Sunday 25 January 2009

It's all about the bike...

The Pug is finally back in one piece. It’s not quite done yet but I’ve built new wheels, replaced the tired parts and fitted racks. The rear rack will be coming off once I get my Super Twinkie through from Epic Designs. The Bontrager post I got was too short, so I had to fit a Thomson from another bike. It’s silver. Oh, the humanity.
Cranks will be changing to Surly Mr Whirlys and I have an XT bottom bracket and a King headset packed with low temperature grease. Gore cables will be fitted, but I want to keep them as clean as possible. I’m undecided about whether I should fit Powergrips or not.
The first test ride took me all the way up the hill to the Off-licence. Nothing fell off, which was reassuring. The Alpkit frame bag did a grand job of carrying the beer home. The second test ride was, deliberately, more of a push than a ride. Mel and I went out for a couple of hours in the local woods. She walked and I pushed the Pug up and down the steepest hills we could find. I get the feeling I’ll be pushing for a long way so I’d better get used to it!
This Thursday I’m off up to Glenmore Lodge with Jim from Alpkit and Angus to do a bit of filming for the Trad film competition. More importantly it’s a great chance to get some practice in on proper snow and to test out the majority of my kit. I’m looking forward to it.

7 comments:

Phil The Horse said...

Opps, sorry got a bit excited hope know one has learnt a new bad word courtesy of me.

trio said...

Looks good, is that frame bag pink? It looks fab!

Nick said...

with your knees I'd take the Powergrips, but be prepared to ditch them.

Anonymous said...

Looks nice. Where did you get your power girps from?

James L

Anonymous said...

I would have thought Powergrips would be great for dodgy knees as you can adjust the float / angle more than SPD's?

Tempted to try some my self so I can ditch a pair of shoes when bikepacking...saves a fair bit of weight when you have size 12's!

Anonymous said...

it's all getting rather exciting!
the bike is ace :FACT:

Shaggy said...

My knees aren't *that* bad. It's runnings fault. And too big gears on fixies. ahem.

PowerGrips are from Phil T H's garage...

And yes, the bike is ace. I didn't ask for the pink bag but hey, it'll look better with the matching bivy bag :-)