my bike

 

This is my bike, a steel 1993 Kona Hahanna designed by Joe Murray. I'm by no means an expert on anything but I know that the geometry of the frames is very small to keep the bikes stiff and responsive which means massive seatposts and long stems. Some people think they look like childrens bikes. Some people don't know what they're talking about. The original is 3x7, but i've gone for a 1x10 conversion ostensibly for simplicity. 

I picked my bike up en-route to Scotland, taking advantage of the van my friend and I had hired to move him for uni. 

I couldn't understand why the guy i had bought it off was so sheepish until I had time to look it over and realised the aluminum seatpost was stuck in the frame 

If an aluminum seatpost is left in a steel frame a thin layer of the seatpost will oxidise and wedge itself inside of the seat tube which is an enourmous ballache. Save yourself the hassle and avoid frames with stuck seatposts but if you must, caustic soda will melt through aluminum, bodies, etc. leaving the steel unharmed (the same can't be said for the paint). 

What follows are some pics of the bike I've taken to celebrate its rebirth and the times it has remained in one piece.

Specs:

• 1993 Kona Hahanna 20" frame w/ 1" threaded Project Two forks
• Rear Mavic D521 SUP rim w/ Shimano deore xt hub 
• Front Araya RM17 w/ Shimano something
• Panaracer Mach SS tires
• Sunrace 11-42t Cassette 

  

  emergency lime mixer
  

• Hope 32t? (maybe 34) narrow wide chainring
• Shimano something cranks, although spoiler, not for long
• MKS mt lux comp pedals 
• Syncros 130mm cattleprod stem 
• Kona DH riser bars
• ESI mtb grips 
• Shimano something cantilever brakes w/ Koolstop mtb pads
• Shimano Saint derailleur (protoype model)


I would also like to briefly scream into the void at bloggers compose interface which seems like a coordinated effort to fuck me off. It's 2021 and I can't place two images side by side wtf? It doesn't even have a speelchecker. 

homemade fender from gutter which didnt last

Syncros stem and Kona DH risers

TBC...

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ultralight cook system (part 2)

 I just want closure. But first have a look at my supercat stove.

wadda beauty

And in action:

Pretty wild how quick it boils water. Yesterday I was working on a way to secure the ends of the windbreaker, and came up with various convoluted "solutions", before finding this. Particularly Captain Paranoia's extensive work on a script that takes various inputs and spits out a perfect stove, a bit of a spoiler. Such a comprehensive design has definitely put the breaks on my own work, but at the very least it's interesting to see similar solutions come from different sources. A good idea is a good idea, and I guess that's the only closure i'm going to get.

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ultralight cook system (part 1)/new approach

Dan and I have decided to build an ultralight cook system based around the super cat stove, developed by Jim Wood: https://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/

Dan and I walked together last year on the South Downs Way and have came to an understanding over our mutual interest in making our own gear. So many projects I've begun recently have stagnated or progressed at an excruciating pace and I'm desperate to get shit done! With the time we've set aside and the scope of this project I'm hoping for some rapid results. 

So far we've established the stoves need for a windbreaker and stand. To create this with as little weight as possible seems intuitively to mean as few components as possible. 

This model rendered in 0.3mm aluminium sheet shows the stove (gold) under two skewers which I intend to produce from bicycle spokes. This model does not account for the latch system between the halves of the aluminium flat pattern as it will be easier to produce in card prototypes. Atop these spokes will sit the cooking pot, in this instance a snow peak 600 series mug, in which all of this will be contained.  

On the new approach. From now on I'll be using this blog for rolling updates on a variety of projects, I'm not in the mood to be retrospective.

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