Last minute tall bike

When prepping for our tall bike ride to Bristol, having built the later two out of full cromo donor frames I realised I might be slightly under gunned with my old Raleigh and Viner mix.  The excuse of someone expressing an interest in buying it was all I needed to convince me to build another. It also gave me the opportunity to test out building some long forks in preparation for another up coming project. So on the Saturday before the Bespoked show the hammer (angle grinder) dropped and my old On-One Inbred frame went to a higher place. Just about finished in time as the last parts only arrived on the Thursday before we left on the Friday. We did manage to give it a 400 yard test ride Thursday night just as it got dark and packed it for the first time as we left on Friday and it worked out great. I will probably fit a stabiliser bar to the front fork which I ran out of time to complete before the off. Will probably reduce the load on the fork crown as there’s quite a moment on those forks and help once I get the front disc mount sorted too.

 

Bespoked 18 tall bike ride

For a bit of fun we wanted to ride down to Bespoked 18 on tallbikes. Having built the first one my brother, Pete, and friend Scott ended up with number 2 and 3. To ensure I could keep up number 4 was built in the week before the show. Awesome weather had dried the trail. Bikepacking gear came into it’s own. Started at 7am to make the first 50 miles to meet up with Scott for lunch as he was coming up from deepest Hampshire. Going along the Sustrans route 4 which was just beautiful. 100 miles on the first day put us in Devizes for the night. We then polished off the last 40 into Bristol on Saturday morning whilst picking my son up in Bradford Upon Avon after a stonking breakfast in the Lock Inn Cafe. 4 test rides given on route, one BMX track ridden and a lot of smiles raised. Raising funds for the Mind mental health charity and having a blast along the way. (http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mindthebikebespoked2018)

   

Classic roadster build

I wanted to build an classic style roadster with porteur style bars so when my son said that’s the sort of thing he wanted it was perfect. So this is his 21st birthday present which makes me feel nearly as old as the style of the bike! Having given it the obligatory test ride it rides really nice. Love the comfort of the bars. Columbus tubing, Alfine 8 hub gear, disc brakes to bring it up to date and British road proof Schwalbe tyres. Hopefully it will get plenty of use around York. 

Tall bike ride to Bespoked 18

In one of our less sane moments we thought what better idea than to ride down to the Bespoked bike show this year. To make it slightly more entertaining we thought this was a good opportunity to test out the tall bikes which also meant finishing 3 of them and having them in a fit state to do about 260 miles over the weekend for the return trip from London to Bristol. Seemed like a good idea at the time but as it gets a little closer, well it seems like a long way. To ensure we didn’t think about changing our mind we added the prospect of supporting a good cause into the bargain so will be raising funds for the mental health charity, Mind, through the justgiving link below. Any support anyone wants to offer up will be gratefully received to help such a worthy cause.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mindthebikebespoked2018