Sparky’s All City Macho Man

Swapped the Shimano BB out for this secondhand Chris King one I had. It’s heavier (102g compared to 76g) but I thought it might be a bit more efficient and it seemed silly to have bike jewellery sitting in the cupboard doing nothing. It feels like there’s a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of play in there but it’s hard to be sure if I’m imagining it. I’ll give it a test ride and see if it settles down.

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There was river water in the old one from couple of weekends ago when I, well, rode through a river...

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Do the cranks fit directly onto the bearings or is there a shim?

It looks like there’s one B.B. and then you buy “conversion kits” for various types of cranks that are basically just plastic shims.

Might be the shims then? Maybe swap em around?

Left to right and right to left? Just to see if play changes? Could do. Might look into ordering a new set anyway - @amey said he may have a set of SRAM cranks for sale that might be a bit lighter than these 105s. Although I have bids in on a few secondhand Ultegra cranksets on eBay, so...

Yep swap em left to right if it's easy

BB seems fine now but I’m changing wheel bearings. Halo were really helpful with providing all the necessary dimensions. Their email:

The front hub will use 2x 6804 bearings. The rear hub will use 2x 6902 bearings for the main hub body, the freehub unit will be 1x 15268 bearing and 1x 6902 bearing.

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Lots of new toys for Pip!

Kirsty calls him the cat foreman; as soon as I start fettling something, he comes to watch.

"Here mate, you need a bit more hair in that component"

How did the frame bag work out? Any luck making one?

Project stalled slightly. And she’s back to work after summer holidays next week, so...

I want to set this bike up tubeless with some knobbly CX tyres, but this will also be my winter bike with mudguards and semi-slicks. I think I can fit 42mm tyres in without guards but will stick with 35mm semi-slicks for the road. So.... Should I buy another wheelset so I can switch between the two?

Should I buy another wheelset so I can switch between the two?

The eternal winter question. I've decided to go for it this season, getting a cheap set for my mtb that I'll fit winter tyres on and everything will be ready for once when the cold hits.

Yes, you don't want to be fiddling with tubeless every time you want a CX ride

Note the mudguard faff too - let something else be winter bike. I've foregone 30c+ tyres for my commute and put full guards on my fixed to let me have fun tyres on my surly.

Your guards might be easy to remove though, in which case yeah another wheelset

Was riding yesterday, grinding up a muddy slope, when I felt the chain collect around the cassette, then a hard stop...

Managed to bash it into shape enough to find one gear and limp home (walking the hills).

I have a hanger alignment tool so I’ll try to bend it back. Have also just ordered an RX800 mech, new cable and chain. I’ve got a 32T cassette in the cupboard which will go on.

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