Cycling UK Forum

But did the recovery after the plate-removal take as long as the recovery after the initial surgery? I’ll be facing this soon, Covid permitting, and I’m not especially looking forward to it. A year later i watched someone touch wheels and come off in front of me. I was unable to avoid hitting them b...

rjb wrote:After 6 months they removed the titanium plate to reduce the risk of the collarbone shattering.

How did that surgery and recovery compare to putting the plate in?

Gbnz: good luck with your latest tribulation.

They’re one of the fastest cheap tyres you can buy. But, as noted, the trade-off is negligible puncture resistance. That might still be a good compromise for some riders. It doesn’t work for me in a glass-strewn city.

Samuel D, would you please tell me what your saddle height is (measured from the bottom bracket in a line through the centre of the seat tube). I will tell you this: the saddle in the photos was substantially too high. I had just eyeballed it and gone out to take the pictures. Even in trainers I co...

Ok then, it was 7mm .................. but WHY? Good question with appropriate emphasis. I know nowhere in Paris, a fair-sized town, that stocks a 7 mm Allen key. None of the big-box hardware stores do. The small car-parts shops don’t either. You’d need to find a specialist tool supplier or somethi...

I have come across French stems (and seatpost clamps) that take a 7 mm Allen key. God only knows why 6 mm or 8 mm wasn’t good enough for their designers.

The outer cable is a beautiful seventies off white with ribbing. Any ideas where this can be located? Brakes also have what I understand is called a yoke cable. Also, the cables seem thicker than modern ones. Am I imagining this? Ah. Can’t help with finding that sort of housing. NOS on eBay if you’...

Try replacing the cables and, importantly, cable housings too. That can make a huge difference to braking effectiveness on old bicycles.

Looks like cross threading damage to me (stripped threads, damage to one side of the pedal face...) Are you talking about my brother’s pedal? And by “pedal face” do you mean crank face? The reason for the damage being more pronounced on one side of the eye than the other is that he pushes the pedal...

The problem will then be if I have to quantify the pain and suffering and personal loss, I'll struggle to come up with anything. I'm actually totally fine and it's all potential, theoretical, hypothetical, implied, etc... No need to be a hero. Assault can be deeply unsettling and most victims would...

Have you fitted the pedals yet? Typically the pedals have by far the most kinetic energy of the spinning crank components. Therefore, for a given starting speed, the cranks don’t spin nearly as long without pedals (a new build) as with pedals (after replacing the bottom bracket on a used bike). But ...

Nice find. (I suppose it feels like a find, coming across them again.)

All 32-hole except one at 36?

I position my skewers on the left of the bike, I didn’t know this was correct, just a matter of personal opinion. The rear quick-release lever is butted up against the chain stay where it cannot be pulled with any force. That only works if it’s not tight enough. No guarantee it’s fully home either:...

The cable housing lengths for the rear brake are a mile out. Quick-release skewers incorrectly positioned. Usually bikes that look like that have other set-up problems. An hour with a good mechanic may transform how it works. Hard to tell from this photo, but I’d expect most modern kit to fit, not t...

So, looking at the big picture, 30 years of wasted technical ‘refinement’ in my opinion. It’s wasted on me too. I don’t have a problem to pedal gently while shifting (for one second?) and to shift down before my cadence drops to nothing. My interest in this is mechanical curiosity. All the same, I ...