superdan1984
Dirt Disciple
December 2022 Photo 3
Having bought alot of major parts that takes us all the way up to photo 2 the bit to get next was the saddle, though getting a Pro long is not easy at all. Finding a Titanium rail Pro long is even harder, as in probably be easier to buy a real unicorn, i've never ever seen one for sale, either infact. Ha
After months looking i finally managed to find a Pro long, but it wasn't the Ti rail version, i gave in and just got that.
All the way from good old california.
At this point in the build, the last object i needed were kind of in the same realms of difficulty to find as the Ti rail pro long, honestly thought i'd never get my hands on them.
Pro long Saddle £70
March 2023 Photo 4
Finding a Unicorn
Like with most of these finds, alot of it was luck of timing. At this point i was pretty happy with the bike as it was, i'd kinda just thought that i probably won't find the last 2 big pieces of the puzzle without some real hard work.
But sometimes you just get lucky.
This next piece was just that, a really lucky find.
While just browsing the retro bike forums as i often did, not really trying or expecting to find anything, a unicorn popped it's head. A set of Avid Ultimates in anodized red and silver, insanity!
At not a bad price either, i would later find out why.
Again i was a bit skint, but as always, can't pass that offer up so i bought them.
Absolutely over the moon couldn't wait to stick them on.
The day came, they arrived, i immediately started to put them on, when i noticed something wasn't right...
One of the arms weren't moving.
I checked all the pieces, and one of the arms didn't have a tiny cylindrical shim, while the others did.
I messaged the guy i bought them from to see if he'd just not packed it by mistake.
Nope, "that's how i had them, you could just use electrical tape on your brake mount. That'll work!"
I was desperate enough that i actually tried that idea even though it sounded like the dumbest thing i'd ever heard.
Obviously it didn't work.
Could i by a spare from somewhere? Nope, the only spare shims for sale were for the mark1's these were mark 2's.
I had no idea what to do it's a precisely machined part to the mm.
GF actually came to the rescue.
She suggested that the husband of the lady she gardens for might be able to help.
" He's a man with a shed, he makes clocks and tiny trains"
I wasn't confident.
Went there, gave him the shim from the other arm, then left expecting a firm no... In about an hour, he produced this shim he'd milled out of copper, it was too long, but it could refined.
I stood there as he milled this thing down, in his shed, measuring every bit down to 100ths of a mm.
We got it on, did up the bolt and the spring on the canti arm actually engaged this time, it bloody worked!
Never doubt a man with a shed!
Absolute legend got many bottles of wine off me for that!
That photo was taken on that same day.
Avid Ultimates £250 + 4 bottles of decent wine + Stress!
Photo 5-6 March 2023
Show off!
To celerbrate my newly bought and now working sparkly new brakes i thought it was time to try and show it off on GMBN, or at least try.
Took a bunch of pictures, and for some reason i thought my best photo to send was in portrait, with a horrible brown pebble dash wall behind it, which completely distracts the eye from the actual bike... Probably because i'm definitely an idiot....
A couple of weeks later, of me checking every single day, i'm watching the dirtshed show... They've gone through all the bikes surely, nope, saved mine for last.
They gave it a super nice, and even gave them the idea of featuring classic replicas from the past in there future shows, so result... But.... I hate that bloody photo! You can hardly see the bloody bike, such an idiot. Has totally made me want to send a better photo in now it's finished. But that seems a little too showy off, i don't know! Ha
Picture 6 i just thought was funny how they were looking at it. It's exactly how any of us look when we see a sweet ride pop up on our feed lol
If anyone fancies watching that episode for giggles at my shit photography, here you go, ha!
Picture 7 August 2023
The Malverns is coming!
In May of 2023, a new oppurtunity popped it's head up, the same guy i bought my frame off had a whole bunch of spare parts for sale. Including a set of Mavic 121's and the Correct year DT Hugi rear hub, along with some tatty Team master and Control tyres.
I weighed in, probably a bit late to the party to see if he'd sold them. He said he had, gutted.
The wheelset i knew was gonna be a massive pain in the ass to sort out, i'd bought 2 set of DT Hugi Hubs, and both were the wrong years, and don't even get me started on the rims.
121's aren't the easiest to find, and Ceramic 121's are almost impossible in decent shape.
The next day i get a call from the guy i got the frame off, the other buyer had pulled out cause apparently his car had broken, whatever i made him an offer. Tbf, i probably offered too much in retrospect but it's not always easy to restrain yourself when you need those parts.
I went up to meet him, and saw that the rims weren't ceramic, but i kinda thought they'd probably look the part anyway, oh and they were in 36 hole, which at the time i thought were the exact ones, as i figured they'd be the rarest.
I bought them and we had a good chat about bikes in the sun.
Now i needed to get a front hub!
In 36... This is gonna be tough.
Put the call out on all the forums, something usually comes up, and low behold, someone told there's one on a German Ebay style site.
Found it!
.... Can't purchase items on there, unless your in Germany. Shit!
I had to then ask all my fb pals if anyone had any German friends, someone came through.
I then had to befriend their german friends, and ask them very very nicely if they could buy them for me and send me them if i obviously give them the money for doing so, and obviously something a bit extra for doing so.
They did, i got them. Utter legends.
I did them a caricature of them and their cats as that's my thing.
The hub i got was basically NOS.
I then had to get my bike mechanic mate to build them for me, because i'm useless at wheel builds.
And because i'm a mate, he took his sweet ass time, ha!
So much so, that i was getting worried they might not be ready for Malverns.
But he knows.
He takes the piss, because it's funny, but knows when when to pull the trigger and get it done.
He got it ready
It was time to go to the Malverns
The photo is the day before in the bike shop, ready to go.
Final Post coming up sometime tomorrow
Having bought alot of major parts that takes us all the way up to photo 2 the bit to get next was the saddle, though getting a Pro long is not easy at all. Finding a Titanium rail Pro long is even harder, as in probably be easier to buy a real unicorn, i've never ever seen one for sale, either infact. Ha
After months looking i finally managed to find a Pro long, but it wasn't the Ti rail version, i gave in and just got that.
All the way from good old california.
At this point in the build, the last object i needed were kind of in the same realms of difficulty to find as the Ti rail pro long, honestly thought i'd never get my hands on them.
Pro long Saddle £70
March 2023 Photo 4
Finding a Unicorn
Like with most of these finds, alot of it was luck of timing. At this point i was pretty happy with the bike as it was, i'd kinda just thought that i probably won't find the last 2 big pieces of the puzzle without some real hard work.
But sometimes you just get lucky.
This next piece was just that, a really lucky find.
While just browsing the retro bike forums as i often did, not really trying or expecting to find anything, a unicorn popped it's head. A set of Avid Ultimates in anodized red and silver, insanity!
At not a bad price either, i would later find out why.
Again i was a bit skint, but as always, can't pass that offer up so i bought them.
Absolutely over the moon couldn't wait to stick them on.
The day came, they arrived, i immediately started to put them on, when i noticed something wasn't right...
One of the arms weren't moving.
I checked all the pieces, and one of the arms didn't have a tiny cylindrical shim, while the others did.
I messaged the guy i bought them from to see if he'd just not packed it by mistake.
Nope, "that's how i had them, you could just use electrical tape on your brake mount. That'll work!"
I was desperate enough that i actually tried that idea even though it sounded like the dumbest thing i'd ever heard.
Obviously it didn't work.
Could i by a spare from somewhere? Nope, the only spare shims for sale were for the mark1's these were mark 2's.
I had no idea what to do it's a precisely machined part to the mm.
GF actually came to the rescue.
She suggested that the husband of the lady she gardens for might be able to help.
" He's a man with a shed, he makes clocks and tiny trains"
I wasn't confident.
Went there, gave him the shim from the other arm, then left expecting a firm no... In about an hour, he produced this shim he'd milled out of copper, it was too long, but it could refined.
I stood there as he milled this thing down, in his shed, measuring every bit down to 100ths of a mm.
We got it on, did up the bolt and the spring on the canti arm actually engaged this time, it bloody worked!
Never doubt a man with a shed!
Absolute legend got many bottles of wine off me for that!
That photo was taken on that same day.
Avid Ultimates £250 + 4 bottles of decent wine + Stress!
Photo 5-6 March 2023
Show off!
To celerbrate my newly bought and now working sparkly new brakes i thought it was time to try and show it off on GMBN, or at least try.
Took a bunch of pictures, and for some reason i thought my best photo to send was in portrait, with a horrible brown pebble dash wall behind it, which completely distracts the eye from the actual bike... Probably because i'm definitely an idiot....
A couple of weeks later, of me checking every single day, i'm watching the dirtshed show... They've gone through all the bikes surely, nope, saved mine for last.
They gave it a super nice, and even gave them the idea of featuring classic replicas from the past in there future shows, so result... But.... I hate that bloody photo! You can hardly see the bloody bike, such an idiot. Has totally made me want to send a better photo in now it's finished. But that seems a little too showy off, i don't know! Ha
Picture 6 i just thought was funny how they were looking at it. It's exactly how any of us look when we see a sweet ride pop up on our feed lol
If anyone fancies watching that episode for giggles at my shit photography, here you go, ha!
Picture 7 August 2023
The Malverns is coming!
In May of 2023, a new oppurtunity popped it's head up, the same guy i bought my frame off had a whole bunch of spare parts for sale. Including a set of Mavic 121's and the Correct year DT Hugi rear hub, along with some tatty Team master and Control tyres.
I weighed in, probably a bit late to the party to see if he'd sold them. He said he had, gutted.
The wheelset i knew was gonna be a massive pain in the ass to sort out, i'd bought 2 set of DT Hugi Hubs, and both were the wrong years, and don't even get me started on the rims.
121's aren't the easiest to find, and Ceramic 121's are almost impossible in decent shape.
The next day i get a call from the guy i got the frame off, the other buyer had pulled out cause apparently his car had broken, whatever i made him an offer. Tbf, i probably offered too much in retrospect but it's not always easy to restrain yourself when you need those parts.
I went up to meet him, and saw that the rims weren't ceramic, but i kinda thought they'd probably look the part anyway, oh and they were in 36 hole, which at the time i thought were the exact ones, as i figured they'd be the rarest.
I bought them and we had a good chat about bikes in the sun.
Now i needed to get a front hub!
In 36... This is gonna be tough.
Put the call out on all the forums, something usually comes up, and low behold, someone told there's one on a German Ebay style site.
Found it!
.... Can't purchase items on there, unless your in Germany. Shit!
I had to then ask all my fb pals if anyone had any German friends, someone came through.
I then had to befriend their german friends, and ask them very very nicely if they could buy them for me and send me them if i obviously give them the money for doing so, and obviously something a bit extra for doing so.
They did, i got them. Utter legends.
I did them a caricature of them and their cats as that's my thing.
The hub i got was basically NOS.
I then had to get my bike mechanic mate to build them for me, because i'm useless at wheel builds.
And because i'm a mate, he took his sweet ass time, ha!
So much so, that i was getting worried they might not be ready for Malverns.
But he knows.
He takes the piss, because it's funny, but knows when when to pull the trigger and get it done.
He got it ready
It was time to go to the Malverns
The photo is the day before in the bike shop, ready to go.
Final Post coming up sometime tomorrow
