voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:54 pm Rode it

Likewise, but lots of clicking and creaking coming from somewhere so time to get the hammer and chisel out

Built it... Got a chumba vf2 frame for a silly low price on stw, built up with a mix of old and new bits. Anything but a bikepacking bike, but now means that the 27.5" hardtail can be tweaked more in that direction with swoopy bars etc...
The would be a pic here but it was hammering with rain last night when I finished and I overslept this morning!

EDIT: saw the link for how to embed photos from Google, so had to try....

Trued the rear wheel on my Occam. A good reminder of why I never build wheels using alloy nipples

Might hasten their replacement...

Well, rode it. (It being the winter single speed hack) Only to discover that there was an annoying "click" on every pedal stroke, first on the drive side then about halfway through the ride on both sides as I applied pressure

Back home and after washing it, doesn't get that very often, it was in to the workstand and strip down the BB.

AAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Talk about a build up of crap! The plastic tube between the two screw in cups of the BB wasn't its usual black but a rust red; the inside of the shell was coated in rust residue; the threads of each cup were full of grit. On the shell facing of the drive side there was a sliver of metal like a very thin washer coming away from the main body (this is an On-One frame BTW).

That all took some cleaning, with care due to the rough metal edges, more cleaning, then greasing and putting back together.

Gave my Whyte S150 a little love this morning. Changed the sealant in the tyres, gave it a proper clean and lube up, fettled the gears and mini-bleed of the front brake. Three days of the FOD in two weeks will give it a proper beating so it needs to be in fine fettle.

I looked at it longingly before having to close the garage door and take my youngest to chocolate bingo

Changed the BB. 10 minute job took an hour and a half ffs. Went to unbolt crank, self extractor ring unscrewed with the bolt. Re-fitted ring with high strength Loctite, waited for it to set, still unscrewed. Eyed up 5lb lump hammer, then spent ages digging out a thing that would go in the hollow axle for the crank extractor to bear on, found one (a shouldered bolt, thank god for a large box of bolts and other shi*e) removed crank. Unscrewed BB (hope, bearings worn out) in with a new Shimano XT (15 quid) which for some reason has a smaller OD these days (presumably to make it wear out quicker), removed it again to fit the required spacers, refitted, boshed on crank. Removed crank to zip tie inner tube boots over EBB (Jones, don't ask), refitted crank. And breathe.......

My Bold got a treat today after working on some bearings last night.

First Valais shuttling (also some self propelled uphills) day of 2019. I gave it some 6200 m or so of vert loss in very rocky terrain mixed with snow melt and a vaguely excited rider.

Will likely give it a clean tonight and see where rocks messed up the lovely paint job, having the bike look like a teenager with acne vulgaris. Was quite a concert today.

So yeah, kind of smashed it around hoping it'll loose value quicker.

Think it's"new" bike week in our house... Bought my 5 year old daughter a Wild 20" from to outdoors - pretty much a frog/Isla copy. 1*7 gears, proper freehub on nice light wheels and a lovely little aluminium f&f. And it now has a Minny Mouse bottle and cage too...

Son saw this, and having just learned to ride on 2wheels yesterday decided he too needed a bigger bike so did up (new grips, adjusted all the adjustable bits, polished it all) the battered Ridgeback MX20 I bought him in the autumn.

Managed to get some time to fit the Hope RX4 caliper which was delivered yesterday.
It’s a pretty thing
https://flic.kr/p/2fnT3fE

Fairly straight forward installation, chop off old hose fitting and use the supplied parts to install the hope hose connections. A fairly involved bleeding process to get all the air from behind the pistons but I got there in the end. I have the avid pro bleed kit which makes life a lot easier.
So are they any good? OH yes! A quick ride around the block with some hard applications to bed in the pads and they are already hugely better than the stock sram caliper. More power even on 160mm disks and most importantly really progressive with loads of feedback. Definitely a happy camper and will be getting another for the rear soon.

Those RX4's do look nice. Scud has them and really rates them

One of those simple if done right, but a ball ache if not jobs....

Picked up a fixed wheel beater Brian Rourke from Gumtree for £50. Seller used to commute on it but hadn't ridden it in 15 years so everything was pretty seized. Turns out quite a nice bike made from Columbus SL with Dura-ace wheels. I have been slowly stripping it down to see what still works and took the bottom bracket out on Saturday, which must have been in there for over 20 years.

It didn't want to move at all at the first attempt so marinaded it in Plusgas for a few days and used a spanner with a 4ft extension "carefully" attached and it came out very easily. Bonus is its a super smooth UN71 bb

wriggles wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2019 12:27 pm One of those simple if done right, but a ball ache if not jobs....

Picked up a fixed wheel beater Brian Rourke from Gumtree for £50. Seller used to commute on it but hadn't ridden it in 15 years so everything was pretty seized. Turns out quite a nice bike made from Columbus SL with Dura-ace wheels. I have been slowly stripping it down to see what still works and took the bottom bracket out on Saturday, which must have been in there for over 20 years.

It didn't want to move at all at the first attempt so marinaded it in Plusgas for a few days and used a spanner with a 4ft extension "carefully" attached and it came out very easily. Bonus is its a super smooth UN71 bb

You picked a Brian Rouke for 50 quid... well done Wriggles and that tubing... Twill be some comfortable rid8ng that

Washed and checked/lubed the Pact, the Orbea and the Ragley. I'm not big on washing my bikes but like to do so whenever I head off somewhere different, and again when I get back, in an effort to help minimise the spread of infection in forests and woods.

ScotRoutes wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2019 6:40 pm , in an effort to help minimise the spread of infection in forests and woods.

Well done. No, really. That is so considerate

I've put my spring/summer tyres back on, so everyone brace themselves for snow

Busy weekend fettling saw
- bouncy forks back on for the summer
- new brake pads front and back
- remove and grease seatpost
- Fill my new Jerrycan with spares
- Empty Jerry can and cut down spares
- Put on front summer tyre on spare front wheel
- degrease whole drivechain and relube with new brand. Trying Purple extreme and hope it will be less messy and pick up less dirt than the front line wet ceramic

Burping air on rocky singletrack from the rear 29+ tyre at the weekend - a few stops to add more air got me back...
One Stans injection once home seems to have cured it (no need to break the seal with the rim) - and I removed all the dried on crud from the valve core too in case this was stopping the valve sealing well. Washed and lubbed the chain for another bash this week.
Thinking about it now I might need to do the same for the front, if the air loss from the rear was down to dried Stans…. in danger of introducing preventative maintenance regimes

sean_iow wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2019 10:54 pm I've put my spring/summer tyres back on, so everyone brace themselves for snow

I’ve just painted the decking, so monsoons will happen in roughly 10 minutes...

Fitted new WTB Resolutes to the Vaya..

Now just need to get out and ride it.

Nowt on the bike but just spent 2 1/2 hours putting a new rear door loch mechanism on the seat (aka sheeite) Lots of faffing and swearing. Working on bikes is so easy....

Serviced the tubelessness of my tyres.

You know the way old club-men used to have gear ratios written on the white bit at the bottom of their front mudguard?
Is there an equivalent for recording when you last topped up? I think I'm going to start recording it in felt-tip on the top of my downtube.

One had a v slow leak somewhere, so took the valve out and put in a dip-stick with the valve at the bottom. Came out dry so topped up with goop, seems to be sorted now. The other had an emergency tube removed from it, still dripping in goop, the bead cleaned up and reseated, filled and inflated. It went up with a standard hp track-pump! Happy days.

And a half-arsed transmission clean. What's the point in a full-arsed one when it's going to get filthy in no time at all? The finely honed layer of filth that remains acts as a barrier to anything worse getting in there. *

*Other crap theories are available.
** It may get a deeper clean tomorrow.

Noticed the other day how many different manufacturers logos are on my most used bike so I decided to remove whatever I could, fortunately this included the most offensive to the eye - the huge white decals on black Mavic rims that made them resemble zebra stripes from a distance. Waited until the Mrs was out for the evening, brought the bike into the warmth of the kitchen, heated up the decals using her rather expensive hairdryer and peeled them off with an old bank card and the sticky remnants wiped off easily with a bit of Mr Sheen on a cloth - looks so much better.

New tubeless tape arrived so I set up the Pro-Lite wheelset for my Amazon with the WTB Nano 40s "properly". Again, didn't have to use the special pump, just the normal track pump. I noticed - just before adding sealant to the rear wheel - that I'd put the tyre on back-to-front!

Took it for a wee spin down to check out the new part of the Speyside Way up from Loch Insh and bagged a Strava KOM on the way back!!

2019-04-12_08-20-15 by Colin Cadden, on Flickr

I oiled the chain, and in doing so realised that the BB was a bit siezed. Which is kinda good news, as I'd been assuming it was my legs that were leaden...