Funny Week

I just cant be arsed!!!

All the bollocks with the tour, the weather in London, tons of DIY, busy at work, Asthma and hay fever, no dynamo or dulwich this week

I have still managed to ride 5 out of the last 7 days

3 x 45kms commutes
2 x 110kms solo surrey hills rides

nothing very fast, ave around 26kph for the whole week, but i have burnt plenty of cals around 9000.

Heading back to France in a few weeks, not planning any major rides, just want to get up every morning and get out for 3-4hrs in the morning sun

I was in Nice in march to watch contador win Paris-Nice,I was really impressed with his breakaway on the final day, But there is just something about the tour this year that stinks of shit!! I just hope for the sake of cycling he has kept his nose clean!!

Roll on summer

Ronniethescot

www.xacd.com.cn finished bike

-

Where to start? I really fancied a custom made frame but no way i could afford a go for a serotta,seven,moots,roberts, setavento I had heard about xacd on the web, £350 for a custom frame seemed like a bargain, if its shit some fool on ebay will buy it from me!

-

I emailed XACD around the last couple of days in May 07, Porter got back to within a 24 hrs, not the greatest command of English, but pleasant enough, Told him what I was looking for, roughly a 56cm audax frame, semi sloping top tube,clearance for mud guards and 32mm tyres(for cyclo-cross) bosses for touring racks, Emailed me back with an engineering drawing of a frame, I swapped a few emails over the next couple of weeks changing and tweaking a couple of mm's here and there, Got a final drawing which I was happy with, Told him I was keen to go ahead with the purchase, Sent me the bank transfer details and final price, £302 including shipping, I sent the money via my current account, halifax charged me £25 for the pleasure, 15 days later the frame was in my hands, no problems with import duty, customs, shipping.

-

The build

frame,shipping,bank charges £327

10 speed dura ace triple from ebay £320 (no brakes, bought it bit by bit)

frogs legs canti's from ebay £32

Bonty race x lite wheels 2nd hand £200

Bonty carbon stem,bars 2nd hand £75

ITM vista cross fork wiggle.com £80

odds and ends wiggle.co.uk £35

stickers (see link) great service £12

seat,post,pedals from my spare box

total £1081

total bike is around 8kgs

-

Still over a grand, but surely at least £1500 cheaper than anything from one of the custom builders.

-

Not done many miles on it yet, but so far my thoughts are,, mega comfy, really easy to ride on the drops, BB area is a little flexy, back end is stiff no brake rub when out of the saddle, so far so good, rest assured if something goes wrong, I will post the details.

-

LINKS

http://www.xacd.com.cn/

www.wiggle.co.uk

http://www.anothercyclingforum.com/

http://www.bikenames.com/

-

I hopefully this post will be useful, I'm no way connected to any of the company's, Just a tight arsed Scotsman in hunt of a cycling bargain.

-

DISCLAIMER

If you purchase from any of the links provided and your not happy, tough shit

UPDATE 4/5/09

After almost 2 years and 10000kms the bike is still going strong, No problems.

Update 5th December 09

Still going strong, I had it custom painted, and stuck some Sram red on it

To join or not to join????

I went out on the London Dynamo park ride on Saturday, Which is a lot closer and easier than getting over to Crystal Palace to join up with guys from dulwichparagon, Not sure what to do!!! unlike Dulwich they are not to keen on people turning up regularly without joining (£40 membership) which i guess is fair enough,,,,,,,, I might go out with them again next Saturday, then decide when the fat fucker GT gets back from Nice, reckons he is beating all my times on a the climbs around Nice, So i have just booked a flight, I cant have that fat fucker giving me grief for the rest of the summer, Not only are his shoes more BLING than mine, he can now beat me up the madonne and col d'eze.

Ride facts from Saturday

Out on the chinky import(need to buy some sensors for the polar) so very few digits!!!

Distance kms 42.1
Ave speed 29.7kph
Duration 1hr 24mins
Cals burned 1570
ave heart rate 171 bpm-max 194bpm

Heart rate is mega high??? I didn't feel too bad, Almost 30kph ave speed on the chinky import(pleased with that) , short but enjoyable ride.

Great to watch the tour today, roll on Tuesday,,,, when the fuck is summer gonna turn up?

The building has started

So far so good, I'm building it up with a dura ace 10 speed "shock horror" triple groupset, using frogs legs brakes, have gone for an ITM vista cyclo cross fork, Bars n stem are bonty race x lite, seat post is a spesh carbon, and a Ti flite saddle, No problems fitting anything yet, frogs legs are much easier the second time, the same goes for Nokon cables, Waiting on some cable stops from wiggle, Royal mail have lost my parcel!!!!! More like some work shy cunt still has it in the back of his van.

Cracking tour so far.

Ronniethescot

Its here!!

Its here!! well packaged, No problem with import duty, Thanks to the guy's at XACD marking it up as $30 bike frame parts, " Ah right touch"

I plan to build it up over the next few days, Its going to be a "one bike does all" club runs/cyclo-cross/touring/commuting/sportif's