Without airing my private life online, lets just say the last three months have been among the worst I can remember for the last 15 years….hence me ‘Going Dark’……
To summarise….my life has been like this since February:
And now it’s like this:
Normal service will be resumed shortly
The Paradoxes of Motion (Zeno’s paradoxes)
“In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead.”
—Aristotle, Physics VI:9
So, we ALL know i’m slow, but life is throwing shit at me currently so slow has slowed down to ‘More than slow’ so bear with me and try not to fall asleep
EWR Project….remember that in the depths of your mind?…well, here’s another small step for mankind. My NOS 1 1/8″ Accutrax are now back from the paintshop and the fresh decals have been ordered. I’m currently trying to figure out how to cut down a stem spacer diagonally so I can play with bar heights using a Syncros Cattlehead stem….then we are in business
In the meantime….here’s some freshly painted Accutrax that have been out of harms way while the clearcoat hardened.
There’s a bunch of ‘heavy’ stuff going on at Goat Central, hence the lack of Blog posts but here’s a quick update on the continuing ‘Tool Time’ post from a few weeks back .
The second task on that list (M100 ‘Dale – Remove 1 1/4″ Chris King NoLogo (bike being sold)) is now complete and I have this beautiful 3DV King No-Logo headset back in the spares box. Harsh economic times says sell this badboy but my heart says I should keep it stashed as locating another one of these would cost $$$ if I ever have another 3DV project
‘I said hep cats, sinners, brats
Suck on this for sunshine
This is the resurrection
Yea, of the good times
I said hep cats, sinners, brats
Sunshine
This is the resurrection
Yea, yea, yea, of the good times…’
No time to play recently but some hastily grabbed time allowed my first love to be rebuilt from the pile of parts that has been thrown in my shed for the last 8 months. It’s a shame to have such a nice bike all broke up so now its back up and running, alive an kicking….maybe one day I will get to take it out for a ride….
No more words….just lots of pictures…..enjoy
For the first time in six months I have been separated from my EWR 
It has gone to the paintshop for a few weeks while the new Answer Accutrax get colour matched to the frame. It’s a task that needs doing but I’m gonna miss that legendary ride and will have to bring this old friend back from the dead as a stand in.
Sadly it does not currently look as nice as it does in the picture below, its been partially stripped and flung in the back of my shed since September 2009 when I started a wild love affair with my yellow EWR, turning my back on my first love……my Pace RC200 
Never fear, it will be back but for starters this is how it DID look earlier last year:
‘Stock Checking’ tonight revealed a glut of forks stashed at Goat Central so why not dig them out for a little group shot….its nice seeing just over a decade of fork design layed out before your eyes too….Answer Accu Trax from 1988 and RC36 Pro Class Ltd Edition from 1999 
“Does everybody know what time it is?”
It’s Tool Time but sadly I have no “Tool Time girl” to assist me with my duties….
Ok, so there’s a mega ‘Headset switchfest’ due to take place here at Goat Central, here’s the moves, try and keep up
EWR – Switch Chris King Devolution for Chris King Classic (now I have the correct forks..)
M100 ‘Dale – Remove 1 1/4″ Chris King NoLogo (bike being sold)
Funk Pro Comp – Switch non period-correct Chris King Classic for Chris King NoLogo
M700 ‘Dale – Remove remains of WTB Greaseguard headset (bike being sold).
I like to use the correct tools instead of Caveman Techniques when I can so the following weapons will be deployed…Star Nut Tool, Headset removal tool, Headset Press.
Last nights job was the EWR, the current Accutrax have been sold to another collector and I need to convert back to 1 1/8″ headset so I can use my new Accutrax
“More power!”
Brakes off
Magura mounts off
Bars and stem off
Just the pesky crown race to remove
No more riding my EWR for a while
I know I am not supposed to buying, I am supposed to be selling but…………sometimes things come along that you just HAVE to have and some of these are just that, the rest are ‘just in case’ purchases (well, a man can’t have too many items of M650 DX laying around can he?……).
First things first, we have a NOS M650 DX Rear Mech in the most handy Long Cage version…just a ‘spare’ you know….
Secondly we have a used M650 DX Rear Mech, again in Long Cage flavour and great for spare parts or fitting to a beater.
Thirdly and getting cooler by the minute we have a set of Syncros Revolution cranks in Compact Drive……about bloody time too as I have spent embarrassingly large amounts of time trying to track one of these badboys down for my EWR and this will be among the final pieces of the jigsaw required to complete that project. They are missing a few items which is a bummer cos I’ll have to rob them from some of other sets of Revolutions but maybe I can live with that……just
Ok, now these ARE special. Firstly they are Answer Accutrax in 1 1/8″ flavour, something I have been hunting for since this time last year and only found these in California back in November. It took a while to piece the deal together but they have now arrived in the UK and I can set to work getting them ready for my EWR.
Maybe the cooler part of this story is these are technically NOS and…..wait for it…..hand made by Chris Herting only last year .
The story goes that he found a bunch of Accu Trax legs laying around in some dusty storage facility and word got out, he figured there might not be much demand but rumour has it the demand was HUGE and he set about making them up in ‘custom’ variations. This set have passed thru a couple of collectors hands before arriving at Goat Central but believe me, you can still smell the ‘new metal’ smell and they are spotless.
Naturally I will be sending these to my trusty painter soon to get them matched to my yellow EWR before getting them decalled up and fitted on the bike…..these are so cool and I am so pleased I finally got a pair
Met up with another RetroBike member yesterday for a leisurely ride around Salcey Forest in Northamptonshire, despite the cold temperature, some of the first sunshine for months drew the crowds so it was a little busy there and people were blissfully unaware they were walking on a Bike Trail 
.
One of the big draws at Salcey Forest is the Tree Top Walk, one day I WILL ride a bike up it 
We did 17.5 miles before going our separate ways…….some pix:
Klein & EWR
Tree Top Walk
There’s been way too much ‘Goods Inwards’ over the last 2 years and My Cup Runneth Over as they said in the Hebrew Bible so, three months later than planned the first items have left the Goat Shed
This week this lovely Syncros Cattleprod quill stem left my ‘stores’ where it has sat untouched since I bought it back in 2007….’just in case’ (). The neat thing is this….the guy I bought it from three years ago was looking for one last week on RetroBike so I sold it back to him .
There’s a big bunch of top drawer parts soon to be leaving the Goat Shed in the next few weeks, including bike frames, 2010 is the year of the cull 
