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How was your cycle commute?

Headset? Any play there?

Not that I can detect - but sometimes waiting at junctions I reckon I can feel sideways play as if it's the "temporary" second-hand suspension fork slopping about - but I just gave it all a bit of a testing and can't honestly say I can see anything.

It doesn't take too many trips to the shop before a tension meter and truing stand become viable investments.
You're correct of course - will be something of an issue living in the French sticks (hopefully) .. though I must start noting the location of bicycle repair shops in France .. but it would depend on my being able to master the skill - I'm really no good at anything that requires judgement - I even struggle slightly with the 4mm clamp screws on my brakes etc... not that I've stripped any threads or had cables slipping at inopportune moments.

It's a key reason I choose over-spec rims ...

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I have to say I'm not impressed by Shimano hubs - the grease doesn't seem to stay in.
The Suntour (?) hub has conical alloy covers in place of Shimano's rubber ones.
My other spare wheel's bearing is rough too after maybe 18 months' use (cheaper Shimano)..

Do I just need to replace the balls or are the cups (and hence hubs) wrecked ?
 
Not that I can detect - but sometimes waiting at junctions I reckon I can feel sideways play as if it's the "temporary" second-hand suspension fork slopping about - but I just gave it all a bit of a testing and can't honestly say I can see anything.


Cheap forks are the likely culprit. Stand with the bike beside you, pull on the front brake and rock forwards and backwards. Put the flat of your hand at the top of the fork leg and you'll feel if there's any play there.
 
I just passed a cyclist RTA on my way back from dropping the kids at school, on a road that I ride my bike down 3 times a week. Two ambulances, a doctor's car, a car with deployed airbags and a windscreen that looked like it had been smashed with someone's head and rozzers taking witness statements. :(
 
You're correct of course - will be something of an issue living in the French sticks (hopefully) .. though I must start noting the location of bicycle repair shops in France .. but it would depend on my being able to master the skill - I'm really no good at anything that requires judgement - I even struggle slightly with the 4mm clamp screws on my brakes etc... not that I've stripped any threads or had cables slipping at inopportune moments.

Get a Ritchey Torqkey. You can't tighten anything to more than 5Nm with it.

Ritchey-Torqkey-05-252-100-L.jpg


The tension meter removes some of the judgment from wheel building and it makes more process driven. I wouldn't get the Park tension meter though. I've found them wildly inaccurate; it was possible to alter the reading by up to 10% just by lubricating it. The DT Tensio is very good. It has an RS-232 port so you can capture all your spoke tensions for analysis.

speichentensiometer-dt-tensio-digital-edition.jpg


Do I just need to replace the balls or are the cups (and hence hubs) wrecked ?

You'll need to visually inspect the cups and cones to make that determination. A USB microscope is good for that.
 
Cheap forks are the likely culprit. Stand with the bike beside you, pull on the front brake and rock forwards and backwards. Put the flat of your hand at the top of the fork leg and you'll feel if there's any play there.
Thanks. :)
I still can't swear I can actually see the play, but there's certainly more going on than should be ..

Time to bite the bullet and order a Surly 1x1 or something similar...
 
what do you do DownwardDog? i've used the park master jig and dt analogue tensiometer at ATG and built some hilariously accurate wheels, don't think they ride any better than the countless sets i've built with the standard jig and park tensiometer.
 
I have never used a tension meter. It's 8 years since I last built a pair of wheels - on my own bike - but they're still going strong :hmm:
 
I took a wrong turning this morning after not researching the planned route thoroughly enough, but luckily the sun was out so I could navigate my way home using the shadow I cast to work out directions. It was blowing like hell though, so I felt very gratified once I got home.
 
what do you do DownwardDog? i've used the park master jig and dt analogue tensiometer at ATG and built some hilariously accurate wheels, don't think they ride any better than the countless sets i've built with the standard jig and park tensiometer.

I don't do anything professionally with bikes. Which is a good job as I'd get sacked pretty quickly as it takes me a very long time to build wheels. I bought Gerd Schraner's book a few years ago and started building wheels just for the lolz. I started off with a Park Truing Stand and Tension Meter. As I said, I had a lot of problems with the Park Tension Meter, returned it and had similar problems with the second one. Then I bought the Tensio and shit got real. I've probably built 4 sets of wheels for myself and another 2 for friends so it wasn't exactly a sound investment...
 
Had the wind behind me and fresh legs after a week off last night so thought I'd floor it a bit on the Pashley (my 'wet weather' ride) on the way home. Thought I might be able to crack it in under 40 minutes (usual time is 45-50 mins on that bike for the 8.5 miles across town) - actually did it in 33:24! The traffic lights were fairly kind to me, and little traffic because it was 8:30 in the evening, but still. Coming back the other way on my regular ride (Falcon tourer) into the wind this morning took almost exactly the same time.
 
49 years old??? He looks about 25... Nice guy. Would be interesting to check his lung function, I have always wondered how affected courier's lungs are by all the riding in traffic, every day.
At 53, I can't begin to get my head around that ... being self-employed I wonder how long he'll keep up that pace - it must surely get close to running a marathon some days.
 
no commute again! working from home, grrr
going out to town on bike to make up for it

courier in London
100 miles a day! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22589385
only 1 accident :eek:

I'm slightly skeptical of 100 miles/day. When I was a motorcycle courier in London (which I did sporadically from about Meat is Murder to Strangeways, Here We Come) I probably averaged 30-40 miles for an 8 hour shift. To do 100 miles on a bicycle he'd have to be regularly putting in 12 hour days. 7am - 7pm in December, in London would be grim to say the least.
 
Even at my pedestrian pace I can manage 100 miles in less than eight hours and that includes café stops. I suspect a full time courier would be somewhat faster than I am.
 
I was turning left out of Brixton Water Lane onto Effra Road. A cyclist coming the other way jumped red and turned right, colliding with my rear wheel, bending the rim and ruining 2 spokes. Thanks for that, you fuckwit. It's lucky for both of us that nobody was hurt.
 
I was turning left out of Brixton Water Lane onto Effra Road. A cyclist coming the other way jumped red and turned right, colliding with my rear wheel, bending the rim and ruining 2 spokes. Thanks for that, you fuckwit. It's lucky for both of us that nobody was hurt.


what a fucking weapon. presumably you got his details so he can pay for your repairs before you d-locked him in the knee?
 
I received a bike for an insurance quote at work yesterday where the rider was lucky to be alive, by the sound of things - he was on a roundabout (it's a big several lane one with slip roads off a motorway as well as minor roads) and a car came off the slip and straight over the roundabout without stopping, hit his rear dropout, sent him and bike flying across the road. He was knocked unconscious, his helmet is literally in pieces and the bike's a write off. Luckily for him there just happened to be a police car passing; he woke up in hospital and they'd got the guy's details and picked up his bike for him. It was about a grand's worth of bike too.
 
the three points and 50 quid fine that driver will get slapped with will certainly make him think twice about driving like a giant fool in future.
 
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