the steel end of the spectrum…

I finished ‘baking’ this Casseroll over a week ago having managed to lay my hands on the final few ingredients in the form of a Dura-ace front mech and completing the bar tape decision process, lol.. It’s taken a few weeks* to put together but the whole idea was to spend relatively little (I won’t say “keep it cheap” cos no doubt some wag will tell me that £900 is not cheap and I should have gone to Halfords) but put together a decent build that would keep this bike snob happy. I succeeded, one of my friends said I have knack for putting together a nice build and I have to say he’s completely right;-) It’s even been judged pretty by a member of the fairer sex, albeit a cycling one, and in this case I’m happy with that judgment.. being in touch with my feminine side and all that modern man bollocks… It has turned out to be a perfect blend of retro flavour in a thoroughly modern bike.

The photos aren’t great, I only had my cheapy little compact with me last weekend but they’ll do for now…  I won’t ramble on at length about it… much anyway, it’s only a bike after all but there a few little things I’m rather pleased with aside from the frame itself which is beautiful. The Dura Ace drivetrain (shifters, derailleurs, cassette) , chainset aside, cost me the grand total of £95 and is barely used … which I thought is really rather cool.. about half the price of a new pair of Tiagra shifters alone.. and of course I couldn’t bear to have a bike with Tiagra on it, lol! It all works beautifully as you’d expect and the downtube shifters are fun, it’ a tourer so they’re perfect – simple, tough, cheap and they work so so nicely. Other nice things.. the Nitto Randonneur bars are a pair I have had kicking around for a while just waiting for a build like this, the Velo Orange stem matches them nicely. The saddle is a Brooks Swift Titanium courtesy of a good friend and that thing hanging from it is a Velo Orange Baguette bag.. the stainless bottle cages are Velo Orange too. The old school Ambrosio box section rims suit the ‘fat’ 28c gatorskin tyres very well. It rides beautifully, looking forward to cruising through Eastern Europe on this in a couple of weeks time…

(*the related posts from past few weeks are here and here)

I suppose I should scribble down the full build list… I’ll do that later ‘cos it’s a job I find very dull, in the meantime an odd little story from today’s ride… Riding along a quiet little Cornish lane in the middle of nowhere I stopped for a pee in a gateway, just as I propped my bike against the scruffy gate (overgrown with nettles I might add..) a car was coming so I waited for it to go past. He stopped, 2 other people in the car, they all looked rather dim (you know, that vacant sort of look that people in their 20′s do so well these days) so I figured they were lost tourists about to ask me directions. Girl in passenger seat winds window down and the bloke behind the wheel leans across and the following little exchange ensues:

Driver: “what are you doing?“
Me: ” umm, just about to have a pee” (while trying not to snigger at the insipid looking girl in the passenger seat)
Driver: “no you’re not, that’s my field“
Me: “I’m not in your field, I’m on the side of the public highway“
Driver:  “you f**ker, I’ll have you...”
Me:  smiles, hops on bike and rides away…… I’m not one for useless confrontation

So what are the chances, of all the gates in the all the lanes in all the middle of nowhere that I should choose to make a pitstop. No matter, I’ll be sure to have a leak there next time I pass ;-)

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