Cycler

My wife has been ill recently so I have been working from home. Consequently I haven’t been on the bike as much as I would have liked.

Last Wednesday though I returned to office-based duties and decided to cycle to Waterloo and then catch the train to Staines. It rained lightly on the way there. I gently steamed on the train and was pleasantly dry by the time I arrived. On the way home I thought my luck would continue. The sun was out and I could just about discern a patch of blue sky. My luck soon ran out because halfway down O.K.R(Old Kent Road) the sky turned ominously dark. Then a few fat blobs of rain fell, followed quickly by their fatter and angrier cousins. I was wearing normal trousers and they were soaked within seconds. I had to stop to stow my glasses because by now I couldn’t actually see where I was going.

Luckily I was wearing my Foska Tangent jacket which did a valiant job of keeping the water out. I decided to get off the O.K.R because the weather was somehow making motorists drive even worse then ever. I was pootling down Pomeroy Road when the wind picked up and an array hailstones started to ping straight into my face. I struggled on in this manner and half an hour later was standing in my hallway dripping onto the floor, a large puddle forming around me.

The ride post-mortem is as follows. Feet: dry-ish thanks to my gore-tex shoes. Legs: soaked, upper body: torso dry but arms wet(sorry Foska, the Tangent couldn’t handle the deluge!), head: obviously, drenched!

It’s been long overdue. My front wheel is now ready to have the bearings renewed and repacked with grease to get them running smoothly again. 

This is quite a straightforward job. I needed:

• A couple of cone spanners, one 13mm and one 17mm
• 20 3/16 inch ball bearings (Shimano HB-RM40 hub)
• Grease

I started by removing the locknut with the cone spanners. It didn’t take too much force to loosen it. I removed the nuts, washers and cone and placed them on a cable-tie so that I didn’t have to remember which order to put them back.

Once one side was done the axle slid easily out of the hub. While doing so I took care not to dislodge the bearings. Next step was to remove all the bearings. A screwdriver with a magnetic bit was ideal for this.

I checked the cones for signs of pitting and found they were in pretty bad nick. Luckily the hub was fine. If the cups are worn then a new hub would have been required.

I had trouble sourcing the correct cones for my hub. In the end Ebay came to my rescue and I found a complete hub for £7 including p&p.

So it was a case of removing the cups from the donor hub and proceeding to put everything back together.

After carefully cleaning the hub and cones with a clean cloth and setting the wheel on its side, I applied some grease into the cup with my finger. Then I placed each ball bearing into the ring of grease. Now it was time to carefully reinsert the axle, turn the wheel over and repeat the job. 

I screwed in the cones until they were finger tight then backed off a little. When you turn the axle if it feels ‘notchy’ then they are too tight. There should be a slight resistance without spinning too freely. You must aim to get zero play otherwise the bearings will wear very quickly. 

It took a few attempts, trying to get the wheel spinning correctly. Remember zero play is the key here, so each time you tighten the locknuts firmly hold the axle and try and move it in/out and up/down. Any hint of play then readjust the cones.

My work location has changed and this has resulted in a longer commute. Correspondingly this has placed greater demands on my faithful commuting bike. My Ridgeback Velocity. For a while now I have noticed a clicking sound emanating from the drive-side. Some days being worse than others. A few weeks ago the single click turned into a double-click. I thought some action was required! The problem seemed most likely to be the bottom bracket. The first thing to do was to get the tools together for the job and then to source the bottom bracket. Tools needed :

• Socket wrench
• 14mm socket
• 15mm socket
• Crank puller
• Bottom bracket removal tool 

The bottom bracket cost £9.99 for a standard 68mm square taper cartridge jobby. Nothing exotic there!

The first task was to take off the crank bolts caps. A little shimmy with a flat-ended screwdriver did the trick. The steel crank bolts unscrewed the standard way using a 14mm socket i.e. anti-clockwise for both LHS(left-hand side) and RHS(right-hand side).

Next job was to use the crank puller. I unscrewed the tool to its fullest extent then screwed it into the RHS crank, taking care not to cross thread it in the process.

I found a little grease on the tool helped here. You don’t have to go mad when tightening, finger tight is enough. I attached the 14mm socket to the tool and proceeded to turn it clockwise until the crank came loose. The other side was the same although I replaced the RHS crank loosely so I could use it as a wedge while removing the LHS crank bolt.

With the cranks off I attached the bottom bracket removal tool. Here you need to be careful with the direction you use to unscrew the BB. Starting with the LHS you unscrew in a clock-wise direction and the RHS in an anti-clockwise direction. To my relief the BB came off very easily. I had visions of the same hassle I had when attempting to remove the BB from an old frame! The bottom bracket itself seemed in good condition with no play at all. When I inspected the plastic support cup I found that it was cracked.

It’s my guess that this was the source of the strange clicking noise.

Installation was easy. I greased the new BB threads and starting with the LHS screwed it in. I then proceeded to screw the BB body into the RHS. When I began to attach the drive-side crank I hit problems. The crank did not spin freely. In fact it was touching the BB shell of the frame. I compared the new and old bottom brackets. Damn it! The new BB had a shorter spindle. I hadn’t really appreciated that different BB’s have different spindle lengths. The old one was 122.5 whereas the new one was 110.5 :-(

A few days later and £15 poorer the new BB arrived courtesy of Royal Mail.

Before fitting the new BB I checked the torque settings. I came across a great reference document from park tools. Unfortunately the values are in pounds/inch not newton metres. No problem a quick google gave me a converter. The torque values are:

• Bottom bracket - 39-49nm
• Crank bolts - 34-44nm

And there you have it. I nice shiny new non-clicking bottom bracket. Should be good for another few thousand miles!

A while ago I bought a steel mountain bike frame on Ebay. It is a Kona Hahanna circa 2001. Said frame was bought with the idea of turning it into a longtail bike a.k.a. an Xtracycle. Before this transformation happens the whole thing needs to be built up.

Doing this will be a good chance to learn new bike repair/servicing skills which will stand me in good stead in the future.

The frame still has the original bottom bracket attached. This needed a special tool so I acquired one made by Ice Toolz from ukbikestore. First job was to check the thread direction. This is RHS(drive side) - clockwise, LHS - anti-clockwise.

My first attempt at trying to remove the BB ended in skinned knuckles and a sweating, puce face. Ah, this was the reason the BB came with the frame. They obviously could not get the damn thing off!! Several subsequent attempts also ended in failure. I tried shifting both sides but only succeeded in partially destroying the plastic nut on the LHS.

After calming down I searched the internet for a solution. I popped down to Halfords and bought some heavy-duty penetrating oil. I fashioned an oil bath from a plastic container and with the frame installed fillled it to the crank level. Then it was a game of waiting. 3 days to be precise.

What I needed was leverage so after cleaning off the penetrating oil I wedged the frame in-between the kitchen table legs. I started on the LHS first, being careful not to wreck any more of the plastic screw. To my amazement after a hefty tug on the bar attached to the BB removal tool it started to move. within minutes it was off.

The other side was a different story, still it didn’t want to move. I tried soaking the BB in more penetrating oil. This time I laid the frame on its side and sprayed directly into the LHS side of the BB.

The idea was that that the oil would slowly seep down and drip out of the seized RHS side, hopefully loosening it in the process. Did it work? Nope! Next step was to bring out the big guns. 

I found a long, heavy piece of scaffolding pipe, wedged the frame between the kitchen door opening and heaved. Again, no luck. I decided one last attempt with the penetrating oil. This time leaving the frame for four days.

Armed with my large pipe and with the frame again jammed solidly against the door frame I tried again.

The problem I had was that the BB tool kept slipping off the BB so I had to keep the tool pushed onto the BB with my left hand while pulling the pipe with my right hand. It was a case of slowly as she goes because if I pulled quickly the tool would ping off. So I gingerly applied pressure and hey presto I heard a loud creak, Hoorah. It moved!! I tried again and again, each pull requiring less effort. In no time the bloody thing was off.

I had moments there when I was sure a trip to the bike shop was the only way forward but my patience and copious amounts of penetrating oil paid off :-).

The nights have well and truly ‘drawn in’ and I am finding myself cycling to and from work in the dark. My lighting philosophy is to have one blinking light and one static light. At the end of last winter my old ‘blinky’ expired when I dropped it and snapped the handlebar attachment off. 

This old light was a Blackburn Voyager which I was very pleased with. I went onto their website to see what other lights were on offer. Immediately the Flea 2.0 caught my eye. It looked tiny, could be charged via USB and was more powerful than my old light. Deal done! I went online and purchased the light for £18.98 from UK Bike Store.

When it arrived firstly I was amazed at how small it is and secondly at how bright it is. When you switch it on the translucent button shows red, yellow or green for a few seconds to indicate the state of the battery. A nice touch.

Pressing the button for the first time puts the light into high power mode, pressing again switches to lower power. Another click and we are into psycho blinky mode and a final push switches it off.

Be aware that before you use the light you must calibrate it to ensure the ‘fuel gauge’ is accurate. I did this after my initial ride but am not sure if this has had any effect. Time will tell!

So far so good. The only criticism of the light is the mounting strap. It seems to be designed solely for oversized handlebars(unless I am missing something here). The unit comes with a thin piece of velcro with a rubberised backing which is threaded through the underside of the light. The hook part only covers the first 45mm of the 170mm strap. This means that on 25.4mm handlebars there is not enough of the ‘hook’ part to attach to the ‘loop’ part. To remedy this you either need to fashion some kind of shim to thicken up your bars where the light will be attached or wrap the strap around the front of the unit. Not ideal really! Another annoyance is having to take the whole thing off to recharge the unit. Small issues I know and a small price to pay for the Flea’s size and the beauty of being able to recharge via USB.

Recharging is simplicity itself. You plug in the usb dongle and simply attach the light to the two magnetic charging points. Being magnetic means that the Flea will not fall off even if aligned upside down or to one side. Brilliant! While charging the power button flashes red and when charged turns green, then turns off. Charging takes about 1-1.5 hours.

So there you have it, the Flea 2.0 is a brilliant light but falls victim to its own diminutive size. I will post some statistics on run times in the near future.

Here in sunny London the weather has turned. My last ride on Wednesday was definitely a lot cooler than previous outings.

When the weather turns colder a commuting cyclist has a dilemma when it comes to choosing what to wear and in particular how many layers. Too many layers and you are hot and uncomfortable. Too little and obviously you will get cold. It must be stated that this is not a great problem for short rides. On longer commutes though, it makes the ride very uncomfortable if you get it wrong. Believe me I have been there!

The trick is not to get too sweaty as this can quickly turn cold on your skin. The way to limit this is to wear a tight fitting quality baselayer. A snug fit means that the sweat will be effectively wicked away from the skin therefore keeping you warmer. Polyester baselayers are cheap and work well but will smell after a ride. I swear by merino wool. It’s warm, has great wicking properties and will not smell even after and a weeks riding. The downside is that merino is expensive. Even so, if you are going to splash on one item of cycle specific clothing this winter then this should be it!

Over the years I have worked out what I need to wear for differing temperatures for my 2 hour commute across London. By and large this system works. The italics denote items added/replaced as the temperature plummets!

10 degrees C - Sealskinz gloves, long-sleeved top(just about get away with that), shorts, normal socks

5 degrees C - Sealskinz gloves, buff,  long-sleeved merino baselayer, thin winter jacket, Ronhill bikesters, thick socks

0-2 degrees - Trek winter gloves, under-helmet hat with ear-flaps, buff,  long-sleeved merino baselayer, thick winter jacket, Ronhill bikesters, thick socks

< 2 degrees C - Trek winter gloves, under-helmet hat with ear-flaps, buff, long-sleeved top, long-sleeved merino wool baselayer, thick winter jacket, bib-longs underneath bikesters, Ronhill bikesters, thick socks.

The only real problem I still have is keeping my feet warm. I wear thick socks but even with these after about an hours cycling my feet start to feel like the proverbial block of ice. I’ve been told that neoprene shoe covers work wonders but have baulked at the idea of ‘gimping up’ my feet. Maybe this year…