You may recall from earlier in the thread that I've been collecting parts for my 'how cheaply can I put together a bike' project, which weirdly has quite interested my kid.
Last night I fitted a rear guard salvaged from my dad's old bike (which now has fatter tyres, so the guards don't fit) I couldn't get the front one to go on as I don't have P clips large enough for the new forks, which being carbon are way fatter than any I've had before.
It's now rideable, and I had a brief window before a birthday party / swimming / visit to in-laws in which to ride it. I discovered that it feels a lot quicker than my other bike (26" fully rigid mountain bike converted to drop bar utility / touring thing) but that 23c tyres and badly dressed roads are literally a pain in the arse. I also discovered that the front brake blocks need cleaning and probably replacing as they sound like sandpaper, and that the slightly stiff link I though would probably be ok was not at all ok for most of the ride, resulting in it sounding like someone cocking a shotgun when it skipped almost every chain length, but it was hardly doing it at all in the end, so I'll keep an eye on that.
All I need now is to get bigger P-clips so I can attach the front guard - although I may go all out and buy some '
fender stay adaptors' I also need to get some slightly more modern down tube shifters. It seems that in the late 70s shifters had a smaller diameter,so pulling less cable per degree of movement than they do now - or at least the Simplex ones I've fitted do, so you have to pull them about 170 degrees to get from one end of the cassette to the other. Oh, and I need to wrap the bars once I'm certain I'm happy with them. And the saddle could do with being a tad higher and further back.
The ex-mountain bike has 1.5" tyres and a rather naff sounding, but actually quite comfortable '
Bodyfit Spring Classic' sprung saddle - which I bought with very, very slightly damaged packaging from
Halfords for one whole pound, having spotted it when buying a car battery. A sprung saddle on a bike with tyres that fat seems a bit of a waste, so I might swap it onto the Rubble, at least until the local road repair backlog is cleared.
So - more fettling to do, but I can also ride it now, which is nice.