Blue Monday has been and gone and we are all still here, so that's something to be pleased about. I don't know whether it's a good or catastrophically bad thing that it felt no different to any other day for us. We are choosing to see it as a positive though. There are no good images for Blue Monday, so Mrs A has requested a "sexy Chris Isaak picture from his Blue Hotel days instead". Urgh. Enjoy...?
The weather has been frosty but beautiful and I'm finding my rhythm again and enjoying my days in the workshop more. Maybe that's just because they are a stark contrast to my daddy daycare days and I know I need to get more done to make them worthwhile? Sharing full-time bubba care with Mrs A means that we have to break up the week according to who is most snowed under with work and while Amy can often work around the small one, I'm not quite ready to sling her in her hiking pack and introduce her to the brazing torch. Yet.
When I got into the workshop this week it was full steam ahead to finish the commuter project that has been fun. We'll be sad to see this one leave but it's going to a great home, so the rack was the final job that needed buttoning up. It was built specifically to seat a Wald basket and it has come out beautifully.
About the rack: full chromoly construction, unfiled fillets (customer request to match the frame, not an ego-trip!), every mounting point is stainless steel (standard issue design feature from us), internal wire routing for the Supernova headlight. The headlight has been mounted to be adjustable both horizontally and vertically, because this adds a lot of beam tuning capability. Super important for potential overseas riding, as a vertical shift only gives you so much visibility. There are lots of cool ways to mount a Wald basket to a rack but we think we've tried something totally new. We've used the stock mounting points in the base of the basket, cut the upper mounts out and replaced them with a single Gilles Berthoud mudguard stay clip that secures the perimeter rail to the tombstone at the back of the rack. Three M5 bolts fixes it securely but also allows for fast and simple removal. Clever huh? The tombstone uprights have been offset to offer a touch more clearance and underside of the legs have been shaped to match details on the frame and fork.
The whole project is off to powdercoat now, as it needs to be durable and budget-friendly. The colour scheme is going to add a lot of personality here. It won't be to everybody's taste, but no bike ever is, before you bitch about it.
Last week we made a batch of custom barrel nut brackets for Firefly and this week, we've gotten a whole heap of our standard styles in stock. We have compatible versions for Thomson, Salsa and Pro seatclamps all in our shop now, but if you're in London and in a hurry, you will be able to snag one from Cloud 9 Cycles or SBC Cycles soon. Thanks so much for the support guys, it means a lot!
We've also been busy with wheels, trying to find out when certain spokes are going to be back in stock and at the weekend, we treated ourselves to a session on our MK1 Polo too. We really are the worst kind of cyclists: we don't pay road tax for our two or four-wheeled modes of transport. Ha. On a plus note, the Fiat 500 was returned and Mrs A learned a valuable lesson: even a rusty old pos VW is better than a new Fiat 500.
The website has had a little freshen up, so take a look if you have a few minutes to kill and yes, we are trying to sort the readability issues on smaller devices!
Shithead of the Week: In a refreshing twist of fate, there is no shithead this week. That might be because we haven't seen anybody, but let's not think too hard about it and just take a win. Hopefully you've all been bestowed the gift of a shithead-free week as well.
[mic drop]
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