Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

AKA, arse breaker...

 

haha yeah the game is not to put your arse on it which should do my legs wonders

 

I went to a local bike shop and they matched it up, turns out it's on odd size and giant like to do crap like that, it was only a tenner so that's good.

 

All hail the mighty bike shop guy!

 

Hey chaps, I'm on the hunt for a backpack that I can use for cycling that will safely accommodate a laptop - I've been given a nice Lenovo X270 as my work laptop, but the downside is that I pretty much have to take it home each night so I need a decent bag that will keep it safe on my cycling commute (work have laptop bags but they're over-the-shoulder varieties so not suitable for the bike). Any recommendations for a laptop-safe bag that can take maybe 30 litres? Cheers dudes.

 

Did a swap around of seat posts and had this carbon one spare. It's not the one I am using but the one I ordered from HK seems to have gone awry. I will have to contact them, but can't until 12th April FGS.



The leg exerciser is now fitted. Aptly named because if you put your arse on that thing you will be sorry.

 

Hoses trimmed, Reverb bled, cable ties... tied, cockpit and saddle adjusted, tires still holding air. Just waiting for that shock pump to be delivered, then we're good to hit the trails!

 

Grrr, I've managed to strip the head of the hex bolt that holds the brake pads in the rear caliper. It's completely rounded off inside to the point where nothing seems to get a grip on it. I've tried a brand new allen key, a slightly larger torx bit, gripping the head with pliers and nothing has worked. It's a pretty weeny little bolt - either 2mm or 3mm, I can't remember exactly which, and sits pretty much flush with the caliper so it's hard to get a grip on with pliers and I'm not convinced that dremelling a notch into it (to allow a screwdriver to be employed) is going to be viable. I've seen easy-outs recommended for this sort of thing but I'm not convinced that the bolt is big enough - most easy-outs seem to start at 3mm+ and this is a really small bolt.

Any tips, chaps? I've seen the idea mentioned of supergluing a sacrificial allen key to the bolt (or even MIG welding one to the bolt, but that's far above my pay grade!). It's bloody annoying because this is a 50p bolt but it's causing a ton of trouble for me

The lesson here is probably to be undoing these bolts every so often and reapplying some anti-seize, especially over the winter when the **** of the day is getting thrown up off the road. I've been scraping several mm of road salt off the bike every week recently

 

What brakes dude? On my SRAM's the pads are held in via 1 bolt that goes all the way through both pads, so there's a couple of gaps in-between the pad spring and the pads themselves - if yours were the same you should be able to fit a little hacksaw blade (or dremel if you're steady!) there to cut the bolt in 2... Not saying it'll be easy to get out still, but the 2 halves might put up less resistance!

 

They are cheapy Tektro Aurigas. It's the same arrangement as your SRAMs - a single bolt that goes through both pads. It might be possible to get through the retaining bolt on the inside of the caliper - looks like there might just be enough room to get a hacksaw blade in there next to the pad springs. Still leaves the problem of getting the rest of the bolt out of the caliper.

I mean, at this point I'm almost ready to just buy a replacement caliper But the hassle of having to install it and then bleed the system is extremely offputting

 

Fitted the new spindle a while back, bearings are a little noisy it seems and at speed I seem to get a wobble on the back end even though I cant feel any play in the wheel, the wheel does have a slight buckle but that doesn't seem bad enough to cause the wobble.

I haven't properly cleaned my chain since I bought the bike and it was getting rather bad so I bought a chain cleaner from lidl

Utterly amazed at how good a job it did, my chain is now super quiet.

 

The faster you go, the more pronounced the effect of a wobble in the rim, worth getting it straightened.

 

So, this is fixed now. I bought a set of easy-outs from Amazon, and they arrived this morning. Literally five minutes later, the troublesome bolt was out. Three of those minutes were spent getting the drill out of the shed

I'm a happy camper now!

 

Nice one BawJaws!

Whole ride I had a rattle on the bike couldnt fathom what nor where. Get home, flip the bike onto the back wheel an hear a noise like something sliding around in the frame. Sodding TopPeak Ninja pump decided it was going to dismantle itself INSIDE the frame (should mention its designed to snug up inside the seatpost). Two hours later all the parts removed an now all I hear is the glorious sound of deep section carbons whirring.
ARGH!

 

I'm in the market for a new back wheel for my hybrid. Anyone have a recommendation for a decent 700c wheel that's compatible with disc brakes and can take a 28 tyre? I'd prefer not to spend insanity money, so I was looking at something like the Mavic Aksium disc which seems to be around the £90 mark, but it's really hard to judge how good or otherwise anything is on the internet When you look at the next level up from Mavic (Krysium) that's about twice the price which seems like a lot of extra cash for not much extra real-world gain. I'm just going to be commuting on it, so don't need something that can withstand crazy drops or particularly rough terrain. Cheers!

 

I have a set of Mavic Aksium discs on my hybrid. They seem fine for what it's worth based on my limited experience. Haven't experienced any problems at least.

 

Cheers man. There don't seem to be a ton of options at this end of the scale, so I might end up going for one of these.

 

I just bought an Under Armour Storm Hustle 3 Rucksack and am pretty damn happy with it!

https://www.underarmour.co.uk/en-gb/mens-ua-hustle-3.0-backpack/1294720.html

Mine is dark blue with fluorescent details, nice and comfy

 

Thanks @B1GBUD , will check that out.

 

Tyres what to buy.

My back tyre has started to split badly near the rim which I think is the largest cause of my rear end wobbling as spinning the wheel and measuring the rim movement the wheel is barely buckled.

What sort of quality tyre should I be looking for, I don't go off road much and only light off roading at that and I do about 12 miles a day, I'm not looking to spend big money but I don't want to buy rubbish either so what am I looking at really.

Tyre is a 26 x 2.10 mountain bike tyre, looks like a hybrid road/off road tyre.