Cycling UK Forum

my understanding is that mini-V's work Ok with STi's; ordinary V's won't.

But I haven't run the mini-V setup myself, just ridden a bike for a while with it, so I don't know what it is like to live with TBH.

cheers

well it looks like they re-used the Fiamme name (for about five minutes...) on someone else's bits to me. Is that a campy chainset in disguise, or a ofmega one, or something?

Never seen that before.....

cheers

step-in, twist out.

The first requires no twist, just the 'claw' to open and close.

The 'twist to release' requires displacing more mud perhaps, already ram-jammed into the shoe cleat pocket?

If the pedals and cleats check out otherwise, I can't think what else would cause it.

bit worried I'm in slight peril here- I don't have the MR cleats IIRC, just knackered ones....

cheers

makers of beautiful (and sometimes slightly delicate) sprint rims.... I've not seen or used anything else by them so am thinking the other bits are 'something else'

photos?

cheers

weird. Ive seen some brakes where the left on has the spring detent and the right one doesn't but I don't remember seeing a pair.... do you remember what the old brakes were like, who made them etc?

For future compatibility it may be a good idea to mod the frame to accept a wider range of brakes. Do you think there is enough room to drill a hole?

cheers

'mud resistant' and 'mud proof' are two quite different concepts.....

BTW some later designs eg. 520 model have far better mud clearance, but wear the cleats oddly. They have virtually no metal under the centre part of the cleat.

The mud fouling issue you had may have been made worse if you had a small-ish cleat pocket in the bottom of the shoe; this impedes the sideways twist directly.

Bad releasing can also occur on early spd designs for two other reasons;

1) bent (flattened) 'kicker' tabs (which flick the cleat up at the back as you twist)

2) a groove in the back of the cleat where the 'claw' normally holds. If it is not too deep you can grind the rest down to match the groove and then they release OK again. release issues of this srt are far worse on SPD knock-offs than on the real thing BTW

cheers

this may sound like a cop out but you will find that you will prefer one over another in much the same way as you might -for reasons no-one fully understands- choose to wear different coloured socks in the morning.

What you do and how you do it makes a difference too. Years ago one of the old boys in my club let me in on his secret for improved brakes; 'clean the rims with WD40...' . I honestly thought he was pulling my leg or that advancing years had finally rendered him one 1/4" ball bearing short of a bottom bracket full.... but with his blocks and his rims it worked rather well.

Even though they don't have as much wear in them as some others, if you know you'll only be happy with cartridge pads, (because they are easy to change, lots of different pad compounds, low profile etc ) it makes sense to get brakes with them on from the start; a good set of blocks and shoes can cost as much as cheap brakes.

cheers

Alan D wrote:However, I do wonder about the very close tolerances between components, I am demanding a mechanism make changes at my command, and hit it just right every time when tolerances must be accurate to a few thou. Could it be that the rachet mechanism in the lever is getting worn and losing its accuracy? Is it reasonable to make an assertive click of the lever in each direction and get a single clean change on the cassette in the required direction; or is it click up - ease down? Does anyone else find it's like this for them?

They are usually made of very hard steel and don't wear on the ratchet teeth at all easily. When they go wrong -which is infrequent- they most often go sticky inside or very occasionally a spring breaks or something. Most folk do nothing more than spray thin lube in them and change the cables. I'm not saying they don't ever go wrong, but 99 times out of a hundred if they look OK and feel OK the problem is something else.

A good test is to unhook the cable from the slotted guide, and work the shifter whilst pulling on the bare cable. You will soon feel if it is sticky inside.

BTW sticky shifting can be caused by a failing cable if it starts to fray in or near the STi. There appears to have been a bad lot of stainless shifter cables made in the last couple of years, I've seen several fail like this recently where before its been very rare indeed.

cheers

stewartpratt wrote:I've tried mini Vs as well, but -....- I could never get them set up so that I could unhook the cable without having to have the bite point at the lever way too close to the bars for my liking....

fair point; I 'fixed' this on one bike by filing the end of the noodle a bit so that it had a couple of flats on which went about halfway down. Took about a minute to do and worked like a charm. Just have to be careful not to overdo it....

cheers

How about mini- 'V' s? If pannier clearance is an issue these work well.

BTW the brake blocks you use are at least as important as the arms themselves; a lot of quite good cantis come with brake blocks that I would immediately junk.

Also, canti or mini-V the design that works best IMOE is one where the brake block has an offset mounting so that the long end can face backwards (both front and rear, which often means a very slim shoe profile at the front). In addition the brake block post or bolt should ideally be in line with the braze-on, not stuck out the front of it or too far behind it. A lot of brakes have the post or bolt ahead or behind the braze-on and this usually means one brake works really well and the other one isn't quite so good. The Oryx is by no means the worst offender here (in fact it looks pretty good to me) but the rear may not work as well as the front, or may give uneven block wear, for this reason.

Even cheap mini-Vs usually have the brake block mounting in the right place. I can't say I prefer the look of them though, and they don't fit every bike either.

cheers

well it is all relative, isn't it...

For years I didn't have a track pump. I had an old 'Aerite' footpump with a long hose with a presta fitting on the end. I had another adapter for use on a car tyre, too.

I found that I could get up to 200psi with it; leg muscles are quite strong...

Old 'Aerite' pumps are pretty solid mostly, but if you want to go a little bit retro, try and find a 'Dunlop' one with a brass barrel. The small ones (which are slightly larger than modern pumps) are perfect. The large ones have a double-action pump mechanism and are superbly engineered, but getting replacement seals that fit is tricky to say the least.

cheers

interesting, I've never seen a 'K' hub or an 'X' hub in pieces. But pre-first world war SA hubs had ball bearing pinions, and were sold with the strapline 'refuse all plain bearing imitations'

The AM planet cage looks fairly convincing but I wonder about it; like the FW, FG, FM, and others... they used a four-legged clutch driver on a three-planet gear. This leaves just an odd arrangement of dogs, only three of which engage at any one time. This effectively means that two only will transmit the torque unless there is a reaction (read friction) force on the shaft. Having said this I've done many miles on these hubs without trouble.

IIRC the SW hub had a three-legged clutch driver; if they had used these parts on redesigned planet cages then even stronger AM etc hubs may have been possible.

cheers

+1 on that. Its like chain suck in reverse.

But before concluding that for sure just check the chain for stiff/sticky links; these can cause jumps as well.

Re the vague shifting; a slightly sticky cable will do it. If your cable runs in slotted guides you can release it and clean/lube without disturbing the pinch bolts.

The other thing to look out for is that the rear mech isn't pushed inwards slightly ie towards the wheel. It doesn't take much to give bad shifting once it is angled slightly.

The jockey pulleys do wear out. New ones have a small amount of 'float' on the top pulley but worn ones have lots and this causes bad shifting. You should be able to move the top of the pulley ~1mm or less side to side. Much more than this and it means the pulley is worn out.

cheers

its a fair question I suppose; I can't be sure but I don't think I did the rebuild much differently apart from the washers since I wasn't building regularly at that time. I am pretty sure that the poor quality spokes I had were unusual; I have not seen many like it since and certainly have not built with any.

A 'neutral' bend is one where there is no net tension or compression in the wire as it is formed, thus the inside of the bend yields in compression, the outside in tension. Some combination of wire tension, bend radius and good support greatly reduces the chances of a bad crease forming. Any inclusions at or near the surface of the steel seem more likely to generate a bad stress raiser in unrestrained compression than in other yield modes.

Small, inexpensive coil springs are routinely formed in compression, purely for cost reasons. The die used for this (and you have to see it being done to understand really) provides no support on the inside of the coil during forming. Tension wound springs are more expensive to make, but are known to be generally superior in fatigue, presumably for comparable reasons.

I suspect that the 'half and half' test is a good idea and could be done with a steel hub and spokes meant for a thicker aluminium flange. Goodness knows there are enough cheap MTB wheels like that about. You might need two washers per spoke though.

cheers

if you choose a track pump with a fairly wide barrel it will be a bit faster on car tyres (but still rather slow) and -depending on how much of a struggle you are prepared to put up with- it might still do up to 110psi too.

BTW I have found no single pump that gets an unequivocal thumbs up, even for bike tyres. The gauges are usually way off, few stand up well, the hoses are too short, the adapters are poor.... the list goes on. Even if they work OK for a few years they find a way to break, in some new and interesting fashion... I guess the topeak (?) adapter head I have is OK but predictably the hose that came with it is rubbish. Maybe I'm fussy.

If you can find one with a steel (or perhaps brass) barrel this may help (although it does not by any means ensure) long life. Alu and plastic don't generally cut it in the long run. The old Silca ones have a good (but narrow) barrel and a servicable piston washer. The adapters, hoses etc were a bit hit and miss but they can be changed.

cheers