Category Archives: Bike

For almost a year now I’ve been tempted to get titanium bolts for my bikes from various online shops but I’ve never been able to pull the trigger until now. I came across US company Better Bolts on YouTube and hey hey it turns out they make a complete Specialized SL8 bolt kit for not only my frame, but also my Roval cockpit and SRAM red groupset.

Their Ti bolts are CNC machined, have rolled threads (vs cut), use PVD coating (vs anodizing so they won’t fade in harsh sunlight) and they offer a lifetime warranty on the bolts too!

I decided to go for the copper colour for a bit of bling, will get them on the bike and take more photos (and measure the weight savings!) ASAP.

Looks right but heavy at 60g.

Always wondered what that little braze on tab was for. It’s for holding the chain when you have the rear wheel off the bike. Neat!

Have heard a lot of praise for Arundel bottle cages but never been into the look of them, until now! The Campagnolo aero bottle I had on the Paino was period incorrect, but worse than that, drinking water from it tasted like plastic so it had to go!

Paino now weighs in at 8.50kg’s with the 202’s. Shimano Sora 8-Speed cassette on order!

Daym!

I love building and tinkering with bikes as much as I love riding them, but the SL8 is so good as is that I’ve been struggling to improve it in any way and now I’m having withdrawals.

Yesterday I stupidly test fitted the 45 deep carbon front wheel off my SL6 onto my old 80’s steel Paino road bike and BAM! Hot daym it looks fucking amazing! I ended up spending hours trawling eBay and FB Marketplace for parts to do a Neo Retro build on the Paino and man, there’s a LOT out there for cheaps so no doubt at all it would be a fun project.

There would be a lot of problem solving to do too and a lot of different directions I could take the build, and possibly a fair bit of trial and error as well. The Paino is 6 speed Campy and if I wanted a 45 deep rear wheel I’d have to give that up and look into a cassette for an 11-speed Shimano hub (or run an 8/9/10 speed cassette with spacers). I could keep the friction shifters to work with whatever cassette, or I could upgrade to modern brake lever shifters or even an electronic groupset.

100% I’d have a lot of fun on a Neo Retro project, but I’ve worked so hard at restoring the bike to how it was when new that I feel it would be disrespectful to modernise it. I have no doubt that the bike would ride better with modern parts on it, but there’s no doubt it’ll still feel like heavy, flexy and unresponsive in comparison to my SL8.

First world problems!

Caden floating 2-piece rotors for the SL8. The 160mm came in at a super light 96g, and the rear 140mm came in at 80g. Literally as light as the one-piece Galfer rotors they’re replacing.

Ben holding up an array of jet engines which bolts on to his Porsche rear diffuser. He’s literally a mad inventor!

For shits n’ gigs he’s making a jet engined bike too. Cray!

Weight weenie friendly tyres.

Love is in the aero.

Dropped in to Ben Caden’s workshop to pick up some of his new super light floating disc rotors. The guy is a legit OG. Thought I’d rattle off a few shots whilst I was there!

BTS shot.

Love it raw: unfinished UniDirectional fibre, raw out of its mould, no paint or varnish to hide any imperfections.

Photo by Nick Turner shot at UNO Studios.