Turf Blog 21-10-24

Today is new bike day. Yes, today sees the arrival of Ultimate Turfing Bicycle No. 2, the Sonder Broken Road. Regular visitors to Planet Gary may have followed my quest to create the Ultimate Turfing Bicycle No. 1, and the evolution of my Ribble CGR into that very fine beastie it is now. Okay, this turf blog is about bikes again and you will be forgiven if you don’t read any further. However, before we go any further.

Over the past year I’ve heard about turfers who have found that their one and only turfing bike is in need of repair and ends up in the capable hands of the local bicycle repairman such as Scott at Mutts Cycles in Newtongrange. So, how do you keep turfing if you are without your trusty steed? On foot perhaps? What about getting a second backup bike? You can pick up second hand for fairly reasonable amounts and have it as a spare, even lend it to other turfers who are in need. Just a thought.

After an anxious wait, a van arrives mid-morning, the doorbell rings and the delivery lady says she has a big box for me and it won’t fit through the letter box. Well, no mistaking what’s inside that rather snazzy carboard box. The side is printed with a really cool design which I’m going to keep to display in the shed.

Unboxing was straight forward and assembly only required attaching the front wheel, the handlebars, the saddle, adjusting saddle height and handlebar position, and bunging some air into the tyres. Also did a quick check that all other bolts and fittings were secure, checked for any damage and most importantly, checked the brakes worked, then followed with a short road test. Good, all is okay. Now for some fine tuning.

First job was to add some puncture sealant to the inner tubes. And that task did not get very far. Let air escape from the tyres, remove valve core, fail. Valve cores are not removeable. Bugger. Pump up tyres again. Need new tubes with removeable valve cores. Either that or go tubeless. But I’m not convinced about tubeless. You still need to carry a spare tube or two and how to you get all that air into the tyre fast out in the wild? I’ll need some convincing. Alternative tubes on order.

Next, add own pedals, swap handlebar grips for my preferred Ergon GP1 grips, install jingly bell and Quad Lock mobile phone mount. Go for another test ride. Then trim handlebars as 780mm wide is ridiculous and uncomfortable. Finished.

This left a couple of decisions to make, the first one being mudguards. I can never understand why bikes destined for off-road use, particularly here in Scotland, where conditions under-wheel can be, well, you know, rather Scottish, and why riders have this strange desire to get covered in dirty water, glutinous glorious mud and pungent wild haggis droppings, is beyond me. You can even spend £10,000, or even more, on an off-road bike and it doesn’t even have mudguard mounts. Or even have pedals for that matter.

Anyway, I want mudguards, preferably full ones at that. First thing to do is check there is enough clearance between tyre and frame for mudguards. Recommendations seems to suggest about 15 mm minimum but I’ll aim for more. Fine there. Yes, there is a downside to full mudguards off-road with stones, mud, leaves and twigs getting picked up but I’m happy to accept that to stay clean and dry. Thankfully, the frame on the Sonder Broken Road has mudguard attachment points at the rear, so no problem there for fitting normal full mudguards. However, the carbon Pathfinder front forks do not.

They do have cage mounts which I can use to attach the mudguard stays but nothing to attach the mudguard at the fork bridge. But the good old internet provides some ideas. One was to use expandable steerer plug for carbon forks, which I can fit into the stem at the bottom, providing a mounting point for the mudguard. However, no steerer hole to fit that so scratch that idea.

Next idea, use cable ties. After some thought I’ll use the sliding bridge from the rear mudguard (manufacturing an L-shaped bracket to replace it) on the front and secure to the forks to that with cable ties, rubber coated P-clips or whatever. Should work just fine, fingers crossed. With 2.40-inch tyres fitted (that’s about 60mm) I’ll be going for a wide 69 mm wide set from SKS Bluemels, in glossy black. Mudguards on order.

The second decision concerns luggage. Should I keep the bike naked and super lightweight and carry everything inside a rucksack, or use the bike to carry the load, installing a frame bag and a handlebar bag, same as on the other bike? I’m kind of veering towards the latter, much preferring not to use a rucksack. A little bit more thought required. For the weight weenies out there, the bike at present comes in at 11.20 kg. Back with more soon.

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