They knew what they wanted beforehand but not what they needed until afterwards.

Oops, thought that seemed a bit odd but rationalised it as xtr is sometimes funny as bigyan says.

@razorrazoo

https://si.shimano.com/#/en/EV/FH-M965

The tech doc says the cone is M10 X 12.5mm and the lock nut is M10x16mm. Quite unusual.

Specially designed for little hands innit. :)

My planetx 365s which just arrived are also quite baggy below the knee. A bit disappointing.

Not sure whether to stick with them given the otherwise positive reviews.

I like the Shimano pro stuff which has a silicone backing rather than adhesive and a foam texture which handles rain well so probably would be fine with sweat too. I hate adhesive backed tapes

I’m experimenting with shorex silicone foam which seems good but it was the first ride today.

Some of the screwdriver type nipple drivers have adjustable pins to cope with this.

The alternative is to go round the rim once tightening each of the 1mm longer spokes two full turns or so, since each full turn advances the nipple 0.45mm onto the spoke thread.

Link?

Are they special or standard lithium ion cells (18650 etc?)

I have never used a dishing tool, flip the wheel. I have a truing stand but it’s not essential. I have not used a tension gauge but do aim for even tension by maintaining consistency during the build and monitoring picked spoke pitch.

Instead of a cocktail stick take one old spoke, or order one extra, screw a nipple all the way on so just a few turns of thread protrude. Use this as a nipple loader and driver combined in one tool. You can bend a crank in it to aid screwing the nipple onto the spoke. Then grab the nipple when it is threaded and unthread the tool. Repeat. You’ll speed up nipple driving so much and it makes it easy to put all the nipples on to the same depth too, speeding up trying and keeping spoke tension more equal. My last wheel (my fourth) barely needed trued.

https://makezine.com/projects/build-bike-spokenipple-driver-old-spoke/

I would say you do want a hub gear but not necessarily a Shimano one. I had a Nexus 8 speed on my commuting/town bike. I converted it to singlespeed a year or two ago because it’s so flat here and because I really started to resent the extra effort I had to put in with the Nexus. I recently put a sturmey archer dynamo drum brake front hub (x-fdd) on it. I think it’s great.

If I needed lower gearing I’d be more tempted by a SA 3 speed rather than putting the Nexus back on, probably with another drum brake at the rear too. That’s mainly because people say they don’t feel mushy like the Shimano Nexus/alfine 8 hubs.

The other planned upgrade is a butted frame as the current one is plain gauge and slowly succumbing to heavy rust around the BB and chainstays.

Apart from double hex, the other 12 point interfaces are triple square and 12 point spline. In the case of triple square it would have 90deg points rather than the 120deg of double hex.

Can’t think of a torx bit that has 12 points unless you’re counting both the innies and the outies.

I’ve never seen a triple square on a bike. They’re used quite a bit on VW/Audi Group cars. I think that a 12mm hex driver would not fit in a 12mm triple square. If the points look square then a 12mm triple square (or possibly a square bit) might be what you need.

@Superficial

Your concern about seeing the plier wrench in a bike shop makes me wonder if you’ve used one at all?

I have only stick and mig welded on a few occasions in an agricultural manner and certainly never a bicycle, so take this fwiw.

First, can you TIG weld (GTAW)? I believe mig, stick etc are not suitable. Small Inverter welding machines have made tig much cheaper but it’s still expensive, argon is not cheap. The main alternative is fillet brazing.

Can you weld very thin metal? Bike tubing will have walls about 1mm thick.

Cutting through an old frame for practice prices is often recommended to those thinking about welding a frame. Cutting up a frame for parts is not common because plain gauge 4130 tubing is relatively cheap.

Mitering tubes is one of the other main skilsl you will need to develop.

You are very likely to need to buy or make some sort of jig/fixture to makes sure everything is properly aligned.

It is crucial to have spokes that are sufficiently long so that they engage into threads in the broader head of the nipple and thereby prevent nipple failure at the “neck” or shoulder point as discussed in the wheel fanatyk blog link above. It’s quite common for nipples to fail here when spokes are too short. Brass nipples take longer to fail but they still crack eventually. For that reason, using a longer nipple to bridge to a spoke that is too short is a bodge that you may or may not get away with.
Obviously any risk does not always manifest as an actual failure but you have to determine if you are willing to bear the risk – where will you be when the nipple fails?

It is a little less bad to have a spoke that is slightly long as long as you can still tighten the nipples enough to achieve good tension.

If the current spokes protrude beyond their nipples then you will have a little margin to go with a larger ERD. If the current state is that the spoke end is just reaching the slot or below it then you have very little margin for using a larger ERD rim.

I just had to rebuild a wheel because of a spoke length miscalculation – I changed the hub from the one originally intended and it left them just a little short. It seemed more sensible to me to spend another 8 quid on spokes now rather than have it fail and do the same thing later.

some of these pedals, like the XT ones, cost a bomb for something that’s probably going to be a bit shit.

They’re excellent pedals. I have them on my commuter so that if I have to take my bike during the work day I don’t need to switch shoes and they also enable me to use the bike when I wouldn’t want to wear cycling shoes or bring another pair of shoes. Any dual sided pedal involves some compromise and flipping the correct side up but the payoff is the flexibility. They’re worth it for me.

7.6kg. that’s heavier than my 8year olds islabike FFS. Totally crazy.

Get them a decent bike for their size and strength not some inappropriate tat designed to look like daddy’s bike.

They are butted tubes according to alpkit/sonder.

It would be odd to use butted tubes and not mention it anywhere in the spec or press? I asked them.

It is not semantics, it’s engineering. I don’t care so much about the material, only it’s properties.

I am quite happy with 4130 (and wilfully missed the point you were making ;)) as a material but there’s just no excuse for not butting it unless you’re making practice frames or BSOs to sell in Tesco. It’s frankly a disgrace on a ‘proper’ bike, especially of this type (maybe acceptable on a jump bike). Either they are too stupid to specify butted tubes or they think we are too stupid to notice (or they have specified them but didn’t realise it’s important to say so).

Reynolds were buggers in that way but increasingly less so, they’re quite open that 953 is 17-4PH and 921 is 21-6-9, that 525/0 and 725 are essentially 4130. 531’s composition is public. Maybe they’d say what 853/631 is if asked.

For the last 120 years the belief has been that tube properties, modified by various alloying elements, butting and other cold work and heat treating properties are very, very important when you are building or specifying bike frames.

I just didn’t get the memo that we don’t regard them as relevant anymore.

@scienceofficer

Congratulations on missing the main point about butting, introduced in 1902. The advance that led to the lightweight steel bicycle frame.

You realise that 853 is 4130 subjected to additional treatments?

No, it’s not, nor is its relative 631. Both have additional alloying elements which 4130 does not. Additional treatments? Like being drawn from a billet and formed into a seamless butted tube before going through a series of heat treatments, rather than rolled up and welded out of a sheet, possibly without any butting process. Aren’t these relevant steps?

So is 531,

No, it’s not.

525 and 725

Correct, or at least very similar alloys to 4130 but both are butted and in the case of 725, heat treated.

probably some of the others too, but I cant be bothered to look.

Clearly. Maybe you should’ve or maybe you ought to change your username?

Is it made from plain gauge 4130 tubing? If it’s not even butted 4130 why would anyone buy one? Especially when you can buy similar with heat treated butted tubes for a little more. It’s not 1902 FFS!

The real magic of a dff is the basket, allowing you to lift it out to drain over the was without handling or hooking the chain

I assumed the spokes were 15yrs old, my bad.

You might question whether they’ve had a reasonable life or if they’re going early because the wheel is under built.

It’s much less common because residual stresses at the elbow and nipple leave them susceptible to failure. Maybe if the spokes overall are well stress relieved the butt transition is the next most likely point? They’ve got to fail somewhere eventually.

I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t replace it, stress relieve and carry on. If others are close to going they might fail during stress relief.

What makes you think it is bent? Have you tried thread/string from one dropout, around the head tube and back to the other as an initial check of straightness?

I quite like the look of the Ribble 725 Urban Single Speed.

Really? It looks very odd to me. Something about that totally straight front fork looks very, very wrong to my eyes. I thought forks need to have some offset?

I commuted on a day one for about a year, freewheel and fixed with a six bolt cog.

It’s a solid bike. Eventually I found it too solid, too heavy and stiff. Possibly stiff compared to older steel bikes due to the demands of disc brakes. That may also explain the weight. I also found the Hayes mechanical disc brakes underwhelming. I’d have switched to bb7s or trp hylex if I’d kept it, or a sturmey archer drum brake.

On the other hand the tyre clearance is quite good, good enough for mudguards and 35mm slickish tyres. Surly cross check and straggler take wider tyres and are another option.

If you’ll be happy on 28mm tyres and without discs there are other options. Spa audax mono
looks interesting https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b0s193p4421/SPA-CYCLES-Audax-Mono

I’m still looking for the perfect winter commuter that’ll take 37mm tyres and mudguards. Might even end up with a day one again, either the pre disc ones or with a different front fork if I can’t find a suitable older steel touring frame to convert. Where are all the path racers?

Poor weld and poor design. Was there a seat post shim?

@peteimpreza have you got a ksyrium elite spoke, or a source for one for @karlp?

Spa tourer flat bar? https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m1b0s225p3932/SPA-CYCLES-Steel-Tourer-Flat-Bar-%28Ex-Demo%29

Are you cleaning the bike with anything that might affect the grease, high pressure or strong detergents? What bearings are you using for replacements? Are the seals full or light contact?

I see the argument for a waterproof grease. However if it is relatively thick (nlgi2?) it may not keep the seal lips wetted with oil and that can cause them to wear prematurely. That’s why I am suggesting a thinner grease.

Pop the seals and fill the next pair with a better grease before fitting and see how you got on. Land Rover CV joint grease is a decent choice. Sometimes you can leave the inner seals off and use the hub body cavity as a grease reservoir.

Do you know anyone with a BB tap? Or Do you have an old steel BB cup that you could modify as a thread chaser by cutting some slots in the threads? LBS might give you an old cup of you don’t have one.

I returned an early c13 which cracked across the nose. The replacement had a different grey layer visible on the underside. I assumed this is to reinforce the saddle and prevent cracking? It would be interesting to know if people with newer cambium saddles still have problems with cracking or if this is a historic issue they have resolved with a change?

You are right, the bearing rests on a raised flat section or collar on the axle. If you support the bearing on the edges of a vice or similar, long end down, short end with bearing on up. Then tap the axle end gently downwards until it is free.

If you repair it with aluminium it will corrode away quite quickly in winter salt. The attraction is that the aluminium is easy to bend and drill.

A thin piece of stainless would be much better.

Where did the spoke break? Any wheel with a broken spoke most be at least slightly suspect unless there is already a good explanation. If there nipple sheared then the length is suspect anyway. If it failed elsewhere then stress relief is suspect and should be done thoroughly.

The thread length is normally around 10mm, not 12mm (the length of a normal nipple). But you cannot be sure without checking, it could be as short as 8mm. You should take out a spoke and measure it properly, at least fully unthreaded from the nipple and at that point you might as well take it out of the wheel. You can also check that the rest are well seated into the head of the nipples.

What happens to oil at 160+? It goes thin as water. No “degreasing” necessary. It either mixes with or is just displaced by the liquid wax. It stands no chance. Unless it’s magnatec :D

It is easily demonstrated by test.

I do prefer to rinse chains off in hot water before waxing and rewaxing to displace any grit but that’s another issue.

This idea that wax won’t stick to an oiled chain (with at most a teaspoonful of oil on it?) is easily resolved by dumping one in 1000ml or more of simmering wax blend.