Salsa dropout….

It could apply to me and my dance classes… I lost the plot a couple of months ago and haven’t been since… however this has nothing to do with that, rather it’s the dropout of the steel bicycle-flavoured kind. On the face of it rather a dull topic, and probably dull to a deeper degree to that but I couldn’t help appreciating the finer points of my Salsa Casseroll frame as I started building it up earler today… pics will do better than words but I rather like the attention to detail in this frame.

and here’s something you don’t see so often on modern bikes… yup, I’ve regressed to down-tube shifters on this tourer… I’m interested to find out if I actually remember to use them having spent so many years on fixed gears and bikes with integrated shifters (i.e campy ergos…)

I haven’t finished building it yet, still missing a few parts – a front mech and I haven’t yet collected the Brooks Swift Ti saddle from a friend. Brakes are causing me much headscratching too… my lovely vintage shimano 600 single pivot calipers are a few mm short on reach. I picked up some modern Shimano deep drop calipers but to be blunt they look horrible so I think I’m going to have to invest in some polished Grand Cru deep drop calipers imported from the US. Ho hum, the trials and tribulations of being a cycle snob.

Incidentally, I always build bikes to music, lol,  current favourite among my recent acquisitions is Eva Be: Moving without Travelling

On another topic I fianlly got around to linking up with the Penzance Canoe club, had a terrific paddle out last night ’till dark. They have a waterside club house with a lounge bar over the water and some some stunning views of Mounts Bay, worth joining for the bar access as much as anything else I think ;-)