Moulton TSR rear pivot

[Mick F]

Managed 15miles in the cold gusty wind. Hard work in places.
15miles with 1,780ft of climbing!

The bike felt "together" and smoother than before. Not that I could put a finger on what was feeling wrong before, or what the feeling of togetherness is. Also, unless I checked for play, there was nothing during riding it that would say there was play.

It just feels "nicer" now.

Soon as I got back, I put the bike upside down and checked for any play.
Zero!

[philvantwo]

Well done Mick F!
No doubt you had a can of beer.....or 3!!!

[Mick F]

Just finished my first today.
Old Speckled Hen.

Tomorrow is grass cutting and brush cutting day, so no cycling tomorrow.

[philvantwo]

If your mower starts!!
Oooh has it got any suspension devices on the handle?

[Brucey]

…..The bike felt "together" and smoother than before. Not that I could put a finger on what was feeling wrong before, or what the feeling of togetherness is. Also, unless I checked for play, there was nothing during riding it that would say there was play.

It just feels "nicer" now.....

oddly enough I recently (and not for the first time) did a 'before and after' ride on a bike which previously had free play in the BB bearings that I'd fixed. I could hardly tell the difference at first but after a few tens of miles it was just 'better' in a way that was hard to put my finger on. The free play in the BB bearings was not great (only a couple of mm at the crank ends) but it all makes a difference.

cheers

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
I always feel better when I fix something on my bike and everything is nice and tight.
A bit like changing the oil on your motorbike or your car, some reason it always seems better after I've done that even though it makes no difference whatsoever in the performance.
Even cleaning

[Mick F]

Ordered.

Two to seven days free postage.
£6.04 including VAT for a pair of them.

https://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/p1205 ... _info.html

The bushes arrived earlier today.

I gave them a good looking-at and compared them to the worn bushes.
The new bushes are identical is all ways except one.

The flanges are 125thou thick whereas the old ones ...... and from what I can see of the new fitted ones ........... are 115thou thick.
The land that inserts into the frame is the same, it's just that the flanges are thicker.

This means, that when the bushes are fitted, the sleeve won't protrude and mate with the fixed part of the frame. The length of protrusion is quite small normally, and I guess quite a bit less than 10thou per side. More like 5thou perhaps.

Therefore, I will have to experiment. I had decided to leave it and only fit them when the present bushes wear out, but now I'm going to have to bite the bullet and remove perfectly good bushes to insert a pair that I'm guessing won't fit.

Covid lockdown has affected the abilities to get these bushes on a lathe to trim off the flange thickness.

I considered buying a small lathe and doing the job myself, but it's not cost effective!

My mate has been laid off, but we saw him - social distancing of course - and gave him the two new Simply Bearings bushes plus an old one.
He hasn't got a lathe, but his dd has, so he's going to get them to him to trim down. It'll take longer fitting them into the chuck and mounting a tool than it will to do the job.

If this is a success, I'm going to buy half a dozen more from SB and get mate's dad to do them.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Buy more and sell them on eBay

[Brucey]

IIRC I have already mentioned in this thread that you don't need a lathe to do this job, you can do it using an electric drill.

cheers

[Mick F]

I prefer the idea of selling them on here.

No promises though. If mine are a success, I'll be buying four more for myself, so maybe a dozen could be a good start.
If I bought 50 pairs of bushes at £8 and sold them at £12 a pair, I'd make £200 but is there a market for so many?

The lathe that caught my eye was a Machine Mart Clarks one.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cl300m-metal-lathe/
I'm sure I'd use it from time-to-time for various stuff, but it would be a toy really, and an expensive toy at that.

As for using a drill, I've tried it and it works. I had thought of buying a bigger chuck that would hold the whole bush rather than putting the bush on a shaft held on with PTFE tape. That would be better and more positive, and akin to a lathe I suppose.

The chuck I had that would fit the Moulton spindle was a very tired one and it jammed up and when I pulled it apart to see what was going on, the internals had broken ......... so I "chucked" it out. The other chuck I have is too small to fit the spindle.

I have a Ryobi One Plus battery drill that fits it, but it's rather curvy as well as being plastic, and doesn't fit very happily or securely in the vice. Its chuck won't fit in my old (metal) Black and Decker.

My mate's dad is the best shot for now.

[Samuel D]

The lathe that caught my eye was a Machine Mart Clarks one.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cl300m-metal-lathe/
I'm sure I'd use it from time-to-time for various stuff, but it would be a toy really, and an expensive toy at that.

There are other products you could make and sell to the bicycle community with that. One that I have wondered about is custom-length threadless headset spacers. Multiple spacers are ugly. You could take orders for 14 mm spacers or 43 mm spacers or whatever and knock off pieces of aluminium tube to those lengths. Precision needn’t be all that high, so the job should be easy. Small bevels to keep things tidy, etc.

I’m sure many other ideas would present themselves when you’re up and running. Not saying you’ll get rich, mind you.

[Brucey]

..As for using a drill, I've tried it and it works....

The chuck I had that would fit the Moulton spindle was a very tired one and it jammed up and when I pulled it apart to see what was going on, the internals had broken ......... so I "chucked" it out. The other chuck I have is too small to fit the spindle.

I have a Ryobi One Plus battery drill that fits it, but it's rather curvy as well as being plastic, and doesn't fit very happily or securely in the vice. Its chuck won't fit in my old (metal) Black and Decker.....

It sounds to me you could use a new drill chuck (about a fiver on ebay?) and/or a new drill. A cheap new mains powered drill which is 'good enough' is likely to be around the £30 mark.

Any drill that has a collar-mounted handle (most modern mains drills) can be securely mounted for static uses; simply clamping the base of the handle in a vice works pretty well; there are also bench mounts meant for this exact purpose too.

A lathe can be handy for some jobs and can make the basis for an absorbing hobby, but is overkill for your current needs.

cheers

[simonineaston]

The lathe that caught my eye was a Machine Mart Clarks one.
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cl300m-metal-lathe/
I'm sure I'd use it from time-to-time for various stuff, but it would be a toy really, and an expensive toy at that.

six hundred sov.s! Some toy.. best not tell the significant other, otherwise that's gonna cost you a new handbag and pair of Jimmy Choos !!
Having said that, I bet there's a ton of rather good, ancient second-hand, small metal lathes floating around the UK at silly prices if only you knew where to look... I remember a teenage chum's dad had one in his garage, and he was always turning up thisNthat on it for all sorts of uses. I was fascinated as my dad was an Oxford graduate and wouldn't have had a clue what to do with a lathe!!

[Mick F]

I served a full apprenticeship in the RN and specialised in electronics, but there was a major part of the training in the workshops.
Fitting with hand tools down to 1.5thou, turning jobs down to 1thou plus screw threading and taper fittings. Milling, and dividing heads for angles ......... loads of stuff.

You lost marks for inaccuracies and gained marks for exacts. If you got a good mark, you kept your workpiece. I kept all mine, and still have the vast majority of them. Sitting in a plastic container with oily rags round them, and just up in the loft ......... and I've kept them all since 1972/3 ............... so I must get them down and have a good look at them again.

[philvantwo]

Mick F's loft........must be completely full by now?