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It appears that Mr. Yoeleo really doesn't sell 16" carbon rims after all and so that plan's out. I did say that wheels would be next, but there's a change of plan as the headset finally arrived - a Chris King 1 1/8" Gripnut in Pewter, ordered especially from Aspire Velotech. This provided a wonderful excuse to play with some new toys, I mean tools...

Time to face the headtube on the Brompton frame prior to installing the headset:

Headset installation with my new headset press:

The crown race put up a bit of a struggle going onto the fork, but gave up when faced with a 10 ton hydraulic press. With the headset in place I could install the fork, the stem and the bars, so the bike now looks like this:

Wheels next. Promise...

Will those nails be strong enough to withstand any force from braking?
I've had a few seat post bolt hangers bend under stress.

The forces will be running down the length of the nails, and the only forces in question are the forces generated by Edscoble's left hand while braking. Unless Mr. Scoble has superpowers, and can pull nails apart with his bare hands, I'd say they're well within spec.

Lose everything but the red head.

Surely lose the red head, keep everything else? I mean, what engineering genius thought that it would be a good idea to put a big heavy flat 12 on top of the gearbox, thereby raising the centre of gravity by a good foot or so, and then connecting the two by a chain? The 'rossa's an abomination - the Lambos are nuts and horribly unreliable, but have a certain charm.

Or Gore Xenon SOs. The liners definitely don't pull out of them, as there aren't any. I wore mine to cycle down to London on Saturday morning, and according to the Edge the temperature varied from -2degC to +2degC over the 5 hour ride. Toes got a bit chilly, but my hands were fine.

The only time I've found Xenon SOs not up to the job was a 25 minute descent in Switzerland where the temperature never got above -6degC and the average speed was over 30mph.

Thread resuscitation, but yes, a Nuovo Record/Super Record crankset needs a 115.5mm BB with a +5mm offset on the drive side. Having given up trying to get a NOS Super Record BB for reasonable money, I've ordered a Phil Wood one, direct from Mr. Phil. Just hope it works.

BTW, it's for a 1985 Hetchins (originally blue and white, being turned into chrome, black and red at Argos) which I think Mr. Jingle Jangle may know quite well...

I'd say that for sheer "giggle in fear" value the transition from "no boost" to "fuck, I'm going to die" is better delivered in a car with a large single turbo.

Yep, this is true. Had a drive in a 460bhp Westfield once running a 2 litre Cossie YB lump with a veeeerra large turbo. Sudden wheelspin in 4th at 110 leptons focuses the mind somewhat...

Eh?

I think the English translation is 'Incidentially, there's a Canyon being reviewed in Cyclisme magazine, the new cheaper alternative to Rouleur' although I could be wrong - my Scoblespeak is pretty rusty.

Thicker tyres! I'm telling you. Why are we injecting gunk into our tubes which ultimately increase weight and unbalance the roll when we could just get a slightly heavier but tougher tyre. Seems daft.

A dose of Stans in an inner tube weighs about 20g. IME, a tougher tyre will have a much greater weight penalty. I can't say I've ever noticed any wheel imbalance as a result of using Stans either in inner tubes or tubeless set-ups.

Yep, I've used Stans sealant on 18-25c inner tubes. I've used tubes with removable cores, and then used the Stans syringe (after removing the valve cores) to inject the sealant into the tubes. Seems to work well enough.

Sounds like that stem bolt was overtightened. Given the surface area between the stem and steerer, they don't need to be tight at all.

Have you any good articles on running tubs bookmarked? I need to do some reading.

Ditto. Just succumbed to a major case of Dammit-envy and splashed out on a pair of 404 Firecrest tubs. My decision was assisted by the fact that the Fulcrum Red Wind XLRs I'd bought turned out to be over 120g heavier than advertised. Pretty chunky, those Italian grams, so Mr. Wiggle can have them back.

How long have Dialynx been making replicas? The age of the cars in the back (a Triumph 2000 estate/Ford Crapi) and the age of the hair cuts I'd say this pic is from 1985 same age as the towing car (C reg is 85 no).

Good spot - not that long, I'm sure. 2 Quattro Sports - nice. Still rather have a 205 T16...

You have correctly identified one of the many fallacies in EdZ' posts.

Fish, check.
Barrel, check.
Aim...
FIRE!

On for wednesday.

The route from italy to briancon is a blast! col d'agnel, telegraphe and galibier. Not sure how well the beast will like the high mountains - even the gsxr was getting hot and wheezy up towards the top.

If you're in that area, make sure you do the Col de Mont Cenis. Fantastic road.

When you can afford a Quattro why not get another to tow it to events?

http://24.media.tumblr.com/9a88bbc9f75e6486ab76f09f874d76cd/tumblr_mgql2edost1qke845o1_1280.jpg

Something for Dammit and BQ to get wet over in the background.

Ah, but are they both real SWB Quattro Sports or are they Dialynx replicas? Nice either way, but you can't beat the real thing. Never driven the real thing, I hasten to add, but I have driven a Dialynx replica. It was fun, in a rather unsubtle kind of way.

edits ignore list

+1. Time to dig out the drill, buy some eyelets, and make me some 72 hole rims. Hell, by the time I've finished they'll look more like stainless steel wickerwork, and you won't even be able to see the damn hubs...

Disc brake front wheels- minimum spoke requirement of 28/2 cross?

I dare say you could go lower if you're light/careful/a big girl's blouse but 28/2 cross works for me. Regular lock-ups on 2.25 inch Schwalbe Racing Ralphs (still haven't got used to hydraulic disc brakes) and the wheels didn't even blink.

That's with 29er crabbon fiber rims, Novatec gold blingy hubs and DT Super Comp spokes.

http://www.yoeleo.com/16-bmx-bike-carbon-fiber-clincher-rims-50mm-single-rim.html

Bingo, point to Mr. Tester. Bonkers option is 50mm crabbon fibber rims on Phil hubs front and rear, with a keirin rear hub for fixeh cool points. Yoeleo seem to be a bit cagey about whether or not the 16" 50mm rims actually exist, however.

It's mostly used for making car components rather than bike stuff. I also build cars in my spare time.

Velocity Aeroheats. There's a totally mad option for some 'summer use only' wheels, but that's very speculative at the moment.

My original plan was to shift the existing 53t chainring onto the inside position and have a chainguard cut from a large bit of titanium sheet I had, and to bolt that in the outside chainring position. However, as was pointed it it's probably best not to use a chainring designed to be used with a front derailleur in this instance, so I bought a Miche 52t 135mm BCD chainring. One problem solved.

The second problem arose because it turned out I'd already used the large bit of titanium I was going to have the chainguard made out of. And it occurred to me that using titanium for a chainguard is overkill. So I thought that instead I'd get one laser or water cut from a sheet of ali. However, SWMBO pointed out that there are already bits of ali cut into roughly the right shape which are commercially available. They're called chainrings, and all I'd have to do is machine the teeth off a nice big chainring.

So I also got a 61t TA chainring. Unfortunately it was a bit big to fit in the lathe (it'd fit on the faceplate but some weird and wonderful tooling would be required to actually turn it down) so instead I used the milling machine and a rotary table:

It was a bit of a swine getting the chainring true on the rotary table, but in the end I decided that run-out of 0.15mm was close enough. I had intended to put a radius on the outside edge using a radius cutter in the milling machine, but without making up a reasonably sturdy base plate to bolt the chainring down onto, it was impossible to keep it sufficiently flat to allow the radius cutter to give a decent finish. So instead I went old school and put the radius on the outer edge with files, emery paper and polish. The finish isn't perfect by any means, if you look closely, but anyone inspecting the chainguard on a Brompton closely probably needs to get a life. That includes me. Here it is in all its glory:

Next step, wheels. But that's going to require some engineering too, as my DIY wheel truing stand isn't really designed for 16" wheels...

In that case, get rid of the requirement for the T-section on the end of each line. Job done. If a law is silly then change the law to make it non-silly, rather than relying on a non-silliness law to patch things up.

I think 36t is the biggest you'll find with that BCD. Spa Cycles sells them in that size.

Gang up!!! Get him!!!

Disclaimer: My wife is a lawyer.

Yeah yeah, back of the queue... ;)

So let's take as an example the parking loophole which allowed people to get off fines on the basis that the yellow lines weren't terminated in a T-shape. Does the fact that the line isn't terminated in a "T" indicate to a competent, impartial person that it is not intended to restrict parking? Of course not, therefore the loophole should not be available.

Why's that a 'loophole'? The law said that a fine would be paid if you parked on a yellow line, and defined how the yellow line had to be painted. If it wasn't painted properly, there was no fine. That's the problem with anti-loophole general provision clauses - you end up having to define 'loophole'. And one man's loophole is another man's integral part of the law, and so you end up with the uncertainties and ambiguities which the law is supposed to avoid, so that everyone can know what is lawful and what is not.

The answer is better drafted legislation, and less of it. Unfortunately most legislation these days (no doubt due to the vast volume of it) is poorly conceived, poorly drafted and ineptly implemented.

One example which springs to mind is the RTE provisions of the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993, introduced in the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. In the pre-2002 Act consultation, the government was told that they'd never be able to implement those provisions because they hadn't thought them through properly. They enacted them anyway. 8 years later they had a further consultation about repealing those provisions (which they'd never brought into force) because, lo and behold, it was going to be rather difficult to implement them. They then had the temerity to complain about the low response rate, having ignored the consultees' responses the first time round. Stuff like this reflects the poor quality of modern legislation, not the need for a sticking-plaster 'spirit of the law' rule which attempts to make good poor drafting.