M539 restorations

Spokes should not loosen if they’re suitably tensioned.

i’ve learned this the hard way by building some really bad wheels the first few times out.

i’ve used 3-in-1 or engine oil. I use copper grease with alloy nips.

What slowbloke said. I’m in the IT and we now have a small pile of SP4 that do this. They’re ok when being used lightly but can’t be worked hard any more.

You could dock it and use it on a monitor I suppose…

Frame and fork are both lugged and drilled for guards in all the right places. I was more after specific fitments since nobody seems to list specifically 650b stuff. A local mechanic who serves the commuter market recommended 60/65mm 26 inch bluemels so I’ll probably go with those.

SKS are my usual go-to, which ones did you get?

15000+ all weather miles with kmc x10.73 chains on Campag veloce. My go-to 10 speed chain.

My company is downsizing it’s office and we’re a commercial property business. Love working from home. No need to be performatively busy, if i want to spend half an hour quietly thinking about a problem i can. No one asking me questions about mice (i’m a senior server tech), nice home cooked lunches, the list goes on.

I do have proper space for a desk though, appreciate not everyone does. Heard tales of youngsters in shared houses hunched over laptops on beds!

the only things i miss about the office are cycling in, and Caribbean curry wednesdays.

dust the room with bicarbonate of soda like it’s shake and vac. Leave it for a day or two. or make a solution for washing down walls etc

I had a shitty experience trying to buy one of their frames. Was told it would be in on the next container. Several weeks later I found out from twitter the container had been and gone containing no frames in my size. The cancellation process was suspiciously smooth.

Various orders for small bits have been fine tho.

Bar ends are deeply unfashionable but they’re quite nice for riding an MTB on the road.

Have you got the spacers in the right order?

From memory, redirected desktop folders get the offline files treatment automatically. If not it’s easy enough.

Be just fine. I have a redirected desktop and I’m logged on to multiple machines most days.

I use Shimano and tektro holders interchangeably.

Fitting kool stop pads to my tektros was transformative…

i built a set for a mate’s “vintage” MTB that had 130mm rear spacing, although he doesnt exactly hammer it. The shells feel the same as MTB ones, and looking at the diagram, the axle seems beefy enough.

They are 130mm spacing in non-disc tho

i think about it from time to time. The problem is that anything nice enough to “do it all” is too nice to leave outside the pub.

you can fit spacers, or cut the steerer. threaded headsets do vary in stack height.

The gravel bike is a good tool for owning less bikes, and people are using them as an excuse to own more.

if i could have only one, it’d be a gravel, but i’m unmarried so i can have as many as i like.

i before e except after K.

my only real issue with him is that i’ve spent 37 years not ever really hearing my name used unless it’s “for me”.

ditched CD a few years ago but until i did i was running a meridian 200 series.

switched to an arcam irDAC and FLAC files now, but the business end is still an Audiolab 8000C/P pre-power combo driving a set of Linn Ninkas

i used to have an 8000A a few years back – ran that with older Linn Index 2’s I briefly ran the Index 2’s with the C/P combo and it wasnt really necessary for those. I’m not sure the A would be able to drive the ninkas properly though, they need plenty of juice

mine was absolutely fine while being done and immediately after

it failed in 6 months, had to be done again, absolutely fine, Failed again a while later

i was offered an apicoectomy, which sounded hideous, and had less than 50% chance of success, so i eventually had the tooth out.

Personally i’d be looking at something with a kinlin Xr31 rim, which did really rather well in the wind tunnel

https://novemberbicycles.com/blogs/blog/wind-tunnel-testing-the-al33-xr31tfsw3-and-other-alloys

as an example…

<edited my example out because it’s discs not rim brakes>

Michael Portillo – an absolute twunt in Parliament but an almost reformed character since he revealed his fascination with choo choos and Pevsner guides

if you ever listen to the moral maze on radio 4 when he’s on it, former cabinet minister Portillo appears from time to time. Sharp, and hectoring to anyone he disagrees with.

i had a sunn bmix for mucking about on the pump track

sold it when i realised it’s fun for about 15 minutes unless there’s a group of you.

threaded bottom bracket.

I’ve no particular emotional fondness for BSA or T47 so either would be fine.

wind off the limit screw, grab hold of the cable and see how much further she’ll move. i suspect with a big fat seat tube like the tempest has it’ll be alright.

says here: https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/component/ultegra-r8000/FD-R8000-F.html

that the R8000 front derailleur is good for big rings between 46 and 53 teeth, with a maximum of 16t between rings

which makes a 46-30 just fine

Soma do some interesting looking “long distance” road bikes in big unit sizes.

No one watches your GoPro footage. Not even you.

if i want a first person perspective of a profoundly average mountain biker going quite slowly down a trail, i’ll go out mountain biking.

However, how may people would place an appropriate value on those benefits over a table bought from Oak Furniture Land? They both keep stuff off the floor just as well.

and with furniture being much more subject to fashion than in the past, many people will think buying something that’s good enough to last long enough until it goes out of fashion is the way forward

a point comes where the rim is as round and as straight as it wants to be, and trying to be rounder and straighter will likely involve squiffy tensions

a friend of mine threw his kebab out of the window of a generic chain hotel in northampton on a stag weekend a decade ago. He was being annoyed by the noise of drunken people below. Given he was drunk enough to have a large doner in hand….

The sick anchors – whole again

Arab strap and mogwai members applying a Glasgow indie touch to the cheesiest of pop.

Evans stock both so if you have a shop nearby you can sit on both in one trip.

“slow” hybrids (i.e. the ones that arent basically road race bikes with flat bars) make pretty good basic tourers – they’re kitted up to take racks and mudguards, with the added bonus that she knows and is comfortable with it

maybe stick some bar ends on for a change of position.

Malcolm Borg at cycle clinic has pretty good prices on Sapim

it’s worst of all when i’m not enjoying the riding…

outbid on a road bike yesterday. It was an absolute steal but I’m hardly riding at all lately, plus I have no ceiling in the living room and only two rooms with proper floor coverings in my house. Priorities!