The bike

Vladimir and I, following in good engineering tradition rebuilt the bike in my kitchen using XT 760 throughout.

The bottom bracket (BB) was the only real challenge, while planning the trip I needed to decide whether to use my old bike/ frame as it has approx. 25,000km on it so I had it checked over by the local "reputable" bike shop in Lund.

They overtightened the fixing it making it impossible to remove by hand. Im so glad I decided on a complete rebuild before I left as it would have been a major problem on the road.

CykelCity were less than friendly when I arrived at the shop and not particularly eager to solve the problem. They did after 20min effort manage to remove the BB, but made no further check and just handed it back to me.

I had not been impressed with them on my first visit as they returned the bike to me with the chain jammed between the front derailleur and chain set, so I had taken the new part with me to check all was well before leaving the shop. It was immediately obvious that the thread was damaged and I had to insist they re-thread it, which they did with absolutely no grace or enthusiasm. I wanted to be nice, but just cant help myself - Wankers.

Ive changed to XT brakes, for this first section, really to give them a try as Ive always used Avid 7 before, the XT brakes are trickier to adjust but Im interested to see how they work.

The bike feels very positive, the new pedals and BB are excellent, thanks Vladimir for all the help.