Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

All this thread tells me is :
A. Vault Tec is addicted to mid school BMX
B. He's minted

 

Yeah will be cut with a Silhouette.

 

A correct. Best years of my adult life.
B: hah I wish. I have...

No kids, no dependents, no wife etc. I also have 0 debt (not one penny) and am very very good at managing money. I also don't go out (hardly ever, maybe 10 times a year) and as such life is pretty cheap. But I am still very much a tight ass. That rear wheel cost me £60. I reckon with the paint etc? maybe £130 at a push.

All of it was bought cut price. Frame? £525 and not £1799 plus VAT. Cranks? £40. That Titanium BB? £20. All done it owes me £32.

 

OK so they are all done. Have put the transfer layer on too.



The finish line is in sight thank the lord.

 

Be good to see the finished article.

 

Today hopefully. My brick lane stuff came earlier. I have a load to do for mum today though, and patience will be needed to get them on straight

 

Yeet, done for now. I want to cut and polish it, but I don't want to **** up the tyre again because it took 5 washes last time and was a real ball ache. I have only put 10 miles on that tyre, so I want to get something out of it before I replace with a 28mm wide tyre. So when I do that I will cut and polish it.

 

Karma.

So a few days ago I finally see the wheel I would like to buy on Ebay. I want a carbon wheel to go with the rear, but I wanted it to be deep section. Not cheap. Any way, I find one out of a pair with a £180 starting bid. RRP is about £1600 for both.



Listing was ending today, so I sent him a message around 1pm explaining that I found auctions very stressful and thus would he take an offer. He replied and said "Sure I am open to offers, but note I have already had one for £170". TBH whoever sent him that must have been a kid, as it's a bit crappy. So I said "OK how about £250 plus the £19 postage?" he then says he will, and will send me an offer. I then sat at the PC for over three hours waiting. Nothing. Completely ghosted me, as seems to be the fashion these days.

Karma? is a biyatch.



Even if he refunds me and refuses to send it I still get to leave him a neggy

 

Baggy got. How did Alex know I wanted one in my colours



I also bought this. Now I just have to remove the beeper from an air tag

 

Right so here is what has arrived. First up the chain tensioner.





The leather frame pad.



Wheel.



Ooo look a goody box lol.



Spare spokes, spoke tool, brake pads (DT Swiss for carbon) and a key ring. Noice



Oh and a skewer I won't be using. Then onto the main event.



Drool. I also then realised my inner tubes were not going to work. Sigh.

 

Can’t even leave negative feedback on eBay anymore. I absolutely hate the platform.

 

I've given up on Ebay altogether, closed my account last year.

 

I still dig it. I am sure that seller has learned the error of his ways tbh.

I bet he fookin HATES my ass

 

I had an issue once where I bought a motherboard for a bargain price, but the seller had quoted "Offer me £150 to buy it now" or similar in the wording, then when I won it for about £50 he backed out, claiming "the RAM slot doesn't work, have just tested it". Sure. Of course.

I told him to send it anyway but he refused.

So I left him negative feedback and he left me positive feedback saying it didn't work out...?!?!?! Big shrug.

 

Maybe he does, but it's helped balance out your case of Paul-itis.

 

So I purchased an Syncros mudguard for the Specialized Status 160 and fitted it. It looked a little small but I thought it would do the job. Anyway, to cut a long story short, it was terrible. Face full of crap, wet crotch, awful. Just awful.

So.. today I went to my local Specialized store in Durham and had a chat with the guys there, I’ve not got an RRP Mini v2 bolt-on. The difference in size is night and day and so far *touch wood* it seems to be doing the job after a few rides out over some puddles.

Here’s a couple of before and after and then an end comparison. All in all, happy bloke!

IMG_1208 by andrew8200m posted 27 Apr 2024 at 21:58

IMG_1209 by andrew8200m posted 27 Apr 2024 at 21:58

IMG_1210 by andrew8200m posted 27 Apr 2024 at 21:58

IMG_1211 by andrew8200m posted 27 Apr 2024 at 21:58

IMG_1212 by andrew8200m posted 27 Apr 2024 at 21:58

 

haha that is the only thing on the entire bike I have paid up for, and it turned out to be a complete asshole

Unlike the "Like to snappo crappo" one I had there are no options to move it to line up the drive line. So I had to have the wheel to bits about 10 times pissing around with spacing. On a wheel with a solid axle it means you have to remove the entire axle every single time to get the tool in.

If that wasn't enough of a ball bag I ripped two rubber inner tubes trying to get the 25c tyre back onto the old front wheel (I want a fully built spare, as my new wheel bag takes two wheels and I don't want to faff around on holiday if I get a puncture) and then finally caved and used one of the orange ones. God they are so much easier to fit !

I then hit another snag. Even with a 80mm valved tube it would not reach through the new rim. Insert hours upon hours of reading and studying before finally realising I needed this.



And of course this, neither of which I actually had. Thankfully Amazon pulled a blinder and DPD arrived with both about an hour ago.



Oh and the top pad is not big enough to fit.



so that was as far as I got at 10pm last night. I love bikes, and I usually love working on them but F me sometimes it is a pure test of will.

 

A lad I used to work in my current store left and moved to do the bike fit's in the Durham Specialized store, good bloke. I run the longer version of that RRP on my Nukeproof Scout and I have a 2nd to fit to the Trance I'm currently building.

 

They all seem to be a nice bunch over there tbh. Having said that, the Durham Evans Cycles lads are also great. Specialised didn’t have my frame size but Evans did so I picked it up there in the end.

 

Fireball's coming.











If I can be arsed later I may even treat it to a wipe over to remove all of the greasy hand prints, you never know.

Had an idea of how to make the pad attach properly. For today though I am calling it good.