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I took Friday off to clean my bikes and bring law and order to my garage


It has been a long winter and still during the night temperatures are dropping below freezing point. But the weekend surprised with some sunny days. I started to clean all my bikes and remove the true winter grit. Bad Boy and Gazelle are looking better now and with some oil, grease, new brake pads and adjustment of the rear derailleurs they are running fine again.


Finally I had all parts together to re-fit the Peugeot Galibier. As the Galibier will never become a fast bike, I bought a new stem, handle bar, grips and the most beautiful brake levers and assembled the whole thing on the bike on Saturday.

I am not sure why, but every time, I look at the front of the Galibier I think about Teriyaki burger. How I miss that stuff!


I bought also a nice "Bremen type" vintage Dura Ace cassette for the Galibier. Instead of the almost "compact-like" 12 - 19 5 speed cassette< I mounted a 11 - 15 one which combined with the 53/39 front crank provides optimal choice for Bremen and surroundings.

Looking at the Peugeot I realized today, that I learned a lot about cycling parts in the last weeks and that I am able to do many things on my own with the help of a rather extensive collection of tools. Nevertheless, there are still many things that drive my crazy: The handle can still be turned in the grip of the stem, despite the fact that it is tighten to the maximum. No idea why this is so, I can only assume that the diameter of the handle bar is too small. I can also not install bar ends, which would support the conclusion in the last sentence. And after exchanging all brake wiring (I left the old handle assembly with stems and wires as it is, so it can be mounted easily on another bike) I cannot properly adjust the rear brake. The only way to tackle all this problems is to sleep one night over it and do it again some other day. In the worse case I have to ask for help at the LBS.


The biggest problem with the Peugeot is, that it is too small. One day when I have found the perfect 58 to 60 cm frame, I will remove all parts and reassemble them on the new frame. Of course this will not work out, as the new frame will have Italian thread bottom brackets and other useless features. So I have to spend heaps of money again


I sold my trusted Zonda wheels which I have used on the Cervelo bike for three years and perhaps 25.000 km. The alu rims would probably have not survived the ups and downs of the Transalp. And now, living n Europe, I thought that some European flair would be nice. So I bought a pair of conventional DT Swiss wheels in white. Of all colors. Standard rims R1.1 and standard DT swiss spokes: 32 in the back and 28 in the front. That should be bullet proof for a rider like me. Replacement spokes are cheap and one can true the wheel on a ride in case one spoke breaks. A safe option.

Ultremo Z1 tyres, in case you wanted to ask. As this would most likely be my setup for the Transalp, I mounted the Ultegra 12-28 cassette from the Zonda wheels. Another surprise was waiting for me: The Campagnolo lock ring doesn't fit on the standard Shinao rotors. I used one from my Bad boy wheels for the time being.

Please note the orange valve caps.
As Sunday was a really beautiful day, I took her out for ride at noon. But this is another story that will be written tomorrow.

I used the remaining time on Sunday morning to work on Project X. This will be my secret weapon for all kind of ambushes and I am sure it will become as famous as the King Tiger, the F104 Starfighter and the Porsche 911 Carrera. By punishment of exile and death it is not allowed to make photos of Project X, but from time to time some daredevil nevertheless manage to take some blurred shots.