The Pogward Resplendent

Well what can I say, this thing is probably as finished as it will ever be now, short of some different brakes if I can find anything suitable, and just possibly dismantling the rear hub and polishing the housing so the finish matches the front hub - this might be excessively anal though. I have discovered some latent OCD in the last few months, so who knows.

I treated the beast to a new set of Shwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, as the rear tyre was pretty cut up and bald, and as a finishing touch made a copper headbadge.

This will not be the end of the blog I imagine, I found myself laying out the geometry for a new frame in Solidworks this morning, something quite different than this... parts may be ordered soon.

Anyway, lets let the pics tell the story.

Grab your coat

A surprise update!

After the last update I got to pondering the fact that the Pogward was starting to look really quite tatty..... the rust was getting worse but not worse enough that it became awesome, and overall it was looking kind of bland. 'Sod it' I said, it needs some loving, and in extremely short order this happened;

A complete Pogward, Thursday last

One hour later

I then brazed some extra bits onto the rack

So my pannier lower catch had something to catch onto

Some potentially, but not actually, awesome rust

More of the same

So I had decided that powdercoating was the order of the day, as it has worked out very well on my lovely wifes' Mixte, so I took the frame to the same place, Elite Powdercoating. I got the call and picked it up 3 days later, and they have done a fantastic job;

A halogen induced misrepresentation of the frames true colour

Frogmouth MkII is excited with his new protective layer

Nicely masked parts, the boys at Elite obviously cared, which I like

The rack and stem

The modicum of work I put into cleaning up the lug joints has paid off handsomely

Mmmmm nothing like a well defined lug

Our kitchen bench - the boss was out obviously

My favourite part of the frame

Having the finished frame back home was so exciting that at the first available minute after my familial tasks had been completed, I headed straight out to the garage. I pretty much finished putting the bulk of it together that night. Foolishly, with the enthusiasm of a schoolboy with his first stick mag, I decided to go for a test ride without checking everything..... unfortunately I had not tightened the steering so within half a meter I had dumped myself on the driveway, skinned most of my knee and twisted my ankle - what a dick. Fortunately there were no scratches to the bike, but I had to drive to work the next day and have been slightly hobbly for the last few days. Anyway, here is the preliminary results of my travails;

Personally I think that looks fantastic, it has lifted the whole look of it. I am not 100% convinced about the coloured stem, but it's not too distracting, so we will leave it to brew. The colour is a charcoal with a metallic flake, very pretty up close.

I also filled the tubes with this stuff as I figure it will add to the overall longevity.

There is a bit more loving to apply, but this should be done by next weekend.....

1000km Running Report

Long time no blog...


Not too much to report to be honest, except that sometime in the last few weeks I passed the 1000km  commuting mark on the Pogward - I have no idea exactly how far it is due to the lack of cycle computer, but it is definitely between 1000 and 1500kms...

The only niggles to speak of have been a squeaky crank and an annoying tendency for the left hand rear axle nut to come loose, the crank being the most annoying because no matter how tight I got the crank bolt it started loosening off almost immediately. I have never had problems like this with square taper cranks before, so I am guessing that the tapers on the dirty old Campy cranks must have been worn. I solved the problem by buying a nice set of Shimano 600 cranks and a new bottom bracket to suit - this has been totally sweet for a good few weeks now. One extra benefit of the new cranks is that I was getting a wee bit of heel strike on the chainstays with the Campagnolo items, this has now been eliminated which is a pleasing side effect of the change.

A filthy commuter, today.

As can be seen I also treated myself to a set of Shimano Saint pedals - I have these same pedals on the Surly now and they are very nice indeed, and should take the mountainous weight of yours truly with aplomb. There is also a sneaky Surly 42T Stainless Steel chainring hiding under the dirt and grime, this should also take many miles of punishment.

The axle nut comes loose over the course of a month or so, I might just double nut it for now, I just need to check it every couple of weeks at the moment...

This lack of exciting problems is really quite pleasing as the Pogward has had to deal with some fairly extreme conditions; snow, sleet and epic amounts of rain, so yay for me.

I have added much reflective shiny stuff in an effort to make myself more visible as you can see from the flash. This is probably pointless as Christchurch drivers are almost wilfully blind and/or careless when it comes to cyclists. I am not dead yet though, so there is hope it is doing something.

I have caved to peer pressure and replaced the BHT™ with some black electrical tape. I also bought some black brake pads, but these are to go with a set of old DiaComp brakes I just won off TradeMe, so total colour coordination will occur sometime later this week I would say.

You can see another quick and dirty project of mine in that pic, a 5 space angled bike rack. Unfortunately I have 10 bikes to find space for, so I shall build another the next free day I have. The angled thing is pretty good for minimising the space required while still allowing reasonable access, and my lovely wife appears to be pleased that they are not all draped around the garage as usual. Not as pleased as she would be if I dumped some of them at the tip I would venture, but still.

A motley collection of bicycles. I like how my wife's bike is the only one without a Brooks saddle.

I am just getting back into my weekend riding again, these rides have been pretty sparse of late due to our house getting earthquake repairs - we shifted out for 6 weeks, and the whole place was completely gutted and redone. It looks nice now, but many weekends have been filled up doing the many little jobs that have needed doing since the workmen have left. The actual work done on the house was of pleasingly high quality, although the cost of the extras we asked for was eye-wateringly steep. All I can say is; Get A Quote. Also for the record I must say that Canterbury EQR are a pack of lying, thieving, two-faced bastards whose mothers probably only bought them home from the hospital under duress.

So this morning, to the obvious displeasure of my wife who had somehow got the impression that I had agreed to spend the day in the garden helping her tidy up, I decided to ride the rail trail down to Little River and back. This was exceedingly pleasant, as only time spent avoiding something tiresome can be. The track was a bit bumpier than I expected but the Surly took things in it's stride like a true champ. Together we showed our heels to a surprising number of people on mountainbikes, which should have been more suited to the terrain...

The weather, temperature and views were just perfect;

Now with added Randonneur

A few weeks have passed in a blissful state of commute, the weather has been pretty spectacular and the winds kind. I have also gradually increased my fitness levels such that atop the trusty Surly I made it to the top of Dyers Pass without stopping once, and even passed someone! Admittedly she had a good decade on me and admitted that she was quite hungover, but still, take the victories as they come I say.

There have been many small changes to the bike, and it is now getting where I want it to be give or take a few bits here and there. I had already decided that the bullhorns were not doing justice to the classic look of the frame, so on a whim I bid on a set of Salsa Short and Shallow Cross Bars on TradeMe, mostly because they were very cheap and the right diameters for what was wanted.

This turned out a mistake really as the ergoness looked faintly ridiculous on such a classic looking frame. The reach was also a bit short for my stem, so I then decided to find the perfect bars, and an extensive internet search gave me this result;

The Velo Orange Randonneur bars along with the very similar Nitto 136A. I thought to myself that both of these would be pretty hard to find in NZ, but then I looked to see if there was a local distributor for Velo Orange, and lo! Contact Dave at Velo Ideale..... as it turned out Dave had the perfectly sized set in stock right there, so I snaffled them pretty sharpish.

They were put on last night and I am really quite pleased with the look;

A burgundy leather sofa, today

As much as this bike lends itself, I have observed correct etiquette with bicycle photography; valves at the bottom, crank aligned with downtube etc.

I painted the guards black as well, it looks much cleaner...

I love the slight upward curve of those bars

To clean up the look some more I did away with my cycle computer and relocated the light to the head tube. I also purchased those quite sexy little Tektro canti brake thingies from Dave as well, god I spend some money with that man.

My by now signature Blue Handlebar Tape (BHT™)

The stem has not broken yet, I am pleased

I reworked the Jtek Mount to be adjustable for both height and tilt, it is still slightly awkward to pull it back into 1st, and kind of in the way until you get to 5th, but I cruise in 6th and is dead easy to get there so it is an acceptable compromise.

The other slightly disturbing thing that has happened is this;

Fresh rust on a handbuilt bicycle frame, today

I fully expected it, but maybe not within 2 weeks of getting it coated. This just confirms my belief that paint is for mugs. I guess it is because the clear coat does not have an etch prime like paint does. I don't really mind as long as it does not get structural, but I am now toying with the idea of electroplated coatings. There is a particular one I have in mind, but it would mean sending the frame up to Auckland, which I am disinclined to do. We shall have to see.