Specialized, Rourke + many more lockdown projects

Thought I'd keep some kind of diary of my bike projects on here as it may be of interest to others. I'm not very organised or good and writing so this thread will probably just die ha.

Currently trying to sort:

Specialized Rockhoper FS
Specialized hard rock
Brian Rourke racing bike
Raleigh Pioneer trail
Boardman MTB
Raleigh royal touring bike

Also some really old bikes that belong to my dad that I will try and and get some photos of as they are very beautiful!

Today I've been having a night mare with avid elixir disc brakes on the Boardman MTB. Well known to be junk and probably best solution is to throw them in the bin according to every MTB forum. But I thought I'd try to fix as I have got a bleed kit for them and the pads are pretty new.

The bike I got brand new on insurance after being rear ended by a lorry with my old MTB on the back of a car!
The SRAM gears are bit of a pain and the brakes are a nightmare but other than that it's a nice capable bike. The diamond shaped top tube is easy to get a dead leg from though!

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Bleeding the brakes is so complicated for my simple brain and there are some tiny parts that need to be held on to very carefully!
First problem, the brake lever adjuster screw was stuck, got some pliers tried to turn it but it just broke something, but there is an hex bolt behind the lever which moved it luckily.
Bled the back brake because it was rubbing, reset the caliper and as soon as I squeezed the brake it's rubbing again.
Decided to take the caliper apart, manage to get the pistons out with a floor pump, some plastic pump adaptor and a football pump adaptor with some PTFE tape around it for the second piston. Cleaned out going to flip the seals 180 and put back together.

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Put the brake back together, bled it, not better, bled it again just in case. Seemed to work for 30 seconds then started sticking again. Going to order new seals for the caliper if that doesn't work then they are junk.

Been wanting to do this muddy fox up for a while but the seat post if giving me so much grief

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Tried caustic soda tried heat tried to cut it out, but I've messed it up. My only option now is to dissolve it with caustic probably, think I need to block up the bottom of the seat post somehow. Had to melt out the bottom bracket, was a plastic skf thing.

MTB got a shakedown yesterday after I bled the brakes and installed a new headset. Nothing fell of! And I swapped the stem for a longer one and the handlebars for a narrower one. Definitely improved it.

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And a quick scrub today

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Also some really old bikes that belong to my dad that I will try and and get some photos of as they are very beautiful!

Any details /photos of these?

Ones with rod brakes:
Royal Enfield single speed
Raleigh 3 speed
BSA 3 speed
Sunbeam 3 speed
Dayton ladys

And the one in the picture below which im ashamed to say I've neeglected, a wearwell 3 speed

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Unknown lightweight, nervex lugs.

Trying to sort this one, got a Williams crank but no cottered axel of the correct length. Going to try and get one ordered. DS bottom bracket thread is nasty but seems to be working. Head tube could do with facing.

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Cool, thanks.

Looks like a very well made frame, Part of the lugs are similar to a Holdsworth Cyclone deluxe.

Thanks for the info! It's my dad's bike, he's had it since the 60's was already repainted when he got it. Then he repainted it with some Pat Rohan decals and Austin Allegro paint. It's really light and flexible so I'm guessing it's made from the Reynolds super light. Also noticed the lugs are pinned but maybe that was standard practice then. Got the forks as well which are very curved.

Need to come up with a solution for this..

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Axel on the rear hub I wanted to use is about a millimeter too long for the drop outs :/

How do you mean it's too long?

The qr won't clamp the drop outs, it worked fine on 5 speed bike with campag dropouts so I assume they must be thicker.

Edit: if I use a rear derailleur it will work

Ah sorry I thought you'd have a solid axle with nuts

Planning to use these brakes, front one was a bit bent, rear has lots of holes!

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395 stamped on the BB , different number on the forks. Don't know if the forks are original or not, looking at photos online I've not seen any Holdsworth's with the same fork lugs.

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Been a while but I've been fairly busy. Raleigh pioneer now has mudguards. Didn't realise the threads on the mudguard and rack mounts on Raleigh's are not a standard M5x0.8 thread. But got there in the end had to helicoil one and tap the others.

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Luckily this one went as planned!

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More brake cleaning these are for the Raleigh royal

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