TP1687 Broomieknowe
Time for a quick catch up starting with my three single speed bike projects. All three bikes, the Harley Quinn, the Surly Ogre and the Surly Pugsley fat bike are all complete, though the Ogre and Pugsley have since been modified slightly. Both have had their handlebars replaced with the original Alpkit Confucius bars (painted to match) along with the Drop Bear handlebar bags and Surly frame bags. Got a bit fed up with a sweaty back from carrying a heavy rucksack. With the Harley Quinn I’ve commissioned a custom frame bag from Alpkit which should arrive in the next few weeks. I’m hoping in time for the Scottish Turf Open Championship on 30th September.
Now onto the next project, custom painting the Swifty Air kick scooter. The scooter has been fully stripped down ready for rubbing down and priming. I originally planned to go with the same Spray.Bike colours used on the above bikes but had some issues getting hold of the colours. Some were out of stock and when sourced elsewhere from Brick Lane Bikes in London, found I would be getting stung with special postage costs. Initially, there was no postage on orders over £50.00 but a note popped up something about dangerous goods which I complained about and did not get a satisfactory reply, so cancelled the order. Searching online, I came across an alternative brand, Montana Colours from Santafixie, which were also half the price compared to Spray.Bike. I’ve gone for the full range of seven fluorescent colours along with white. Just need to decide on the colour pattern. Oh, I also found the headset bearings need replaced as do the brake blocks.
Tyre puncture sealant next. For about 13 years now I’ve run inner tubes with tyre sealant, a sticky goo that, when the tube is punctured, reacts with the air and seals the hole. And having recently fitted lightweight TPU inner tubes, I also wanted tyre sealant for them as well. However, the narrow inner tube stem meant that my injection kit would not work. But all was not lost. Some lateral thinking came up with a simple solution. And that was to buy a meat injecting syringe from Amazon for about £10.00, remove the valve cores and simply inject the sealant into the tube. Suck and squirt, so easy and much less messy. I also baulked at the cost of dedicated bicycle tyre sealant and decided to try some agricultural sealant from OKO which is much more cost effective. My thinking is that if it works on the likes of quad bikes, tractors and construction plant, it should work fine on my bikes.
And to finish, a new interest to add to the list, trig bagging. I might have blamed Scott at Mutts Cycles for bringing this one to my attention but in reality, I’ve been trig bagging for years and even once started a blog about the subject but it fell by the wayside when Turf came alone. But a posting on the Turf Scotland WhatsApp group got me interested again.
The posting was about a publication with the grand title of: The Edinburgh & The Lothians Trig Bagger Challenge Logbook: Hiking & Walking Challenge Featuring 71 Trig Pillars in Edinburgh & The Lothians in Scotland. I was immediately interested and ordered the book from Amazon. Should be here in a few days and we can get started.
In fact, I’ve already got started by visiting my nearest trig point, or to be more accurate, trigonometrical station, late last night, or early this morning, whatever you prefer. TP1687 Broomieknowe Golf Course is located in the edge of same and is not easy to approach during the day when golf is in play. Until recently, it could be approached from the A768 Melville Dykes Road but the land is now a building site, so a nocturnal visit was required. So, one down another 70 to go. Should be fun. Back soon.
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