Surly Wednesday; Build and first ride film and first impressions....

A wet week here on the coast, east winds sea haar and a chill wind that would cut you to the bone, usual April conditions!,
With the bike built up it was a cosy evening in front of a roaring stove while outside the weather closed in...

I took the Wednesday up to work on the car next day as no mud guards on it yet and i was a bit suspect of the skinny inner tubes i fitted after seeing how slack the tyres were on the rims. I  spent the day inside greasing and prepping machines while the rain danced on the tin roof...

4pm and home time, and the rain had eased!, so i drove down to Seacliff and payed my £3 (i don`t mind) and went for a short shakedown ride on the rocks near the harbour...

Sadly as i suspected may happen i pinch flatted the rear tube getting a bit adventurous on the greasy rocks so called it a day, home and edited a wee 3 min film of some of the build and ride,
Song is `You have been disconnected` by the Brian Jonestown Massacre`


Surly Wednesday; Build and quick ride... from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

After the quick ride i headed to Law cycles for some Surly inner tubes and Dave gave me these tubes to use and review- Nutrak 4" tubes- Schrader valve too, i had drilled my rims the other evening for my preferred choice  of car valve inner tubes and added the Joes Yellow Gel tube juice i bought from him...

Home this evening and some things i have done since i made the film,
There was something wrong with the 30t Raceface chain ring, maybe worn from the 10 speed drive chain it was on but it was skipping, and the 30t Superstar bash ring i bought and really wanted to use for the rocks  on the coast was a crap fit on the Middleburn crank arms, i had to Dremmel it to fit which of course leaves exposed alloy to corrode, so that was a waste of  £20, but never mind...

I fitted a Works Components 32 tooth oval chain ring previously fitted on the Krampus but unused...

Then juiced up the new tubes with the Stans Yellow Gel for tubes, a full 160mm per tube!, yep that`s a lot but i don`t want a puncture from the Hawthorns...

Look how slack the Schwalbe Jumbo Jim 4.8" tyres are!, hence no split tubeless on these...

Back to the chain line and i have a 3x crank spider that does not help chain clearance on the Wednesday...

As you can see it is near touching the tyre...

So a quick fix for now is to remove the second smallest cassette ring (13t) and stick it behind the cassette...

And now the chain clears the tyre, but only just!...

Everything is real tight as it is set up, tyre clearance, chain clearance, ok for the coast, but  not really ideal if you ride in UK mud, if so stick with 4" Nate tyres, but for the wrong cranks, and the wheel so far forward in the drop outs as pictured to get a 5" tyre on a 178mm rear hub with a 100mm BB and only a 440mm chain stay lenght is real impressive!

More soon...