Not a good week…

Weds the screen on my laptop died.

Thurs the HDD on my desktop PC failed. Backup? hmmm….

Yesterday (13th) was fine.

This morning I went out on the Roadie. Got absolutely drenched at about the furthest point from home. Still soggy 1.5 hours later.

Then wheeling the bike down into the cellar I’m looking at my rusty stem bolts and spot this…

The lower bolt hole has cracked. Bugger. Oh well, stems aren’t too expensive, and it’s about 10 years old.

Then I pop the stem off and spot this…

A nice split down the front of my full carbon steerer. That’s a proper, proper arse. Again, they must be 10+ years old – I bought the frameset secondhand in 2005, and although it hadn’t had a lot of use, it had been ridden.

(At least I found them both before my teeth found themselves embedded in the tarmac – I’m not known for going slowly downhill)

But it leaves me in rather a quandry. Replacement Easton EC90 forks are about £233, plus £40ish for a stem. Except I’d been thinking about a new bike in a few months time – probably a nice custom disced up steel jobby form 18bikes. But if I splurge on new parts for the Roadster, I can’t really justify having them surplus in 4 months time. The rest of the bike is pretty tired too – 2004 Record gruppo and 2005 Ksyrium SLs, and I simply can’t afford to replace like for like at the moment, and I just can’t face (read “am too snobby”) to buy a Planet X or a Ribble as an interim bike, especially when either, with a 1/2 way decent spec on will still wipe out most of my savings.

Gaaaahhhh!!!!

There’s some fantastic ‘mid range’ full carbon jobs, ksyrium’s, Ultegra for ~£1800. It would make more sense than sticking £270 into something that’s only worth ~£400 anyway. Go for mid range and you needn’t wipe out all your reserves ?

was weighing up a bike2work type rig this week. wasn’t that impressed so stuck a set of new wheels on my old bike et voila a bike i like with shine new wheels on. i reckon get the fork and just put backbuying the new one a bit

Buy cheaper / sh parts?

Jon I’ve got some forks and a stem you can just have, well, have if they a. Fit and b. you make a small donation to my Just Giving Page for Make a Wish. The amount is up to you.

The forks are Condor Nero, basically Deda Nero, 1 1/8th straight carbon steerer and blades, rake is I think 54mm no clearance for mudguards. Stem is a Deda 110mm jobbie.

Happy to help out, you pay postage naturally.

I simply can’t afford to replace like for like at the moment, and I just can’t face (read “am too snobby”) to buy a Planet X or a Ribble as an interim bike

too cheap AND too snobby 😉

you might be surprised what you can get for “Ribble” prices.