Barry Brown, Kingfisher Porteur Bike, For Sale! Completely Hand Built Frame, Fork etc...

 For Sale!
£1,150.00

Genuine near offers will be considered!

Please use the contact bar on the right side of my home page, or email me: 

knotty dot bear at gmail dot com

Collection is from West Drayton Middlesex, UB7

How Do All, 

Due to ongoing problems with my back, which after several Epidural and Nerve Block injections; I still have no relief,  I have decided to sell the bikes which I was determined not to sell, as I no longer find cycling the joy it was, just riding to work each day is too much most days.

Here I reluctantly offer my Hand Built, Barry Brown (BB) Kingfisher Porteur bike for sale.

I designed and hand built the frame and fork whilst attending the Bicycle Academy in Frome during November 2016.

I finished up the the frame and fork during the early part of 2017.

I had the frame, fork and wheel rims custom painted by the talented Tom Sturdy, of Sturdy Cycle and Bicycle Academy fame, the paint scheme was based on a kingfisher, which came and sat on a statue besides me whilst visiting Longleat house.

The basic bike cad design, after also doing a bike fit.

The frame nearing completion.

The frame and fork 99% finished after brazing.

First fit after paint and wheel building.

The bike is in Fantastic used condition. This bike was built to be ridden and not as a wall hanger! any rubs or chips on the paintwork will be mentioned with the pictures below. 

The bike was built with a dropped bottom bracket to use 140mm cranks as I suffer with my knees.

The frame is compact, and is designed for comfortable all road exploration, and a more upright position.

For sizing reference, the top tube is 21.5" (54.5cm) centre to centre, and the seat tube is 21.75" (55.2cm) from BB centre to top of tube. the bike is fitted to be with a  32" inside leg wearing shoes.

Whilst fully disassembled the frame and fork was treated with a wax frame protection spay (Frame Saver, Steel Frame Protector) so the bike will never suffer from internal rust!

Picture from 07 08 2022 and how the bike is being sold.

please note: the brooks saddle is not included! you will need to provide your own, this saddle is now on my work bike.

I am more than happy to have anyone come visit me and examine the bike. I am in the Heathrow Villages area Hillingdon, Middlesex.

If you are interested in this item please contact me. 

The Details:

Frame: all Columbus Zona tubing, Custom designed, and hand brazed. all brazing is raw finished and not filed as I wanted to see my handiwork for future reference and not hide it! plus various fittings and stainless M5 sealed bottle bosses. and rear rack fittings.

For sizing reference, the top tube is 21.5" (54.5cm) centre to centre, and the seat tube is 21.75" (55.2cm) from BB centre to top of tube. the bike is fitted to be with a  32" inside leg wearing shoes.

Fork: Reynolds disc brake fork blades and drop outs, wide MTB fork crown (can't remember the name) Spiral reinforced steerer tube.

Front Rack: Custom built and brazed by myself, using seamless 316 stainless tubing, can hold up to 10kg (not tested above this weight but possibly more) Light bosses to take B+M Cyo, Schmidt Edelux, or similar lights, (I used lipo battery packs in small bar bags) (lights not included)

Wheels: Rodi Vision 25 rims, painted by Tom Sturdy and hand built onto Novotec Polished silver hubs, with Sapim race spokes, 

Tyres: Schwalbe Kojak 26" x 2" folding (559 x 50mm) with Schwalbe tubes.

Chainset: Spa Cycles TD2 triple cranks, custom 140mm length, with Stronglight 46t, and Spa 34t & 24t rings.

BB: Tange sealed bearing 113mm.

Pedals: Shimano PD 520 white.

Front mech: Shimano 105 triple.

Chain: KMC X10 EL gold 

Rear Cassette: Shimano HG50 10 Speed 11-30

Rear mech: MicroShift R10.

Headset: Velo Orange, Gran Cru.

Stem: Gentic AQ 15 degree, 100mm reach with Garmin compatible top cap.

Handlebar: Velo Orange Porteur bar.

Seat post: Velo Orange, Gran Cru, long layback 2 bolt, 30mm set back.

Saddle: Not Included!

Brakes: TRP Spyre front and rear 160mm.

Mudguards: Velo Orange 60mm polished alloy.

Rear reflector: Velo Orange polished alloy.

Bar end shifters: Shimano 10 speed x 3

Cable Housings: Jagwire LEX SL & CGX SL pre lubricated

Cables: Clarks stainless steel. 

Brake levers: Dia compe 139 Road safety levers.

If I missed anything please contact me and ask for additional details.

The Pictures, taken today 07 08 2022

From behind.

Jtek mech cable pulley .

front mud flap, has a small split, 

Rear mud flap.

Velo Orange alloy reflector on polished alloy mudguards. 

TRP Spyre brakes, and rack / mudguard attachment.

TRP  Spyre rear brake, and the lovely cutaway dropouts (cant remember the name)

Rub through paint from carrying a long tube with no padding, treated with clear lacquer. 

MicroShift R10 mech.

Chainset.

TRP Spyre front brake.

Fork crown and small chip in frame tube, treated with clear lacquer.

Velo Orange, Gran Cru seat post (saddle not included!)

Velo Orange, Gran Cru seat post.

Velo Orange Poteur Handle bar, Dia Compe Levers and Lizard Skins 2 tone bar tape.

Black tape is where I had my bell, now on my work bike.

Front rack light mounts on the stays (lights not included!)

Front rack light mounts on the stays (lights not included!)

this picture is just to show how I used them with a mixture of lights.

Custom built stainless rack with adjustable bungee clips for holding bags etc...

Velo Orange Porteur bars.

Everything you see here, minus the saddle, bike stand and garden is included in this sale!

Seat post minus the saddle.

Schwalbe Durano custom chainstay protector hand laced.

Chain marks on ring cutaways, treated with clear lacquer.

Fork crown detail with sealed stainless rack bosses.

For Sale!

£1,150.00

Genuine near offers will be considered!

Please use the contact bar on the right side of my home page, or email me: 

knotty dot bear at gmail dot com

Thank you for looking!

Take care,

Barry ;-)

ICE Sprint X (FSX), For Sale!

 For Sale!

Updated 28 10 2023

£2,500.00

Also over £500.00 of spares, extras and parts included.

Grahams eyesight has meant he can no longer cycle at all!

Current Picture from 27 10 2023 additional pictures below!

How Do All,

My friend and world renowned author Graham Williams is selling his trike and all his cycling related items.

This is a great condition trike and needs no work or improvements, you can ride off into the sunset with no worries at all

If anything has been missed or you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Please see all the honest pictures for a full 360 visual examination, and any extra details.

Graham is more than happy to have anyone come visit him and examine the Trike. he is in the Hayes area Middlesex, just minutes away from the Hillingdon Cycle Circuit.

If you are interested in this item please contact Graham directly: (remove the spaces from the email address!)

everyday 30 @ hotmail .com

The Details:

Inspired Cycle Engineering, Sprint X (FSX).

Please see pictures for extra details and points of interest!

ICE: ICE trike are packed with pioneering features and hours have been spent perfecting every detail. No corners are cut in the manufacture and assembly of every ICE trike. With ergonomically designed seat, ICE Road Response suspension, and the ICE Rider Positioning system, every ICE rider can be assured of a comfortable ride. ICE trikes have toured the world, proving exceptional reliability due to engineering integrity and depth of quality. Reliable, predictable, and assured, ICE trikes have renowned handling, stability, and efficiency, ensuring years of exhilaration and fun.

handling, stability, and efficiency, ensuring years of exhilaration and fun. The ICE Sprint folding trike is the ultimate fusion of sporting performance and long- distance comfort. With a mid-height seating position and ICE’s renowned handling the Sprint is a trike which begs to be explored.

This trike has been upgraded with the X-type package, optimizing it for speed performance with race specification components.

20″ wheel full suspension trike

ICE Compact Flat Twist folding frame

ICE front and rear Road Response

Suspension

Tektro Auriga hydraulic disk brakes

30 speed SRAM X9/TT500 shifters

Avid disc parking brake

Ink Black with red graphics

Wheels with Alex aero rims with

black spokes and red nipples.

Schwalbe Shredda tyres on the front

Schwalbe Marathon Plus on the rear.

Extras purchased by Graham:

X package a mentioned above

ICE over seat bags 

Bottle cage riser

New version head rest and rear light mount (light included) 

New version flag mount on seat back

Front light mount

Full mudguard set with quick release front fittings

Ice mirror mounts and Mirrycle mirrors x 2

Front Windwrap fairing with light mounts, and Moon lights included

Fabric disc wheel covers

Front chain ring guard

Rear rack

A pair of Ortlieb pannier bags

Rear Rack light

Crane Ritten Bell (My personal favourite, Sounds Awesome!)

SPD pedals

There are also some brand new spares/extra tyres that will be included with the sale.

The Pictures:

Taken on 27 10 2023

27 10 2023

27 10 2023

27 10 2023

Some of the spares, lots of ice spares in there and also items not pictured like new and spare wheel disc covers, rods and fittings. flags, tyres etc!!

The following pictures were taken 01 04 2022

Windwrap Fairing

Rear rack and rack light

New head rest and light

Mirror mounts and mirrors

Front suspension

Light mount 

Front suspension

Moon lights and fairing light mounts included

Rear Rack, please note: Burley trailer hitch is not included

For Sale!

£2,500.00

Grahams eyesight has meant he can no longer cycle at all!

Simply Tubeless! A basic instruction guide to running standard tyres and rims tubeless.

  How Do All.

I have been running some of my bike wheels tubeless for about 5 or 6 years now and with great results on the whole.

I have run tubeless specific tyres on standard and tubeless ready rims, and also standard tyres on standard and tubeless ready rims.

I have used several tubeless sealants, Stans No Tubes sealant, Joe's Eco sealant and Effetto Mariposa Caffelatex Tyre Sealant to name a few. My outright favourite being the Joe's Eco sealant, which has yet to fail me!

I have also used various rim strips, sealing tapes and Ghetto tubeless variants depending on the tyres and rims I have been using, all work to a certain extent, but for my uses the best rim sealing strip I have found is a trimmed inner tube which when the tyre is seated and sealed creates I guess what you could call a semi tubular tyre. 

The inner tube sealing method is both cheaper and more versatile than most systems. I also use this system for mounting my standard tyres onto tubeless ready rims.

There are dozens of reasons for (and against) and ways of setting up tubeless, this is just my favourite method, and my reasons for doing this are simple convenience of not getting flat tyres when the puncture fairy visits, I also personally think the ride and handling is better, as for faster/lighter - heavier/slower? well that's something that really doesn't concern me, and I have found that my average speeds running tubeless have been similar if not a little quicker in some cases than running the same set of tyres with tubes.

Ok, so here is my Kingfisher Picnic Porteur bicycle which I hand built. I was originally running 26″ x 2.3″ (559 x 54mm) Rat Trap Pass TC Tyres which are very supple, thin cased tyres, tubeless ready. However I found that running them tubeless with Stans Tyre sealant, even the smallest of punctures would not seal fully, and when wet the sealed punctures could sometimes re-puncture, larger cuts of about 6mm would not seal at all due to the very thin tread and casing.

I then switched to 26" x 2.0" (559 x 50mm) Schwalbe Kojak tyres and have ran them with tubes for the past couple of years, but since having a couple of flat tyres within the same week lately I decided to set these up tubeless, as on my other bikes with the same tyres run tubeless I have not had a single flat for years!

Firstly for this set up you need a suitable size inner tube, this Schwalbe SV7 20" tube is the perfect size for wide 26" rims, my rims on this bike are 35mm wide. whatever size wheel you have you need to use a smaller inner tube that is stretched on your rim. a 26" tube will not work with a 26" rim, as there is too much slack.

Then with a rusty? (beach find on Walney Island) pair of scissors you need to cut around the outside (Tyre side of the inner tube) I start at the valve area and follow the mould line around the outer surface, then with a damp cloth clean off the talc from inside the tube. 

Here my is my standard, nothing special rim. it has one wrap of WTB sealing tape, as I used these rims with tubeless specific tyres previously, it doesn't matter what rim tape you have on your rim as long as it has some, I highly recommend Velox cotton rim tape!

Take your cut inner tube, place the valve stem through the hole in the rim and then stretch the tube around the rim, finally unfolding the cut edges over the sides of the rim. Also make sure your valve stem stays straight in the rim valve hole! and make sure the inner tube strip is centred and even all the way round.

It should look like this when done.

Now mount your tyre one bead at a time, and then with a high volume pump inflate your tyre, this may take some effort, however in this case the tyre seated and pumped up very quickly, and with little effort. 

If you have problems inflating the tyre, then you can either use a compressor or a modified pop bottle or fire extinguisher as a quick shot tubeless inflator, or if the well of your rim is very deep, then you can add a strip or two of duct tape or extra rim tape to build up the well before installing the inner tube. I have done this in the past but no longer find the need.

Also note that this old tyre has no sealant in it yet and even has a few pin prick punctures but still is inflated.

Next up you need some sealant! I use Joe's No Flats, Eco sealant I use a cheap 100mm syringe from eBay, a length of silicone tube (RC fuel tubing from eBay) which fits over the valve stem of the inner tube valve, a haemostat and a valve core tool 

Deflate your tyre and remove the valve core using the valve core tool.

Place the silicone tube on the syringe and close it with the haemostat. then with the plunger removed; fill the syringe to the recommended level with sealant. and replace the plunger just into the opening.

Now attach the silicone tube to the valve stem, and holding the syringe upside down (plunger down) shake gently to mix the sealant and sealing particles a bit, as they can clog the tube and valve stem in some cases. 

Remove the haemostat and quickly squirt the sealant into the tyre and plunge up and down a few time to clear the tube and valve stem.

Then reinsert the valve core and pump up your tyre again to a little higher than your intended pressure. 

I do not use high pressures, I usually run 5psi above the minimum recommended pressure (my preference) if you run your tyres at very high pressures then I don't recommend using this tubeless set up as there is the possibility of blowing the tyre off the rim!

I have found running lower pressures actually faster and more comfortable than the high pressures I used to believe in, I also rarely have punctures this way, and its kinder to your rims too!

Ok; so after inflating your tyre you need to turn the wheel every which way to fully coat the inside of the tyre and seal any pin holes, old punctures or voids in the thin side walls, and also seal the inner tube strip against the tyre, I also bounce the wheel around a few times on the floor to splash coat inner of the tyre, just to be sure.

Above; you can see where the sealant has filled and sealed a couple of tiny punctures, just wipe off the excess.

Note: If using a previously used tyre which has larger punctures/slits of 6mm or above, it is worth patching the tyre inside before starting, or you can plug the punctures first with the tubeless repair kit sticky strings mentioned down below. you can also use this to plug the puncture after adding the sealant and not being able to seal the larger puncture.

Above; you can see here that the sealant has seeped between the tyre and inner tube strip sealing it, eventually this will bond the tube strip to the tyre making that semi tubular tyre I mentioned earlier. 

You can still separate the tyre from the tube strip if you get a large un-sealable hole in the tyre, and then just remove the strip and use a standard inner tube to get you home.

It is worth leaving thin walled tyres on their side supported by a bucket or large pot for about 15 minutes a side so that the sealant can fill and seal the sidewalls properly as the sealant will spend most of its life only covering the tread area of the tyre as the wheel spins.

Once the tyre is fully sealed and you are happy that the job is a good one, you need to trim off the excess inner tube hanging over the rim sides. You can use a sharp pair of scissors, or like here I prefer to use a leather edge beveller tool (size 2) this cuts a fine smooth line and leaves hardly a visible edge to the inner tube.

A view of the cutting edge in the groove.

How the finished edge looks, it's almost invisible to all but the knowledgeable!

Using one hand to pull the strip of tube away as the tool is gently pushed around the rim, being careful not to scratch those lovely rims!

The finished wheel, and pile of inner tube edges. 

Finally! I recommend carrying a spare tube just in case of emergencies, however I have only once in 5 years needed this whilst using the supple cased Rat Trap pass tyres. and as I had forgotten that in my bag was an emergency tubeless repair kit for those times when the cut is too large for the sealant alone to fill the cut, this contains a tool to insert sticky rubber coated strings into the puncture, these then plug the puncture.

You will probably need to refresh the sealant every 6 to 12 months depending on climate, and if you have any punctures, generally I just remove the wheels and give them a shake to hear if there is still liquid in them and gauge if I need to add more and how much, you'll get a feel for it pretty quickly.

If I have forgotten anything please let me know and I will update this.

Any questions are welcome, feel free to use the contact button on my home page and elsewhere.

And please do let me know if you try this and how it worked out for you, or leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and if it was any help at all then I am happy to have helped in some way.

Take care,

Barry - The Knotty Bear.