The passing of the Posties' Pashley

My Post-person no longer delivers my post by bicycle in the morning. They now wheel a trolley around the local roads and my post is delivered in the afternoon.

I think it is a shame, but the Royal Mail must have determined that the Mailstar bicycle was no longer effective, apparently due to the increasing number of parcels requiring delivery.  Rather than look at design solutions on the bicycle they now use trolleys with the Posties ferried to the area by vans.

Does it make my ex-Postie Pashley trike more collectible?

Steel is real...rusty

Carbon frames, Titanium frames and Stainless steel frames are beginning to appear with lifetime warranties. This is unquestionably good and I hope the vendors remain in business long enough to support any claims. However, I can't recall seeing any offers of lengthy warranties on steel framed bicycles and I suspect it is due to the risk of  "tin worm"/ oxidation/ red rot/ corrosion.

With about seven steel bicycles in my collection rust is a bit of a concern, especially on my Brompton, Basso Viper and Condor Tempo which I need to/plan to use when the weather turns foul.  My main worry is the inside of the tubes so I began looking into spraying Waxoyl inside the frames, after all it was the thing to do for older cars.

Technology has advanced since the 90's and I found the latest recommended rust preventative tested on the very good Road.cc website.

It was a bit pricey but it should hopefully be sufficient to apply to most of my steel framed bikes and if there is any remaining then I've still got a couple of old classic cars which might also benefit.

I just need to find some time to do the jobs.

Early MiB?

When I was younger paintings by L.S. Lowry (not the originals) were hung in the family home and in my Grandparents'. I recall scanning the individuals painted in each picture trying to spot unusual hats or something slightly different from any of the other paintings. I also used to count the number of matchstick dogs for some reason.

I still admire L.S. Lowry's work and went to the Tate Britain exhibition today. The exhibit was very popular and it was a little difficult to see all of the paintings in detail but, where I could, I found myself trying to find unusual looking features and I even started to count the number of dogs.

For the first time ever I spotted a cyclist and I took a cheeky photograph souvenir with my iPhone. Laurence Stephen Lowry painted a picture of a Rapha Condor JLT cyclist...you can definitely make out the white armband on the black jersey:

Born again Basso

A new wheelset, new brake callipers and totally re-cabled.

I procrastinated on a new hand built wheelset, considered a used set of wheels with Chris King classic hubs and finally decided on a pair of Shimano C35 wheels. I couldn't afford the Dura Ace clinchers so decided on the RS81 Ultegra version.  The RS81 is the new 11 speed hub, but to fit a 10-speed cassette is straightforward - you fit the normal 1mm spacer ring and a new 1.85mm spacer that comes in the bag of spares with the wheels.

 

 



The old Ultegra callipers had seen better days and a good friend gifted me a pair of 7700 Dura Ace callipers in like new condition complete with Swissstop green brake pads.

I re-cabled the bike with the new Jagwire road pro kit in a carbon silver outer effect and finished the re-build with black Lizard Skin DSP bar tape.

 

 

It is a beautiful bicycle and I am looking forward to using it again and getting out for a long pedal, however I am toying with the idea of selling it - shock horror.