The bike is finally sorted!! Look how pretty it is :)
Its my trusty Bianchi via nirone thats been on all my adventures thus far - Alu frame, carbon forks, 105 groupset.
I changed the front wheel to a Planet X model B and got Leisure Lakes in Daventry to build me a rear wheel. 32 spokes, Mavic A319 rim and a Shimano 105 hub, should be nice and strong. It needs to be!
I had the Planet X rear wheel too after some forum reccommendations, a spoke went on its 1st ride!! So sacked that right off - especially as they had no spare spokes!! -20 points to them.
To be self sufficient I fitted a Top peak Super tourist Pannier rack to the rear, and some Ortleib back roller Panniers for all my stufff and mounted the tent on the top of the rack (Quechua ultralight T2 Pro)
Its heavy!! 23KG so far, more liek 25 once its fully loaded up!! That means that any gradient over 2/3% becomes a ballache - Craigs upgrade shop fitted a SRAM 12-32 cassette on the rear which means I almost have a 1:1 ratio possible to get up steep hills, slowly but painlessly. I had to steal a deraillieur from a mountain bike to accomodate the dinner plate of a rear cog, still its 105 so I'm happy.
The lovely people at Leisure Lakes Daventry not only built my wheel and gave me a 15% discount on anything i needed bt they also serviced my bike - It was clunking a lot and wasn't smooth at all until now! Its like i'm riding a cloud, loves it!
The ferry finally got booked today after waiting and waiting for a response from Brittany ferries abotu some sort of charitable discount, which did not happen. Swines.
0815 Portsmouth - Caen, it means day 2 needs to start at 430am - Can't wait for that!
T minus 5 days!!
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