And Then There Were Two

Last year's rebuild of my 1978 Puch Princess has been a complete success. 

With one small niggle.... the paintwork.

Lots of scratches, the "Princess" decal long gone from the top tube, and -- worst of all --
damage to the seat tube where a previous owner apparently draped a lock from the saddle rails.

Ideally, I would love to have the whole bike resprayed, but I felt mired in indecision over whether to go for as-close-to-original as possible (including reproduction decals) or opt for something entirely different. I hesitated to jettison the Puch branding and identity altogether. However, the decals are the distinctive part of the 'livery' and I've never been 'in love' with the distinct 1970s vibe they give off. Don't get me wrong, they've rather grown on me over time. But if I were planning the colour scheme of this bike from scratch, this isn't what I would have come up with! The light metallic green colour might well have made my shortlist of colour options but in the end would have likely lost out to something else -- possibly navy, maybe even red. That would be a crying shame but I know in my heart I could not promise I wouldn't. 

Hence my inaction over doing something about the tired, worn paintwork. 

Over last winter, while the bicycle mostly hibernated (only coming out on dry days for a bit of coffeeneuring and errandonneuring), I shoved this 'first world' problem to the back of my mind. 

There it lie dormant, just waiting for a catalyst to wake it up.

Spotting this on ebay proved to be that catalyst.

Tandem Dreaming

FNRttC Burnham © The5MileCyclist 2013 

Adam and I love our Circe Helios Duo and we've done two Friday Night Rides to the Coast on it. However, the value it brings to our life lies much more in its cargo-hauling capabilities. We haven't used it in tandem mode enough to get my stoker position and fit completely sorted to my satisfaction. What we have is okay for 50-60 miles and it's an easy set-up when swapping out from cargo mode the day before a tandem ride. 

However, I do ponder from time to time the possibilities that might present themselves if we had a road tandem with the sizing for captain and stoker optimised for us. At the moment, it's no more than idle speculation and musings, as I linger over stories, reviews and photos on other blogs, such as --

Carbon Test Ride #2 - Er, Aborted.

I found myself in London on Wednesday and popped into "my" CycleSurgery store.

I say "my" because, before I started cycling again as an adult and even before I started window shopping for a bicycle, I shopped around for a bike shop first. And the CycleSurgery ("CS") on Procter Street (near Holborn tube station) was where I felt more welcome, best listened to. I bought my first adult bike there. I bought a few more bikes elsewhere in the year that followed, but then went back to CS for a second Brompton. And very nearly bought my first light road bike there -- a 2012 Specialized Ruby Comp -- only to be scuppered by my finance application being rejected.

On the strength of the relationship with CS, I popped in and asked if they happened to have a 51cm Ruby in stock available for a test ride. They didn't. However, they have a close partnership with the Specialized Concept Store ("SCS") just down the road near Seven Dials, so they picked up the phone and found that, yes, the SCS had a 51cm Ruby on the shop floor. I was told it was being set aside for me, available for a test ride anytime before 7pm that day.

I turned up at the SCS around 5.45pm. The three people I chatted with were friendly and helpful. But it all began to go wrong when the young sales assistant said to me, as he knelt down to remove my pedals from my Pacer for fitting to the Ruby --

"Oh and you'll have to have your credit card swiped for a deposit while you're out on the Ruby".

No problem, getting prior authorisation on a token sum (up to £50) is typical, so that the store knows your card is valid.

"Fine, how much?" I asked.

"The full value of the bike," he answered.

A trifle shocked, my reply was nonetheless calm and firm:

"While I do have that kind of money -- thank you very much -- and wouldn't be here otherwise, you've just closed the door to a possible sale, because I am not having £2,500 effectively removed from my account for 7-10 days" (as that's how long it can take for an unclaimed authorisation to drop away).

So -- no test ride.

I've still not ridden a Specialized carbon bicycle. Now it looks like I never will.

Meanwhile, however, my investigations into titanium continue and indeed are looking rather hopeful...

Carbon Test Ride #1.

In pursuit of test riding a carbon-framed bicycle, I visited Pedalworks in Dunstable on Wednesday. Brian, the owner, took the time to set me up with a carbon-framed bicycle on a trainer to get a decent fit -- including swapping out for a shorter stem and even a faster set of wheels!  Fantastic service there (though Brian is a bit of a Marmite character!)

The bike I rode was the Trek Domane 4.3 WSD:

Carbon Testing

The first carbon bike to catch my eye:  2010 Specialized Ruby "Komen"

One day I'll give up on the idea of making a stock-size bicycle meet my fit requirements. On that day, I will look the chaps at Cyclefit in the eye and say "custom fit me". And then I'll have to decide on a frame material... My choices will probably be carbon, titanium or the new super-light steel. 

I must admit, I favour the idea of titanium, heavily influenced by one remark by Velouria of the Lovely Bicycle blog when she first test rode a titanium-framed bike: "you don't feel the bumps, you feel only the echoes of bumps". Or something to that effect - I'll have to go on a search for her exact words. Velouria is currently test riding a series of carbon bikes though, and it sounds like the ride quality is a little different but just as good in its own way.