The Climb

I got my hands on some vintage wool.  Looks retro chic, borderline dandy!  the cut is Fitted and comfortable but the wool reminds me of why I didn’t like wool as a kid –itchiness!  Should be fine over a base layer though.

I adore the shape of this bar!  So short, so shallow, comfortable.

Home turf!

Stringbike - Strings attached! from Stringbike on Vimeo.

Not to be pesimistic but this thing looks too complicated for its own good. The mechanics ,although well thought out and pretty, remind me of a rudimentary stair-climber workout machine.

via Wired

Miserable dust caps!  These ones were sized and made of some kind of brittle crap that did not lend itself to be useful for any tool.  First, the Allen holes stripped with one turn of the wrench.

I did the next best thing and drilled two holes to get my pliers in.  This may have been more successful if I had spanner wrenches but highly unlikely as the holes broke under the torque.  On the non drive side I cut a slot to insert a big head screwdriver in but the result was the same…

The whole thing fell apart.  At this point i pounded and chiseled away to no success.

I cut the non drive arm off with an abrasive grinder, not bad as this arm is salvageable if someone can figure out how to drill out the spindle.

The bottom bracket could now be removed on this side. The problem is there was no way of getting the blade in to cut the other side of the spindle without cutting into the drive arm.

The carnage that ensued…

At least I got the the piece of crap off and the bottom bracket cups weren’t nearly as tough to remove.  Now I can get on with my paint removal.  Casualty:  Cranks.