Todays weather was pretty rubbish up this way and after getting a few things sorted around the house I decided to take the time to dismantle the rest of the fitting from the Mercian as it may be going off to be repainted in a few weeks time. I thought while I was doing this I would pull down the King of Mercia tourer from the loft and swap the headset onto it and maybe, build it up with parts from the other one and a few other bits I have around and take it riding in a few weekends time. It's been in the loft a long time. I then had the crazy thought of build it and ride it and then decide which one gets painted and becomes the everyday rider.
One thought that was behind this was decide which one I like riding best and get that painted, then sell the other one. Neither frame owes me anything as I picked them both up for next to nothing as the blue one was just a crazy bargain, right place, right time and the green one was also a cheap bargain as it had a bent rear mech hanger and was stripped and left lying in a shed because of this. It took me about 10 minutes with an alignment tool to align and reset it and it's given a few years and a lot of road and off road service trouble free since. Both used for slightly different types of riding. I thought I had made up my mind as I have put a lot of miles on the green one over the last few years and really like the fit of it and especially the way it rides both on and off road, so it was going off to be freshened up and built a bit more suited to it's randonneur/audax style riding it's been doing these last couple of years, maybe even try a 650b wheel conversion. The blue one was always to be used for more randonneur type riding but carrying a bit more gear for short tours or overnight type rides where the LHTs heavy duty tour ability was a bit of overkill. It is a lovely frame and while the finish looks good in the photos it is, like the green one, looking a bit old, with the paint thinning and slight rust spots coming through as well as the touched up scrapes looking a bit rough. The green one is peppered all over with chips and scrapes from it's adventures and the white undercoat certainly makes them stand out.
We shall see and I realise I am very lucky to have such options ;) .
Maybe they both have a place in the fleet :)
Jamie
No comments:
Post a Comment