Shimano Ultegra groupset swap from Giant to Dawes, plus a new groupset added to the Giant….bottom bracket shell on dawes faced etc etc!

Dear blog sorry for having neglected our relationship over the last couple of months.   Ironically, the more news and stories that I’ve had to share with you, the less opportunity I’ve had to do it.   I will make it up to you soon.   Promise.

I had a fun day servicing bikes at Rye Books on Upland Road last Sunday….thanks Alastair   from Rye Books for helping to make this happen.   We raised £190 for Help For Xavier.  Thanks to all those who brought their bikes.

https://www.justgiving.com/Bicycle-Nation

http://www.helpxavier.org/

http://www.bicyclenation.co.uk/we_support.php

http://www.ryebooks.co.uk/

I was lucky enough to have a couple of days away with the family over Easter at the glorious Castle Leslie Estate in Ireland.    My wife dragged me to an antique shop and I had a look at this old bike which was parked outside.   Goodness knows how old it is but I was intrigued to see the heavy duty chain on it which these days probably looks more at home on a motorbike.  No wonder chains never used to wear out.

According to a wise customer from India that I spoke to yesterday, it’s good luck to give an receive money only using your right hand.    Respecting this tradition will lead to more money….I think that Osborne should have made a point of this in his budget yesterday….if enough people do it we could lead the country out of recession!

Well done, Laszlo, (my full time mechanic) on having completed your level 3 cycle mechanics course at Cycle Systems academy.

The client brought the bike to me needing it to be overhauled in preparation for the Etape.   It was a six year old DeRosa Avant.   Reported problems were excessive play in the rear wheel (Campagnolo Neutron Ultra), poor shifting, crunchy steering and a creaking/grinding bottom bracket coupled with play in the crank arms.   Here’s what we did:

-Full clean of frame and rims.

-Chain and cassette were excessively worn and likely contributing to poor shifting so were replaced (campagnolo centaur cassette and campagnolo centaur chain).

-Jockey wheels had a lot of play as you can see from the picture and so were replaced.

-The crank set was removed and the bottom bracket checked.   It was very worn and crunchy.   The italian threaded ISIS bottom bracket shell width was 70mm and the axle length 108mm, so I went about trying to find a replacement.  Despite and extensive search of trade suppliers and online retailers and despite many websites purporting to have this item none at all were available unless we were willing to wait at least a month for shipment from the US.   ISIS bottom brackets appear to be being phased out.

-Called the client and talked through solutions which would involve a new bottom bracket type and as a consequence a new chainset.   He wanted to go for a campagnolo with carbon cranks so in the end we settled on the Campagnolo centaur carbon power torque crank set coupled with a Campagnolo power torque bottom bracket.

-Headset was disassembled and bearing cages were found to be rusted and cracked and bearing cups worn and pitted.    A new campagnolo hidden headset was installed.

-Rear wheel was suffering from excessive play.   The hub was disassembled cleaned and regreased.   The bearings were not badly worn and the cause of the play was found to be that the hub was just loose.   The hub was reassembled and adjusted and play removed.

-The front wheel was out of true.   In order to true the campagnolo neutron ultra wheels you have to remove the tyre and rim tape to get to the nipples.  Wheel was trued.

-Many of the outer cables were starting to crack so the client asked for a complete new cable set to be fitted.

-Bar tape also badly worn and dirty and therefore replaced.

Here are the pictures:

A client brought a bike to us last week with a badly cracked rim on the rear wheel of his  Brompton.   The most economical course of action, in the case of this Brompton, was to get rid of the old rim and build the wheel back up again with a new one, which is what we did….pictures are below (note the dangerously cracked rim in the second picture):

I’m proud to say that I have a Level 3 bike mechanic’s qualification which I attained at the excellent Cycle Systems Academy training centre in London.   Follow this link for more details: http://www.cycle-systems.co.uk/.