Here’s another panorama
The Wicklow Gap this time

Wicklow Gap

Camera this time was a Canon SX200 IS

I’ve wanted a titainium bike for awhile now.
I went ahead and ordered one. Need to decide what the rest of the bike will be.
It comes in at 1.65 Kg’s for all in the picture there.
 

Litespeed icon

Litespeed Icon, side view

On holidays from work, therefore not spending much time at a computer. It’s great, first break I’ve taken since November.
Completed my first “Into the west” cycle challenge today. I did 330km overall. Average speed back was 34km/h. Happy with that result.

I got this bicycle second hand in 2003. It’s a 2002 model Trek 1000 with the orange colour scheme.

She is as the factory made her

It’s all stock in the photo. You can see all the oil on the floor. This was before I knew much about bikes, and used the wrong oil of the chain. I quite enjoy this bike, it looks well and is fun to ride. It served as my main mode of transport for a few years, so the bike does not owe me anything. It didn’t come with the greatest of components though. It’s a full sora groupset which I now know how bad it is having used better. I was never very good at maintaining this bike, purely due to laziness. Eventually certain parts went bad. I had thought of upgrading it, but the for the money I would spend on it, I could easily get a new bike that is better. That is what I eventually did, and is how I ended up with my Terry Dolan (to be detailed later). I still enjoyed the bike, so  I decided I’d do it up anyway. The first step involved was to strip it down and to do so I required a bike stand. I was doing this over the Christmas holidays so making a rack myself was the fastest method. This was quite easy. Some two by four attached vertically to a work bench, and then two pieces coming out of the top. Think inverted L. The seat post slips into the the top two, into a groove drilled into them. Hinged at the other side, and closed with G clamps either side of the seat post. Surprisingly steady and works well enough for my needs. Stripping down the parts was quite easy.

Bike stripped down and cleaned in the home made bike stand.

The book “The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance and Repair” is what I followed. I got a toolkit like this on ebay. The tools were the main thing holding me back on repairs in the past, as bicycles use a lot of specific tools. Getting a kit is definitely something I would recommend. I bought a 105 groupset on ebay, and a pair of Mavic Aksium wheels, Selle Italia Filante Trans Am saddle, Shimano M520 SPD’s and some other parts of CRC. It took about two days to put it all together and it was well worth the effort.

The finished product, looking a lot better. 105 groupset and Mavic Aksium Wheels

A few months later it’s still going strong and fun to cycle. The bike is probably a bit small for me (54cm frame) but I use it as my commuting bike and I have no problems with it for this purpose.

A few months on and It's still going strong.