Cycling UK Forum

I prefer longer camping holidays, pref more remote places. Partener wanted to go on a CTC 1 week holiday to Jersey, hotel based. Being 9 miles by 5 miles or what ever Jersey isn't, so I said yes and prepared to get bored.
Had an absolutely wonderful time, really loved it! Be good on the map reading, the road net work is unbelieveably dense (but very smooth - surface that is, not terrain).

Roads not allowed to cycle on,
Oxford eastern ring road, A 4142 from Littlemore roundabout (A4158) to Green Rd (Headington) roundabout (A40) - alternatives run along side(ish).
From memory only, Edinburgh ring road (say signs some years ago a on slip roads as I passed them).

A34 through Oxfordshire allows bikes, but very busy with trucks.....

Ages give tally with my school memories of seeing them.
Other similar Raleighs of that time often had a "Raleigh 20 - 40 tubing" (if I remember the numbers correctly). I would expect this to be plain tensile tubing, certainly nothing fancy or cr mo.

From working in a LBS about 15 years ago, I recall E type bottom brackets, for a given axle lenght were a tad shorter than "normal" BBs to allow for the gear mounting plate to make up the shortfall in axle lenght.
I remember this because a whole lot of Dawes hybrids came in with the wrong axle lenghts (F mech wouldn't work properly. Dawes didn''t have spare replacements of the correct lenght, Madison (shimano importers) didn't have any E BB units for many months...
I think in the end we had to fit normal BBs with normal clamp on gears....

As I recall from when I used them, suntour winner freewheels had two RH threaded lock rings, so you could adjust the freewheel bearings as you would a hub or headset. You would need a hammer and punch or the bespoke Suntour dismantling spanner : -

Google suntour winner spanner - it appears in the 2nd row or link : -

.google.co.uk/imgres?q=suntour+winner+spanner&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=606&tbm=isch&tbnid=qI-E4SDmOD81tM:&imgrefurl=http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/334815-taking-apart-a-Suntour-six-speed-freewheel&docid=wcWCxTq8HU1l8M&imgurl=http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/suntour-nwn.jpg&w=715&h=365&ei=NeKLULObJqiR0QXEpYG4Dw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=446&vpy=192&dur=1403&hovh=160&hovw=314&tx=76&ty=183&sig=116541863076695346851&page=1&tbnh=133&tbnw=234&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:0,i:90

The problems described in fitting I too have - the tyre keeps popping off the rim as the beads are further apart then the rim width (that tick puncture lining keeps them wide). I've found once on, the tyre takes up the "normal"profile when inflated (so it gets used to the beads being 1 rim wide). When you later have to refit the tyre (unlikely puncture/spoke replacement etc), the tyre beads are closer together, so popping off when fitting tends not to happen/be much reduced.
Fitting the 1st time however, a toe strap to hold the start point on is helpful. Not sure what cyclists brought up on SPDs do!

I'd also add to Mick F's comment - be careful when prising them out - if you bend/buckle the dust caps, they are very hard to straighten/get back in the hub.

My understanding of the small hole was to let out water that had got in, before if was flung further out into the bearings. In my experience of Campag hubs, water tended to get in remarkably easily - unlike my 1990's XT hubs. They went fully immersed in fast flowing Icelandic fords (that fords, not Fiords!) and never let in a drop (never got round to ovehauling them for years afterwards - when I did, they were fine, nice clean grease, phew).

8freight?
Ten years over loaded, mine still runs (with a few weld repairs). Your loaves won't over load it, unlike my tool kit/stock.
http://8freight.com/why-8freight/

Mercian, all the one's I've seen look well finished - paint and under the paint. Over the years however I have seen a few that were measured but looked too large (by reasonably modern standards) ie, not much seat post showing, so check the dimensions against your existing bike(s) if you go for them.
Lots of other names mentioned also good.
My Argos does have some very smooth lugless work - then I did submit 5 sides of A4 saying what I wanted, so it got built by the boss himself!

About 15 years ago (early-mid 1990's) Shimano introduced longer pivot mount bolts for their cantilever brakes (no Vs then) to reinforce the pivot. They had found that cheaper bikes with their brakes on sometimes had the pivot boss fail, so they lenghtened the bolt to reinforce the pivot to reduce this risk.

I too have seen quite a few snapped gear cables in STI/rapid fire levers in my repair work, and very few in friction/indexed down tube/bar end shifters.
My hunch is having used down tube levers/bar end levers and rapid fire levers, and test ridden STI levers, the nature of the gear lever/hand interection is much smoother on down tube/bar end levers (your hand pushes the lever round), where as STI/rapid fire tends to be (for changing against the gear spring) alot sharper/harsher (you push/shove the lever more harshly, usually up against the lever stop).
This results in higher stress on the cable, higher stress dramatically shortens fatigue life.
Its only a hunch, no figures to back it up.

20-30,000 gear changes per month, wow. I found that I used to change gear alot, but after riding a fixed hack bike, I changed more sparingly. All geared riders should ride fixed to learn how to use their gears!

If you are running friction rear gears, the Huret Duopar had a collosal range, worked very smoothly over all gears on all rings. Came in steel or titanium. I think some had a resin outed parallelogram plate (?) in black. Occasionally pop up on e bay. I might have an old one somewhere, not sure.
They had a reputation (deserved or not I don't know) for being a tad fragile if shoved. Mine survived a round the world tour. Only replaced it as everything wore out all at once, so went indexed (i would say the huret was a tad smoother change.....)

Tubus Tara's thick tube over the front wheel has another use. When getting on european trains from ground level platforms, it makes a great handle to haul your bike up with, if you are on the train and someone passes it up to you (I do remove luggage 1st...)

I don't know abour e bikes specifically, but all the screw on threaded wheels my supplier send me have hubs spaced for 7 speed. The few occasions I've had to fit an 8 speed screw on freewheel, I've had to space out the right hand end of the axle - which means to do the job properly, poss reduce left side spacing and redish the wheel. Usually 8 speed frewheels are on bikes not worth all the hassle (suggest they go to 7 and loose a gear, less likely to bend the axle - and not wait for an 8 speed frewheel to be ordered).

Try pit locks -but don't go out without the key!
http://www.pitlock.com/