waiting

[europa]

My new wheels are due in the shop in a little over an hour's time

Will I be this excited in an hour and a half after I've seen the things?

Richard

[europa]

They're here



They look good actually. Not the lightest but at $230 for the pair, who'd expect light. A pair of 28mm Maxxis Detonators are on order - I'll have them tomorrow. Now I can sort out that double chainring and brakes, then it's time to do a 'Karen' on the frame, see if I can clean up the rust and other marks from over the years. I'll get her working, then pull the whole bike down and give her a birthday

Richard

[cludence]

Happy cleaning! I expect to see a nice shiny bike in a weeks time!

[europa]

Thanks Karen. I'll be having a chat with you closer to the big clean about specific techniques. At the moment, I'm just interested in getting her working as a bike.

Speaking of which, I tried to convert her to a single chainring today. Typically for me, it's not straight forward. I bought a set of chainring bolts - two piece units, a female and a male part. The weird Italian chainrings on this bike use a single, shaped bolt that screws into the small chainring (and couldn't just take off the large ring because those bolts would have been too long) so I haven't done anything with them in case I wound up having to change the crankset. As it happens, with the new wheel in the back, the outer chainring is spot on for a straight chainline - I expected this having done the appropriate measurements weeks ago. So, move small ring to outside of crankst. The ring has a weird bcd (ie, hard to find rings in the shops) and while showing signs of wear, isn't badly worn, so I thought I'd drill out the holes to take the male/female bolt set I have. Drilling went easily. Bolting together went nicely ... for the first three bolts. Come the fourth bolt, I was grubbing around in the packet looking for another female, then realised that the four bits left, were all MALE fittings - I'd been given seven male and three female bits instead of five each Good thing I've got to go back to the shop tomorrow anyway to get my new tyres.

Richard
turning the simple things in life into high drama

[cludence]

You live in the wrong state! I have two boxes here in my room that I have to sort through. They were given to me yesterday. You'd have a party. There is chainrings, cranks, bolts, levers and all sort of bits and pieces. A man who used to own a shop donated them. I've have only got as far as looking at the container of tools he gave me and that distracted me. They are all old tools to use on vintage bikes!

Shoud I get myself committed?

Karen.

[europa]

Shoud I get myself committed?

Nah, that's for the insane. You looked at the tools first, that proves you're okay

Richard

[sogood]

Wow, the shine is hurting my eyes! I can only barely make out two round things!!!

[europa]

Classic bikes all use bare alloy

Richard

[cludence]

Bit of autosol on alloy makes it shiny!

[sogood]

Nice new toys.

So what's the spec? Did you end up getting it from Alan or from somewhere else?

[europa]

Local wheel builder. Hand made. Sealed bearings. High flange hubs with some lovely cutouts that you can just see in the photo if you know they are there. The rims are a Taiwanese generic rim, brand name 'Shining' They aren't front line wheels but weren't intended to be. $230 for the pair - good value I reckon. Probably a bit heavy but they'll be solid. I'm putting 28mm Maxxis Detonators on them so they should be a nice ride for an all (road) terrain wheel with a big bloke on top.

And true - spin them and not a wiggle in sight. I mean you'd expect that but these are spot on.

Richard

[mikesbytes]

What gauge are the spokes ?

[europa]

Don't know actually - forgot to ask. Something between fencing wire and old crow bars by the look of them

Richard

[europa]

The wheels were built not by me coming up with specs, but by the lbs bloke describing to the wheel builder the bloke who'd be riding the things and what he wanted to do with them. It was distressingly honest actually (I was listening and passing on comments I thought the lbs bloke had missed). The wheel builder was basically given a free hand to build the wheels to suit the purpose. In an ideal world, you'd be sitting in his workshop, fondling the various rims and passing spokes through your fingers, but I didn't have that luxury, not this time. It'll come. One day, I will be in a workshop rendolent of hot metal, grease and rubber, discussing with an artisan the bike that will carry me into my second century (in years).

Richard

[cludence]

Just to torment you, I am headed tomorrow to a workshop as you describe. It has rooms full of tools, bikes, wheels, components and cycling photos spanning the past 50 odd years. You could sit there all day just looking at everything. I love it.

Karen.

[europa]

Just to torment you, I am headed tomorrow to a workshop as you describe. It has rooms full of tools, bikes, wheels, components and cycling photos spanning the past 50 odd years. You could sit there all day just looking at everything. I love it.

Karen.

Would you like to adopt me?

Richard

[cludence]

Only if you are good at building shelves in a garage. I have some I am supposed to be building tonight but it is too cold out there!

Karen.

[Mulger bill]

Now that looks nice, new preciouses are always fun

The rims are a Taiwanese generic rim, brand name 'Shining'

Well there's truth in labelling for you

Can't wait to see the ol' girl after her spa time, have fun

Shaun

[mikesbytes]

With new wheels we expect another 2-3kph out of you.

_________________________________________________________________________________
Burn plenty of Glycogen
Frame Size Calculator.....Park Tools Repair Guides Frame Size Calculator.....Rolling Resistance.....Rolling Performance.....Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info
training log.....Body-Mass Index, Waist-to-Height Ratio, Basal Metaboic Rate
Bicycle FAQs.....Bicycle Safety.....Cadence in Cycling.....Types of Bicycles

[europa]

With new wheels we expect another 2-3kph out of you.

One can only hope or pedal harder

Richard

[Gishalo]

Wheels are the biggest improvement you can make to a bike. No corners should be cut on wheels or tyres. ALLWAYS buy the best you can afford.

[Funkymonk]

congrats mate

I just brought mine from TWE wheels http://www.twowheelsenterprises.com.au/

mine are the ID 50

[mikesbytes]

congrats mate

I just brought mine from TWE wheels http://www.twowheelsenterprises.com.au/

mine are the ID 50

I'm planing to get my next wheels from TWE too. Which ones did you get?

_________________________________________________________________________________
Burn plenty of Glycogen
Frame Size Calculator.....Park Tools Repair Guides Frame Size Calculator.....Rolling Resistance.....Rolling Performance.....Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info
training log.....Body-Mass Index, Waist-to-Height Ratio, Basal Metaboic Rate
Bicycle FAQs.....Bicycle Safety.....Cadence in Cycling.....Types of Bicycles

[Funkymonk]

Here is the exerp from an email i got from Greg at TWE

as stated mine are the ID 50






id 50 are the rims also pair of them in id 52 the others are the 30mm
>>deep rim..the 25mm is better for yourself....these rims are the ones
>>darren
>>cash is raving about in his testamonial >>are 30g heavier than the double butted ones a more racing thing but
>>your
>>choice of coarse doesnt really affect performance that much..on the
>>hubs...my hubs spin really really well.....these wheels are faultless
>>honestly !! ive sourced my stuff very considerably over a few years and
>>more
>> these wheels !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !! on basic mavics and fulcrums fully !! heaps
>>stiffer
>> and wont encounter spoke failures cheers brad greg
>>

[europa]

Here she be in all her current glory, just ready to attack the Linear Park next week



Look Mum, no gears

Yes, she's lost the spare chainring. I was waiting for the new wheels to do that because the standard 42mm chainline of track hubs lines up with the outer ring on my crankset whereas my suicide hub lined up with the inner ring. But she's all sorted now. You can't read the words on the crank (thanks to my great camera) but they read 'Ofmega R'.

You'll also note the double sided M520 pedals (ebay is your friend ... sometimes ).

She's still wearing the old Diacompe brakes but with the Shimano600 aerolevers and new cables, she stops well enough, particularly seeing I can use back pressure on the pedals too

If I had a set of scales, I could weigh her, but in the meantime, you'll just have to accept my guess of about 6.2345643 kg

Richard
I'm happy