Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

havent rode in over a year now(2009) had a nasty dismount on some dirt jumps at steel woods in bristol ended up with a shattered kneecap now filled with titanium screws and whos says you cant mod humans


Specialized P2 CRO-MO front brake removed for easier bar spins etc.



but due to buy a DMR Drone on the 31st

 

Getting into the biking mood now the weather's coming up nice. Tried out my SPD's the other day for the first time, I was riding down to the shop to borrow an allen key to adjust the pedals so I could clip in and out better and had a little moment where I had to hang on to a wall for dear life

Sorted now, they're easier to use and I bought a multitool as well so no more borrowing

 

The extra number of commuters on the road now that the sun had come out a little is crazy!

 

Ok wtf. I decided to go home from college early today and have a nice ride in the sun, not far. I was thinking of just riding to a village 6 miles away over reasonably flat ground, having a quick break there, and then riding back.

4.5 miles in, a hill I honestly never really noticed before. Waved to all the other cyclists who were in fred-kit or just commuting, but I think I need to get a bit fitter before I try such a journey again :/

 

I came 20th out of 101 riders in Senior at Aston Hill on Sunday.

Some photos of me and the full results here

 

I just bought a Giant Trance from a customer who didn't want to pay the bill to repair his brakes.

From what I remember it's running,

Deore / LX Drivetrain,
Avid brakes (which will be swapped with Home Mono M4's)
Alex Rims,
Rock Shox Tora forks,
Fox rear shock.

all for the sum of £100 , pics and upgrades soon.

 

£100??!?! It would have been rude not to!

 

I thought so, it needs a bit work but I plan on stripping it, getting it powder coated, then buying some new wheels and forks.

 

UMMM OOOPPS

So my bros Norco had play in the headset (FSA Orbit) and seeing as he isn't using it at the moment I thought I'd have a look at it and see what was up.

I took the headset apart earlier, or more like it fell apart. The top bearings look ok although all the grease is orange rust coloured and the bottom needle bearings were bone dry and don't look like they've ever had any kind of grease on them and I think this is the main problem.

However I can't seem to find any spares for this particular headset or any instructions on how it should go back together which means I can't even clean it all up and re grease it and see if that fixes the play or whether i'm going to have to get a replacement headset.

 

Well done, that's impressive. Did you do any extra training for it?

 

Sounds like you've got a real winner there! If you've got rollers in the bottom, you're not going to be able to find new bearings for it, as they're just not that common. Try cleaning them really good and applying a large quantity of grease to see if they feel usable. As to your upper bearings just take a single bearing out of the cage, measure it (as it'll be a standard size), and buy a pack of loose-ball bearings to stick in instead of the caged set of bearings. This is quite a bit more of a hassle than getting another set of caged, but they're a right bugger to find a properly sized set of caged bearings. Just ensure to get enough to completely fill the cup, not just the same amount as was in the cage (extras never hurt anybody).

As to how it all goes back together, I'll give you a quick rundown of bottom to top in both pictorial form, and textual. This is for your typical loose/caged-ball bearing headset, but much the same can be said (except for the upper race) of a cartridge bearing headset. Keep in mind that if you reuse the upper caged-bearings that they only will physically work one way (cage "up").

Fork crown > crown race (may or may not have a little plastic seal sitting around the race) > lower bearings > lower bearing cup (pressed into frame) > upper bearing cup (pressed into frame) > upper bearings > upper race > split ring (some don't have this, like Chris King) > upper bearing cover > spacers > stem > top cap.

This is an alright picture, but not quite as clear as it could be (some of the names are a bit different, and it's of a cartridge bearing headset, but it'll give you a good graphical representation of what I'm on about).

If you need further help, feel free to ask or post a picture.

 

Sound advice, the only thing I think should also be mentioned is that when you replace the top cap and nip it up (usually with a 5mm allen key), you only want it tight enough to stop any play in the headset. Any tighter and you will either crush your new bearings or bury them into your headset cups which will cause a dip in the cup meaning bearings will stick.

When the top cap is tightened it squeezes the headset together to remove play, best way to check this is to nip it till you have to start applying pressure to the allen key, then hold the front brake on and rock the bike back and forth with your free hand round the area where the upper bearings and the spacers are.

Is there play? If so nip it a touch more and repeat above. When it feels like there is no play move your hand to the bottom bearings making sure to touch the fork crown as you rock the bike back and forth checking for play.

Once there is no play you can lift the front wheel and check the movment is free when turning the bars / wheel side to side. If your happy tighten the stem bolts.

 

Thought i'd throw in a quick snap of my new ride. Not been well over the last few weeks so not been out in a bit. Now clocks have changed hoping to get out on a night a little more:



Santa Cruz Heckler

 

Nope, rode the track a few times the day before and just pinned it all the way down.

 

That looks nice and chuckable, Sir.
Where do you ride?

 

Thanks very much for the advice guys, I'll see how I get on when I've got 5 mins to have another look at it and report back on how I get on. May be a silly question but is there any particular grease I should be using?

 

Well I'm really just getting back into it so nothing too heavy for me at the moment. OVer last 6 months i'm mostly at Wharncliffe Woods out sheffield way, and pop over to Lee Quarry a few times. I'm massively unfit these days so can't take too much in one session lol. Moved from a Santa Cruz Superlight as i'm 100kg and didn't think the Superlight would last very long - still getting used to riding something with 160mm travel.

 

I've been to Wharncliffe a few years back - it was muddy when I went bus awesome.
I went to Lee Quarry last year and although very compact it's a cool place.

Have fun on it, it looks a great little bike

 

Not that i am proud of it, but got pulled over by the police today for riding through a red light, as this is in the educational section, i would like you all to learn a lesson from my experience

 

As my bike has been given a beatiful £330 repair bill.... ouch. I'm on the look out for a new bike.
I've found a nice Kona on Evans Cycles site, which fits the bill, but i'm planning on using the Cycle2work scheme. Has anyone had any issues with he scheme or anything? At the moment, i'm waiting for work to bring the scheme back in again, as they stopped it for 2 years, but is there anything i should be looking out for? Does it prohibit me getting any bike i want or?

Cheers for any advice.
Sam