Today I did something to my bike thread...

I finally got around to fitting the Conti Gatorskins from the Black Friday Halfords deal to the Vitus today, replacing the stock Kendas. Wow are they a b!tch to fit, though hopefully I won't have to do anything else with them for a while.

Also replaced the cartridge on the rear brakes. Being able to stop helps!

robyntmorton wrote: »

I finally got around to fitting the Conti Gatorskins from the Black Friday Halfords deal to the Vitus today, replacing the stock Kendas. Wow are they a b!tch to fit, though hopefully I won't have to do anything else with them for a while.

Also replaced the cartridge on the rear brakes. Being able to stop helps!

Snap... fitted a pair last night too to my old steel frame, not the easiest to put on. And also fitted a pair of conti gp4000 to my cannondale, an easier fit, but they do feel a lot thinner than the gators .

secman wrote: »

Snap... fitted a pair last night too to my old steel frame, not the easiest to put on. And also fitted a pair of conti gp4000 to my cannondale, an easier fit, but they do feel a lot thinner than the gators .

Same here. I replaced some 23c Conti Grand Prix with 25c Gatorskins on Mavic CXP 22s last week. They took forever, even with tyre levers.

I killed 2nd bike in 6 months:

robyntmorton wrote: »

Wow! That's both impressive and scary. I have to ask what you were doing to cause that!

Just cycling to work every day for past 8 years. Was lucky enough just going to full stop on O'Connell bridge when it snapped.

Technically it wasn't mine :eek:

Happier bum after the chop

Swapped my 10 speed 105 crank for a new 6800 Ultegra on my new Cippolini Bond. Also replaced the 120mm 3T stem for a 110mm Zipp one. Next up is to replace one of the tubs.

Fitted Crud MK3 mudguards to my new Felt VR30. I'm not as impressed with them as I was with the MK2's which I had for 3 years without issue. The MK3's seem to flop about at the rear much more and as a result I've had to mount them slightly higher than I'd like to prevent them swinging off the tyre at the rear. On a plus note, they're easy to remove and refit (2 minute job tops) and so i'll only stick them on when needed.

Rogue-Trooper wrote: »

WTF David?!! Paint that bloody shed already will ya?!

(Do I sound like your missus yet........??!!) :P

It's gonna take more than paint to bring that back

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Spent about an hour adjusting and then re-adjusting the Crud Mk3 guards so as to get them sitting so they don't knock off the tyre and rattle on rough ground. Finally managed to get them sitting right and now have to figure out a way of marking the position so that if I remove them, I can refit them in the exact same position without having to faff about adjusting them afterwards.

I use electrical take to mark the position on my frame.

My son complained recently that his 7-year old Carrera Vengeance (Halfords hardtail mountain bike inherited from his older brother) was making some funny noises, so I suggested he oil the chain. This seemed to solve the problem until reports came back some days later that the pedals were moving around a bit and the chain had come off.

Upon further investigation, I saw that the problem wasn't in fact the chain. It looked like the bottom bracket has disintegrated as the cranks were moving around a lot.I removed them to have a closer look and saw that BB bits - balls, bearing cages, etc - were coming out of the BB and after some jiggling, the axle itself dropped out :eek:

Post-removal pic:


It's the square-taper type so I had a go at removing it. No way! A quick browse of the internet came up with a number of suggestions, but the one I liked most was to use a QR Skewer to hold the tool firmly in place while I used a spanner. In the end, I didn't have enough leverage and I had to use a hammer on the spanner to "shock" it off. I removed the drive-side first and the other side came off easily afterwards - this is a pic of the setup on the non-drive side:



And yes, I did check the internet about seventy billionty times to confirm that the drive-side has a reverse thread: clockwise to remove

The shell of the BB revealed the spec - 123mm BC 1.37 X 24T - and I then discovered I actually had one in a box somewhere.



I cleaned up the BB shell and greased everything up before installing the "new" BB. A quick ride afterwards revealed all was fine again (well, about as fine as a properly used, 7-year old Halfords mountain bike can be). And then I remembered an earlier comment that the brakes weren't great ...

I was on a roll at this point, so I decided to replace the rear disc pads - the old ones were down to the metal - and I also topped up the brake fluid on the front brake for good measure.

It's a great feeling when things work out

Daroxtar wrote: »

Not all today but in the last week....
Swapped out the Ultegra Crankset for an FSA Powerbox power meter. On the first test run I noticed a fairly pronounced clicking noise as the NDS pedal went through 3 o clock. Figured that it was the BB and seeing as it had about 5000km in all weather on it I did the decent thing and replaced it.
As soon as I started putting down a bit of power the clicking started again, especially when I got out of the saddle. Double checked everything, torqued the cranks, checked the chainrings and even my cleats and shoes and the only thing left was the pedals. So yesterday I got new pedals. No harm either as the other ones were 2 years old. Upgraded a few levels from look Keo Easy to Keo Max.
Still clicking.
Changed the cleats.
Still clicking.
Re checked again and had a good look at frame and BB shell and still she clicked.
Then I opened the QR to make sure the wheel was properly positioned, it was but when I tightened the QR again I gave it a bit more and lo and behold the clicking stopped.
Could have saved myself €150 if I did that first
I'm just going to keep telling myself that I really needed the pedals and BB.

I've been there! I had a creak/crack on my bike that coincided with pedal revolutions. Or maybe handlebar movement? A guy at work told me it was the seatpost - carbon in my case - so I took it out and used some carbon paste that came with the bike. It fixed it, or so I thought until it came back. I had the creak/crack for over a year and it was getting very annoying. Every so often, I'd go at it and try something new. Sometimes this would help but I always thought there might have been a placebo-thing going on.

I like buying shiney new things for my bike and if the shiney thing was something that could creak, then the decision to purchase was escalated. I purchased new saddles, changed the BB and the headset. No difference.

I then looked at actions that didn't require a purchase. I greased the seatpost and seatpost collar, lubricated all contact points between the saddle and seatpost, lubricated all the places where the cables and the frame came together, greased the dropouts and the QRs, checked the wheels, the frame and the pedals. No difference.

I then saw an ad for a reduced 105 groupset - something I always wanted. Like, with all my other work, surely if I changed the groupset, there would be nothing left to make a noise? It would have to work. Surely?

The groupset didn't help, the creak/crack was still there.

At this point, I was wondering did I have a bike at all, or had it morphed into a reincarnation of triggers broom - somehow capable of hanging on to a noise even though there was nothing of the original bike left unreplaced/unchecked, that could be causing the problem :mad:

I spoke to my friend again and he said I should really have another good look at the seatpost. I did and purchased some carbon assembly paste - the one I was using came with the bike and as there was only a small amount of it, I wasn't sure I was using enough.

When the paste (link) came in, I lashed it on and the noise went away. For ever.

I miss the noise now

How long is that stem? :eek:

iwillhtfu wrote: »

How long is that stem? :eek:

Just 140mm .