Cycling UK Forum

Duplicate post.

Check your lease. In the places I have lived (with shared spaces) residents were not allowed to leave anything outside of their own private space. One place I lived had an area with large cupboards, one for each flat, where you could store what you liked. Does anyone keep prams or suchlike anywhere? If so can you park your bike there? You could also ask about adding some secure parking for bikes.

Anything on powered scooters in the draft? As these are (if hired) or may soon be permitted more generally on the road does the HC mention them or are they assumed to fall into an exsisting category? I ask as scooters are here now, have speeds and needs similar to cyclists but also different and perhaps conflicting requirements too. They will also possibly become fashionable with children and adults who may not be used to being a vulnrable road user and so would benefit from clear guidance and rules.
(Sorry for not reading the linked info, I'm on holiday at the moment so poor connectivity and time to study proposals in detail).

Indeed, my experience from motorcycles where a steel shaft runs in a bronze bush (crankshaft in timing side bush, swing arm trunnion in bush...) is that the steel seems to wear more than the bush, which doesn't seem to make sense but it is born out from experience. I'm sure there is a good explanation for this that a metallurgist could give.

A clock collector told me a similar story with a steel gear shaft and brass(?) frame. Typically the steel shaft would wear quicker than the brass. The explanation he gave was that the 2 metals wear (initially brass more than the steel) and both produce 'swarf'. The harder steel swarf embeds itself in the surface of the softer brass and then you get steel wearing on steel. The embeded steel swarf actuall protects the softer brass. Seemed to make sense at the time!

alexnharvey wrote:I think that might serve to catch and direct water at the front of the guard in heavy rain but if it fouled the tyre on rough stuff i'd probably take it off.

I think the plastic clip at the leading edge of the front mudguard is a relatively recent safety feature so pedestrians are less likely to be injured. Perhaps a law elsewhere but 'international' standard guards now have then. Perhaps similar (but much less potential for serious injuries) to front number plates on UK motor bikes being phased out many years ago.

For fitting a front mudguard at the top I used to use the supplied bracket attached to the brake bolt but found it very difficult. The metal bracket on the guard often needed bending to clear the headset and even when slid right to the top of the adjustment would not give enough clearance, especially on 'road' frames.
If I need to maximise clearance is to drill 2x 3mm holes side by side approximately 1cm apart, below where the brake bolt attaches to the front of the fork. Then use a 3mm zip tie to hold the guard. You do have to ensure the 2 holes are symmetrical and positioned so the metal bracket is clear of the back of the fork. You may need to experiment how tight to pull the zip tie so the guard is held high enough but not so high it is held against the arms of the calliper.
This has worked reliably for me on a number of bikes for many years.
Zip ties (as with everything else) will fail so I change every year or so, use ones that won't deteriorate in UV light and carry spares. Zip ties are always worth carrying as the can also temporarily fix a host of problems.

The 3 replies, after posting my experience of finding 26" rim braked wheels, all seem to confirm the OP question. The 3 options suggested appear to be: Buying the parts and / or getting a LBS to build it, ordering a custom built wheel with an indeterminate delivery time or buying a rim on its own (and build yourself?) Absolutely no disrespect to those helpfully posting options but I would not describe them as an easy way for many if they want to obtain moderate to good quality wheels. ymmv

In response to the title question I don't know when it got difficult but it seems difficult now. The wheels on my trusty 26" war horse are a bit tired and in response to the general thrust of this thread I wanted to get a pair to 'share the load' and have 2 sets of tyres (slick and gravel). I replaced the rear a few years ago (the front is somehow soldiering on) but they are both past their prime and wet riding seems to wear them noticeably.

I tried some of the links put up in this thread (Rose bikes and Taylor wheels) and many common UK web suppliers and found 26" rim braked wheels are getting very thin on the ground. Many UK sites just don't have them, for Rose bikes anything 26" with rim brakes seem to be made to order (as 6 week delivery quoted) and Taylor wheels have a few of the quality wheels with 'this product is not available' - including the 2 wheel sets I fancied.

I went with Taylor wheels in the end - a front and rear wheel (not in a wheel set) for just over £100 with Deore hubs - these may give the old (but perfectly serviceable) bike another few years life before increasing obsolescence condemns it to the scrap heap.

For a reasonable quality rim braked 26" wheel I decided to buy sooner rather than none available later. I'm sure hand built and BSO quality rim braked wheels will be available for some time though.

mattsccm wrote:I wouldn't consider ditching anything that still worked. If it was OK when it was made I fail to see why it isn't now.

For steel yes but I'm a bit wary of aluminium alloys. I've some old Reynolds hideum(?) bars and not sure (without crack testing) if I'd trust them on a steep hill (up or down).

Bought and happily using an XD2 on a 3x9 setup. Perhaps would prefer a 46 outer but finding one with the chain drop peg in the right place not easy (not found one yet). If using a 'normal' chainring for the outer not only does the chain drop peg not line up but the pins and ramps for helping changing are 36 degrees out.
I had to use a shorter bottom bracket on my tourer (modified Eastway ST 1.0) than suggested to get the middle ring to line up with the middle of the cassette. Can't remember the exact length now but I did have to remove the smallest amount off the inside of the RH crank (not load bearing part) to stop it touching the BB.

Me!

Hi All,

Hoping someone may have either the hub or bottle versions of the USB charging devices from Velo-Charger and can say if you can use the 'bottle' version with a hub generator (or vice versa) is possible. Various websites indicate this is not possible (see below) and give the reason as (from spa cycle website): "The output characteristics of the hub dynamo require more conditioning than the simple bottle dynamo and the VeloCharger Hub is therefore more expensive than the Classic model."

I can't imagine that the output from a bottle generator and a hub generator is so different that they require a different electronics. The max voltage or current could be different but not so much that the chargers need to be different. Do other makers give such warnings?

I can see that the cheaper version only has 500mA output and the more expensive is max 1.5A but for a cheapish hub generator I think 500mA is more typical so the 1.5A capacity may be a bit wasted (on me). However damaging the cheaper version will make it more expensive in the long run!

From https://www.bags.bike/phone-charging:

Note you must buy the correct version for the type of dynamo you use - either bottle or hub.
Output of 500mA supplied from approx. 10mph with most bottle dynamos.
Output of 1.5A using the Hub version.

As others, I replace if I see obvious damage or punctures start becoming too frequent. I don't seem to suffer excessive tyre wear and most tyres seem to last well (famous last words!)

As for storage, hardening off tyres AFAIK (from my experience with car tyres) ultraviolet light does harden the tyre compound but this is a double edge sword as it perishes the tyre making it more likely to crack. This is typically seen when a caravan is used after a long layover, tyres pumped up (or not!) which then suddenly fail when up to speed on the road.

In my humble opinion best not to age tyres, if you want a longer life tyre get one constructed with a harder compound.

andrew_s wrote:SON 28 vs Sondelux:

Schmidt's version of the truth is here.

If you look at the upper red & yellow curves on the 3rd graph, you can see that at likely touring speeds of 15 - 30 km/h, there's 3 to 3.5 km/h (2 mph) difference between the two - i.e. you get the same output with a SON28 at 20 km/h (12.5 mph) as you do with a Sondelux at 23.5 km/h (14.5 mph).

You can then translate that into charging current using curves like those on the Igaro site.
If you're riding at 23.5 km/h with a SON 28, you get 6.7 A (taking the orange Klite line as being representative of a generic charger), but if you've got a Sondelux instead, you get the current shown against 20 km/h, which is 5.5 A.

On the face of it, that would mean that you've got to ride 6.7/5.5 = 1.2 times as far to fully charge the same device using a charger like the Klite with a Sondelux than you would with a SON 28.
That does assume that what you are charging always makes full use of the current available to it. This isn't the case, so the 1.2 times is likely to be a worst case for the same charger.

Note that in the case of SP dynamos, you can get "PD" hubs or "SD" hubs. The PD hubs are equivalent to SON 28, and the SD hubs are equivalent to Sondelux (more or less).

Not sure if you mean Watts or Volts in your figures above as I've not heard that any bicycle dynohub can produce 5.5 or 6.7 Amps at sensible speeds. I do see what you are saying though but as output (and converting that to a steady voltage for usb charging) is very non linear at low speeds a few km/h either way can make a huge difference. YMMV applies here me thinks

pwa wrote:My 9 speed chains go over an XD2 triple without the chain disappearing down gaps. It is the one with one bolt hidden behind the crank. No washers on bolts. Non-indexed front lever. 26/36/46. I think the rings are TA.

+1 with original rings as supplied from spa, my 9 speed chain appears to have no issues changing up or down with non indexed front shifter.