A Wiggle Purchase

A customer came to me this week with a problem with the front changer on a recently purchased ( 2 weeks ago) Charge Scourer that he bought from Wiggle cycles. He didn't want the hassle of boxing it up and sending it back to Wiggle so he decided to look locally to see if he could get the problem solved. Having been to his LBS who quoted a silly figure just to leave the bike there so they could look at it, he found Bobs Bike shed whilst scouring the internet. The bike in question had been fitted with a 34.9mm Shimano front changer whilst having measured it and checked on  Charges website, the seat tube is 31.8mm. Now the changer did have a plastic shim in-between the changer clamp and the seat tube but wasn't enough to provide a nice fit with enough clamping force to secure the changer. Subsequently when changing gear during climbing a  hill the changer moved on the seat tube and became in-operable. The fix, well as a temporary measure I have added tape to the seat tube to widen it and re fitted the changer and adjusted the gears. Its all working now but I would certainly recommend fitting the appropriate sized mech for the 31.8 seat tube (Shimano do a 31.8 clamp as well as a 28.6 to 31.8). Incidentally Wiggle said it had been fitted with the wrong sized shim and they would send the right size to the customer when they came into stock.
Very strange, personally its not something I like but in this day and age I guess its what called cost effectiveness!!

Heres what it all looks like.

The benefits of anti seize compound

So I recently offered a basic service with new cables thrown in, as  a raffle prize at a fund raising event at my daughters school.  The winner contacted me to book his bike in and was very pleased to have won as he wanted to start using his bike to cycle to work. The bike in question a Dawes Road bike built from reynolds 531 tubing seemed in reasonable condition although it hadn't been looked at for some time and following an inspection I recommended some additional work to bring it up to a road worthy standard.
The first item on the list was the bottom bracket with very worn bearings, so I began to attempt to remove the worn part.
Oh dear it was well and truly seized, after overnight soaking in some special home brewed penetrating oil and some additional leverage applied with a persuader ( my trusty piece of scaffold tubing) I managed to remove the offending item.
The photos below shows what happens when you don't use enough anti seize compound when fitting a BB and there is no drain hole in the BB shell to allow any moisture in the frame to drain away.
the last 2 are of the shell all clean and re-cut threads ready for its new axle.

Oh dear thats not good

Ah now thats better, nice and clean

The 2012 NEC Bicycle Show Trade Day

So its been a couple of weeks but here are my fav photos from the NEC bike show trade day. The first few are of some wonderful works of art that epitomise the use of steel as  UK frame building goes from strength to strength

And now for steel from the Colnago stand

This photo reminds me of my 14th birthday and a trip to Holdsworth's in Penge to get my first proper road bike.....brilliant

Some other highlights

Some lovely wooden wheels which Bobs Bike Shed will be featuring in the workshop very soon

and finally Sir Chris Hoy