July 2019 - Mercian King of Mercia repaint/restoration

Mercian King of Mercia repaint/restoration


After many adventures and after threatening to do so for a few years now the King of Mercia was stripped back to its frame early this year in preparation for being repainted.

This refurb was delayed due to family stuff going on that meant I needed to watch the finances but also I found that once I pulled the other King of Mercia out the loft to tide me over until this one came back, I sort of lost the urgency to get this one done if that makes sense.

Anyway after sitting boxed for too long and with the repaint organised at the end of last year, and after some delay, it finally went off at the start of July. It is being painted by two guys who I can only truly describe as artists, Dave Colbeck who will strip and fix dents etc before putting on the various primers, paint coats and clear coats as well as sorting all the paint itself along with the fine talents of Martin Battison who will sort the decals, and do all the lug lining, filling etc . Between them they put out such impressive work that after watching for a long time the beautiful frames they bring back to life that it was an easy decision who were the best people to do the Mercians new livery.

I have been away in Germany visiting friends with the family and have been getting updates about the KOMs new livery.

Here are a couple of the incremental shots taken over the last 10 days or so.

Already looking brilliant so really can't wait for it to be built back up, but now I need some somewhat classier gear to do it justice J

I will no doubt have to put on the stuff I have been squirrelling away for it over the last few years and get those Wolber GTA2 rims laced up soon.

Photo of dents to be repaired. 1 on the seat tube panel and 1 on the top tube from a handlebar tap


Dents fixed and etch primed


Filler primed


Silver base coat with white panels done


Several coats of Candy Green done to get just the right shade




and that's where we are up to ............


It’s already looking pretty special to me and will look amazing once Martin works his magic on it with lining the lugs and filling in all the bits and pieces in white 

Sat 29th June 2019 - Altnabreac loop - Big Dummy

Brian and myself were back out today for another gravel ride. We are nothing if not predictable :)
Forecast was good so we decided to do a loop out to Altnabreac from Loch More then head south and loop back north past the abandoned Dalnawhinie estate house.  Some rain and storms were forecast for later in the afternoon, hence why we cancelled the planned ride from Forsinard to Kinbrace and over to Syre on the Betty hill road. So it was the Altnabreac loop for today and seen as how we have been doing it comfortably lately we decided to mash it up a bit, as the yoofs say ;)  With this in mind Brian was riding his near on 70 year old Rudge roadster and myself decided on the equally appropriate Big Dummy.
We started in great sunshine and while it was warm all day, the clouds slowly started building up and growing ever more threatening. We did get a few drops about halfway through the loop and we really thought we were about to get poured on but thankfully the rain held off until we had just packed up and then it was pouring for as far as you could see, virtually all the way back to Thurso where it was bone dry.
The route was a mixture of rough stoney gravel on the first bit to the station then we detoured towards Forsinard for a good few miles to see over the hills to the west. This road is always nice as it's a sandy track that is generally quite smooth so very nice rolling. After admiring the views at the top and finding another track to the west to explore we returned to Altnabreac and turned south for the southern part of the loop. The stones on the next couple of miles to the 'Big' house were big, deep and all covering. Even with the big tyres they were a pain and thankfully they ended abruptly at the big houses driveway. So they had their driveway gravelled, all about 17 miles or so of it. After this is was back to proper gravel, rough with bits missing in places but always a line to pick. Some big puddles too  :) 
Not far along here we came to the old estate house which lies in ruins, shame, but not much for it to do here these days. From here it heads back north on a relatively good dirt track as the estate keeper lives in a cottage here and so the road is used regularly and so kept in decent order. It eventually runs up the western edge of Loch More. This was when we realised that everything behind us to the south was looking like it was getting very wet so we better put a bit of effort in getting back. We still stopped and swapped bikes and took a few photographs before crossing the estate gates on the bridge and heading east to the car. As I said earlier we just got packed up and down it came. Lucky for once.
Thanks Brian for coming all this way, next time up here I think a two dayer is needed. Campout time.
The Rudge and the Big Dummy bot performed perfectly and handled the conditions with ease. There were a few waterholes we went round a you could see they were very deep but there was the one where Brian suggested I stop and check the inside of the bags were dry as they had been in the water. All good.
Hope everyone else has had the good weather and time to enjoy it.
Jamie

Sat 22nd June - Long Haul Trucker - Cairngorms National Park

Finally with the weather forecast looking in our favour for the Saturday, Brian and I decided to head back to Rothiemurchas/Aviemore way again for a gravel ride. I picked Brian up in the morning and we were still unsure of the route we would take so just decided to head to Rothiemurchas and park up, get sorted and have a look at the map.
I had my Long Haul Trucker as even though I left home unsure of where or what we were riding, I knew I couldn't go wrong. It is a pretty versatile bike and I am always confident it can ride anything at all comfortably. I knew no matter where Brian thought might be good on the map, that the Trucker would get me there.  Brian had his 1960's Dawes Windrush, which was the gravel type bike of it's day. Laterwausser bars, Sturmy archer 5 speed, Mafac Racers etc, usual Brian old school :)
   After unloading and getting ready to ride we were still a bit undecided whether to head to Loch Einich or over the Ryovan Pass to Boat of Garten, opposite directions from where we were but we were unsure of the weather as well as it was noticeably darker and a few degrees cooler here. We did decide to get breakfast and then head into the hills. We rode the few miles of trail path up to Glenmore to the visitors centre and after a pancake and maple syrup breakfast decided that we would head to Loch Einich as the weather looked better from here.
The map was checked and a zig zagging cross country route was plotted rather than ride the miles back down the road to start nearer to where we parked. The first part was a mixture of bigger fire road type gravel that soon had us crossing the river onto narrow singletrack paths through the Scots Pine forest. Loosely surfaced but pretty fast rolling in the main and due to the recent decent weather was quite dry too. Once out of this heavily wooded section it was south on a rough large gravelled road/track that was really exposed as the trees slowly disappeared.
We then did a singletrack section was a walking track type width but was full of what we called baby head boulders and that couple of miles was slow going, picking a line long in advance of hitting anything. We were climbing all the time for many miles, sometimes noticeably and others only when you looked across the valley. If we weren't in high country before, we certainly were now.
This boulder section ended by joining onto what must be the rangers access road whish was a lot smoother, a relative term for sure, but smoother and quicker than the last few miles.
We crossed the four wheel drive bridge which has locked bars on it to stop any cars going any further, though they could if they wanted get through the river easy enough now it's drier.
From here we knew we only had a few miles further to go but were by now looking closer at the weather as the wind had picked up and the black clouds coming over the mountain just in front of us were starting to spit rain.
We decided we had come so far  and were so close we may as well get to the Loch before turning round as even if we turned back now we would still likely get wet as the country up here is so exposed that there is nowhere to hide from it anyway.
So it was a short time later we rolled to a stop on the shore of Loch Einich. We placed the bikes against the cairn, took a couple of photos and ate a celebratory Snickers bar.
We could now vary the ride back as once back to the forest area we needed to go a different way to get back to the car. First variation came after crossing the river instead of going along the boulder path we climbed to four wheel drive road up the hill. Started to ride it, no traction at all as it was that steep, and could then barely walk it. The views from the top were worth it though, really nice now the worst of the clouds had passed over and it was brighter.
With the tracks being one extreme or the other, rough chewed up hardpack or smooth soft clay it was still a good ride back.
It was another great day out and while we have done this track on our fatbikes and 1 x 1s the LHT was just as enjoyable, maybe more so as I had to think about lines and be deliberate with my riding. It made it though with just a little mud on the undersides to hint at the days adventures. :)