Cycling UK Forum

Has anyone cut the beads off an old tyre and used it as a liner to extend the life of another,less old,tyre?I,ve just done this so why not,any thoughts?

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I know its not the 60,s but in 1972 I rode up to the arctic circle,down to Naples,back to the Beaujolais to pick grapes.I rode a sturmey 4 speed on a very heavy hercules all steel bike.Brown leather shoes with commando like sole,ex police trousers,cotton shirts,M andS thin wool sweater,nothing special.Averaged 45-50mls.Cooked on open fire in scandinavia,small camping gas in france etc.Single skin nylon tent,blacks sleeping bag.I had a karrimor rucksac on the rack and a pair of carradice cotton duck panniers.A memorable ,fantastic trip which,at 20 yrs old,had a big impact on me.You don,t need sophisticated kit or a load of money to have a great adventure.

Have been trying to fit new hope mono mini pads,fiddly buttock damn things,after many tries stuck a piece of matchstick to keep the bits together,then pushed this out with the pin,phew,any ideas?

Have finalised new drivetrain as: connex ss chain,tiagra 11-30,stronglight 42t zicral,50tdural,total cost just over £80-a reasonable compromise,I think,between longevity and price.Thanks for suggestions

I,m pretty sure the drivetrain is too far gone.Teeth are hooked , elongated and pointed,chain is well over the 1/16" stretch over 12" and the chain breaks too often at the quicklink.Tiagra cassette is now on the list,just the rings to decide on.Out of interest,do shimano make a 5 bolt 130bcd steel chainring?

Time for a complete transmission change -ultegra triple(mid+outer),chain,cassette.Priorities are longevity,price although I have forked out £30-00 for a connex stainless chain,thinking I shall clean more often.My question is:is it worth paying the premium for alize rings and is a tiagra cassette a smooth changer?All kit is ultegra at the moment(still performing well even though well worn)Whats wrong with using until changing becomes bad? then change all the stuff.Can cassette rings be turned round?Thanks

Only had this problem once,whilst riding in fairly cheap shorts with no flatstitching round the pad and in the wet

Thanks for the informative replies,I will dig out an old tome on wheelbuilding and try destressing the wheel

Further to my broken black spokes,they have an A printed in the usual place,any ideas?Also,the spoke broke at the nipple.

Very interesting--but unfortunately true.Could be any of these.Also had a set built by Harry Rowland,same components,silver spokes,immaculate,faultless.

Bought a factory made wheel,mavic open pro on shimano 105 with black spokes about a year ago off ebay(new).Almost straight away had a spoke break and then another this week.Anyone else had similar experience?Did I hear right that a top wheelbuilder doesn,t use black spokes for this reason????

My giant tcr ,circa2006-2007,is carbon forked plus rear stays with main tubes in aluminium.It is a great bike to ride,had absolutely no probs with frame after 1000,s of miles of ,sportives,audaxes,potholes et al.Interestingly,I also have a trek 2100 with carbon forks and main tubes ,with aluminium stays,again faultless despite its age(10yrs+).The only probs I,ve come across is with older trek full carbon bottom bracket interface which creaked(replaced by trek).P.S.My friend bought some chinese zipp carbon lookalikes,lasted about a year.

seen the salmon mudguard bridge,bit better design than mine in that it goes "over the top",whereas mine went under neath,might do a "mk.2"

I try and do 8 hours a week and totally ignore miles.The beauty of this way is the release from the tyranny of mileage.I can do a hilly course,mountain bike etc. and don,t feel I need to get the miles in,just the time.