Roger The Pink Hedgehog

Voodoo 008, originally uploaded by Alex Leigh.

It’s built but it’s not finished. A dish of bodging and rushing spiced up by a side order of frustration is not not a palatable way to build a bike. Still having got this far and given it the round the bloke test, the following has come to light:

– The forks are a bit like my hosting server. Occasionally working, most of the time not, no one seems to know why.

– The rear brake needs bleeding. This process walks a well trodden path from me having a little bleed, then a big tantrum then a cuddle with the beer fridge. I cannot be calmed by even the most rational family members for many hours.

– The rear shock is an enigma. I found an instruction manual in German, but my attempts to translate it triggered an urge to invade my neighbours garden.

– There are apparently 27 gears in this configuration. I can select only 4, of which three make a noise not normally associated with longevity of drivetrain.

– It’s fast though, short chainstays mean sharp acceleration and it carves corners in a n”oh, we’re already round” kind. It feels like it should be great off road if someone cleverer than me can fix all the stuff I’ve broken.

And the best part of riding it in the hills is it may get muddy. I seem to be the only one who thinks pink is a good colour for a mountain bike.

EDIT: My friend Jay has come up with the perfect name for the pink poof as per the new title of this post. From now on, it shall be known by the acronym RTPG. Which – you must agree – sounds better than “yegads, whose is that pink horror?”

8 thoughts on “Roger The Pink Hedgehog

  1. Ian

    6 months? pah.. I guarantee that there’ll soon be a pinker version of the same bike on the market that it’ll be replaced with.. when are the 08 models out? Failing that he’ll just sell it because the grinding gears and brake bleeding will prove too much

  2. Alex

    You’re all too kind 😉 I shall update the “bike page” when I get a spare day or two. Everything on there seems to be wrong. How could that have happened?

    Anyway you missed the point, I don’t intend to soil this vision of pink loveliness by actually riding it. The very thought 🙂

  3. dave

    once again there’s a term that cannot be reconciled with the picture:

    ‘pink loveliness’

    we (in the royal sense) can accept that it might handle wonderfully, cornering like a learner driver on a skid pan (but with more control) or accelerating like a formula one driver. Hell it might be the best goddam bike in the world.. we (royal again) just have a fundamental issue with it’s pinkness.

    unless you fancy having a sex change and being called Alexia?

    Did they REALLY not have a different colour? Oh and this is all purely guesswork – but there does seem to be a certian amount of animosity about this most recent purchase.

  4. Jarl

    The components are great…. not so sure about the frame, though! Off topic, where did you get the nobby nics from? I’m looking for one, but no-where has them for less than£40.

  5. Alex

    Scoffers the lot of you. Only one degree of separation from gloaters. There used to be a green one that was much, much worse. Really. The new ones are a lovely blue but they are also about 400 quid more. And even I’m not that stupid.

    Noblus Nicholas can be purchased from Bike24 in Germandy for about 19 quid each.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *