the mech hanger inboard. The mech hanger bent the chainstay and hit the rear casette, the mech then pulled through the threads of the mech hanger and the bike was un-rideable. The afore mentioned lovely wife picked me up and i started looking at new frames. I didn't see the point in spen ding money on a new mech, new casette, new rear hub for the rear wheel... this bike didn't owe me anything, so i thought i'd just move on.
In terms of the parts sourcing, i'd found and purcahsed some lovely bits long before this incident, although I should also point out that i thought i'd got a really great deal and a new and un-used SRAM Force 52/36 crankset for £58. I had no idea that the extended crank spindle and the whole BB30/PF30 style severely limited my choice of frames. I should've done my research earlier. Also, i probably could've done this much cheaper with a Shimano build, but i prefer the SRAM style.
Also, the cost of Shimano stuff has gone through the roof since the entire nation took up cycling.
Anyway, after a bit of research on various forums, i felt comfortable with what would and wouldn't fit, and on which bikes and with which BB.
A week later, i had in my posession this:
To be more precise, i had a frameset, a gritty headset, two bottle cages and a seatpost. It weighs close to fark all and i was a bit 'meh' about the colour.
I searched everywhere for SRAM Force or Red 11sp shifters but they're not that common on the bay and everything that's there is either ratty as fark, or 10 speed. So, a quick call to total cycling in N.I. bagged me what was seemingly the last pair of Force 22 shifters in the UK.
All built up she looks like this:
She rides like an absolute dream and i couldn't be happier with it. The orange is metallic and really pops. The grey is probably too much of a reminder of my navy days, but it's growing on me.
ll bits are new and un-used, with the exception of the bars which came from a display bike. For those wanting to know costs, the breakdown is as follows:
Also, to fund this, i sold a few old film cameras which i'd forgotten about in the garage. I was just about to go on a tip run and saw the box and threw it in the car. I thought i'd quickly see how much an Olympus MJU ii was going for and then threw them all on eBay instead. If you have an old Olympus MJU ii in the loft/shed/cupboard... they're going for over £100 on eBay. I paid £5 for mine 8 years ago at a carboot sale.
So, the cameras sold for £530, and the Eastway went for £220 30 minutes after i'd listed it, which makes me think it was under-priced, but i wasn't using it, it's an old bike, and it made the kid who bought it really happy.
Deducting the £750 off the £1,230 build cost, this lovely shiny bike cost me a grand total of £480. I think that's a pretty good deal, no?
Anyway, i've only had her since Friday night. I did a 60 miler on Saturday and 40 miles yesterday (Tuesday) and i love it. I just need to get the brakeset swapped over when it arrives and i'll be happy.
Thanks,
Phil.
Not a great 'project' by any stretch of the imagination.I'm hardly re-welding the Titanic, but it's my first carbon bike so i thought i'd stick it in here.
My first bike was an Eastway R4.0, as seen below. SRAM Apex,with Truvativ cranks and tektro brakes. Shifting was a treat, but the 53/39 chainset, and the fact that it was made from what i can only assume to be scaffold poles, meant it was like pedalling a farking car. Still, it was my first bike, bought with my first pay cheque after leaving uni and i loved it.
I should also note that i'd taken extremely good care of this bike and there wasn't a single piece of rust on it.
Anyway, boy meets girl etc. and i decide to build my wife, then girlfriend, a bike. I mean, a friend built it and did an amazing job but you know what i mean. I bought a used and cracked Spec Allez from the bay for £26 and stripped it of all its components. I then got a 7005 frame from a contact at Ribble for £50, and a pair of Planet-X carbon forks from Dave Loughran for free.
Her bike cost me, with an extra chain ring and some new cables and stuff, £130. Here it is in all its glory.
As women are wont to, she got pregnant and stopped riding, so i started using it as it was a bit smaller than mine, actually a perfect fit, and a damn sight lighter.
Roughly 3,000 miles later and i decided i'd quite like a new bike, but i thought i'd use my skills as a Yorkshireman and find stuff for cheap. The component sourcing began.
Fast forward a couple of months and this happened:
As i was dancing on the pedals like Nibali, putting down my usual 900w, the bike suddenly stopped and i went over the bars. The rear mech pulled the mech hanger inboard. The mech hanger bent the chainstay and hit the rear casette, the mech then pulled through the threads of the mech hanger and the bike was un-rideable. The afore mentioned lovely wife picked me up and i started looking at new frames. I didn't see the point in spen ding money on a new mech, new casette, new rear hub for the rear wheel... this bike didn't owe me anything, so i thought i'd just move on.
In terms of the parts sourcing, i'd found and purcahsed some lovely bits long before this incident, although I should also point out that i thought i'd got a really great deal and a new and un-used SRAM Force 52/36 crankset for £58. I had no idea that the extended crank spindle and the whole BB30/PF30 style severely limited my choice of frames. I should've done my research earlier. Also, i probably could've done this much cheaper with a Shimano build, but i prefer the SRAM style.
Also, the cost of Shimano stuff has gone through the roof since the entire nation took up cycling.
Anyway, after a bit of research on various forums, i felt comfortable with what would and wouldn't fit, and on which bikes and with which BB.
A week later, i had in my posession this:
To be more precise, i had a frameset, a gritty headset, two bottle cages and a seatpost. It weighs close to fark all and i was a bit 'meh' about the colour.
I searched everywhere for SRAM Force or Red 11sp shifters but they're not that common on the bay and everything that's there is either ratty as fark, or 10 speed. So, a quick call to total cycling in N.I. bagged me what was seemingly the last pair of Force 22 shifters in the UK.
All built up she looks like this:
She rides like an absolute dream and i couldn't be happier with it. The orange is metallic and really pops. The grey is probably too much of a reminder of my navy days, but it's growing on me.
ll bits are new and un-used, with the exception of the bars which came from a display bike. For those wanting to know costs, the breakdown is as follows:
Also, to fund this, i sold a few old film cameras which i'd forgotten about in the garage. I was just about to go on a tip run and saw the box and threw it in the car. I thought i'd quickly see how much an Olympus MJU ii was going for and then threw them all on eBay instead. If you have an old Olympus MJU ii in the loft/shed/cupboard... they're going for over £100 on eBay. I paid £5 for mine 8 years ago at a carboot sale.
So, the cameras sold for £530, and the Eastway went for £220 30 minutes after i'd listed it, which makes me think it was under-priced, but i wasn't using it, it's an old bike, and it made the kid who bought it really happy.
Deducting the £750 off the £1,230 build cost, this lovely shiny bike cost me a grand total of £480. I think that's a pretty good deal, no?
Anyway, i've only had her since Friday night. I did a 60 miler on Saturday and 40 miles yesterday (Tuesday) and i love it. I just need to get the brakeset swapped over when it arrives and i'll be happy.
Thanks,
Phil.
