25th December 2024 - Christmas Bike for Caleb

 I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and managed to spend time with family or friends.

We had a very lovely relaxed Christmas with the three of us and the pets.

This year I built Caleb up a new/old bike. He has been growing like a weed the last year and while he still uses his Hardrock for going about I noticed he isn't riding it as much, then noticed he is getting a lot taller. When he has gone mtb riding with his friends he takes my Pugsley or the 1X1. 

As we recently finally finished putting his Wester Ross road bike together I decided to build him up a Surly Karate Monkey 29'er. Only this Christmas give him the complete finished bike. 
He rides my Pugsley when we go mtb riding as he doesn't have a proper off roader as his Hardrock is set up for touring and he loves all the Surlys about the house so even though the frame for this was second hand I wanted it to be for him and not one of my hand me downs. So I bought a frame a couple of months ago and hid it in the loft and then slowly put the parts aside. Then the week before Christmas I started putting it together.
It's a really nice 2006 Metallic Skid Mark brown Karate Monkey.
It's set up 1 x 9 as is my Pugsley as he likes that, it's fitted with Mary bars as he loves those on his Hardrock and the back of the tandem, BB7 brakes as simple, effective and easily adjusted and some really nice wheels that Brian built up, XT hubs with Kris Holm 40mm 29'er unicycle rims, double walled and holed to which I fitted a night sky rim tape. A massive thank you to Brian for building these.
Came up really nice and he was shocked to see a bike under the tree, to say he was pleased was an understatement.
Hope everyone has had a nice one.

Jamie

Saturday December 7th 2024 - Global Fatbike day 2024 - Strathpeffer with Brian - Pugsleys day out!

 Last Saturday, (7th) was Global fatbike day.

Pretty poor weather all day but managed to get down to Brians at Dingwall and we headed out to Strathpeffer way for a ride for a few hours before hitting the cafe at the old Strathpeffer station and getting warmed and dried while eating soup, cakes and drinking coffee.
Fairly sedate riding an some pathways and some single track, before heading back to Brians to sort some wheel builds for a couple of projects I have on the go. Both of us were on our ever reliable Pugsleys. Mine was fitted with some new bars just to change things up, some Simworks Nick bars, first real test other than down to the beach at home. They are really comfortable and fall to hand nicely. After being on Geoff bars and Titec Jones bars for so long I was surprised how quickly I adapted and how natural they felt. They are very similar in bend to the 1X1 Torsion bars I ran on it a few years ago, 2016 I think from the Puffer onwards, though these are a good bit wider. I had the perfect stem as well, the old polished Race Face that was still sitting on the Torsion bars in the loft. A purchase from my old friend Kaiser, if I remember rightly.
A very wet day as it was raining when I left home and headed south and I don't think it stopped much all day before I drove home in the rain. The ride was just a bit of drizzle so quite lucky on that front. We managed to miss the heavy bits.
Great to ride with Brian as usual and on the Pugs. Couldn't be anything but a good day.

Jamie

Saturday 16th November - Pugsley gets new bars!!!

 With winter fast approaching thoughts recently have turned towards the off road side of my cycling and with Global Fatbike Day fast approaching, meaning recent plans for the Pugsley needed to get put into action.  The first of these was the fitting of my new handlebars that arrived this week. 

After having H bars and Geoff bars fitted for the last couple of years, actually I think it was 2016 I last used straight flat type bars, my Surly Torsion bars, at the Strathpuffer 24. So to shake things up a bit and change it round after 13 or so years on the Pugsley I purchased a bar very similar to the Torsion bar but a bit wider. This being a Sim Works Nick bar, again like the Torsion bar, it too is made by Nitto for Sim Works. Slightly different bend but as can be seen by the photos it is very similar. I even used the same Race Face Deus stem that I used to use on the Torsion bar, As the Torsion bar is a Surly 1x1 Torsion bar it will eventually make it's way back onto the 1x1. 

Everything swapped over easily and the stem was perfect as I had bought the 25.4 clamp version of the bar to suite. Due to 45mph winds and rain I only managed a quick ride round the yard but initial impression was nice. Similar to the Torsion bar, though everything fell back easily to hand even after a long time on the swept back Jones type bars. The width felt comfortable as well, so all good. Really looking forward to trying them out properly on a much longer ride. 

I have also recently picked up a pair of the grey Rolling Daryll rims that I am looking forward to building up. Will most likely use XT 756 rear hubs, one singlespeed and one geared. Hoping to get those sorted in the coming weeks. The Pugs will feel like a new bike. 

Jamie  

In the photo below you can see the similarities in the bars with the Torsion bar being the one with the stem still attached

Saturday 19th October 2024 - Caleb and Wester Ross Cycles shakedown ride - Home to Aultbea

 So a bit of progression with this build since the last post. Driven in equal measure by growing enthusiasm as the build progress's and also by the desire on both mine and Calebs to get it set up and back to Aultbea before the winter takes hold. This worry becoming a reality after the weather of the lasts few weeks.

Last week I managed to get most of the week off so I could spend some time at home with Caleb during the holidays. We swapped a few things around and while I managed to get it bolted together we cabled it all up together so he understood how each part worked and how everything worked together.
A mixture of parts but they all work well together and he is comfortable with them and enjoys riding it, drop bars and downtube shifters included, indexed at the rear 7 speed freewheel. Still some improvements to go like changing out the 700c x 30mm Jackie Brown tyres for a slightly smaller 28mm size as there is very little clearance under the brake bridge and this will give that little bit more and enough then to fit some Bluemels mudguards.
I managed a quick ride up and down the road on the Friday evening in the freshly starting rain to make sure it all worked and was safe before handing it off to Caleb. Lucky the rain was only light as it took me a while to get him in and off the bike. Initial thoughts were very happy and enthused for how nice it rode and how light it was etc.
The first real ride out and initial shakedown would come in the morning as the weather forecast said that Saturday would be a bit showery but with sunshine coming though here and there with the wind not too bad until the late afternoon. This was to be the best of the week so far with a storm hitting Saturday night through to Sunday/Monday.
So bikes loaded in the van ready for a 6 am drive to Dingwall, pick up Brian and then the three of us would drive back north to Aultbea, get a a decent ride in and then visit the Arctic Convoy Museum with lunch somewhere in there. The schedule would be determined by the weather, re rain. It was good to be on a mission to get Caleb and his Wester Ross back home for a visit to Aultbea, here on the north west coast of Scotland, where it was built 42 years ago.
The building it was built in is now the Arctic Convoy Museum, which is doubly fitting as Calebs great grandfather took part in many of the convoys during the Second World War. Of which he got more information about in the museum. A great museum and well worth the visit even without a connection.
It wasn't a huge ride out but a good few miles through town and then along the quieter coast road round the side of Loch Ewe. A great ride though and with the Wester Ross riding lovely you could see Caleb being quite proud of it and enjoying it so much. We were very lucky with the weather as we got a couple of light spots of rain on our way back to where we left the van but the ride before the museum and up to the museum was dry and even afterwards it was only right at the end when packing up that we had to hurry. It was dry for the time in the museum as well which must have been an hour or two. So considering the rain we had on the drive to and from Aultbea we were quite lucky as we even had sunshine throughout.
We had a late lunch at a local B&B before heading back north and across to Dingwall.
A great day out and certainly worth the drive and ride out in the wind and rain. Thanks again to Brian for joining us as it meant a lot to both of us you could come as always a great friend to us both and make him laugh so much but also a great source of encouragement to Caleb.  

Jamie

08th October 2024 - Wester Ross build - Caleb and Jamie - Recent addition to the stable for Caleb

This frame I picked up before Christmas last for my son Caleb who was 13 at the time.
He has really shot up as well as grown up the last couple of years to the point he is as tall as myself and had a few rides on my various retro rides and so I thought this would be a good thing for us to build together with him learning to do each bit of the build as we go. He already knows his way around the older steel bikes but this would be his, not one of mine, for him.
I also gave him a full Arabesque groupset, set of Mavic wheels, bars etc. Everything he should need and what we didn't have, or I didn't have we would source no problem.
So it sat waiting for him from Christmas through to the summer when it was toyed with a few times and due to being busy and Caleb riding my Jack Taylor as well as my Surly Pugsley over the spring/summer, he was in no great rush to build. He said he wanted to wait until he wasn't going to be rushed as it wasn't going anywhere so no rush.
Now, to the frame. It is # 192 built early in 1981 in Altbea just south of us here in Scotland. It is 49.5cm touring geometry.
I purchased the frame just before last Christmas for a very low price, and while it is solid and looks good, it does unfortunately have a very thick powder coat hiding a lot of that Wester Ross fine detail that we know is below.
We have sorted the wheels, seatpost, changed chainset, shifters, brakes a couple of times due to various little issues but are close to getting it ready to cable it up and test ride it.
So the basic plan is to get it riding and rolling nicely before the winter, give it a nice shakedown ride on the west coast from Ullapool or Gairloch to ride to it's birthplace at Altbea. The building where it was built is now the Arctic Convoy museum which is also special to Caleb as his great grandfather was a big part of the convoys.
Hopefully this will happen quite soon with school holidays starting next week.
Once everything rides and runs right Calebs plan is to then get it stripped and then nicely painted in the winter.

Information on these Wester Ross builds are hard to come by and with me buying it from a shop, Isambards, who didn't have any history for it, it wasn't looking too good for getting much.
Then, slowly, over time, through a few sources but mainly through the Wester Ross Cycles facebook group we have gathered far more than we could have hoped for a few months back, where at the time, a post I made asking if anyone had any information, was ominously quiet.
Slowly details started to immerge, first from John Connell's daughter Louise, confirming our thoughts of the frame number showing it to be a Altbea built Wester Ross rather than a Yorkshire one and advising that Fergus Forsythe has been a clockmaker since and is now living in Australia, as does Louise. Ironic really with me being an Aussie living in Caithness not far from Altbea.
Then only on the weekend I got a message from Nic from the group, who is also in various other groups I am in, contacted me with the build sheets. He messaged them through, I will include here, along with the notes from the back. The date sheets had no date which was normal according to Nic, who said they were only occasionally marked with a date, either from a payment or where the person ordering the frame had received the form, usually in the post, noted any changes needed and then sent it back, would occasionally have the person ordering dating when they signed it. Though mine we can say early 1981, maybe earlier? as one that is 16 numbers after mine, #208 was confirmed built in Altbea and invoice in April 1981.
While the build page shows it was built for Jayne Tyrer, with discussion on the back of the form. I also found that it was originally black with red lining and decals would have been white, as they only offered black or white decals. Not the gold that we currently have on ours. Another interesting detail to come of this investigating is that the next frame #193 was built for Bernadette Tyrer with #129 long before being built for a Geoffrey Tyrer. Looks like this family really liked their Wester Ross's.
I will update this as we go along but after a slow start we seem to picking up steam.

Jamie