My Dawes of (im)Perfection.

Turning it upside down? :)

Look like that could be the right one, but yes, take your cartridge bearing and ask if they stock this, failing that, give you measurement of what to look for...

Plus, because it's a cartridge system, you can still ride the bike until you find the replacement bearing for it, as it doesn't damage the actual headset.

I bought a used headset to salvage a single cart bearing. I "might" have the other, obviously it might not be the same but I'll dig it out tomorrow night and maeasure the bearing.
Its yours if it fits.

You could try swapping the bearings over, the one from the top in the bottom?

Ta for the offer matey but a LBS here in Oxford has come up trumps, hurahs to Bike Zone, 2 very helpful fellas trawlled through a box of new bearings and found a pair. Good coffee and cake upstairs too so my long suffering partner was happy as well seeing as we're on a 4day break up here.

happy days, cake, coffee and bearings.

Yups, a nice time was had by all :)

Back home now and straight down the shed to continue the operation. I thought I'd try and resurrect the old graunchy cartridge bearings first, just as an experiment....

So, take your notchy bearing, prise off a seal on one side, then cafefully fill the bearing with AutoSol metal polish!...

Then spin the inner race (using a handy pillar drill) whilst holding the outer race so the bearing running surfaces and balls polish and clean themselves (in theory)...

Then strip the entire lot down and wash and clean out all the metal polish and crud...

and slowly reassemble the whole lot...

and...

Re-grease and reinstall... onlyto find that they're better but still not great, erks.

So, Plan B, just install the new bearing bearings ya plonker and stop faffing about....

That done, everythings lurrrrrrrvley and smooth, whahey.

Next up, remove and check the BB, regrease the threads and reassemble and fit the crank and chainwheel from the donor Dawes...

Getting there...

Then, remove the rear wheel and chain from the Dawes and scrub and clean and re-cut the chain (4 links shorter) to fit ScobsWell's requirements...

Phowwwwaarrrr!

Then start swapping over brakes and front wheel...

...and fettle long-reach calipers that don't need to be so long-reach anymore!

Getting there, too excited, can't sleep, big kid, yeah I know :) etc etc etc

BTW don't forget to put bolt on bottle cage mount to prevent water from going into the downtube/seattube!

Good point Ed. Especially after I've lovingly cleaned up every M5 0.8mm thread pitch orifice on him so far too.

I'll order up some nice black socket cap screws.

Also in this picture;

The brake spring near the end of the right arm, I'd put a dab of copper slip there to prevent rust from building up, it's one of the main issues of brakes not being responsive on customer's bicycle (that and the bolt that hold both arm together on the left side tend to be a gnat too tight).

Noted! Will do.

Love this thread, it makes me smile every time I read it.

Excellent. Just read through this. Ed being generous and helpful as ever and one happy chap with a new bike. Do give us some full bike shots when it's nearing completion!

Love this thread, it makes me smile every time I read it.

Ta, I'm glad you and PhilDAS enjoy it .

Lots more work today.

All orifices blocked (stoppit)....

Comfy seating area and mobile support team ....

View from the pillocks seat, oopps, sorry I mean Pilots seat...

Goodbye old chum, you've been my favouritestest bike I've had up to now... we've had our laffs.... our tears.... just let it go babes... we've gotta move on ....! :)

Ooooooo! Well helllllllloooooo there you sawceee young thing..... whats your name? Ah, "ScobsWell" you say, it suits you, what say you an' I take a stroll out together soon....?!

Off on a 14 miler test loop, if you don't hear back from me feel free to eBay any crucial bits I've forgotten to fit or tighten!

No dramas. The riding position isn't right, I think I'm sitting a smidge too low and fair bit too forward but other than that ScobsWell works.

I'll pack a few tools and adjust en-route to get the position right.

Advanced warning....Expect traffic in London to grind to a standstill as everyone is stopped in their tracks by a stunning looking black bicycle cruising the capitals mean streets expertly piloted by me with the wind in my grey hair turning heads as we cruise by etc etc etc ...bwahahahahahahahha.

But no really, I've got the day off so I am going to take him for a good cruise all over London tomorrow so we can adjust to one another.

It look awesome and actually look in proportion as a fixed wheeler, rather than a conversion.

I realised the Kogswell look very much like its more expensive brother, the old Rivendell Quickbeam;

ScobsWell is awesome! I've treated him to a day out in that famous London , hes just been up to see the Queen. He's off to do some shopping now down Oxford Street.

Good for you! Give it another five years and you'll maybe have a non adjustable stem etc :-)

And maybe actually get a Carradice saddle bag to fit with the Bagman! Second hand and tattered of course.

Thats what Liz said "Get some straight bars ya twat and ditch the Fisher Price stem, its wrecks the stylee blud...".... Liz... wrecks.......Elizabeth Rex.... see what I did there? Arf!

Nearly 54 miles, it was fun just to ride for no other reason just because I could and wanted to.

I've been ridin', a-fettlin' and a-learnin' with ScobsWell recently. I've done a lot of riding and learning a lot about comfort and efficiency (I think!).

That adjustable stem that ScobsWell inherited from the Dawes has a reach too far and too high to get me in that super-comfortable position where I can just go for miles and miles in. So, I've been 'sperrymenting.

I've taken the stems off my partners old bike and my all-weather grotty commuter (ScobsWell is for bestest evening and weekend rides) and tried each in turn in addition to a pair of bog-standard straight bars I'd got from somewhere.

These 2...

The Alloy SR from my commuter beast was OK but it put me low and it was a bit of a reach still to the bars...

I did a big London Loop like this last weekend and I was fast (for me). But about 45 miles in my shoulders started feeling the strain a bit. So, this weekend I fitted the black stem...

Ooo, now thats not bad, I'm 'up' a little bit and need to re-adjust the saddle angle as I noticed I slipped forward a bit when I was gunning it a bit in 'big-kid-zooming-mode' . About 14 miles into a ride I noticed the stem wobbling in the fork steerer, erks! It'd moved and loosened off a bit, putting my glasses on (yes, I'm that old) I noticed I'd set it a little above the Max height line, my bad. Setting it lower into the fork tube I'm just into the aching zone again 40+ miles into a ride but its better than the SR. So I think I need a stem like the black one but with maybe less reach and maybe a bit of a longer stem length to be able to play with the height a tad more.

What's the panels view on a stem like this? - > http://www.velosolo.co.uk/kalloyswan.html or this one? -> http://www.velosolo.co.uk/kalin.html

With a shorter reach does the steering get too twitchy? I tried a very short reach stem on that old Carrera bike I played with last summer and the effect was extreme, I can't fit it onto Scobswell as its 31.8mm and Scob's is a traditional 1". I'm wondering if ScobsWell would be mellower?

Is the silver stem not past the limit? Seems awfully high. Saying that the black one looks only just in the steerer.

What's the panels view on a stem like this? - > velosolo.co.uk/kalloyswan.htm­l or this one? -> velosolo.co.uk/kalin.html

Steering will be well twitchy with those stems. They're made for dutch bikes where the rake is really long so won't feel too twitchy. The geometry on this frame means steering is much more responsive. This bike was probably designed for drops so a forward reach of about 140 would be about right (100mm stem and 40mm bar reach - just an approximation of course). Unless you're T-Rex you probably shouldn't need anything too shallow. Are you bendy at all? Any yoga? Might need to work on the core a bit.

Yeah, I admit I had it set very high early on in the ride when I took the piccie, I lowered it a bit further into the ride as I got more used to a lower riding position. The black one doesn't allow for a lot of adjustment which is a pity.