Shaun Audane's blog

Chrome, along with steel tubesets is en vogue once again and while there’s no denying its allure when gleaming seductively in the afternoon sun, electro plating remains a nasty process and one that presents all manner of headaches when refinishing. Many myths surround electroplate, the most common being that copper is employed for corrosion resistance (it is in fact, used to create an ultra smooth surface for the latter layers of super bright nickel responsible for the characteristic mirror effect).

I have decided that the resolution of a certain legal matter will induce a celebratory ride through the streets of Coventry a’la Godiva but astride a Ti framed minimalist fixer. The last episode of such wanton exhibitionism occurred one warm summer evening in 1994…Ah yes, the unofficial (not to mention naked) four stroke 250cc motorcycle championships held through North East London’s notorious back streets...Honda CB250RS, blue towel… Ahem and now for some pre winter fettling.

Being as there’s so much to see and do at Europe’s biggest cycle exhibition, it’s equally difficult to pinpoint areas of specific fascination but for me it was fully equipped big European tourers with buxom tyres (and in many cases dropped bars). Naturally, children’s cycling apparel came a close second (seeing as my son has just learned to ride his solo competently) alongside lighting and all things pattern/ emanating from Taiwan.

Bank holiday arrived and with it the urge to be creative and yet address some smaller, irritating jobs which  seem perpetually on the backburner. So, it was to a local dealer for a quick tension and very minor truing of the Univega’s front hoop and a new patch kit. The weather had been kind enough for many a fast paced early morning/evening blast on the Teenage Dream but being bank holiday, the forecast was indeed turning bandit, marking a return to the comfort of stout tyres and full-length guards.

Ahem, yes, more shameless reference to the Specials’ but more importantly the Holdsworth’s ever evolving livery that arguably throws my masculinity into question and places us in danger from pollination by passing bees. Having concluded the ITM Olympus are now obsolete thanks to non-existent spares availability, these rather fetching BBB complete the cockpit and allow extra oomph especially with a swanky new aluminium drive sprocket.

Chafing to my inner right thigh has done little to improve my disgruntled mood, although I’m pleased to confirm the culprit was a missing shoe insert (my right femur is longer resulting in a slight imbalance which predisposes me to lean to the left) and not a classic Ti railed Rolls perch. Talking of saddles, it seems the engineering firm who were to reduce the Thomson post from 27.2 to 27.0 have since had a crisis of confidence.

Some weeks back in the context of a very unusual Bianchi, which, some implied had been conceived from a very large, spares bin, Tony playfully suggested I might be able to conceive a smaller production run myself. Reasoned or otherwise, pattern and obsolete parts entice me-going a long way to explaining my gravitation to people’s winter bikes. I don’t subscribe to the philosophy that winter/trainers must be thrown together blindly using a hotchpotch of random parts from the spares bin.

Being a predominantly nocturnal rider has earned me vampire status and a lot of trouble-not least as my son announced to his primary school teacher that I regularly slept in a coffin, hung upside down and turned into a bat, thus prompting suggestion from the (C of E) school that I must be part of some cult, thus requiring investigation by social services! Misunderstandings reconciled and the world was once again round.

A fit of pique has seen me permanently change the Holdsworth’s arguably gorgeous Nitto cockpit for these ultra stiff flat section aero bars and shorter Outland stem. Dun might not be the most exciting of finishes but blends nicely with the blue, black & pink livery. More importantly, being proportionately short in the torso demands a correspondingly shorter reach and the oversized bars are just the icing on the cake. Flamingo pink wrap might not be the manliest of colours but mirrors that of some high end Peugeot race bikes from twenty years ago.