CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
New chain and sprockets on the M6R at the weekend.
The chain had been falling off going uphill and starting off at traffic lights. Chainring in the post.
Should look at putting the Longstaff front wheel back on. It has the road bike wheel just now.
In service day next week so I might put lights on the Dawes Newpin and have a 0630 hrs swim in Coatbridge on the way to school. If the roads are manky I’ll use the Pashley. It’s missing a spoke or two but has hub brakes.
I didn't quite get everything done I had wanted to do - the discovery that my rear hub was made of aluminium and had welded itself to the unused fixed sprocket (with took out my chainwhip when I tried to remove it) and lockring (removed with a wee tool I've not used before with a lot of grinding and white powdery residue) meant that I'm still using the same slightly skippy freewheel for now (until I find something to remove it with) but the crank came off easily, the brake started moving again after being squirted with things and I found some spare bolts to fix the old chaintug seeing as SJS had declined to include the one I ordered in the parcel with the new tyre and crank.
That's a very nice solid-looking chain. There is something pleasingly robust about single-speed chains compared to slinky 11-speed ones.
It is depressing, though, that the life of a chain seems to be inversely proportional to its cost.
@wingpig
Clever photo. Perspective neutralised.
The chain which came off was still uncorroded and still sturdy beneath the muck after three years, whereas a one-year-old nine-speed chain always feels much more delicate compared to what's replacing it.
@iwrats Ta. Despite the smartness of modern portable telephones they all still have teeny f and there's very little control offered over the oversharpening out-of-focus areas. The camera on my N95 was better than this twelve years ago.
Pleasing afternoon in the garage yesterday.
Studded tyres wrestled off the Brompton and unstudded ones put back on (using the amazing tyre-seating tool, so no wrestling involved). Brompton found in most other respects to have no unnoticed maintenance horrors.
Original 'Prowheel' crankset wrestled off the BTwin road bike that now spends its time mainly on the turbo trainer. Found to be embarrassingly rusted inside, and not totally easy to remove. New, surreptitiously-purchased reduced-price old-style Shimano 105 crankset installed in no time. Reason for the swap is that I wanted shorter cranks so they are the same as on the fancy bike. I couldn't find any cheaper 165mm cranks (that's short). Short cranks are nice if you are as inflexible as me. It's part of a longer term plan to be able to swap a crank-arm power meter between my road bikes.
There are lots of hyphens in this post.
I have oiled my chain. It is now quiet. That is all.
Useful having a traffic free commute so you can notice such things...
Chain oiled, tyres pumped. It was at this point I realised how long it had been since Id done that. Three minutes off my commute and a sore butt from the setts.
Unexpected child light morning meant I decided to give the mtb some much needed love.
Got the front mech moving nicely, cost 1 bottle of pundland wd40, the chain however I think is a goner. More stuck links than brexit and a very unhealthy colour. Got it in a jar of white spirit but I'm not hopeful.
Also took the studs off so apologies for any late snow!
"I can't get the gears to change into the easiest gear... can we stop and check them...!?!"
I have a toolkit with its contents honed over several decades... and lots of small things (like a bent paper clip which releases a clip on my break blocks) but when the loaned mtb my other half was riding turned out to have the gear changer lever mechanism falling to pieces even I thought that the trip might be over - only 2km from home. Getting home would be fine, but surely the lever was on its last legs and not suitable for a proper ride in the hills...
But with and appropriate level of care - learned after previous experiences of pinging (vanishing/lost) springs (in my youth) - and with appropriately careful thought about which tools I had... the mechanism was reassembled. I even spotted the reverse thread on the main nut, just before I turned it too far.
Experience said "stop, something's wrong, go more carefully" just in time...
Probably the first time I'd actually used that screwdriver bit (which fits on the hex key), but I knew it would come in useful eventually...
Still haven't used the toothpaste tube tyre boot + needle and linen thread though... although perhaps it's time will come...
On the satisfactory side - I have managed to get a Marathon Plus tyre on and off my back wheel with a minimum of swearing and without asking A Man for help* twice now in as many weeks.
On the unsatisfactory side, this newish (only a year old and not particularly worn by my standards) Marathon Plus tyre has had four punctures since I got it. Meanwhile the front tyre, also a Marathon Plus but much older, remains apparently impregnable despite looking pretty worn.
Has something changed at Schwalbe? Anyone else noticing similar?
* edited to add: this didn't stop a man coming and helping me unasked anyway
I use anti-puncture tape inside my Marathons Plus just in case they're not what they were cracked up to be. I recently removed a bald, old one which had several lumps of glass embedded in it but not yet poking through.
I would write to Schwalbe with till receipt.
I'd say 10000 miles before they start puncturing
You do need a new one if you are sure these were separate punctures? I.e. You have taken four nails or four industrial staples or four haw thorns out. Glass tends to Bead into a little pebble you can dig out.
Obviously I am expecting to pick up a P-word Now
Also rear seems much more prone to punctures - I suspect it carries much more weight, it's not just vindictive fairies!
Robert
Four separate blackthorns (actually five as there were two in the most recent incident). To be fair, nothing is completely proof against blackthorn but it's not hedgecutting season so there isn't as much of it about as there is in autumn.
Front tyre has all sorts embedded in it and I really should replace it.
@roibeard "Also rear seems much more prone to punctures"
Typically the sharp is lying flat when the front rolls over it and momentarily leaves it sticking up whereby the rear then picks it up, centripetal force keeps it perpendicular and on the second rotation the weight drives it in.
That is how nail catchers on the rear reduce punctures, wiping off the flint before it gets driven in on 2nd rotation.
I always put it down to underinflation so parts of the tyre are incontact with the ground which are not protected by kevlar but your explanation is much better.
What's a nail catcher?
Presume another name for these: http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/components/flint-catchers-comp.html
I'm sure I've seen brush-type ones somewhere too.
Interesting. Useful idea for touring bikes especially I'd have thought. Racers I suppose would abhor the inevitable drag no matter how small?
Certainly nowadays when some mechanics are probably capable of changing a wheel in three seconds flat whilst leaning out of a car window. Looks to have been quite popular back in the day when they perhaps had to fix punctures themselves?
@steveo Gross underinflation for the load being carried causes snake-bite punctures, the classic twin perforation where both sidewalls of the rim pinch the tube against the corner of a pot-hole/kerb/stone. Kevlar will not prevent pinch flats.
Discounting gross under-inflation or over-loading, a tyre at the lower end of its rated pressure range will be less likely to puncture than one at higher pressure. In the same way as a fully inflated balloon bursts with a mere brushing edge while a half-inflated one needs to be well prodded.
Well the link Frenchy gives shows a man on a racing bike in the 1930s using one.
Quick-release was not common-place in the 1930's nor was a team support car, so avoiding a puncture was paramount in those days.
never let it be said that CCE isn't at the forefront of cycling technology.
@le_soigneur -hmm, interesting. I've been trying to be better at keeping my tyres well inflated thinking that might help, but I may well go back to something a bit more comfy.
@Iain McR
Maybe there's an electronic flint-catcher in the DTi range?
@le_soigneur, I understood that it was the exact opposite. The higher the pressure the less likely you are to get a puncture (within reason).
As a balloon is inflated the wall gets stretched and thinner but a tyre doesn't do that so the wall thickness stays constant and the ease of penetration doesn't change. A low pressure tyre has a larger contact patch which makes it more likely to pick up debris which can lead to a puncture.
A road tyre or anything over 60psi does stretch when inflated to its rated pressure.
So for a shard/flint/glass puncture, lower pressure is better.
However for a long penetrant like thorn or nail which is going to go thru regardless, then lower pressure is worse as you say it increases the contact patch width and therefore the chances of picking up a thorn in the first place.
Really depends on rider weight, preference, speed etc but I usually just go slightly above the middle of the rated range for the rear tyre and slightly lower for the front.
The only people who should be pumping their tyres to the full rated pressure these days are track cyclists. The rolling resistance myths of high pressure narrow tyres on real road surfaces is well de-bunked by now.
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