fatbikephil wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2024 10:25 pm Neither have I, and it's got slidey drop outs for SS - details please Rich

Rothair Cycles - http://rothaircycles.com/ is run by Matthew Finlayson who honed his skills building bikes and painting them at Shand.

This Columbus steel frame breaks in half for transport via the S+S coupling you can see and a break in the seat tube. The dropouts are made by Paragon machine works and allow single speed / hub gear options in the future.

Richpips wrote: ↑Fri Dec 13, 2024 5:17 pm Finished building up my Rothair today.

That looks like a new 'best bike' Rich. Even though I don't like my bikes splitting, congrats still

I only have one question, was the frame more £ or them beautiful wheels and did you really pay £80 each for those tyres. Enjoy ,and hopefully we learn soon on what expedition it's going on

Not to the bike, but my bike trousers. Second or 3rd set of recycled (to me, off ebay) Singletracks. Sadly the belt would always slip and the other day was a little annoying. Just another smidgen to add to the stress of trying to ride outdoors cold (in the).

So out comes the McNett and off comes the plastic barrier keeping it wet in there. Wiped some over the belt, both sides. Hoping that once it's dried it'll increase the friction of this little here belt, and all will be good.

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2024 12:29 am Not to the bike, but my bike trousers. Second or 3rd set of recycled (to me, off ebay) Singletracks. Sadly the belt would always slip and the other day was a little annoying. Just another smidgen to add to the stress of trying to ride outdoors cold (in the).

So out comes the McNett and off comes the plastic barrier keeping it wet in there. Wiped some over the belt, both sides. Hoping that once it's dried it'll increase the friction of this little here belt, and all will be good.

Shaf I had a plastic buckle which would not stop loosening, I replaced it with a metal g-hook (I luckily didn't need to sew anything on the webbing) and my issues were solved.

Thanks Dean. 56 miles in on the West Yorkshire Cycle Route for the annual Freedom for Dr Aafia Siddiqui Ride. Total miles thus far including joining the route from home, us 74.7.

Not thought about the buckle once, so it seemed the Mcnett caused enough extra friction (with some knife strokes over the belt and nips to buckle

Thanks for that though Dean, I've more Singkwtracks to fix.

Put yet another hole in a tyre. 2024 is the year of the puncture for me.....

Anyway, Krampus's turn to have a catastrophic puncture thanks to a large nail sticking out of a flight of old wooden steps. I'd tried to blast up the side of them hence catching the nail and the tyre suddenly instantly deflating. No sealant spray tho....

No way was i going to plug the resulting half inch slash so I set to with a bent needle and tub thread. It was pretty messy TBH and despite slathering superglue all over it, there was still too much of a hole to seal. So I attempted to superglue a bit of innertube over the slash but everything was just to wet and muddy. If there had been more than a trace of sealant in the tyre it might have sealed but I was left with a slow leak.

Got home the 5 miles with only one pump up needed so not a bad bodge all in all.

In future I'll only use a single bit of thread not a double as it kept knotting up plus if I'd taken more time cleaning things up it would have sealed better.

That's amazing. Nice1 Phil...

Got home, ripped off tyre, cleaned everything else up and superglued a patch on both sides of the rip, all sealed

I remember the only time my tyre wouldn't seal. Found a nice little ledge of step (think it might have been someone's doorstep, but I was probably too bothered about the tyre/tube). Ripped everything out and fit a tube. Sealant all over the place and a proper messy job.

Yet to do some seaming trailside and hopefully will never have the pleasure. On one of the Trailquests with Dark&White (racing against the 2 siblings to see who gets the most OS grid points and back in time) I had a puncture that just wouldn't seal. Twas alot of pumping/stopping I did that (flipping) day

Hope the glue patches last (both sides). What's the plan, to order a tyre or just ride em until they pop!?

Once slashed a + tyre and sewed and glued trailside. Held air till that part was at the bottom then it leaked . Decided if i ever get a big slash* i am going straigh to tube to save an hours trailside faffage. YMMV

* it was about 2 inches , so a tad optomistic of me

Well it was yesterday but I built a new geared rear wheel for my Jones, an old silver Halo Spin Dr hub that I really liked which was my road / gravel bike hub some years ago until the rim split, and a Blunt 35 bought on here. Went together well.

A significant and slightly sad day for me. My Jones has been on singlespeed rear wheels only since 2012 but for the time being single-speeding is not happening so it's time to go 1x. Gears will increase effort and distance steadily and I'll aim to be back on it as a SS by late summer.

For bikepacking trips in the past I geared it with 6 of the sprockets from an XT 10s cassette (onto the narrow cassette body of the Hope Trials hub) but as well as being sensible about getting back to fitness I want to do more off-road bikepacking trips again and would appreciate the wider range. Ever stingy when it comes to consumables on the bike it's going 1x10. 10s cassettes are cheap as chips and a Deore 11s RD was on sale a while back at £20 or so, so it's all good for winter abuse. 11-46 or 11-48 range is luxury to me so that'll do for now.

Also cut down and re-shaped the levers/paddles of an old XT trigger shifter to work with H-bars, hopefully that works as intended to keep it out of the way of the grip positions I like.

One of the highlights of time off at christmas is a bit of time pottering around sorting a bike for something new. Ideally (but not always) before all the christmas stuff is done!

redefined_cycles wrote: ↑Sat Dec 21, 2024 7:00 pm
Hope the glue patches last (both sides). What's the plan, to order a tyre or just ride em until they pop!?

Plus tyres are like Hens teeth so it will be used until it wears out, or I die of old age!
Shouldn't be an issue I think. I wondered about swapping it to the back so it will wear out quicker but I couldn't be bothered....

In other Jones news, today (after I drive down to Mum and Dad's) I will be fitting the Crux duros

Nothing too exciting (well, it is for me), but started customising my forks. Seen on the IMGUR app that I seem to have last sold some Prongs (at least with apic on there) 5 years ago. Hopefully won't ever be selling these.



Just need to get a flag at the bridge done and then some clear lacquer or maybe some of that 3m helicopter type tape to go over the scratch-prone points.



Watch this space indeed.

I rode it for the 1st time in a few months and I've even had a go at doing the new bar tape as I just wrapped my new bars with the old tape to give them a try out.


upload pics

Bit of TLC on the fatbike today. I'd hoped to be out on it as it's my birthday but I woke up to no heating and a dead boiler. Annoying as it got serviced last week... Anyway I needed to stay home for when / if the plumber calls so decided to give the old girl a bit of a goin over as it's been somewhat neglected of late.

I'd put the old drivetrain off the jones on last year but the chain was slipping under heavy load so I guess the C&S are shanged. I did wonder about splashing out on a cues or microshift gruppo but I figured the rear mech would do for another couple of years so another sunrace cassette and sram chain it was, both cheap from Wolf Cycles.

Second up was the front mudguard. One of the wings had broken off when I was out on it the other week so I bodged it to keep me going. But I needed to do a proper bodge or else chuck it. Mudhugger front guards are very thin which I suspect is deliberate so that they self destruct instead of jam up the wheel if a stick or something gets caught in them. So I cut off the other wing and punched a couple more holes for some 8mm zip ties. The guard was still a bit wobbly so I managed to lash up a small bracket from am old mudguard stay bracket. Then I noticed the large crack in the guard... Probably should buy a new one but gaffa taped it instead.



Ready for more winter fun

Happy birthday Phil. Hope you're having a good one.

I spent the evening shortening the brake hoses and applying a wrap of carbon fibre weave to each end of the seatstays. They probably would have been fine but trust was lacking so prevention being better than a cure and all that. Might even get to ride it soon at this rate.

Bike fixed in Agadir, 300 kms of squealing Hope pro 4 bearings. Everywhere east of Agadir has next to zero modern bike spares.Even Ouarzazate was hopeless, bus to Agadir . Plan 1 find a good bike shop and see if a fix is possible.. Plan 2 Decathlon and a new back wheel. Good bike shop saved the day, 2 new hub body sealed bearings and a general clean up of cassette body inards . The reviews were spot on the best bike repair place in Agadir.

I bought this old racer off a bloke up the road, it had skinny tyres on it so I've put on something more chunky this morning and taken off the mudguards, tyres a bit too wide for clearance but it's ridable
It's fast and light, ready for the trails

Winter tyres off, new Jimbo Jims set up tubless last night and held overnight.
Pedals serviced to stop the squeek and brakes sorted (must tighten up the through bolt first)

Jumbo Jim’s transformed my fatbike to something that I can actually enjoy riding Made such a difference dripping 1kg off each wheel

Nice that tractionman, particularly the track bend bars!

Jumbo Jims on already? It's still winter for another month and a bit you know That said, forecast of 13 degrees for Thursday.

Finally got round to doing some work on the mtb, you know, in between the wife wanting me to go to work; finish the loft; take out the little one; and a few other jobs she has lined up for me. Anyway, so it was yesterday (or was it the day before) and I dragged out the muddy bike from the shed.

It needed dropper unsiezing; carbon forks adding; cleaning; mudguard adding and a few other bits n pieces. As I cleaned it semi-throughly I noticed it also had only 1mm of front pads remaining!!

After the deep clean on that day (let’s call it yesterday) I got to work on the Crank Bros dropper. A good clean and it started returning almost to the top but some stiction at that last cm. Unscrewed the top knurled cover to get at the bushing underneath. Add grease, drop, retract, clean and repeat. Done this a while and got it all working again but that stiction in the last cm still apparent, though now working!!

Add to the list the changing of saddle as the (worlds lightest functional) Berk saddle had become unstuck from the rails. Not complaining as I don’t think a 100kg max limit saddle that weighs in at 93g was made to use with an mtb, let alone for dropper duties (my theory is that the pushing down with my bottom has taken it’s toll on the epoxy).

Anyway, back to the dropper and that slight stiction even though it was functional. I had my doubts about the Jagwire outer it comes with and I think I had used a new (but standard) Shimano inner.

“So you only need an hour to fix your bike (so we can go riding in the morn)” was the last words young-un said last night. Meaning this morning I got to work on the dropper and saddle, soon after early morning prayers and as he snored away. Really couldn’t afford getting it mucky on this ride as it’ll never be let in for ‘fork swap’ later.

So, dropper off and cable undone. Carefully needed to think of how to remove both cables through the frame without going over the limited time I had. Some careful manipulation of one cable, in the other and alternate!! Meant I eventually had a new (but used) xtr green outer and a lovely (used) Shimano slick-shift inner installed.

Did it work I hear you wonder… Course it did, Alhamdulillah. In between that I had managed to remove the Berk and add the Cambium C13 at a cost of an extra 202g. Lots of compress, retract, compress, retract in between it all and young man was down!!

“Have you finished” as I desperately tried to get the rockshox QR button off the bars and brake lever and dropper-trigger back on. Lovely chap helped me removed the wheel and I talked him through the brake-pad swap. Then in and amongst lots of “no bikes inside (when you get back)” from the wife, we were off. Well, not before a deflated tyre which he’d sorted by being too quick when so asked him to inflate the tyres.

No harm done and tubeless still intact, down the road we went. “Erm, (young-un) are both my tyres looking pumped” I asked him as we rode away. Turned out I hadn’t bolted the Cambium tight, so that quickly sorted and we were off into the mud and muck!!

Lovely ride but too much sticky mud. But we fixed that by a dip in the stream on the way back him and lots of hosing with camelbak bottle. Really couldn’t afford a ‘no entry’ to my bike upon return and it worked…

No pics sadly as the new (to me) phone smashed this am on the mantelpiece drop!! Despite having a genuine Apple protective case. Pretty sure they design em like that so you have to keep spending, but no evidence and I should have got an Otterbox. Bike back on the stand and hopefully tomorrow the forks can have a change!!

Long report and no pics, sorry

Bit of a fettle continues, in no particular order of ‘lab’ work.

1.Forks on, though I think I need to find a graffiti artist to make them properly show up that Nelson Mandela quote. Did a bit of an amateurs cut on the steerer tube but at least it was a carbon saw/blade and I managed to get within 1mm of straight all round.

2. I was getting sick of the clamp of the stand holding the knurled collar on the dropper. So I did some (dangerous ) saw work and made a wooden adaptor to fit neatly around the exposed bit of dropper post tubing. Not sure why no one makes anything proper for droppers yet!

3. Best sort out that tyre (the front, does anyone want it as I’m going to a 2.4 and I’m getting bored of this Onza Ibex as it seems to not wear out) with the tubeless not staying up. Must need some new sealant.

On the workstand thing - just clamp the dropper stanchion with it fully extended. As long as the clamp and stanchion are clean, no issue at all. The tube and internals are more than strong enough for it to take the weight of the bike in a stand

Don't take my word for it, Park tools say so, illustrated with some maths: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix_e6LWvap0

faustus wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 12:22 pm On the workstand thing - just clamp the dropper stanchion with it fully extended. As long as the clamp and stanchion are clean, no issue at all. The tube and internals are more than strong enough for it to take the weight of the bike in a stand

Don't take my word for it, Park tools say so, illustrated with some maths: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix_e6LWvap0

Aha, ok, erm fair enough. I just can’t bring myself to hang 10kg with a rotating force on a thin tube that goes into another thin (27.2mm) tube and then let it hang sideways. Paid almost the same as some entry level forks for this dropper Faustus so trying to allow the internals/bushing to last as long as possible. Especially since I’ve only just got it sliding nicely again after much cleaning and cable changing

Call me OCD or soft but I’m gonna figure out a way to keep it clamped in’t outer tubing