not exactly bike related but my dog has just had six gorgeous puppies….
puppies
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Chain Stretch
If you want to know what a stretched chain looks like have a look at the attached photo. Note that just 27 half links on the old chain on the left is the same length as 28 links of the new chain on the right. The effect of such an old chain is that when you pedal with any real force the chain slips over the teeth of cassette and chain ring. A worn change is pretty dangerous as you can fall off the bike or lose control as you are pedalling. p..s technically speaking the chain isn’t stretched but is just worn, have a look at wikipedia for more details.
Thank you to Steve James (also known as the Landlord of the Mag Pub on Lordship Lane in East Dulwich)
It’s going to be embarrassing if Steve ever reads this blog, but I’ll take the risk because this needs to be said. Steve is one of the kindest, helpful and generous people I’ve met, he is simply a great guy. Since I told him I was going to start the business he has given me nothing but support and encouragement. He has given me countless mechanical tips and when I wanted to buy a van he spent a couple of days driving me around and helping me to assess if a van was the right shape and size for me and also if it is was in good condition. He didn’t even want petrol money, I had to force it on him. He spent ages looking on ebay for me and found the van I finally bought. When he suggested I rig up some UV lights in the back of the van, he told me exactly what I needed to buy and then he spent countless hours fitting it all. When I rounded off the screw on some disc brake callipers, he fixed it for me. When I wanted to fix a couple of bikes in front of the pub to help drum up business he said yes. I literally can’t remember Steve saying the word no. I could go on and on, but if you know Steve you’ll know exactly what I mean. So, cheers, mate.
Van Wrap, thanks BossDog
Thanks to Luca and Zak at BossDog (http://www.bossdog.co.uk/) who did a cracking job on my van. Have a look at the pics.
Crashed Carbon Road Bike
The question of what to do when you have a crash on a carbon framed road bike is a tricky one. It used to be said that carbon should be thrown away immediately but it is possible to get it checked and fixed by a specialist carbon frame mender. One of my clients recently crashed his carbon frame and took it into a high street chain to be checked over. They gave it a cursory check and okayed it but obviously did not notice that the head tube was cracked. He took it for a ride and the head tube gave out. Luckily he was going slowly and avoided serious injury. The moral of the story is to watch out and if you have a crash on a carbon frame, get it checked over and repaired by an expert.
When to replace brake blocks
I get a lot of questions about when the right time to change brake blocks is. My answer is generally way before you have started to wear through the vertical wear indicator grooves because by then the pads probably won’t be functioning very well because of the ingrained dirt. Also you could be close to wearing through the braking material to the backing plates. As you can see from the attached photo, the pads have worn right through and when applied will do serious damage to your rims. Definitely avoid this if you can.
Thank you to Mark my web developer
Just wanted to say a belated thanks to Mark Murphy who developed the website for me. I asked for a clean, simple and easy to follow website and I got it. Mark has been professional, patient and helpful throughout the process and a cool guy in general.
If you like the website and want to talk to Mark just drop me a line.
How long will a bike last?
One of the questions that often crops up when people buy a bike is how long will a bike last before it needs to be serviced, fixed or replaced. Unsatisfactorily, the answer is often “it depends”. The way I see it is that the factors that are involved are mainly but not exclusively as follows:
-the quality of materials that the bike and its components are made from
-design of the bike.
-the weight of the rider.
-how the rider rides.
-the type of road or track that the bike is being ridden on
-the climate/weather that the bike is kept in.
-the amount and quality of maintenance that the bike is given.
-accidents.
etc
I’d like to make a few educated guesses in this section of the blog to answer a few questions and dispel certain myths.
Bike Gear and Brake Cable stretch
Probably one of the first things that you will notice just a couple of weeks after riding a new bike every day is that the gears and brakes don’t work as well as they had done at the beginning. This is down to cable stretch. Technically speaking the cables (or wire ropes as they are known in the industry) don’t actually stretch but instead the ferrules and cable housing actually get compressed). We could actually classify this issue as growing pains rather than bicycle death but it’s all down hill after you buy the bike! The answer to this problem is to take the bike back to the shop for its post-purchase tune up or…especially if you bought the bike on the internet…give me a call.
How I stay safe on London’s Roads
These are the things that I think about and do when I go onto London’s roads.
1. I psychologically take full responsibility for my own safety. If something bad happens it’s not going to make me or my family feel any better that it was someone else’s fault.
2. I make sure I am seen. Whether or not I’m wearing reflective gear I keep my LED’s flashing day or night which makes it more likely that another road user will see me.
3. I make sure that I observe and am aware of traffic around me at all times. e.g. when I’m coming up to a left turn I always look over my right shoulder five or ten metres before the turn. If someone’s going to cut me up I can take evasive action. If someone opens a car door in front of me, generally I’ll be ready for it.
4. I monitor my speed. If the traffic isn’t moving than I go slow but if it’s going fast then so do I.
5. I try and anticipate what other road users are going to do from their positioning and speed. If I’m cycling behind a car that slows down and moves a little to the right I’m going to be open to the possibility that they are probably going to take a left, perhaps a right or maybe just carry on. What does it matter that they didn’t put their indicators on if I smash into the back of them? Whatever happens, I position myself accordingly and get ready to pull my brake levers in case I need to stop quickly.
6. I make eye contact with oncoming road users or anyone turning across me because then I know they’ve seen me. If I’m not sure they’ve seen me I slow down and keep my hands on the brakes
7. Watch out for pedestrians walking out into traffic jams because they may assume that the way is clear without having looked beforehand. Or maybe they are texting.
8. I accelerate rapidly when lights go green, pulling away from a junction or onto a roundabout. If I do this I feel I’m less likely to get into the way of other traffic.
9. When negotiating a roundabout I never go past an exit in the outside lane unless I have checked the position and intentions of any traffic on my inside. If such a vehicle exits the roundabout without seeing me and I’m not ready for it then I have a problem, especially if it’s going a lot faster than me.
10. I never undertake a lorry especially on a left turn. If it takes a left then I’m in trouble. I never get right in front of a lorry at a junction or at lights. The shape and height of their cab means that they might not be able to see me.