I'm a little late with the February post due to being on my holidays up in the Highlands. Unfortunately I didn't get any biking done as I'd hoped to, but the weather was beautiful and the hounds enjoyed visiting the beaches and woods.
February was pretty busy for us still though the more inclement weather saw things slow down a little.
Andy hid away from the rain and wind in his workshop working on some beautiful paint jobs including this fantastic Flying Scot. The customer wanted it painted the colour of Andy's beard and we think we got pretty close! This type of paint is called "flamboyant" in the UK and "candy" in the states, it's a multi-stage process where you lay down a few coats of metallic silver (or gold) and then spray a semi-translucent colour over the top. It gives a finish with a lot of depth and lustre and is how lots of classic bikes like these Scots were originally painted.
It rides really nicely and the classic Campagnolo parts are so solid! You know when you've changed gear with those shifters all right.
We teased this other Flying Scot in our last update, we think it came out pretty well:
The pictures don't do it justice - I should have photographed it outside. The camera has also made the frame's angles look crazy! It's flamboyant red, lug-lined in gold metallic, but the photos make it look postbox red....
This Lemond had a full strip down, repaint and rebuild and came out really well. The customer is a regular of ours and is absolutely delighted with it.
When he eventually emerged, Andy tackled the Tour of Midlothian Audax with some of the friends of the shops, and despite the rather strong winds made it happily to the end on Armour#1, the first frame he built. https://www.strava.com/activities/881993889 . Thanks very much to Alastair and all at Musselburgh RCC for organising the Audax so excellently. It wouldn't be the Tour of East Lothian without gales and some pain, but here's a photo of a prettier moment. Double rainbow!
Last but not least for Andy is an interesting project in the form of a custom Polo bike for his pal Colin. The smallest, strangest frame Andy's made so far! TIG welded using extra-thick cromo for dent and crash resistance. The dropouts are sliders as it'll be used singlespeed and the inserts have a disc tab. Colin has given Andy free reign to go crazy on the paint, and he intends to do just that!
My own efforts over February were a little lacklusture, hitting only 161.1 miles, with a trip up to the Highlands and a bad cold knocking me off the bike for a couple of weeks. I'm back to it now but I have a lot of catching up to do distance wise this month. I've managed to sort out my weekends a bit more to get some cycling in so we will see how I go this month, though as I write this the dreaded lurgy has visited my face once more.
The Skelf bike park is opening up soon and it looks like the team are doing a fantastic job! Their opening party is at the end of the month, so be sure to go and show them your support!
You can find their facebook page here with loads of picture of the progress. It looks ace and they are doing great work in planting up the park as well.
Hope you all have a great March, and I'll be posting again at the start of April with what we got up to during the month, including some pics of Andy's trip to Italia.
Best Wishes
Iain and the Eastside Team
