Well my final total for the week is 254 miles! My best week of riding probably for about 12 years. I don't think I've been up in that areas since before we had the boys.
After my 3 days off, I was back at work on Thursday, but still got 20+ miles in, including 10 or so with Jayne in the evening. After my two 60+ mile the previous two days, I was pleased with how little it hurt. Friday was just straight to work and back (via the Villa).
Yesterday, we did a few miles in the morning before setting out in the afternoon to get the tandem. Yes it was finally ready. The price was a bit higher than expected, £420 for the metal work and £330 for the paint job, but they did an all in price of £710, so about £100 more than expected. But it looked fantastic. Metallic purple with silver Swallow stickers. It looks very pretty.
The above one is a bit colour mis-matched due to the camera flash, but shows the Swallow logo better than the non-flash shots I took.
Now for the bad news....
First of all, I dropped the forks getting the frame out the back of the car, resulting in a small chip in the paint. Doh!
Then, I couldn't get the cartridge bottom bracket in all the way. So I took it out and thought that the BB shell threads weren't cut deep enough to take the cartridge BB I had. But the old fashioned ball and axle style BB's I had must have come out of it in the first place, so must fit. I spent ages trying to get the fixed cup side screwed in. In the process managed to ping the adjustable spanner (the only spanner I have big enough to fit the BB cup) off and into the seat tube, chipping off another chunk of paint. But I could not get the adjustable cup side in tight enough, eventually snapping the pin head off my pin spanner trying. So I undid it by getting a set of very aggressively toothed pipe grips on the thread side and winding it out. I then had to take the fixed side out as well. Fortunately, screwing in the fixed cup had set enough thread to now fit the cartridge BB with not too much difficulty.
The eccentric tandem BB shell, which I had real doubts about because I'd stretched the rubber o-ring seals, slipped in with no trouble. The headset and forks went in easily as well. As did the Hope mechanical disc calliper. Things were looking up. I thought I'd just check the alignment with the wheel. Disaster! The wheel wont go round smoothly, the disc rubs fairly firmly against the inner brake pad, which is at its most inward setting. It seems the frame builder either measured wrongly or set the calliper wrongly , maybe without the floating sleeves installed, which off set things by about 1.3mm, not enough to be right, but workable. I reckon it is about 3mm out. and unusable. I have to give then a ring tomorrow.
In order to cheer myself up, I went out with Karl and Alison today. We decided to drive 20 miles up the road and explore a different area to our usual haunts. We parked up at Over Kellert and rode north. The plan was to stop at a pub or cafe in one of the small towns/villages on the way to Kendall. In practice, they all turned out to be real one horse towns, with no cafe or pub. We ended up at Killington Lake motorway services on the M6, accessed via some back roads. After a quick bite to eat and a cup of tea we set off from there to Kirby Lonsdale. The roads were very up and down, very steep, very narrow, but virtually no traffic. I think on the 15 miles from Killington to Kirby Lonsdale we must have been passed by fewer than 5 cars. At Kirby Lonsdale we had a cup of tea, bacon and egg buttie and a toasted tea cake, sat in the sunshine. Then 10 fairly leisurely miles back to the car and home.
Got home to hear that Jayne's Dad is still not very well. Its one of these situations where if his temperature comes down everything is fine, if not it might be pancreatic cancer, kidney infection or just a bit of a virus. The mildest of these are serious for a 78 year old.
Hope you and yours are well
Cheers
Tim
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