Cycling UK Forum

Check the seat post fits properly if you are buying a Spa steel frame. The recommended 27.2mm seat post was so loose in the Aubisque frameset I bought a year ago it could be rocked in the seat tube. Tried several 27.2 'posts with the same result and also tried them in different Aubisque frames in th...

Thanks. I think the fixed seal on the XT body might stop oil escaping from the rear, more so than the removable seals in the older 7/8/9-speed bodies so I'm expecting any freehub lube to enter the hub bearings. Maybe I should flush the freehub with gear oil which at least contains some EP additives ...

Thanks for the top tips! I'll keep the freehub body on the hub. Think I'd rather experiment with a spare body fitted to one of my wheels first before I start on the usual one. Got a bag of Grade 10 1/8" bearings from Simply Bearings yesterday so I might at least replace the outer set of balls w...

Another random observation re mudguards is that some 'guards seem to use aluminium alloy rivets in their stainless steel brake bridges. These rapidly corrode sacrificially in the presence of water and/or salt due to galvanic effects and can result in the mudguards detaching from the bridges. Worth c...

Had an accident as a kid in the '80s when I borrowed my dad's Raleigh Merlin roadster, front guard stuffed itself into the fork crown and threw me over the bars. Luckily didn't land on my head or in front of a car. A passerby asked if I was OK and thought I was a BMXer doing stunts! Years later a st...

I'd assumed I'd need to remove all the shims to replace both rows of bearings? Or is this more hassle than it's worth? Incidentally I lubricate my freehubs with grease via the rear seal and they don't tend to wear out. However the most recent hub I've used (Shimano XT 780) seems to have a fixed seal...

Drum brakes are the future!!

While we're at it, can we bring back reliable hub gears, proper (i.e. long enough) mudguards and grease ports in hubs, pedals and bottom brackets???

Everything I read about hub gears on this forum puts me right off them. Even worse that Sturmey managed to engineer a reliable 3-speed hub then totally dropped the ball with anything else, and repeated the same mistakes. For the UK climate a good reliable hub gear would be ideal on a utility or comm...

Going to have a go at this freehub adjusting malarkey. Got myself a removal tool from somewhere online, and some 1/8" Grade 10 ball bearings. Is it very difficult to stop the bearings falling out of position when opening up the freehub, and making them stay put when reassembling? How many balls...

It's part of an ongoing trend for things to wear out faster. Shimano have been at it since I've been cycling, thinner chains, thinner sprockets with shallower teeth, 'top swing' front mechs that wear out faster, dreadful rim brake pads that eat rims, the rim manufacturer's themselves producing softe...

FWIW I get away with 32mm Panaracer Pasela PTs on narrow rims - Rigida Chrinas which are 13.5mm internal width so similar to your Open Pros I think. The sidewalls are not reinforced though so for dirt tracks it might be safer with something with tougher sidewalls. Having said that, I rode plenty of ...

Interesting, and a far cry from the Huret Eco gear I had on the back of my Raleigh Winner 10-speed as a teenager!

Isn't this just an over-complex way of tracking the freewheel contour that Shimano achieved using an inclined single parallelogram?

In my car I need to unbolt and remove the front passenger seat and fold down the rear seats, does mean no passengers though

It's a 1995 2-door BMW 3-series coupe.

One day I'll maybe get a rear tow bar so I can use my rack again

Stick a pin in the pinholes,

If it goes through try a philips screwdriver.

If that goes through - new frame time.....

FWIW I am working on a modification to Shimano hubs which will a) be possible to carry out without taking the hub to bits and b) will allow the bearings to be regreased in situ and c) will not interfere with the normal operation of the hub. Obviously I shall carry out some trials on one of my hubs ...