Search results for:

Fixed now?

Fixed last night! And new MKS tugs added. I'm quite happily back on the road, will be seeing all you friendly faces tonight!

Edit: might add I might be doing the SPFG rides though!

Out from tonight! Touch rugby and a pulverised chain ring bolt stopping me. Hopefully all fixed tomorrow! And I can make a Saturday SPFG this time around! Wooo!

I'm out...for now. Snapped chain ring bolt =(

Aaaand I'm away yet again for another week. Gotta love July holidays =S (or should I say...=D )

Fuaaarrrr....glad to hear you are ok. Frogger peds are honestly the worst.

Sorry for the traffic jam at Parliament Sq today at about 8.20. Had my 7th pedestrian involved incident. I was first off the line heading towards number 10 and a ped thought it would be clever to initiate a game of frogger with oncoming traffic. Was doing about 25/30, had to do a massive emergency whip skid to avoid killing her and a poor roadie behind me clipped my back wheel. We both went flying :( I've got some brilliant road rash and my left leg which doesn't show any signs of damage is in quite a surprising amount of pain.
Roadie was rolling around on his back, I thought he had broken it for a minute. He turned out to be ok and left before I did. Loads of peds stopped to pick us up but the instigator fled the scene whilst we were rolling around on the floor.

Good hustle last night.

Cheers for the help with the BB Antidotes and the Cycle PS lads!

Man did I need that pizza last night.

In tonight for a cheeky pizza and pint.

Also please please please don't get your fingers caught in between the sprocket and the chain. It happens all too often when dealing with fixies. Take your time and be slow. I'm sure someone can link the pictures to the gore thread on these sorts of accidents..

Yes, I definitely recommend dry lube for wet weather, mainly as it congeals and you can wipe it off easily off both the chain and the stays. Wet lube seems to accumulate the dust easily.

Solid advice.

I reckon that generally Dry Lube is the way to go. Even after a shower it's not entirely washed away and wet lube can be a little too persistent and become cloggy if you're less diligent than Mishmash.

You can take a look at Sheldon Brown's proper article on chain wear and maintenance, John Allen's comments are also particularly interesting to read.

I'm yet to try the motorcycle chain lube or hot waxing...and hot waxing seems like a lot of effort!

Another quick note on solvents - try not to degrease the chain too often unless you are prepared to take the time to lube it carefully again. Degreasing the chain will remove all the lube that has worked its way through the minute little crevices and it will take a while to restore the lubrication there. Even if you get tiny particles in there, I still wouldn't do it, as I'm lazy and I can't be bothered taking off the chain and the wear from road grit wouldn't out damage the wear you get from poor lubrication. The only time I'd do it is after every mountain biking trip where I would get the glorious iron-rich Australian sand and clay caked onto my chain =) I'd never do it for road use.

Every 100-150km - grab some rubber gloves, a paper towel and some lube.

1. Using one hand turn the pedals slowly, using the other hold the chain with the paper towel, rubbing the dirt and muck off it.
   
2. Grab your lube with a needle/nozzle applicator (I used to use a pipette) and place a half drop to a drop of lube on the inside roller area on each link. Roll the chain through until all links are done.
   
3. Wait for 5 minutes. To pass the time I normally watch some grass grow.
   
4. Grab another paper towel, and do the same as number 1, this is to wipe off the excess lube.
   
5. Your chain stay will likely be dirty from the chain flicking muck and grease everywhere. Paper towel it and check near the bottom bracket too for muck.
   
6. Every now and then I get cotton buds and clean in between the plates where grime accumulates.
   
   

I also do this after a rainy/mucky day, although when I get back I give the bike a quick fresh water bottle spray to be rid of all the salt and grime accumulating - if you leave the road water to dry you end up with salt stains.

If you're consistent with the method above, you shouldn't have to remove your chain to clean it, I never had to with my roadie back home.

The differences between wet lube and dry lube is that dry lube will displace with water, while wet lube will not. On my previous chain I used dry lube, however the factory lubrication on my current chain is lasting me a while, and haven't felt the need to lube it yet, just the paper towel trick.

Take care with engine oils, these normally contain compounds designed to keep the engine clean, and I've read multiple reports on the abrasiveness of these chemicals and chain wear.

I've also heard mixed reviews on using car transmission oils - although nothing overly negative yet. If you will go this route I might suggest GL-4 rather than GL-5 spec oil. GL-5 contains certain chemicals that will eat brass and other related metals, which spells bad news for certain chains/rollers/pins.

Me personally, when I was in a pinch back home in Australia I used air tool oil, which worked quite well (no chemical abbrasiveness, just lubrication).

I suppose the secret is to just keep it clean and lubed and you will always be a happy chappy!

Saw a few "Beware of passing on the left side of this vehicle" stickers on a lorry this morning. Good to see them slowly rolling out!

Edit: Mind you, buses are still sporting stay back stickers.

Cheers Vince!

In slightly related news, I've been eyeing off swapping the dirty harry out for a gold gran compe shot lever (ambidextrous lever)...any idea where I could find one? Am I a muppet for wanting one? (Bad experiences, performance etc?)

Track bar pics coming in soon - and a proper high res photo to show the blurry frame properly!

Edit: Vince I'll come pick that star nut up off you in a couple of weeks...I'm just in a bit of a July jet-setting phase and should be back soon!

I'm out yet again! Such a shame, I was really wanting to put my new golden hoops to the test.

You're a brave brave man.

Yeah. It kinda happened when I found the rims as a set...thought hey, if I'm gonna go gold may as well put gold touches elsewhere!

Oi - who are you calling a ladette? :P

And, oooh nice (glittery) bike!

Haha yeah, still need to give it a good wipe and take a pic of it under the sun. The glitter is amaze. Cheers MM for encouraging me to put this up ;)

Hey everyone,

So after some encouragement from the lads and ladettes at SE beers, I've decided to open up a quick thread detailing what I've done with my Fort.

First, a bit of background, I moved up from Australia about 9 weeks ago, and got that bike itch as I used to cycle everyday, and loved hill climbing. Low and behold, I somehow happened across this forum, found a Fort Track in my perfect size (54cm) being sold by Vince, and rushed to go meet him for it.

Vince was awesome. Spent a good 2 hours with me setting it up to my bikefit position, and I also grabbed all the spares to go with it because I knew I would have no idea how the build would go. Anyway, pic of how it was when I got it!

I knew I wanted to learn how to ride a fixie, but the rims had no braking surface left, so I learned how to ride brakeless back to my house without foot retention. Crash course win.

The first priority was to grab a front wheel with a braking surface. Found this NOS Campy Proton front from a forumer:

The Vredelstein on the rear was on it's last legs, and my first SPFG ride shredded that, so I found a set of used Michelin Pro 4's (on the Campy above) to put on both wheels.

Of course, this didn't last, as I was going to build up a new wheelset. I got these new golden Velocity Deep V rims, as well as a set of Phil HF Track Hubs (used, couldn't justify the new price...)

I built up these wheels with Sapim Race spokes, ordered from spa cycles.

As all my gear is back in Australia, I built up the front using the spoke wrench on this multitool. Left me with a cut up hand and an almost rounded nipple. For those wanting to know, I built these wheels using a bike fork, spare spoke and rubber bands. Macguyver grad right here ;)

I also noticed the new Velocities are manufactured in the U.S, but mine are Made in Aus. Does anyone know when they shifted production? New gatorskin on this wheel, just to wrap it all up. Pics show untensioned and finished product.

I know what you're thinking - "MISHMASH THAT SPOKE LACING IS OFF BY ONE HOLE FFS!!!" yeah, I kinda know. Unfortunately lacing the correct way to get a parallel run next to the valve hole would result in me lacing it differently to how it was before, resulting in the spoke marks showing. No biggie, I put a short valve in.

The front wheel tension is approximately 120-150kgf around all the spokes, which is higher than the Velocity Deep V recommendation of 100-110kgf. It's perfectly true laterally, dished to about 0.5-1mm (I was lazy without a dishing tool) and radially out by 1-1.5mm (lazy as well, but this is my biggest concern along with tension). I was going to correct this after I rode it a bit to let the spokes bed in, but as of writing I've had the wheel for two weeks and haven't touched it.

Building the wheel was easy, used grease on nipple to rim interface, and dry lube for the spoke to nipple thread. I tensioned the wheel using this app, if anyone has any questions on it feel free to ask. It's uber sensitive to sound, but once you can interpret the meter it works well.

For the rear I got the proper Park Tool 3 sided wrench as well as a Unior 4 sided wrench from Halfords (strangely they had it when no other bike shop did).

Rear in progress:

Rear wheel drive side tension is musical all round sitting within 80-120kgf. Non-drive is around 60-90kgf IIRC. Dished to 0.5mm without a dishing tool, with the best trueness laterally and radially I could achieve using a spoke and rubber band on the fork (around 0.2mm I think).

I think I'll never build another wheel without a truing stand, unless I'm out in the desert. /end

Threw on a 19t Phil cog for good measure and great justice.

And a Tiagra brake, with new brake shoes and salmon koolstops. I chose salmon, even going into summer, as they are less destructive to the rim (IMO), and wanted to make the velocities last a bit more. I had to disassemble the brake and reassemble it with the bolt from the previous brake to fit the Profile SC fork.

In the Halfords order I also picked up a Miche Supertype(hype?) Gold seatpost to go with the build.

I couldn't find, or didn't look hard enough for a gold goldfinger, so I settled for a gold dirty harry, and new bar tape. Stem got swapped out, as well as a generic set of bullhorns I brought across from Australia.

Attached a set of Time Atac XC8 Carbon pedals I brought over too.

Finished it all off with a gold KMC chain.

End result (bad photo, still need to do a scoble brick photo):

Anyway, terrible build post I know, I have a feeling I may have earned a place in the anti-porn thread with all this gold!

I also have a set of charge 420mm track bars I'll be putting on, as well as a dura-ace 15t cog to go to HH soon!

Future work (thoughts?):
-Miche Primato Gold Crank, 49t silver primato/sugino ring
-Gold chainring bolts/Steel bolts
-Gold bar ends
-New saddle?
-MKS chain tugs (definite with those hex Phil nuts)
-Phil BB(?)

Nice meeting everyone last night! Wicked fort monkdagola.

Looking forward to the next one =) and heal up quick MissMouse!

I'll swing round too...new face and all...

Exactly what it says on the tin.

Looking for a single MKS fat chain tug, 8mm, to suit an aluminium frame, mainly due to paranoia from previous slippage "oh-shi-" moments at intersections.

Located in central London and can go anywhere in Zone 1 and 2.

PM/post if you have a spare one!

Cheers

1. MA3K
   
2. Elra
   
3. Nabil
   
4. conkr
   
5. lucyh
   
6. Polka Dot
   
7. Hugs on the 07. ohfour #gangsta
   
8. Ok123
   
9. Not Bruce
   
10. morrino
    
11. mishmash (very half assed effort)
    
    

I'm sort of in. Have to fly out tomorrow late arvo, I'll probably meet you guys around Hammersmith if I've recovered from the night before or Brixton. Still 13:30 at Brixton?

Cheers

Bad cyclist thread>>>>>>>>>>>>

Haha only just realised after my commute post turned into a rant. Sorry lads (and ladettes)

London Bridge northbound intersection at Monument...

Lady on a city bike pootling along, was riding along the bus slip lane thing on the left hand side. Van had his indicator on for a very long time in the middle lane to the right of the bus lane and was carefully and slowly moving across to turn left. She went along in this bus lane, and then started pulling to the right with her hand out, completely ignoring the van driver, as she wanted to turn right from the left hand turning lane.

She then had the audacity to make some sort of gesture at the driver, as if he was in the wrong!

Now I haven't been in this country for long, but surely you give way to the front, rather than cutting on the inside of a turning vehicle clearly indicating and then proceeding to turn right? I yelled something at her but whatever. Fell on deaf ears.

I watched all this happen in front of me (I was giving way to the van), and wanted to facepalm myself, but couldn't because I was in the middle of a half assed trackstand in between cars.

People this morning. Van driver, if you're reading this, I was hating on that bicycle numpty too (she cut me off earlier on the bridge too without looking).

^ I've got the 'Feed Zone' book, which has a section on portables, but loads of other meals too. I think it's pretty great, Don't really use all that many recipes from it (but do rice cakes a lot), but it's given me lots of ideas and a good insight into nutrition.

Yeah, I normally go for the pizza roll ups...I could have those for lunch any day of the week, on the couch or on the bike. I changed his recipe up a bit...so now I have a apple/sultana/cinnamon version too....absolutely tops!

A bit left field in the nutrition arena...Feed Zone Portables

Definitely made me from a chump with gels to a hero on the roadie with a picnic...smashing massive hills and then still having energy left for more. His essays on how nutrition, how your body changes when cycling and other things are worthwhile reading too.

Highly recommended too if you just love eating...and love cycling. Why not combine the two and eat while you cycle?

http://feedzonecookbook.com/portables/

Done. Best of luck with the postgrad!

At least it didn't bucket down on the way back home...nice meeting everyone too, see you again in a couple of weeks =)