anglia4

Have spent the night in the shed working on this beasty. Got a bit carried away with undoing the wiring ready for the new switches and thingys. I've ended up pretty much cutting off everything in front of the triple clamp It was a long slow process though of tracing wires, drawing diagrams and labelling things so that I can piece it back together with as much as I can hidden away. Does anybody have an old front mud guard lying around that I can trim up into a real short bugger for this build?

So tempted to poach that color scheme! I've totally fallen in love with the bright red frame

Few more tacks here and there to make sure it doesn't come apart. Need to make something for the front of it to meet the tank nicely. Then it will need a good dose of filler to get it smooth. Then paint. Also need to make it stay on the bike somewhere in that process too.

Pictures can do the talking

I've got a 40% uni test this afternoon so I decided I'd get into the shed for a couple of hours to clear my head a bit. Bit of careful hack-sawing and then alot of very careful filing: Will talk to the powdercoating peoples tomorrow. POGWARD - How hard do you think it would be to drill the drop-outs for stops to set the chain tension? I'm thinking pretty fucking difficult. To the point of totally not worth it?

The mudguard eyelets were another + that I had noticed too. I have had a bit of a look on the net, they seem to just be braze ons, lots of people cut them off and file them smooth, others heat up the brazing and pluck them off. Might try cutting them off. Or mount a bell or light on them haha

Got sick of studying this afternoon so I stripped down the Tri-Ace for weight comparisons The Chrome Giro is a bit bigger than I was expecting when I bought it. I think it might be a bit big for me ideally. Putting the two next to each other, the Tri-Ace appears to have a lower bottom bracket, I dunno what effect that has? I think the Tri-Ace weighs about 3.5kg including forks and bottom bracket. Its hard to tell exactly though cos I'm just weighing myself and then myself+bike on the bathroom scales, its not that scientific for exact weights, but it does give a reasonable comparison of which is lighter - The Tri-Ace beats the Giro by around 300g. I would say the extra weight is in the forks as the ones on the Giro aren't the originals I don't think. I think the Tri-Ace will be the better bike for me, down to its size and that its the lighter of the two. It has Tange 900 steel. I spied an old Avanti Ultra at uni today, its my size and has Tange Infiniti steel. Was thinking if I see it again I might offer him a hundy for it

Whats the best way to get the shifter posts off the downtube? I don't want to simply attack them with a grinder and then find that they go right through and I now have a big hole in my frame. Are they just braze-ons or would they go all the way through?

Yup. Have got biopace plastered all over them.

Cheers Vege-lee. I think it was just the position that the seat is in. And my hips might have been hugely more bent than normal cos of the stretch to reach any useful part of those bars which would give the illusion that the cranks were further forward. I didn't notice the chainrings being any different to ride with. But with the aero and skinny arse tires its bloody quick. Grab a harder gear and keep pedalling, it doesn't get any harder, just goes heaps faster. I'm going to strava some rides to uni and compare speeds with my healing

dismantling/selling/throwing out or doing anything with the Turbo frame will be the hardest. Its been such a trusty steed. I think I'll end up pulling all the useful things off and just hanging the frame and fork on the wall on display. Just rode the tri-ace to uni. Feels pretty fast, nice and smooth despite the tiny strips of rubber at 100PSI. Those bars are pretty weird to ride with haha don't think my back can handle full aero position + look like a total homo riding in my slacks and tee-shirt in full aero position Does anyone know the geometry differences between a road bike and a tri-bike? I felt like the bottom bracket is further forward, but probably just need to put the seat where I want it/tear off those bars

So I've got the Tri-ace now, still waiting for the Gyro to turn up. I have a bad personality problem where I buy something for a purpose, and then it arrives and I go all "oh nah its too good to do that to!" This thing has amazed me, all the cables are rusty as. The tyres looked completely fucked. Chain looks rusty to the point where I didn't think it would turn. Put it on the bike stand, pumped up the tires (so far they are holding 80PSI) put it through the gears. EVERYTHING WORKS FLAWLESSLY And i also discovered it has elliptical chain rings This bike fuckin rocks. Instead of stripping it down and turning it into my single speed commuter. Now I want to start doing triathlon so I have an excuse to leave it as is haha. Can't do that though cos then everyone would murder me when I buy yet another bike for the commuter. I will take it for a ride up the port hills before I strip it though. If only just to try out those bars! The tyres dunno what the fuck they are, the rear says its a 700x20c and it looks tiny compared to my 23c's, but the front says its a 700x25c, but also looks equally as midget when I hold up my 23c next to it I've cast it over the scales and its about 11.5kg in full trim, so by the time I have got rid of some crap and added some different crap, it might be getting to around where I want it. I'm not going to put the chrome steel rack on it from the healing but I would like to run the mudguards. Might try and find a light-weight rack, as it is super handy as I found yesterday when I impulse bought a pack of 10 vice-grips at bunnings when all I went for was welding tips. Tl;dr?? Fair enough

Sweet as. I thought they were pretty cheap. Open pipes would be cool too...

Pretty sure they match! Haha, had to go and check though! I wouldn't mind getting some more the same if I ever came across some cheap. Someone has done a pretty hory job of attaching these ones and it bugs me sometimes.

Bit more progress tonight. I started by cutting a big long strip and then folding 10mm over along one edge. Then wrapped it around the rear of the seat. Then had a much around with the tin snips and it pretty much fell into place. I'm thinking I will just overlay the edges like this to make it easier to weld with my poor set-up. Still alot of shaping to go to get it to where I'm happy but thats what hammers and filler are for Pretty happy with how its going so far though!

Have been driving the spitfire all day today. Could feel the inside rear tire scrubbing as the body rolled. Actually stopped to see if the tires were flat Scary scary little car but sooooo much fun to drive

My half arsed slightly rough measurements put the Anglia length at ~355-360 from center of inner mounting to rough center of ball joint. Mk2 Cortina is ~380.

Be right back!

I love watching my sisters spitfire go on the hoist... you would almost swear the wheels are going to tuck under until they touch each other

Tossed out a couple of sneaky bids on things over the last couple of days. Unexpectedly no-body bid against me... So now I have bought both of these: Chrome Avanti Giro Milazo Tri-ace Will figure out which I like more, steal the parts I want (like those amazing bars on the tri-ace) and sell the rest. I might continue this process through several iterations over the next few years (much to the horror of my fiance)

Racing this weekend?? If the weather is up to it and we don't break anything tomorrow might see you there. Watch out for the lightning

There are a couple of projects in there that people go in and work on.

Nah man it would be perfect! Its not all crazy expensive stuff.

This update isn't relevant to my sweet sweet old bikes (well it kinda is cos it has seriously delayed the major spending required for the healing diet) I was cleaning my Torrent today and discovered the aftermath of a high speed trip out the front door on mount grey a couple of weeks back I had gone to bunny hop a log at rather high speed and just didn't quite clear it, the bike disappeared from underneath me at a great rate of knots into some nice big rocks. When I got back on the bike the forks felt slow, so I blamed it on that, told my mates the cold must have been fucking with my fork oil viscosity (it was like sub zero) so I wound a couple of clicks into the rebound. That picture doesn't do a flash job of showing it, but there is a bloody solid dent where the deep graze is, and its right where the bushes go So I'm thinking it will probably be a little more than just replacing the lowers. Will discuss it with the insurance company tomorrow morning. Completely ruined my day finding that.