Cycling UK Forum

Don't forget if you shorten cranks, bottom pedal position is higher off the ground - so you need to raise the saddle to maintain foot at bottom of pedal stroke adjustment.
Raising the saddle means she'll probably have to hop off the saddle when stopping at junctions because she won't be able to reach the ground.
Best bike for short ctanks is a bike made for short cranks (ie the BB shell is closer to the ground).

I'd say give it ago - hopping off the saddle every time she stops might be a price well worth paying for more comfortable pedalling, after all, you (hopefully) do more pedals than stops!

As far as I know you can't dismantle the pivot on the brake arm.
What you can do is remove the brake arm from the frame (helps to turn pad vertical for this), unhitch the spring from the tab near the top of the brake arm. This allows you to rotate (by more than the operating on/off range) the alloy arm relative to the spring assembly at the pivot. This will help the oil you apply get into the pivot. I have managed to unstiffen near siezed brake arms this way.

However, vibration might be the pivot wearing loose (can you wobble the top of the brake arms backwards and forwards while mounted on the bike?).
Could be rim/brake combination. As a check, try cleaning the rim surface, and brake pad surface. if the pad is glazed, a little light filing can remove the glaze.

what do you do? Indeed.
If you go in moaning like hell (esp on a busy saturday) they'll probably try to sort you out on the spot asap, as much to get you out of the shop as to sort you out.

If you go in Mr reasonable - when you know the boss (or amenable deputy) is in, point out shoddy assembly, how you slithered precariously to a halt on the death defying dual carraigeway, preferably not when the shop is that busy, you'll still get sorted out, probably some freebee/reduced price that you happen to be might considering to buy, the shop will regard you as a good/reasonable customer. Having worked in shops, the "reasonable" customers get better service in a way they and the unreasonable customers don't know how!

A friend had her A head stem bolts slowly work loose on her 1st ride (not a disaster, just er my bars don't look straight), she got some crud guards thrown in free for her trouble.

Some other stories from 15 years or so ago. New Orbit tourer - he got the the south of France (sent us a post card...) before his rim tapeless tubes punctured.
Sram had a duff batch of chains once. New Orbit (again) with one of said chains - loads of cracked chain plates/broken chain in Kazakstan, er couldn't complete the tour, £1000 extra in hotel bills. Certainly a "reasonable" and very philosophical customer on this occasion.

I use Freestyle gortex (around town) and gortex XCR (touring/club riding). I find both fine (XCR better + more vents), but sadly Freestyle no longer available.
Re Altura, wide price range of models = wide range of breathability (get what you pay for),
If you are boiling in the bag, its because you are hot. You are probably hot because you have put on an extra layer (the jacket).
Thus if you are cool/chilly and it starts to rain, put on the jacket. If you are warm and it starts to rain, if there is a spare layer, take said spare layer off before putting on the jacket.
Waterproof over shorts (thin pertex, not heavy duty ATB stuff) work wonders - keep your shorts dry, very hand when camping. In winter, only knees down on your longs get wet. Freestyle again, no longer available. In both cases, helps keep temperature town.

A friend swears by his Paramo - and indeed if its on it tends to stay on all day regardless as he has lots of venting options to not get hot.
Capes are not too bad, good breathabilty but not good in wind which is why I gave up on them.
Alternative options (summer only) are in an old photo I have of a couple. He in cycle cape (shorts/short sleeves underneath), she in lycra shorts + bicini top getting wet but would dry quickly later.

When in a former job I was doing up used bikes, a few times I tried old plain toothed 28/38/48 rivitted triple cranks (cheap solida/Stronglight). On indexed gears, the front simply did not change up at all (gear cage was not worn/gear correctly positioned). Pulling on exposed gear cable made it work, as you could pull the mech further than an indexed lever). Here I'm talking about flat bar levers, not STI. I expect STI would be moore fussy.
Cheap cranks with pick up tabs do work, I suspect that the pick up tabs on cheap chainsets wear relatively quickly (often find very poor up shift on otherwise OK looking teeth).

Try Thule - not the cheapest, but they do have a long list of models/years which their various racks fit :- http://www.thule.co.uk/appguide/ - (you may have already looked here)
Here "fit" accounts for aluminium/fibreglass hatchback that might shed your bikes all over the motor way - as my neighbour's did the other week... fortunately no accident, but the truck driver who stopped in the middle lane did manage to throw one of the bikes a remarkably long way onto the verge....)
If the bikes obscure your lights, legally you need a lighting board.

1. Re cables, get outers cut to useful lengths when you buy them, or buy a 1/2 decent set of cable cutters (was a forum topic on this not so long ago)
2. Outer cable end cups - esp outer gear cable ones.
3. Rim tape (split tape can give you punctures) Get the right width, too wide a tape and very hard to get the tyre to seat correctly.

From the photo, front mech as viewed from above looks good (not rotated round on seat tube).
3 things to check
1. The mech is at the correct height (1-3mm gap between top of outer ring teeth and underside of outer edge of front gear cage when outer edge is just above the outer ring teeth).
2. Has the front ratios been made wider than standard? Photo suggests they look fairly normal, but making them wider (bigger outer ring/smaller inner ring) can make changing less precise - especially re mid/small ring, as the chain is pushed by the gear cage further away from the chain ring.
3. Thinking of a member in our local CTC group, check the chain rings are on the right way round!!

Also, the elephant in the room which no one has mentioned, you say it won't change under load , well, however you set it up, how ever expensive it is, it won't want to change under pressure! Plan ahead and change early (before it gets steep), or give 2 or 3 hard pushes on the pedals to give you enough momentum so you can then ease of momentarily while you - with exact timing - change down.

Photos of head tube lugs, drop outs and BB shell might help ID.
I bought some weinmann 605s in 1979 if that helps dating.
I guess Tange headset (if original) might help in dating, but that might simply date the Argos renovation.

I don't use them (my old stuff still runs). The word I get is to replace the external bearings/cups with Hope ones (colour choice too!).

A computer buff tell me this simply means the website uses software that may be safe/competent in itself, but they have not submitted it to Microsoft for testing/compatability. Am open to correction on this.
Its abit like Mr Shimano saying you need to use Shimano cables/chains/cassettes for his gear mechs to work.

Nexus 3 not much different to SA3 really. Threaded toggle chain is much the same, but Mr Shimano has an adjuster barrel threaded at both ends, LH tread at 1 end, RH thread at the other. In adjustment/removal terms its the same, just screw/unscrew the adjuster barrel.
Adjustment is set by adjusting until 2 - or is it "N" - (ie 2nd gear) appears in the round hole on the axle end - so you adjust in 2nd like SA.
To remove the wheel, having undone the cable adjuster, you need to remove the gear change fulcrum (or lump of metal) from the end of the axle. Simply undo the grub screw (10mm spanner) and it slides off, revealing the 15mm axle nut (RH thread as per usual, Mr Shimano has actually managed not to turn the design of a simple axle nut on its head, phew).
Once the fulcrum has been removed from the end of the axle, there is a push rod inside the wheel axle, either leave it in, or slide it out and replace when you have finished. Choose whichever is least likely to have you losing the push rod in the middle of the lawn.....

584 is 650B I think (basically a French size), almost 26 X 1 3/8 but not quite. You can get 650 B tyres (not good ones though), but not the wheels. Cheapest option would be 26x 1 3/8" (590) (available in alloy, usually bolt on), and thanks to the dutch, get in decent quality tyres. A 590 rim would be 6mm bigger diameter than the original 584 (590-584), thus be 3mm higher than the original rim at the brake boss. I expect a mafac cantilever would accomodate that. If not, a modern cantilever would have adjustment (but not the wide Tectro ones - springs don't fit into the boss spring holes (on my bike at least), as the spring hole is too close to the pivot boss. Ditto for bosses on my 1990's Dawes Galaxy tandem frame, but they did fit my 1990's Argos brake bosses.
Fitting 26x1 3/8 wheels was the normal shop solution when customers damaged their 650B (584) Peugeot wheels some years ago.

If its A head (threadless), I'd be suprised if the star fangled washer had fallen down (normally they are quite tight). If it is, simply fit a new star fangled washer as Brucey suggests.
If its the older quill type, normally you can
1. Put the stem bolt only (remove from stem) down the fork column and screw it into the stem wedge by hand, then pull it out. or
2. If you fork is too long to do that, or its too stuck in, remove wheel/mudguard/brake (if it fits through the fork crown) and stick the stem bolt in from underneath, screw it in and push the wedge up the fork from below (you won't be able to pull it out of the bottom).
3. Sometimes simply turning the bike up side down and knocking the bike on the floor is enough.

If your stem when normally positioned sits right down to nearly the bottom of the fork, the stem wedge might be stuck at the bottom (where the internal fork diameter gets smaller), in which case it sometimes needs a fair clout to dislodge it (see 2 above). If all looks well oiled/greased, it shouldn't be too tight.

Don't forget to grease fork/stem/wedge before refitting to prevent corrosion.

Chain removal by breaking the chain OK for 8 speed or less, otherwise you will need to use the special joining links for 9+ speed (in theory tool free breaking/removal of the chain then possible - I say in theory as I rarely manage to push the links at the right angle to open). Joining lings also available for 7/8 speed.
You could clean in situ with a chain cleaning bath (Google "park* bike chain cleaners") which is much simpler, and in my experience much cleaner on hands, work surface, floor etc. *As they say on the BBC, other providers are available)