I finally found the long way up there via the villages. My technique was to remember the next three place names that I needed to head for and eventually the GPS worked out where I was going. Missed turnings provide opportunity for U-turn anxieties.
I fingered some items at the BMW showroom but left without succumbing to temptation. I’ve decided, though, that the new liquid cooled GS has one advantage over the Adventures in the showroom – it is not such an intimidating lump.
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Building another bicycle
This time its a cycle for H. The starting point was a 1980s Coventry Eagle female frame (getting hard to get) built with Reynolds tubing and half chromed front forks, bought on ebay for £80 from vintage bike haus with an office near Finsbury Park. It had a bottom bracket that the seller told me was stuck but might be removed by a bike shop.
Experience tells me that the parts that are stuck into frames when you buy them eventually become the death knell of any bike you build, whether its siezed seatposts or bottom brackets.
A visit to Ben Hawards in Cambridge accompanied by the frame produced beautiful wheels (though out of style with the frame), a nine speed casette (the whole thing is wider than the dropouts at the back by 10mm but can be squeezed in), rear mech, gear chang lever and some tyres.
what we couldn’t find was the right size seat post, nor stem or handle bars, nor crankset nor chainwheel (we wanted a single one). Next, visit to what must be Cambridge’s most secret bike shop, Bicycle ambulance, hidden in a multi story car park. Lots of enthusiasm there and we got a useful crankset though they never replied to my emails.
Of course the cranks did not fit onto the ancient axle so it was time to borrow some tools to try to remove the bottom bracket in order to fit either a new axel or the whole thing with a sealed unit bought from BH. Strangely the fixed cup, often stuck beyond moving, came undone with no effort. I learned from Sheldon Brown that these are left hand threaded which might explain my complete lack of success removing these on other bikes. Now we have a new sealed unit that’s 500g lighter than the existing axel, bearings and cup.
So this is progress to date:
Ride to World Famous Comfort Cafe
Overcast today but the last opportunity to ride for a couple of weeks, so 35 miles of nice-ish roads out through Fulbourn, Balsham and West Wratting, and back on the main road stopping at the biker’s favourite World Famous Comfort Cafe, with half a dozen bikes parked outside. Strangely the place is comforting in some inexplicable way – you can sit outside with a mug of tea and cherry cake for a total of £2.50, minding your own business.
Ride to Brandon Forest for tea and scones
Today was a lovely day, up to 20 degrees C and sunny. For once I didn’t take the wrong fork at Swafham Prior. Lots of bikes out today. Lovely scone though middle aged cyclists sitting close to me at the visitor centre in Brandon Forest seemed to be comparing illnesses and the medication they were on.
Lovely paperbacks or Kindle?
I don’t want to be abandoned without something good to read while on my motorcycle trip this year so intend to take a stash of books; this pile and maybe others I’ve started and want to finish or have recently found:
But in the interests of travelling small (rather than light) the prospect of the unaesthetic Kindle comes to mind. The challenge is to find these titles available for it. However, there’s nothing like sitting down with a real book in your hands, especially the lovely edition of Seven Pillars of Wisdom I bought on Abe Books. (It doesn’t look like Being and Time is available to Kindlers) At the moment I will stick with my space-using pile.