Beales, Frankenbike and Starcraft 2

Look at this 2 posts in as 3 days, maybe I'm just bored or maybe I pulled my finger out!

Off I trotted to Beales (Bolton) yesterday, the Rock Watch in hand, not intending to 'demand' a replacement or my money back, but just to see what they would say.  I got the same woman as last time, pleasant lass, who I explained the problem too.  Without any arguing she took the ruined watch and gave me a brand new one!  I was expecting the third degree but no arguments at all so that's put those guys up in my estimations!  This watch will not be used on the bike, and if it does ever get outside again it'll be wrapped in bloody clingfilm!

The old Mountain Bike is having a slight face transplant, gone are the flat bars and on are some drop handles!  Spending the wet Sunday stripping it down and putting other parts on it I found that it actually looks pretty damn nice with the drops on it.  I managed to rig up one of the brakes to see how it would perform with the V Brakes and as of yet it seems fine.  I have yet to rig the gearing up and the rear brake so there in lies the next challenge.  Some have said the Alivio rear mech won't work with Mirage shifters but personally I can't see how there'd be a problem.  I'll grab some new cables and covers this week and order some cheap handlebar tape off the internets!  Here's a couple of photos from my ancient Nokia...

Front on view.  Cables are not yet set up properly.

Side on view of the MTB with drop bars fitted.

Last week I acquired Starcraft 2 and I'm finding myself slowly getting addicted to the game.  I was never a huge RTS fan and found the whole Total War franchise to be mind numbingly dull; however with SC2 I'm having a blast!  I gave a 7 day pass to a good friend of mine and we both found the co-op play to be really enjoyable so I suspect there's going to be a lot of zerging and marine splattering to come!  I have some interesting replays so will do my best to post a few here, with maybe some 'Totalbiscuit' style commentary (which I will be crap at!).

Hope you're still reading these blogs Dad, haven't had a mail from you in a while!  *poke poke*