Spring Cleaning & Present Surprises

 

A post ride flash of inspiration and some quiet saw me fit the Roswheel Lightweight Touring Rack to Denise. Straightforward enough, although I found myself stripping the rack’s fasteners and giving them all a good lick of Oxford Mint Assembly Grease. There are some things I’m not completely sold on, but I’ll reserve judgement until we’ve done some proper miles.

 It’s a slimline, narrow design, especially the top rails and in my view, aesthetically paired to a road biased build-I’m talking Audax and lightweight tourer, through to gravel. 18 kilos maximum payload is a good bit lower than the 25 offered by Topeak Uni Super Tourist 2.0 Non Disc Rack Topeak Uni SuperTourist 2.0 NonDisc Rack | cycling-not-racing but perfectly adequate for general riding, weekend touring, commuting etc.

Given these contexts and the lightweight tag, I was pleased to discover there’s also a three-point mounting option.

I’ve gone the four- point route, since Denise sports these, and it's always been my preference. The grey powder coated finish looks sharp and has an interesting texture, although I noted ours was a little soft along the tops, where the arms rest. Welds are generally neat, albeit with a couple of workman-like, but solid beads at certain points.

As expected, the top mount struggles a little with trunk bags, such as my long serving, 13 litre Carradice, but despite the sides hanging over, it’s been surprisingly secure, even when I’ve been exploring some new bridlepath. Not that Eric the equine was remotely impressed when I stopped by, while dropping some stuff in the post box that evening.  

It also seems a good host to bigger panniers-I’ve the Lomo Zephyr Lomo Zephyr Waterproof Panniers | cycling-not-racing in situ since (a) I really rate them (b) I was keen to see how they’d sit against the rack’s sides, and I’m also running radar lights, which seem most accurate when mounted vertically. One point, and this goes for single-tier designs per se, it's trickier to run panniers and trunk bags together.

 Despite the rack tubing being standard 10mm thick, I’ve not managed to persuade either the Coospo TR70, or the BBB Signal BLS251 to sit securely, which isn’t the case with either the Topeak, or the M Part Summit M Part Summit Rear Rack | cycling-not-racing.  Crucially, both have embraced the rack’s dedicated LED mount.

 Rack testing in motion, I decided I needed to switch Muffin’s composite cages, since these showed a tendency to collect stubborn road film and grot. Black, white, or red would’ve been the most obvious compliments, but I had three silver offerings handy, so took that route.

Then, since the sun was shining, I plucked the Holdsworth from its hook and gave it a good sudsy bucket clean, stripped the congealed Blub Wax Lube Blub Wax Lube | cycling-not-racing and replaced it with the KMC Go.

Next the Cycology 8 days Handlebar Tape was showing signs of wear Cycology 8 days Handlebar Tape | cycling-not-racing, so presented the ideal opportunity to replace and fit the Dia Compe 138  hand rest to the left side. I redressed its bars in the contrasting orange T-One Mr Fantastic Handlebar Tape  T-ONE MR FANTASTIC HANDLEBAR TAPE | cycling-not-racing .

This was doing something close to nothing, was still in good shape and contrasts very nicely with the two-tone blue. A little job I’d planned to do when replacing Muffin’s bars and bar tape, but circumstances meant postponement.  Sometimes it’s the little things that bring the biggest smiles- an impromptu dusk saunter to the post box and a quick chat with Eric (the equine). being another.   

As for the KMC Go, I’ve been increasingly impressed by the formula’s staying prowess and cleanliness despite a cocktail of wet slippery roads, bridleways etc. As I suspected, it returns cleaner and flakes off in very small quantities, rather than the big flakes.

There’s some light peppering along the chainstays, and I do mean light. I’m 150 mixed terrain miles on the first helping and curious as to how many I can amass before there’s that familiar, faint metal-on-metal tinkling. I’m assured there’s no call to strip it, just remove any loose residual stuff and then top-up. We’ll see…