Body fat. And a banana if my blood glucose gets low.

Cake at the end is nice.

@daern Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll get one of those.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

@wwaswas Yes. Though I’ve bent the dropout partway back, so may be close enough.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>I agree about bodging flat shims out of sheet, but I was thinking of a ramped shim, slightly thicker on one side than the other. </span>

Batten-mounted wall hooks here, and bikes mounted vertically from the wheel. Around 40cm spacing, but that can be tightened if you mount alternate bikes upside down. That will take a little more ceiling height for larger rear wheels; front wheels can be turned to get them in.

I’m thinking about switching to a rolling hangar system to make more space, using sliding door gear.

Got a leak in the circuit?

Got a pair of Decathalon 900 gel shorts for £20. I’m at the upper end of medium and had to go up to large to get a fit. Also a pair of Montura Dacite Cilista shorts for £70 which use the EIT Mtb3 pad.

The pad in the Decathalons is pretty large and didn’t conform to my body, so I feel like a badger with the pad hanging down when I walk. On the bike it’s comfy and great value.

The Montura is much better built, fits better and works well.

I prefer the Montura but Decathalon is a steal.

@bigyinn Reached out and contacted is one letter and I don’t value a letter. You’ve used 66. Maybe better to save them on the grounds of economy. :D

Thanks for the input.

@otsdr It isn’t a Shimano direct mount hanger. I’d bend the hanger if I could, but it’s about 5mm thick dog-leg shape and when I tried that it was really difficult to budge it, then it snappthat’s)

I reversed the axle in the hanger, mounting it outboard, to demonstrate that the dropout isn’t perpendicular to the axle. However the socket.

@Paulwf My mech socket isn’t aligned with the axle, so the jockey wheels don’t align with the cassette or the wheel. I started out with a Park Dag-2 alignment tool but the thread on that is a different diameter to the socket in the hanger, and it requires more clearance than I have. It did confirm the misalignment of the hanger and helped me break it.

My other GX bike has clearly aligned jockey wheels and cassette.

From previous experience of bent hangers, I’d expect skipping gears from this.

@Mikertroid Interesting. Shop should have picked this up on setup. If the hanger is bendable that’s a quick fix; although if the underlying issue is the dropout it’s a warranty issue. Takes a bit more work to prove that though.

I’ve reached out to the manufacturer to see what they think.

Another way of fixing it would be to shim the mech hanger, about 0.8mm higher on one side than the other. Not sure how to make such a shim though. 3D printing? :)

Bought secondhand, so no dice.

Looks like the dropout was slightly misaligned when they built the frame, as the axis of the axle socket is correct but it isn’t perpendicular to the dropout.

I think I could bend the dropout by bolting M12 threaded bar into the axle socket and using that as a lever. Problem is the rear triangle is very stiff so I’m not sure how much force it will require.

If it can be presented in court as part of your statement, how about a video following the car’s route at the same time of day and conditions?

Would be useful if it contradicts the ‘sun in the eyes’.

USA

No problem, just don’t reheat it.

How about a nice Scotch pie?

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>if you offered free P&P would the buyer repay your postage? If the buyer told you the item was worth less than he’d bid would you refund him?</span>

The buyer agreed P&P when they bid. You can explain, or ignore. But why would you change it?

Wider rims. Those rims are 25mm internal. Can you get say 35mm? They’ll work better with bigger tyres.

Maxxis WT tyres are designed for wider rims.

As for tyres, what Chiefgrooveguru says.

The Young Stalin by Simon Schama is gripping.

Lots of kitchen sockets spaced out above worktops.

You can get wall sockets with built-in USB charger; not sure how fast they are, would need to be 2+ amps I think

After cleaning and greasing the pistons with silicone, one at a time by depressing one to push the other out, then a bit more pumping the brakes, they finally started to auto-adjust.

Possibly some problem with the seals which use, or silicone helped to clear.

If you’re bothered about optical quality try Revos.

CRC have a good offer on IXS flow zip knee pads atm. I got the elbow version as well. They’re quite light but flexible and should be fine for most trail centres.

I also looked at Ion K-pact zips, well-protected but they seem a bit chunky for full-time wear.

Haven’t used them yet so don’t know how they’ll do, but got to be better than bare knees.

StubHub’s expensive for buyers and sellers; eBay own it, so eBay listings which used to work well, are now StubHub’s.

StubHub require delivery to and collection from their London office or enough time for recorded delivery, so may not work for last minute transactions, unless you’re in London. That stymied me last time I tried to buy tickets via StubHub. The prices can be unrealistic; there were a lot of leftover tickets for the gig I was interested in, but no way to buy.

Rik Allsop, of Rik’s Allsop Trailbuilder (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/rik-allsop-a5980b12) and Rik’s Bike Shed (Drumlanrig Castle, on Facebook, 01848 330080). Designed more recent trails at Comrie Croft, Drumlanrig, original Mabie pre-7-Stanes and others which I haven’t ridden including Carbisdale and Balblair.

The first three are/were amongst my favourite trails for great riding, challenging in the best way with a natural feel.

As I live near Peterborough I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with; I hope you’ll keep us posted with your progress.

No riding, it’s in the workshop, a new build from old parts.

Brakes haven’t been used for a while, one piston wasn’t retracting so I was cleaning the pistons.

Symptoms of the issue were that with the pads out, I could squeeze the brake lever; the pistons would go in. Release and they’d retract to their original position.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>What’s supposed to happen is that when the lever is depressed far enough, fluid should be drawn from the reservoir to the hose and caliper to top them up. The next time the lever is pulled the pistons start from further in, taking up pad wear. </span>

My guess is that the connection from the reservoir is blocked. Anyway after pushing the pistons in and out, and cleaning them, the mechanism came back to life, so whatever was causing the problem is out of the way.

I’d be interested if anyone can suggest how to deal with this should it happen again. Possibly just a change of brake fluid. Or strip the levers down…

I tried Poc VPD air elbow pads, Ion K-pact zip (knee), Ion E-lite (elbow) pads and Ixs Flow knee pads.

Poc were two articulated parts of fairly firm foam, the upper section of which didn’t sit close. Ion were quite a bit stiffer than Ixs. The Ixs pads were the most conformable which helped get a close fit.

The Ion K-pacts offer more protection but are bulkier than I wanted.

I’ve just ordered Ixs Flow elbow and zip knee pads from CRC who have a special offer atm.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I’d rather not pay more than I have to, but if they’re more comfortable, I’ll spend a bit more. Last time I got a pair of Giordana road shorts from my local bike shop which were pretty good, around £50 I think. They also carry Assos which look very nice, but at a price.

Apparently road and mtb pads should be different, so thought I’d look for an mtb-specific pad this time. The Bt’win ones look good value; the MT500 have some hip protection which is a plus.

I recall the Morvelo pad got a good write-up on here, on the bibs. Apparently the shorts use a different pad.

Would anyone like to rent it out? I’d like to play with it but not sure it’ll do the job.

Thanks but I don’t think bibs will feel better on the saddle which is where I need some padding…

Beer festival around 25th May.

Take pictures. Once you know what you want to do, you’ll know whether or not you want another lens. Or camera. But what you’ve got is fine.

Take a look at Darktable, Digikam and Glimp running on Linux, say Ubuntu. All free and high quality alternatives to Lightroom and Photoshop.

I’ve got a Brand X and a Reverb both bought secondhand. The Brand X sometimes fails to fully return, then sinks when you sit on it which is irritating. It may just be that I’m not holding the lever down long enough as the fix is to repeat, but having read the comments above I’ll see if I can increase the pressure to speed it up.

Otherwise I like it, and I wouldn’t object to another.

The Reverb has become slightly wobbly in a typical Reverb fashion but works reliably.

If there is a takeaway from all this, surely it’s that an air shock should be set up with a lower spring rate / static pressure / higher sag than a coil shock, to allow for the increase in temperature and pressure when it’s compressed.

Is this effect material? And if so, is it linear?

PS On my second beer :)

I’ll give you a tenner for it. What size is it anyway?

@Kryton57 If you’re in the Cambridge area, Mark at City Cycle Centre in Ely is very good.

Thanks for all the advice that sounds about right. It is the original spokes which are breaking.

I’ll get them rebuilt with fresh spokes.

Thanks, yes that makes sense in stiffening the wheel.

Nevertheless the bends look extreme.

As the spokes don’t break at the bends, it could be this is just a distraction.

I’ve got the same parts (except maybe spokes) built elsewhere, as well as many other wheelsets including Hope’s and all are trouble free.

Just this set falls apart when laid up, and a fourth trip to my LBS for a couple of spokes plus re-taping sealed wheels is driving me nuts.

Got to say I’m struggling to understand why this lacing pattern should be used.

Seems to me that if it were the other way round the spokes would lie nearly straight.

Not to say that’s why they’re breaking of course.

So should be OK. But there’s a helluva bend where some of those spokes cross.

If they were the other way round, the spokes would be displaced much less, and a smaller bend.

I measured two spokes with a displacement of around 7-8mm where they cross. The bend is quite marked.

Sounds like the bend shouldn’t affect the spoke strength in which case why are spokes on idle wheels popping their clogs?

Post the Imgur BBCode:

Yay that seems to work when STW’s own IMG button doesn’t.

Sorry the Imgur IMG link doesn’t seem to work either.

Try a URL: https://goo.gl/sz2B7T