Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

I think they don't but would you be able to get Vbrakes on that?

 

No its disc only theres no boss's for it.

Malv i cant see any images as im at work but it sounds interesting!

 

Arrived at work this morning and this was on my desk, pleasant surprise for a monday morning is a lovely gift

 

Who makes that seat then?

 

Dammit! I thought as much. I've been researching it all day and I can only find these two frames with Vbrake mounts on it:

Who are SAB?

Do I trust Ebay?

I've found a LBS that has quoted me £85 to do a frame swap, plus the price of a headset.

I'm really tempted as I really want to get back out on the road to work, and my 24" BMX just ins't cutting it.

I can't really decide on what to do....

Mal et al, what are your opinions on either hacking on some type of vbrake mount which I've seen in the past/buying a vbrake and a replacement hub/riding with no rear break?

I really like the look of the Scandal, and working from there.

 

Do you have a set of 26" wheels? if you dont you could pick up some used or cheap ones and disc brakes. I wouldnt like to try an make a mount on the frame for V brakes.
I cant see any of the links youve put up at the moment ill look later.
SAB from what I understand are made in the same factory as the Scandal's so quality should be fine.
If your set on a scandal then only thing i can suggest is saving up a bit for the other bits to go with it.

 

I'm thinking I'm going to go for the Ebay one, which looks OK for what I need.

I do have parts apart from a frame as I destroyed mine in a crash. I'm going to take it to the LBS over the weekend hopefully and see what they advise.

EDIT:

 

went out to ride some trails last night as it was a lovely evening, and then I rode home, which is about 2 miles down a long straight fairly busy road. AND SOMEONE THREW AN EGG AT ME FROM OUT OF A CAR. Though, they weren't a very good shot, so it missed me, but burst on my forks, so then I had to clean egg off my stanchions and clean my wheel when I got home. First time for everything, I have now officially been egged.

 

Lol thats both amazing and terrible. I'm very glad you're OK though.

That frame above should be arriving today, and I've ordered a toolkit to help me get into the BB etc to do the big swap.

Hopefully I'll be setting it up this weekend.

Also, looking at going to the Herne Hill Velodrome over the weekend for a course in Velodrome cycling. Looks amazing.

Also, what supplier do you lot get your brake cables & housings from? My Jadwire ones are a bit manky, I might replace them.

 

Unlucky, someone threw an Orange at me once, missed me hit a mate right on the back of the head. He wasn't impressed.

 

Not much has been going on my way lately to be honest, though I did rebuild the fork on my XC bike (the RMB Element) because I thought it had too much travel. So there I am, in the shop, on the clock, my fork is ripped to bits and I'm desperately looking over the spring side assembly for a spacer that just isn't there. Installed correctly this spacer forces the fork to sit at a normal 80mm worth of travel, but removed or relocated it'll push the fork closer to 100-110mm. Going into this I assumed that, several years ago when I built the fork, I'd just moved it to try out the longer travel on the bike and see what it felt like. Unfortunately it looks like I actually ended up throwing it out.

Oops!

Frantically I searched around for a solution in the shop, desperate to get this fork back together before the end of the day - and before my employer noticed that I was working on my own equipment on his dime! To this end I searched every nook, every cranny, every drawer and tool box, but not a single part that would suffice was found. Panic set in. Every piece of slightly rounded plastic looked to be a possible replacement, every bit of marginally round metal was test fitted, but nothing seemed to do the trick. Then the bin of reflectors came into my view.

Two seemingly correctly sized bands of plastic were snagged, cut, and loosely glued together, forming a hunk of something that seemed to fit into place. Speed was the name of the game as the entire fork was reassembled, fluid added, and air pumped in to the spring chamber. With a nervous hand I compressed the fork.

Once.

Twice.

... nothing.

No strange noises, no out of place binding, nothing at all out of the ordinary.

The measuring callipers were grabbed and the stanchion extension was measured: 90mm - exactly what I was going for. Somehow my screwball idea worked and the fork was entirely functional once more, but with the added benefit of actually being of a length appropriate to the bike it is mounted on. So at this point I just stopped questioning it, slapped it back on the bike, and took the thing out for a solid hour-long ride after work - acting like as much of a hack as possible.

Mechanics at their finest!

For reference This is what the part I was needing should look like. The round bit off two of These are what I used instead.

Clarification: I would NEVER do this for a customer (if they asked me to do this, I'd send them elsewhere), nor would I recommend anybody to do this ever, but I don't really care if my stuff breaks or not, as it's all for fun!


Anyway, picture time. Remember that light set I was working on a while back? Well, it's done and mounted now, so have some pictures of it.


Headlight. The lever arm on the side is pulled via a cable, then returned to place by that spring.


Inside the headlight. That lever arm then rotates the axle, which in turn causes the lever inside the housing to rotate, activating a DPDT open/close button. Two AAA batteries in a re-purposed casing are glued to the top, and four 3v LED's are affixed into place on a clear plastic sheet, which was then glued onto the back of the reflector.


Side profile of the headlight. The small white plug on the lower bit of the back is where the rear light plugs in.


Other side of the headlight. If you're wondering: yes, this light set is massively old.


Front and rear together. Inside the rear is just a single 3v LED affixed into place using the same method as was used up front.


A rather large cable connects the two, and was sized to be exactly the correct length for this bike.


This is the bike the lights are mounted on! Both the front and rear are held in place with specially bent and affixed threaded and eyeleted rods.


Here you can see basically how the switch works on the bike. A cable comes down, attaches to the lever arm, and is pulled back. The housing stop is a re-purposed barrel adjuster mount from an old set of centre-mount single-pivot brakes. In other words: it shouldn't be mounted where it is.


This is not a dérailleur shifter. It is, in actuality, a light switch. Pull and release once, the lights turn on. Pull and release again, they turn off. Simple as.


Finally, the back end of the bike, with that happy little tail light tucked away behind the protective metal tubing of the rear rack.

So yeah, that was a fun project. Next up will be an indicator for the light set so I can tell what state they're in. Not sure if it's just simply going to be another LED mounted inside the bell, a retro-inspired "dashboard" indicator, or a clock of some description that illuminates, but I am always open to other suggestions. Though to be honest, it'll more than likely be whatever I can come up with the materials for.

 

Looking good malv! Lights tie in nicely with the bike nothing worse than having a retro bike and some cheapo plastic lights that ruin the look. Like the bike stand too

For the indicator you could use an analogue voltage meter possibly? Not sure if the needle would jiggle about while riding but would fit the retro styling nicely, light it up with an amber LED as well!

Ive had a bit of a mare this week, managed to shred the front of my leg on the pedal pins after loosing the chain and a comical bail/dismount. My own fault really going down a heavily rooted section on the granny ring with the mech too high to help make matters worse.

After dusting myself down and tending to my wounds i plopped the chain back on to ride on only to find the peddle seized trying to roll back six miles and not use the pedals isnt as easy as it sounds!
Annoyingly they are cheapy pedals the dont come apart so ive ordered a new set which do come apart and are about 200g lighter which is always nice, going from dirty great DMR V8s to some skinny Wellgo ones.

 

Got my replacement frame today and started work on replacing the bottom bracket and rear breaks. The bb caps fit the thread but I am struggling getting the crank side off, but tomorrow I will sort it.



I can't wait to cycle to the station again.

 

Malv and co. I have a question. I have a bottom bracket that just doesn't want to come out. Any tips? I've tried wd40 into the gap where it should come out and it just doesn't want to.

The good news is that I'm beginning to get the bike into shape. Tonight I got the forks off the old frame and organised some one to swap the headset over which coincidentally seems to fit the new frame. I also have everything a good clean in prep for it going back on and all having a good lube up.

Here it is as it stands. I just need the bb and headset swapped, new front derailleur acquired and cabling done. (So most of it to do really).



Looking around halfords while waiting for my new rear derailler hanger I noticed that the new halfords MTb range uses this same frame style. Win. Suddenly I'm quite proud of my purchase for £35.

Also Malv, looking at your bike above I love the bamboo handles, and I have to say thats my favorite of the bikes you've linked so far. I hope the bike store is less underwater now, and its all going alright.

 

Lance what type of BB is it do you no? If your not sure lib a picture up it may be a press fit but I don't think careers use them

 

Are you turning it the right way? Stood looking at the drive side of the bike you turn it clockwise to remove, none drive side of the bike you turn it anti-clockwise to remove. Basically you're twisting the BB towards the front of the bike to take it out and putting it in towards the rear.

 

I was turning it towards the front fortunately, otherwise I would have felt pretty silly.

Its a cartridge BB, and its coming from and going to a Carrera so I'm hoping its just a remove and swap job. That said I might just buy a new one because the existing one is 9 years old, and seems pretty fused.

I tried using a piece of pipe as a breaker, but I can't get the pressure on it without it popping off, and the bb tool I have doesn't have a hole in it to let a bolt through. To the shop tonight I think.

Cheers for the help lads, means a lot.

 

You have to remove the none drive side cup first as this puts pressure on the cartridge. Once that's out removing the main unit from the drive side will be easier.

What tool are you using? One of these?



If you can get a bolt that's long enough, bolt the tool into the BB, that way it won't move, you can then get a socket over the end of it and use some dumb strength. Sometimes with a really stuck one we bolt the tool into the BB, then clamp the tool into the vice, you can then get more leverage by twisting the frame.

 

Cheers for the heads up cookiemonster. Will give that a shot.

Also, just popped into Kinoko bikes (used to be Tokyo Bikes) in Golden Square, London, and got amazing service plus they gave me a little odd part I needed out of their old stock drawer.

Basically they seem really great, a sort of LBS feel but in central London, which is quite rare.


p.s. they also had amazing looking millionaires shortbread and coffee at the tills.

 

Triple check the direction, thinking in terms of clockwise and anti-clockwise. Thinking in terms of left/right or towards a direction makes my brain implode as it's a circular motion and thus is both turning towards the front of the bike, as it is towards the rear of the bike (and in every other direction).

It's the reason I hate the saying 'Leftie loosie, rightie tightie', it makes zero sense unless you're looking head on to the bolt with the spanner facing upwards.

In my head the thread direction of a bb seems wrong. The pedalling direction is the same as the direction for loosening the bb. To me it would make sense that it would be opposite, so that when you pedal the bb would tighten if motion was transferred into the bb itself (seems possible?), instead it would loosen the bb. I'm sure I'm missing something, probably that motion simply isn't transferred to the bb itself.

Anyway, good luck, I've had my fair share of issues with bb's. The last one I had to remove hadn't been touched in ~ 15 years, and used the plastic non-driveside cup, which got chewed to pieces in 10 seconds flat. Ended up having to carefully cut it out using a hacksaw blade, making sure not to damage the threads on the frame.