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It's happened to me on crappy bikes. Never on a decent one.

Spinning refers to applying pressure for the full rotation of the cranks, rather than just pushing down (honking) on the down stroke. Usually implies a faster cadence (spin of the cranks).

One steep muthafugga of a learning curve you're on!

Sheldon Brown talks about alternative cable runs at the derailleur anchor bolt to adjust the amount the derailleur travels per click.

Go here: http://sheldonbrown.com/derailer-adjustment.html and scroll down to "Alternate Cable Routings" towards the end of the page. You can increase or decrease the travel per click. Never tried it myself - if Sheldon sez it, consider it gospel. Not that I'm endorsing the Gospels as Truth, but you get the meaning.

Send it back. If Planet X don't become aware of this kind of problem, then some other poor bugger will get something similar without knowing what to do or who to ask questions of, put in a seat pin too a shallow depth and come a cropper nastily.

It's like standing up to motorists - we do it not just for the entertainment or adrenaline rush, we do it for the other cyclists who'll be safer because a driver is more aware of our rights as road users.

... my miscellaneous tools are from a year spent being a handyman, just picked them up here and there for nothing.
Ermm, isn't there a legal term for this?

Chris0 and Rusty - take a look on youtube for some chain splitting examples - Park Tools usually have good instructive vids too. There's lots you can do wrong on this simple task.

Make sure you loosen the links you joined - odds are it'll be very tight at the new join. Again, the vids should show you what to do.

Spokes don't stretch. Perhaps microscopically, but nothing that would require this frequent retruing.

Could be they're too loose and loosening off over time. If the rim is knackered and lots of metal worn off the sidewalls, that'll have an impact on wheel strength. The thickness of the wall at its thinnest point should be no less than .7mm on older school rims. You can measure it with a caliper or this wondrous tool which you can sometimes find on ebay as "watch caliper" for around a fiver - I use mine all the time checking rims. Fast, cheap, effective.

Re the earlier comment "bottom out on the thread" - that's a little misleading. A spoke nipple is usually 12mm long and the thread on a spoke is around 8 or 9mm. That means you can "bottom out" without any impact on wheel strength. However, if the spoke end is sticking up above the nipple any more than 1mm or mebbe 2mm (which can cause punctures on rims where the nipple holes aren't inset), then you're looking at spokes that are too long.

DoctorBike

@Jaymsd - might be a dumb question, but are you turning the BB "cups" the right way? Drive side is a left hand thread, non-drive side is normal right hand thread.

DoctorBike

If that doesn't work, you can try using knurled washers up against the frame/tugs. They do make a difference. You can use them on both sides of the dropout too.

Cycle Systems Academy course was outstanding (I did the level 2 in 2010). Instructors all knew their stuff and had worked (or managed) big workshops.

Announcing that you've had a Damascan conversion to full carbon fibre on this site is a bit like going up to George Bush, telling him you're planning on joining Al Queda and asking for some contribution to your travel costs.

Or maybe you want your steely brothers to pull you back from the brink of madness...

I'd never reuse aluminium nipples, but have reused brass without a problem.

There's a big question here about our unsustainable use of materials. We've got to get better at reusing what we have rather than chucking it away and getting new stuff.

I spend quite a lot of my time helping people get more out of their existing bikes, extending significantly the time before they need to get another one. I wish I saw more of that rather than shops saying "that's broken, chuck it and buy this new one for £50/£250".

As one of the only types of transport that actually makes sense as we approach the end of the age of cheap oil, we bikers ought to be leading the way for responsible use of materials. And I love it that lfgss has such a focus on keeping bikes on the road.

DoctorBike.

I'd like to warn everyone off the Rear Moon Gem 2.0. It's not actually a rear light. It's a front light which someone has tried to repurpose as a rear light by making the light red rather than white. And that's bullshit.

The key design difference between rear and front lights is that latter attaches to vertical members while the former attaches to horizontal. That means if you have a front light that's visible from the side, when you stick a red LED in it and put it on the back, the side viewability is completely lost. Also, it attaches to the seat pin in a way that ensures your thighs will make it swivel so that it no longer points in the direction of the cars that are following you.

I got mine from Parkers of Bolton, and sent it back with a rather scathing email that made them change the description on their website.

In the end I settled for a Moon Gem 3.0, which isn't as bright, but IS a rear light, is highly visible from lots of angles and is very convenient with its USB rechargeability.

Bottom line: stay away from the Moon Gem 2.0.

Does not result from headset that's too loose, it's from (quoting Sheldon who's quoting Brandt)

Some folks assume that the dents in headset races also result from impact, but actually that is not commonly the case. Instead, it has to do with lubricant breakdown. Jobst Brandt has an article on this site describing the process in detail.

This has the same level of unimpeachable superduper correctness as if it were Chomsky quoting Einstein.

DoctorBike

The last word on reusing spokes is Roger Musson. From an earlier posting here:

PS If it were a wheel previously built by myself then I would always re-use the spokes but as Zippie says, it takes a little longer so for commercial reasons I normally cut them out. If you have no commercial pressure and the lengths are appropriate then why not reuse them. The spokes have been operating well below their yield stress and fatigue limits and will be in perfect condition. I think it's important that you only re-use spoke from a previous build done by yourself, that way you know the history and can be confident they will perform just as well.

I've got his book and I think it's outstanding.

DoctorBike

You mentioned that you removed some links, so I assume you've got some spare length. Could you not simply remove the pin-free link and replace it with one of the links you removed earlier?

Cheers. DoctorBike - possibly stating the obvious (or, as I've just noticed, repeating someone else's suggestion).

I'd be wary of straightening an axle. I've seen too many broken ones to trust their strength after a bit of bending. Sounds like you've got a spaghetti al dente steel piece of crap. Running freewheels rather than cassettes produces more strain on the axle, so you might want to think about switching. Also, if the axle is bent, you may have twisted the dropouts, so that's worth checking out. I'd go for a higher quality "BMX" level strength one (in cromoly) - if you're lucky you might find a BMX one with the same dimensions/threads.

Yep, looks sweet indeed.

Vandal's right. Get the hanger alignment checked. It's a 5 minute job for someone who knows what they're doing if it's a steel frame. If it's an aluminium frame, they may have to replace the replaceable hanger - that'll take longer.

DoctorBike

Probably just needs a good dousing in a heavy oil. It'll work it's way all the way in without you having to take it apart. Those freehubs aren't really made for servicing. Mind you, watches aren't either but that didn't stop me taking them apart when I was a kid. Had a little tin full of little cogs and pins and springs.

If the ball bearings came in a cartridge, could be that the cartridge has fallen apart and is leaving so much debris in the races that at the correct tightness it's all jammed. Usually happens on the bottom race. I'm replacing a headset for a pal this weekend that's suffering from this.

It's important to get it fixed quickly otherwise there's too much stress on the headtube, sometimes even causing some ovalising on the tubing.

DoctorBike

Have just invested in a twist resist tool - swears by them and I have a wheel I'm working on with very narrow gauge spokes that needs a "twist-resister" badly. I could have saved a lot of spokes on older wheels too...

Or your overweight mate can buy a Giant hybrid, trash the rear wheel by riding it with inadequate tyre pressure, ask you to true it up whereupon you find that there are at least 3 different nipple sizes on said wheel, some of which aren't any standard fuggin size at all, and end up looking like a divvie 'cos you can't true up a simple wheel, even with 7 different spoke wrenches.

DoctorBike (not bitter or anything.)

+1 on nice build. What you using to keep that nekked frame from rusting? And I hear the local cinema is looking for a pair of front row seats that mysteriously disappeared last week...

This isn't straightforward. Difficult to see with all that grease what kind of tool you'd need. Check out this page for the different tools. The first pic on that page is for a cassette, the rest are freewheels. FYI, there is no "lockring".

More on this from Sheldon here.

I'm going to guess that this needs an FR-4.

DoctorBike (winging it a bit here)