My Audax Mk3

[honesty]

hi.

Thought I'd join up and show a photo of my new Audax Mk3.



I've changed the rear rack to a Tortec velocity hybrid since this photo.

And a photo from the weekend:

[jags]

looking good was that a tour you were on.
how does that bike preform with panniers.

[honesty]

Just a century day ride, but I took full waterproofs, flask of coffee, and food, + tools/inner tube etc. as it was meant to be a a really bad weather day.

It handles really well, as far as I could tell it didn't make a massive different to the bike (apart from downhill speed, wind resistance from the bags) but then I didn't have a huge amount of weight in them. Still got to get the better half to sign off on letting me do a touring holiday as I need to buy a new light weight tent for it (my last one - a Marmot Nutshell - started leaking really badly through the floor and got thrown away in the end).

[JimK]

Nice looking bike! If I were to go crazy and acquire n+1, that's the bike I dream about. My Nomad is totally sturdy, unstoppable. But I can't say that it really flies. That bike you have there, that looks like it can really soar!

[Danneaux]

Wow, Adam!

What a stunner!  Beautiful bike, and everything "just so".  May I ask, what did you use to pad the handlebars, just rearward of the brake hoods? My hands are envious (must get a bit thicker padding on mine; plan to compression-wrap some Grab-Ons beneath tape, as has worked well on my other bikes).

I surely like the black 'n' blue paint scheme; looks fast even standing still. Welcome to the Forum; nice to see an Audax Mk3 here in the gallery.

Best,

Dan.

[honesty]

Thanks.

For starters the handlebars are bontrager shallow drop ones with a thickness of 31.8 across the whole top section. Can't remember the exact model, sorry!

Then I added Fizik gell pads.

Then bontrager gell grip tape.

[jags]

great bit of cycling honesty i used to do centuty rides a few years back but have gotten lazy recently  just do 30 to50 these days but enjoy it.
i did 110 miles 2 years ago on the sherpa a fantastic days cycling , brought the stove  and kettle felt like a kid all over again.
btw i think cotswold camping have a half price sale on tents.
might be worth checking out.
any more pics of your ride .
cheers
jags

[honesty]

With panniers on a new rack (tortec velocity hybrid) and with new wheels. A quick snap in the back garden this morning. Actually quite surprised about the quality of the photo as its from my phone camera (lumia 920)

[jags]

still looking CLASS

[honesty]

Thanks. Next thing to do I'm contemplating changing to a sram apex setup with the wifli rear derailleur, so a 2 x 10 gear setup with the same gear range as a standard road triple. My brother works in the industry so hopefully he can get it a bit cheaper for me. I wanted to change to a road triple but trying to get hollowtech road triples for 9 speed (other than sora spec) seems like a bit of an impossibility now. I should have bought them from CRC when they were dumping them through clearance a few months ago. Oh well, hindsight and all that.

[jags]

what about shimano XT M 770 crankset and rear mech thats what i have on the sherpa love it as good as dura ace does exactly what its supposed to do.

[honesty]

I've been looking at the M771. Again should have picked it up a few months ago when CRC were selling them fr 97 quid. Now though, cheapest looks to be around £170... probably going to be only slightly cheaper than replacing it all with the sram stuff my brother can get. There is another reason to replace as well, I'm building an old frame I have in the shed into a flat bar roughstuff tourer and the full deore groupset will go on it really well

[jags]

only seen the sram on a few road bikes nice gear thats for sure.
but i'm a dura aca man meself  and the xt is really well made faultless get what you pay for i suppose.
good luck with the build.

[JWestland]

Maybe used items on e-bay are an option?
You can get good deals there.

Hah a Charge saddle, I ride a Charge Hob  when I am no on the XTC
Love the sticker on the chain stay.

[honesty]

Its actually a DMR chainstay protector for a mountain bike. I find I can whip the chain down onto the chainstay if I change whilst pedalling too hard and my last frame had loads of paint chips in it because of it.