Mechanics and Fixing Any Questions Answered

I'm trying to resolve the mudguard dilemma for carbon road frames without mudguard eyelets. The guards are typically big and ugly. The stays are massive plastic things, or slender steel ones requiring P clips. The only non-fugly guards I know of are Gilles Berthoud carbon. I had some on my steel tourer. Beautifully made and unobtrusive but stupid money and withdrawn from sale. Here they are. Pics from the Peter White site.



If my idea worked, people could buy the bits themselves and have almost invisible ultralight mudguards for cheap.

Further to what Tester had suggested, is your bung the type that sits fully within the steerer or does it have a lip that sits on top of the steerer? If the latter it’s very easy to see migration of the bung as there’ll be a gap between the lip and the top of the steerer.

I never use a torque wrench but I definitely apply (considerably) more torque to expand bung than I do to preload bearings so if you’re at 5nm and 5.5nm then… actually, re-reading your post I’m not 100% sure if 5.5nm, is that for the preload bolt or the stem bolts?

Anyway, horse the bung up a bit more is what I’m saying.

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I know that ‘set preload > tighten stem bolts > add a bit to the preload bolt’ is a known/common procedure but I’ve never felt the need to touch the preload bolt after tightening the stem bolts.

Where did you get a steel top cap from? Don’t think I’ve ever seen one.

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I was thinking that the aluminium compression cap, once torqued, acts like a sprung washer. Preventing it from coming loose. While the steel is too stiff to load-up like that

If there's a difference, I suspect it has more to do with coefficient of friction than spring modulus. Aluminium is very grippy compared with steel. Anyway, buy one on my top caps and use as directed, problem solved 🙂

And glue a sleeve into the steerer so a agm can be installed right?

Is this a crack? Am I going to die if I keep riding on it?

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Yeah looks like a crack. Is that spoke under tension? how many spokes on the wheel?

Am I going to die if I keep riding on it?

You're going to die whatever happens. One broken spoke is rarely the immediate cause.

So you're saying there's a chance

Front or back wheel? Front wheel failures tend to be more drastic/dentistry requiring

Back wheel. Its a 24 spoke wheel which I've been using for commuting because it was lying around but a failure of some sort wouldn't be a huge surprise

In that case I'd not stress about it too much. Though equally probably needs replacing sooner or later.

Great, thanks for your help - also @MCamb @gbj_tester

What brand of spokes and type should I be using on an orbea rear ebike motor wheel. Current wheel has a couple of broken spokes, so going strip the wheel, and replace all the spokes as I have no idea how long the bike has been ridden like that.

something triple butted would be my first choice, e.g. DT alpine III or similar.

I think I suspect the answer is no, but…
can I fit a fork with a 1 1/8" - 1 1/2" tapered stem on a bike which has a 1 1/8" - 1 1/4" currently? Fam is asking (not my bike.)

The answer, of course, is: it depends. How are the bearings mounted in the frame? Do they use cups or do they drop directly into the frame? Hope has a good chart for their headsets which might help.

Ah, good questions
Will ask them to send some pictures and I’ll hazard a guess
Thanks also for the link

It's a matter of maintenance and upkeep to keep the wheel in check.

Check the current tension on the remaining spokes and I suspect it's all over the place.

Spoke washers are also something worth looking at.

Just not built or rebuilt any wheels for myself in years.

Replacing all the spokes as a precaution as the spokes are shorter and better in the long run.

Especially as the rear wheels seem to have an issue breaking spokes. Reading in the internet it seems that the spokes are thinner guage than the hub is drilled for. The spokes are 14 while hub is drilled for a 12 allegedly.

Spoke head washers then. Did the currently broken spokes go at the head/bend?

Has anyone here had a carbon steerer 'ring off death' repaired before? If yes where and how much please? Thanks.