Well autumn seems to be well and truly here...

Well autumn is upon us in the UK, a time of mixed emotions and also mixed weather from wet and windy one day to a mild/warm sunny day the next. The positives are the colours of foliage as it gets ready to drop and also the evening temperatures which, similar to spring, let one sit outside and observe the night sky in relative comfort. When I reached 40, a few years ago, I treated myself to something I'd always wanted but never had the right environment to use, a telescope. I moved to an area where light pollution is relatively low and would be 100% ideal were it not for two caravan parks who like to be lit up like prison camps and also be visible from space. Somehow I don't think extra-terrestial intelligent life would want to land there. Its a sad waste of energy but I can still view about 75% of the sky in enough darkness to easily view the milky way. I may only bring the telescope out 5 or 6 times a year but when I do it always fills me with the wonder of my childhood where I read about the stars and planets in encyclopaedias etc. At certain points in the year particular objects i.e Saturn, Jupiter are easily observable. When I first saw Saturn through my telescope ( an 8-inch Skywatcher Newtonian Reflector ) I was blown away, it was a small image but it was real, not a stunning hubble or cassini view but a real observed view with low cost equipment. Surprisingly although the planets are excellent to view the moon, often taken for granted, is a fantastic object to observe. Its a beautiful object and even using a low magnification provides much to see and learn about with online moon maps etc easily available. One software package that I think represents all thats good in open source is Stellarium. For anyone starting out with an interest in astronomy I wholeheartedly recommend it. Another aspect of using the telescope that interested me was the ability to undertake astrophotography in my own amateur fashion. I'll probably cover this in a separate post but I've added the image below as an example of what I've managed with pretty humble equipment and minimal time. A hobby that could easily become expensive but my cycling interests keep it in check!

 

Our beautiful moon and easy to observe throughout many clear nights. This was taken using a Samsung GX-10 DSLR body attached to the Skywatcher telescope with an adaptor and barlow lens. The resulting image consists of 3 seperate images ( due to field of view limitations ) stitched together with matched exposures. Its nice to see the shadows cast by some of the isolated mountains considering its 250000mls away you get very sharp definition near the terminator/shadow line. 

A Really Good Listen and More.......

I'm currently listening to an excellent series of 15 minute programs on radio 4 extra. The series of 10 programs is called "On your bike" and is to all intents and purposes a history of the bicycle from the 1880's, covering the transition from ordinaries ( "penny farthings" ) to the safety bike and the eventual adoption of the bicycle in modern society.   The series so far has been a nice,relaxing and informative piece of radio. Anyone with a general interest in the bicycles evolution may well wish to visit the Radio 4 Extra web page and listen online to the series so far ( the BBC only put them online for a week or two as far as I'm aware, though this policy may have changed ). Listening to this series also made me think of other cycling oriented documentaries and films I've had the pleasure to watch as well as some non cycling curveballs with a common link in the form of music. I've listed some of these below with a little background to what they're about. Not all are still available to view but a little internet searching sometimes turn's up a copy ( quite often on youtube etc ). Otherwise the usual sites such as Amazon quite often have DVD's/CD's to purchase, musicwise I've found Grooveshark to be an excellent site for listening to soundtracks and albums, and so far without excessive adverts! I gave up on Last.fm and Spotify for this very reason.

Here's my brief list of programs etc, hopefully someone reading this may find something of interest that they've not seen/heard before.

A Day Out

This Alan Bennett play is set in Yorkshire and centres around an early twentieth century group of cyclists. The cyclists all riding machines of the era meet up one by one to go on a group ride from Halifax to Fountains Abbey( I think it may have been an early CTC ride ). The play is nice in the way it portrays how the bicycle brought together people from all classes and walks in life. I've only seen the play shown on television once which is a great shame as it is true quality. It is available on a DVD, Alan Bennett at the BBC which I found recently. The final scenes of the play are very poignant ( I shall not say why, best to watch it ) only going to underline the statement about people from all walks of life above. I'll leave the reader to find out more, very much worth doing.  

Death on the Mountain-The Story of Tom Simpson

 This one hour documentary is the background to the tragic incident on Mont Ventoux that befell one of Britains greatest cyclists. Its a very well made documentary combining film footage of Tom Simpsons early victories and how he rose to prominence from a working class upbringing. It doesn't vilify him for having had amphetamines on the day he died climbing one of the tours toughest ascents. Its a level above this and it sort of infers that it was a problem within professional cycling that tended not to be talked about. Anyway enough of the negative. As I've said its beautifully made and the sadness of it all is emphasised in much of the soundtrack, this being taken from Philip Glass - Solo Piano. Very haunting and worth watching if you're able to find it, I think it may be viewable on youtube in 10min sections.

Breaking Away

 

This is a light hearted feature film about a group of teenagers from a mid-west town in America. The group come from a University town where the divisions between working class locals and incoming students all too often end off in conflict. No different to the UK, damned students! ( I was one :-) ) Anyway the main character above is an avid cyclist ( in fact he wishes to be an italian - don't we all ). The film is stress free entertainment, sometimes perhaps stretching reality but overall sticks to the central characters passion for the bicycle and romantic interests. One of the main scenes that's really uplifting is when he gets to draft a big rig to the accompaniment of Mendelssohns symphony No 4 ( correct me if I'm wrong ). I've always wanted to do this (without the music obviously ) but reacting to sudden brake lights is nerve wracking! Check out further detail on IMDB. 

The Ride of My Life

This one hour documentary was shown on BBC4 and follows the author Robert Penns journey to build a bike to see him out the rest of his cycling days. A bike that he'll ride every day, so it becomes quite a special pursuit. The program follows his visits to various component manufacturers to acquire the parts from frame to groupset, wheels and tyres etc. Throughout theres also snippets of cycling history as well as its engineering and many interviews with interesting people on route to Mr Penns aim. The book the documentry is based on is a good read too. I'm sure many who watch may criticise the end result or the presenters sometimes excessive enthusiasm but step back and go with the flow its an enjoyable documentary. We'd all have a different bike at the end of a similar project I'm sure. Worth watching whichever way you'd choose to do a similar project.

Bicycle Music 

This was a radio broadcast by Graeme Fife. Its 30mins long and was originally on Radio 4 extra. The program covered the bicycle and associated music as well as interviews with eminent cycling advocates and athletes. Its an eclectic mix from "Daisy Bell" to Kraftwerk. Its listed on Radio 4 Extra's web page but hasn't been broadcast for a couple of years. It may be available from another source if not its a waiting game. The broadcaster Graeme Fife has many other cycling related productions and publications to his name that may also be worth looking into.

Kraftwerk Tour de France Soundtracks

 I've loved Kraftwerk since the early 80's in my youth. My sister purchased the Man Machine as it had the track "The Model" which had become a UK No 1. As it was I became the fan and from there on I was hooked always eager to see what would be released next. In 1983 Kraftwerk released the original "Tour de France" track. I would listen to the Radio One chart show hoping to tape it ( those were the days ) but sadly it never rose high enough in the charts for it to be played often enough. Chart positions 22 and 24 for 1983 and 1984 respectively. I had to wait until recent years to hear the current Tour de France album, its very good and it made me revisit the two albums shown above, Radioactivity (  my original cassette album no longer plays ) and Computer World ( a sixth form favourite alongside music by Joy Division ). These are brilliant and its good to see Kraftwerk so popular today, sadly though not the original members( only Ralph Hutter ). The music fortunately stands the test of time even if group members come and go. I like to remember the 1982 line-up for nostalgic reasons. If you never heard them search them out and see what you think.

Road Dreams 

 

This series was first shown on Channel 4 in the UK in around 1994. It comprises 6 episodes of 30 minutes each. The series was created by Elliot Bristow who had travelled to America in 1968 for a holiday. During this time he was unfortunately mugged in New York and in doing so had to stay on for the subsequent legal proceedings. This stay lasted until 1981!, what an adventure. and this series covers the road trip, places and people he meets along the way. Again it is a documentary enhanced by the soundtrack including Leo Kottke and Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Some film clips from it were used in a recent BBC music documentary ( "How the Brits rocked America" I think ) but to watch the original series is highly recommended. I was very fortunate to purchase a video from Elliot Bristow in 1999 and he put a soundtrack tape in with it - a real bonus. Definitely worth searching for but it may be possible to acquire via purchase from Tortworth TV productions( I think this link will give you a thorough background to the current state of the project and purchase options Road Dreams ). Makes you want to cycle across America and why not! 

Koyaanisqatsi 

 

This film was created by Godfrey Reggio and has a soundtrack by Philip Glass. Theres no narrative and it is a time lapse film of America and its landscape, cityscapes and so much more. It has a prophetic message and an environmentalist one at that. This film triggered my love of Philip Glass music when I saw it at about 12pm on BBC2 in 1983 ( it wasn't targeted at mainstream viewing by the Beeb ). My friend could never even pronounce it so it became the butt of many jokes when I'd mention it. Its actually part of a trilogy of films, the others being Powaqqatsi and Nagoyqatsi( these came later ). For me personally this is the one that stands out with stunning cinematography and soundtrack. This is easy to find at Amazon etc as DVD film or simply Philip Glass soundtrack. It's message is still completely relevant today if not more so.

The Thin Blue Line 

This is a curveball but connects to the above film by having a Philip Glass soundtrack. This haunting music enhances the Errol Morris documentary about the conviction of Randall Dale Adams for murder of a police officer. The other person involved David Harris seemingly escaped conviction but the film follows both individuals, the lawyers and police officers in seeking the truth of what happened on the night of the shooting. It is very well made and draws you in to the final outcome. An excellent documentary film but also a tragic real life story, very much worth watching, more on IMDB. Alternatively you can listen to the soundtrack online which includes statements from the main suspects and officials. 

Well that about concludes my small'ish list of cycling and music related programs I feel worth viewing or listening to. We all have different tastes but I hope that these suggestions may open new avenues to listening and viewing pleasure for anyone reading this. They certainly did for me. 

Creaks, Squeaks and Outright Embarassment....

 Well having praised my Super Acciaio in previous posts I'm harbouring a dark secret.... Hmmm it all started after around 500mls. I've fitted a Campag Athena groupset to which I've had to use the Campag BB30 adaptors. Throughout the various internet forums you'll find many discussions about this topic namely creaking bottom brackets! Now from day one I've lived in fear, bordering on paranoia, of the inevitable squeaking, creaking Campag crankset. And so it came to pass that from a beautiful virtual silence suddenly a ticking appeared which slowly became a voluminous creaking every pedal turn. This would sometimes quieten but still obviously there, other times it would announce itself to everyone in earshot. Theres nothing worse than riding a beautiful bike whilst passing bystanders and emitting a sound akin to honeymooners bedsprings. Well it does make you ride faster to save your embarrassment, always look for a positive in bleak times. 

 Well I started investigating beginning with the main suspect the BB. I'd installed the whole crankset according to Campags recommendations ( also viewed their video several times ). Correct torque was applied to the crankbolt with the BB30 cups greased and press fitted. One thing I had noticed over the first 100mls was the drive side cup migrating out around 1mm. I believe this is why many suggest using loctite to lock the cup, I'd avoided this as it could cause problems if I wished to remove the cup at a later date. In hindsight it may have been a non-issue as the driveside bearing is on the crank rather than embedded in the cup so the cup could be fixed more permanently. I'd run with this small 1mm gap for many miles prior to the creak so it didn't make sense. Next suspect hauled in for question was the chainring bolts, the recommendation here ( from the internet ) is to undo all the bolts thoroughly grease and re-torque as appropriate. I checked the torque of all the bolts and all was well, the mystery deepened. Every time I'd hold the bike and stand hard on the pedal pushing downward I'd hear an audible creak. The pedals threads were already greased but I removed, checked and regreased to no avail. Anyway whilst out riding last week I unshipped my chain when multishifting on both levers, not my normal method but circumstances forced me, including a bus. I went home and checked my front shifting on the bike stand, in doing so I started adjusting the front mech cable tension. After 15mins of tweaking my shift was back to square one, no perceptable change still spot on. The rear hasn't been adjusted since fitting, still indexing fine on 11-speed. I took the bike out for a ride and silence. This had me worried, was it going to rear it's head at any moment?  Well I've now done just over 100mls and still silent. Unless the problem re-occurs I believe the root cause of the issue was the tension in the front derailleur cable and its interaction with cable housing, down tube adjuster and the down tube amplifying the sound on every pedal stroke with the consequent flexing of the frame. This may well be correct as the issue was worse under high torques i.e. pushing up a hill or hard acceleration. In my adjustment I must have reduced this tension enough to stop the interaction whilst maintaining the fast front shifting. Campag is very nice in that respect.

 Creaks and squeaks are difficult to narrow down and normally unique to a particular bike setup but for now case closed, hopefully not to be re-opened.... anyway fingers crossed but the current silence is definitely golden! Any change and I'll update the outcome. 

Update:

 All was quiet for around 150-200mls then it returned, arrrggghh. Anyway during the course of riding after around 20mls the creak suddenly went and silence returned. I will most definitely investigate chainrings/carbon spider interface but the bb seems silent. Its difficult to narrow down whilst riding, I suppose you could mount on a turbo and get someone to locate the sound, anyway the investigation is reopened hopefully for a brief time! 

Update Number 2:       

 Well the latest, I've been riding in complete silence other than the normal nice sounds of a bike ride for around 200mls now. I removed all crank bolts except the main crank arm fixing and greased all with teflon grease thoroughly. Put them all back and initially thought it hadn't worked but then silence! The grease must have slowly permeated the whole of the metal-carbon interfaces and it was back to day one of quietude. I've ridden hilly routes and climbing in silly high gears pushing high torque and.... quiet. When the bike was in creaking mode you could hold the bike stationary, put weight on the drive side pedal and you'd hear a sharp tick this lead me to thinking it could be chainring connected, also when riding riding inner ring was quieter than high gears in outer. We'll see how this goes, hopefully it'll stay quiet and with the passage of time my neurosis will go into remission :-).

A photographic gem...

One of my other passions in life is photography. Most images I take tend to be diary pictures of whatever takes my interest on a walk or sometimes whilst cycling. If cycling I'll use a compact camera, otherwise I use a digital SLR. I've never fulfilled one aspect of photography that I feel would be a pleasure, that is candid portraits of interesting people, people with a story to tell and faces that reflect this. With this in mind one of the links I've put in the "Interesting Sites" column is for a local film/photographic collective based in Newcastle Upon Tyne. The collective is known as the Amber Collective and for anyone interested in photography and film, documenting communities, social change, industrial landscapes etc, the site is very much worth visiting. The Amber Collective have online documentaries to view as well as a full photographic collection of nearly 40 photographers, this includes a collection of photographs by the New York photographer Weegee. Its an excellent online resource and well worth browsing.

Its all in the eyes you know...

Over the years I've cycled its lead to a progression in the sorts of clothing etc I've worn. In the beginning I purchased a raleigh pioneer hybrid which now serves as my turbotrainer bike. I rode this initially wearing jeans and t-shirt as many probably do to this day. After a few weeks this was enhanced with padded undershorts, then a helmet!, then ronhill tracksters. Yes the order of priorities was most definitely wrong but the comfort of riding was improving. Nowadays I'm in standard cycling outfit, lycra shorts, Altura top, Giro helmet. It makes a big difference to cycling comfort and I like many learned this through riding experience. On top of the clothing described I've omitted one item that I actually do feel naked if I leave the house without, a little like driving the car without the seatbelt on. I feel vunerable without them partly because of several bad experiences prior to having them..... cycling glasses. In my formative months on the bike I had flies, bees, stones from passing cars, this all made me realise they're essential as you just never know whats coming next. These essential items are also traded at high prices on style, brand name etc but there are alternatives that I've been using for many years at extremely low cost yet surprisingly never appear in magazine reviews of low cost kit. The following links will give you an idea of whats available:-

Farnell Safety Glasses 

RS Safety Glasses

Now there are extremely unwieldy, unfashionable ones but in among these are styles similar to this which aren't bad at under £3!

 All tend to be scratch resistant, UV A+B protection and the critical one, impact resistant. A nice low cost option that can be happily broken without a remortgage. Definitely worth a cursary look even if you do still want those diamond studded Oakleys.

A note on FillThatHole......

 Just thought I'd point everyone to a useful site if not already known. It links in from my previous post in that it apertains to the state of our roads here in the UK. In Northumberland I find it hard to find a stretch of smooth tarmac nowadays whereas it should be the other way around, hard to find a stretch of rough tarmac. I'm sure across the country it'll be the same with the common excuses of reduced budgets, bad winters etc. That wears thin with me as there is a duty to maintain what you are responsible for. Fortunately for a number of years the CTC ( Cycle Touring and Campaigning ) have a website dedicated to reporting potholes, poor road surfaces and bodged repairs - FillThatHole, put that in your history if you dare! Its an excellent resource as it allows full reporting without you requiring to know the agency responsible. I've added the link in my Interesting Places list, I highly recommend using it so we can all get the authorities to keep on top of what in some cases are accidents waiting to happen.

A typical example of what I find sadly all too often nowadays.

Super Acciaio on the road.. some brief feedback.

 Well having described at length how I came to having a Condor Super Acciaio the one thing missing was how does it ride? Its early days to some extent but I've clocked up probably around 750-1000mls on the bike. At the beginning there was the usual procedure of getting your bike position fine tuned. I'd originally set the saddle height, reach etc to as close to my original road bike as possible. I never had geometry data for my previous road bike frame ( Ambrosio Stelvio Carbon ) so my initial rides felt different and I dropped the saddle height by about 1cm and shifted the saddle back around the same. These two small changes had me feeling totally at one with the bike and very comfortable. Tiny changes by all accounts but in my experience to date thats what I've always found. The data I obtained using RattleCad was excellent and its progressed even further than the version I used, makes me want to build up more bikes!

 

 The bike itself is the sum of the parts so I can't attribute the ride quality to simply the frame. I wanted to use 25mm tyres, partly due to the high praise and recommendations they currently receive for shock absorption and rolling resistance but could not find stock at the right price. So I'm riding on 23mm at about 115psi. The bike will move over typically frost spalled surfaces with very little buzz coming through. In fact my hands tend not to feel anything which they certainly did on my previous road bike. So the front end seems to work and consists of Easton EA50 bars,Cinelli gel tape and the Deda carbon fork. The same can be said at the rear of the bike over these surfaces. Over much harsher holes and ruts you do get a hit but.. how can I describe it? like being hit with a hammer through a pillow I suppose.. you know you've taken a hit but it was definitely softer. Northumberland county council's highways dept have certainly aided population control with their road surfaces! It is more comfortable than my Ambrosio Stelvio but carbon frames have taken leaps forward so I cannot compare to a Specialized Roubaix or similar as I have never ridden one. What I do know is I look forward to riding it, the handling is stress free not as twitchy as my other bike. The seat tube and head tube angles for my 55cm both being 73.5degrees. I suspect my Ambrosio's head tube may have been 74 degrees. Weightwise it may not be super lightweight at 18.3lbs but you could make that 16.5lbs simply spend more, it certainly doesn't feel heavy when riding it and accelerating, it just feels right. A nice alternative to many bikes and worth looking at if you're in the market for a new build.

Currently experimenting with tyre pressures using the 15% drop method. I've had to compromise as I'm so light the front tyre pressure would have been around 60-70psi! Anyway at present I'm running 90psi front, 103psi rear to try and get the optimum point for grip, comfort etc, without being too low to cause puncture issues. I found tyre manufacturers had guides along these lines as well and there are a number of online calculators.   

Image courtesy of Condor Cycles, original team colours 2012.

ITV4, The Cycle Show, Tour de France coverage.........

At present on UK television I'm enjoying ITV4's the Cycle Show ( Mondays 8pm ). The show covers all aspects of cycling so there should be something of interest for most people. To cover subjects from downhill mountain biking through to cycle trailers shows the enthusiasm and thoughtfulness of the production team. It's something I'm sure Top Gear could take lessons from. Fortunately the programme doesn't follow such a style or we'd only have one hour of £8000 Tour winning race bikes every week. So well done to ITV4 for giving us an eclectic cycling program hopefully it'll continue to be produced for years to come. In a similar vein the recent Tour de France coverage was excellent, a pleasure to watch with live coverage, highlights and a fantastic team of presenters. Gary Imlach and Chris Boardman complement each other perfectly with Chris Boardmans technical input very welcome. The main commentary of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen again being consumately professional and educational as well as entertaining. I really fear the day this team disband as they make the cycling come alive. Many sports have commentators who I personally feel simply make the sport, Murray Walker was F1, Peter Alliss is Golf, Steve Cram and Brendan Foster are track athletics. One final point is that I hope ITV4 will continue to be able to fund presentation of sport in general on terrestial television. So many sports and sporting events are sold to the highest bidder, normally Sky but now BT Sport too and it limits coverage to those willing to pay a subscription. Sport on television should be inclusive not exclusive so I hope ITV4 will be able to continue with their excellent service. Hopefully we have the Vuelta to look forward to.  

An Interesting Optical Effect

I came across this interesting effect last year by chance. I'm sure many of you may have seen similar but it was a first for me and quite unusual. It all came about as I had entered my garage in order to take the car out to be washed ( yes another pleasant valley sunday! ). The day was sunny and I'd not bothered to put the garage light on basically using the small amount of light entering the sides of the garage door to see my way. As I was about to open the garage door my eyes were getting attuned to the dim light and I noticed a patch of colour on the magnolia painted garage wall. I looked at this and realised that what I was seeing was in effect a camera obscura image of the planter,wall and drive outside. The image is inverted as expected and though soft focus it was still easy to see bricks etc. The small opening at the side of the roller shutter door created the image, in effect I was inside the body of a simple camera. So the monotony of car washing turned up a absolute gem.

Forgive the cobwebs but I share my garage with many large house spiders..... and why not its nice to give them a good home.

First Post and My Latest Bike Project

 As described in my "about" section one of my passions is the bicycle of which I'm sure I'll be posting all sorts of info and links in the future. For now I thought I'd relate the latest cycle related project that I undertook and the decisions taken on route to get the end result. It may be of interest to anyone looking to purchase something similar.

 It all began around the middle of 2011 when I decided to build a new road bike to replace my Ambrosio carbon framed bike. This bike had been built in 2001 and the lugged carbon tube frame was showing signs of delamination at one of the lugs. Not wishing to tempt providence and become a A&E statistic I felt it was time to look for a replacement ( not sure about everyone else but I get an intense guilt feeling at this point ). My initial thoughts were to purchase a low cost carbon frame, PedalForce, Ribble, Planet-X etc as they are all good quality frames and a nice start for for a lightweight road bike. My preference is to a bike that looks understated which to all intents and purposes the above frames are, perhaps with the exception of quite a number of Ribble frames which can look a little garish in my opinion. 

 As I went around in circles costing framesets, groupsets, hunting reviews etc my thoughts turned to an alternative frame material. It would mean pushing the budget but this bike would be intended to see me through perhaps 10-15 years. The material was titanium, a wonder metal to many in bike circles. The new kids on the block now were Van Nicholas, Enigma and Lynskey ( also looked at Burls as I'd read much positive on forums ). All of these companies responded promptly to my emails answering my queries and sending geometry diagrams of the frames I was interested in. Throughout my bike design I drew frames up on a Rotring drawing board but after about 6 drawings I discovered RattleCad which is a beautiful freeware program for doing exactly this. The package shows all important dimensions for comparison with any current bike setup you may already have. As I specc'ed up the design it didn't matter which frame I was looking at ( VN Chinook, Enigma Echo, Lynskey Cooper ) I felt I was going excessively over budget, as is often the case you always push further than your means. They are beautiful frames though and I'd not hesitate to purchase from any of the companies mentioned.

 At this point, whether it be sheer frustration, I started looking at off the shelf bikes in particular Canyon and Rose. So in June 2012 I became the owner of a Canyon Ultimate AL with Ultegra groupset. Low cost, very light, and many reviews praised it to the hilt. Mine sadly arrived with dings in the top tube, Canyon were fine offering discount or fully paid return. I opted for the latter and there was no replacement stock and the price went up. So now I was back to square one and feeling pretty crestfallen. It was August now and just by chance I was looking at a back edition of Cycling Plus testing steel bikes, two stood out the Enigma Elite and the Condor Super Acciaio. The flame of my original idea was relit I weighed up the costs and options of both framesets and decided to pursue the Super Acciaio. It seemed to have all the attributes I wanted, shock absorption, stiff and responsive ( I couldn't flex a stick of liquorice so perhaps that stiffness aspect may be wasted on me! ). I contacted Condor, swapped several emails with Seb and pushed the button on a Super Acciaio in Rapha team colours. I felt this was more flexible to the groupset/component colours on the market allowing more aesthetic choice. The frameset arrived and I was floored by simply how beautiful it was.. and light considering the material.

  With frame in hand all of my component decisions had pretty well been made in the intervening months. The design decisions go much deeper than my blog overview, there were some very frustrating times I can assure you! Components were chosen as a balance of weight and cost, upgrading in the future if necessary. The choices were:-

Wheels :      Campagnolo Zonda - Parker international

Tyres :        Continental Grand Prix 4000S - Ribble

Groupset :   Camgnolo Athena Carbon,50/34 Cassette 12-29 - Comtat

                  ( Levers Chorus for multiple shifting )

Seatpost :   Deda RS02 - Ribble

Stem      :   Deda Zero One - Ribble

Saddle    :   Legacy item, Charge Spoon, fantastic VFM

Bars       :   Easton - Ribble

Weight   :    18.3lbs ( I learnt manufacturers aren't truthful on weights! )

Tools : Raleigh Workstand ( £50 marvel ), cyclus headset press, KMC chaintool park cable cutters...... 

Excellent service from all of the above suppliers in particular Adam at Comtat and Seb at Condor both of whom I had many emails with. 

The result of my building ( and the long post! )

Well we got there in the end....