Search found 59 matches

by thenorthwind
5 Jul 2023, 7:13pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Shimano Alfine 11 IGH issue in gears 4 and 6
Replies: 4
Views: 404

Re: Shimano Alfine 11 IGH issue in gears 4 and 6

Thanks Gary, appreciate your reply. I'm 99% sure it's not a cable/shifting issue though. When the problem isn't there, the shifts are all nice and smooth, and even when it is, they still are, just the ratio is wrong. I adjusted the cable tension a bit in either direction to see if it had any effect, but it didn't - just made the shifts worse. Also, the ratios I'm getting in 4 and 6 don't correspond to the ratios either side, they're completely different - though I suppose it's feasible it could actuate some elements of the shift, but not others. I cleaned the cassette joint when I stripped it down. Nevertheless, I'll have another look.
I will keep you posted if I discover my z hub issue.
Cheers. If you can feel yours slipping, rather than driving in a different ratio, it sounds like a different problem, but there might be some link since it's affecting (some of) the same gears. I'll update if I get anywhere with this.
by thenorthwind
5 Jul 2023, 1:38pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Shimano Alfine 11 IGH issue in gears 4 and 6
Replies: 4
Views: 404

Shimano Alfine 11 IGH issue in gears 4 and 6

I have an odd problem with my Alfine 11 which I can't find any other experiences of on internet to help me diagnose the problem. I'm wondering if anyone here has experienced anything similar, or has any clue as to the cause?

All gears except 4 and 6 work fine, and seem to be the correct ratios, but shifting up into 4 or 6, the ratio actually reduces. They still transit power, just at a lower ratio than expected. They feel solid, with no slipping feeling, and all the gear shifts are smooth.

To try and nail down the problem, and see if there were any other ratio problems I couldn't feel, I measured them all in the stand by turning the cranks as close to exactly 1 revolution as possible, and counting the wheel revolutions as accurately as possible. The results I got were, from gear 1 (lowest) to gear 11:
1.219
1.563
1.750
1.250
2.250
1.563
2.906
3.281
3.719
4.188
4.750

Note the unexpected low ratios in bold.

This seems to roughly match with the table of ratios from Brucey here after I take into account my 42/20 gearing, apart from 4 and 6.

I'd hoped to be able to identify a common element from the gear configuration table (also on Brucey's page on Sheldon's site) but I can't.

A brief history of the hub: I bought it used, seemingly in very good condition in the winter. Before I built it into a wheel, I stripped it down (it seemed well-lubricated and no excessive contamination of the oil), flushed it, refilled it with EP90, replaced a plastic sealing part that was damaged, greased the bearings, and reassembled. It's given me a few months and probably hundreds of miles of good service (not very long in the grand scheme, but enough to believe it didn't come to me with a fundamental problem).

When the problem first occurred, I took the internals out, mainly to see if there was something obvious broken or jammed, flushed it and refilled again, which had no effect on the problem. Then after a week or so, it mysteriously disappeared. It appeared again on my morning commute this week, only to have disappeared before I arrived 3 miles later. I can't find any correlation with conditions (e.g. heat).

It doesn't appear to be a cable indexing problem. All the shifts are fine, and slight adjustment in either direction only results in the sort of poor shifts you'd expect from slight misalignment.
by thenorthwind
16 May 2023, 5:53pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Touring in Estonia - advice and experiences sought
Replies: 2
Views: 241

Re: Touring in Estonia - advice and experiences sought

Thanks for that, quite a bit to go on there.
by thenorthwind
15 May 2023, 4:47pm
Forum: Touring & Expedition
Topic: Touring in Estonia - advice and experiences sought
Replies: 2
Views: 241

Touring in Estonia - advice and experiences sought

Does anyone have any experience of touring in Estonia, and have any advice to offer?

Me and my partner are spending two weeks there in early September, and hoping to tour by bike for at least some of it to explore some more rural parts whilst avoiding hiring a car.

Although a fairly reluctant cyclist, it was her suggestion, and Estonia does look like the ideal country for relaxed touring: pretty small, lightly populated, flat. We'll not be doing long days, and accommodation will likely be B&B or similar to avoid carrying camping gear.

Big question really is where to hire a pair of decent touring bikes from. While I'd rather take my own, it seems more practical to hire something in this case, assuming we can find something reasonable: i.e. not a heavy town bike intended for a few hours pottering in the city/by the lake.
by thenorthwind
18 Jun 2017, 10:09pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: What are these valves and are they any use to anyone?
Replies: 9
Views: 1052

Re: What are these valves and are they any use to anyone?

I did google "dunlop" and "woods" as they were the only valves I'd heard of but not seen, but I thought they looked different. I bow to collective knowledge however. Does anyone on here still use them then? Happy to stick them in the post FOC rather than the bin.
by thenorthwind
17 Jun 2017, 2:52pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: What are these valves and are they any use to anyone?
Replies: 9
Views: 1052

What are these valves and are they any use to anyone?

See attached picture. Found in an old puncture repair kit in my grandad's garage. Didn't want to chuck them out in case they were useful to anyone.
by thenorthwind
16 Mar 2017, 12:58pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Sleepy sticky slow-witted Sora…
Replies: 8
Views: 597

Re: Sleepy sticky slow-witted Sora…

Whilst it's possible, likely even, to be sticky cables or mech, I find that often systems respond slightly differently under real riding conditions, and so I find it useful to fine-tune the indexing whilst actually riding, using the barrel adjusters (on flat bar shifters) or inline adjusters (with STIs).
by thenorthwind
12 Mar 2017, 9:55pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Is my mech bent?
Replies: 6
Views: 533

Re: Is my mech bent?

I've had some success bending it back. The tricky bit is holding the odd-shaped bits of metal. Eventually I found that it fitted nicely in this vee-block I have for clamping round things, and I could bend it in any plane with mole-grips. It's not perfect, but it's not bad and is shifting much more easily.

Image2017-03-12 13.00.09 by Dave W, on Flickr
by thenorthwind
11 Mar 2017, 7:28am
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Is my mech bent?
Replies: 6
Views: 533

Re: Is my mech bent?

I'll report back if I manage to improve it.

Good idea about eBay. I can't work out what's bent so I'd need to replace the whole body, but if I could find one with a bent hanger, which is more common, that would work.
by thenorthwind
10 Mar 2017, 10:59pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Is my mech bent?
Replies: 6
Views: 533

Re: Is my mech bent?

Cheers. I'll have a go at it seeing as there's not much to lose, but, as you say, it's going to be difficult to get purchase where you need it.
by thenorthwind
10 Mar 2017, 10:01pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Is my mech bent?
Replies: 6
Views: 533

Is my mech bent?

Thought I'd bent my mech cage and/or hanger. Straightened the hanger, but it looks like the surface that mates with the hanger and the surface that mates with the cage are not coplanar (to use the fancy word).

So the mech body itself must be bent right? They're not meant to be like that, Shirley?

It seems improbable though, since the body is all solid bits of cast aluminium and there's no obvious bending.

Parallelogram still operates smoothly. It's a Deore mech in case it's relevant.

Image2017-03-10 20.27.21 by Dave W, on Flickr

Image2017-03-10 20.26.58 by Dave W, on Flickr
by thenorthwind
4 Aug 2016, 12:20pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Cleaning out bottom bracket threads
Replies: 31
Views: 5062

Re: Cleaning out bottom bracket threads

My LBS chased the threads on a frame I bought with a cross-threaded BB in it. Cost was £15 (earlier this year).
by thenorthwind
9 Jun 2016, 7:32am
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: What do you think of "big" foldable tour bike?
Replies: 47
Views: 6923

Re: What do you think of "big" foldable tour bike?

I keep meaning to post photos of my "final" build of this bike, but there may never be one. I'm using it as a kind of experimental base for lots of things I haven't tried before: drop bars, leather saddle, SPDs, bar ends.

Here is the current build which I used for a C2C run last weekend:

Image

I stuck with flat bars (580mm Easton XC70 carbon with just a couple of degrees of upsweep), after tinkering with different stems and spacer arrangements, since they had served me well on a previous century, but added some cheap bar ends to give me another hand position, which I previously found lacking.

Totally sold on the leather saddle (a 1950s Middlemore).

I haven't found the same problem as Brucey with the saddle being too far back due to the seat tube angle. In fact I have the saddle relatively far back on its rails.

I did try some drop bars, and while they look pretty, couldn't find a position that made them comfortable in more than one hand position. They may just be too narrow or too deep. I have some On One Midge flared drops to try, but I might also try some standard shallower drops. Like I say, this bike is for experimenting.

Image
by thenorthwind
19 May 2016, 2:06pm
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Chainring bolts: allen keys on both parts
Replies: 4
Views: 893

Re: Chainring bolts: allen keys on both parts

I assumed the slot was also to avoid requiring the same type and size of tool for both sides. Are the double allen ones for the same size allen key?
by thenorthwind
29 Apr 2016, 10:49am
Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
Topic: Rudge 'Bi-Frame' -a 'Proper' Folding Bike....?
Replies: 196
Views: 32966

Re: Rudge 'Bi-Frame' -a 'Proper' Folding Bike....?

I've replaced the chainset with a standard triple as well (probably a 48 big ring). The mech (original I think - Suntour) is right down at the bottom of the braze-on and could probably do with being a bit lower but shifts relatively well.

Interesting that the oval chainset was original, I assumed it had been added later on mine.

I was planning to try a band-on mech at some point so thanks for the point about seat-tube angle Brucey - hadn't considered that.