Current Projects chat and miscellany

tel, want to sell me those bar end shifters off the dean?

I had to destroy them to get them out unfortunately....

I do have some Suntour 6 speed for £22 posted if you're interested.

Principia frames are lovely I think. That Dean is cool though, I had the same tape but in orange on an old emmelle tourer.

In honesty as nice as the Principia rode and as light as it was aesthetically it was too beastly for me with that monstrous downtube and untidy welds it just did not float my boat. Gone to a good home now though and looks very sweet.

what i did was use a wrench on it then with a piece of scaffolding put the spanner on the end and it comes off with much more ease
GCSE physics init pivots

Yep. Tried wrench, vise and that Sheldon bolt & nut way. None worked. British bb so should unscrew clockwise.

Will give it one more shot then i'll take it to a welder to have a bar or something welded on.

Mighty annoying.

Will do. Haven't tried that yet.

And yes, it's French. This one has British threads though.

try using "Black Magic" by Forch, make sure you really shake it up 1st though and let it soak overnight, in the morning it will come right out. I've had so many problems with seized stuff and used to reach for either the torch, a handy 1m of scaffolding pole or the pneumatic hammer. Its about £10 per can but works better than anything on the market. If you have trouble getting any drop me a pm and I'll send you the sales reps no.

Tel- are those mudguards on the Principia any good?

They're not great, I did still get a wet back and they didn't ever stay where I set them. Although they were better than nothing at all.

Fulll length guards on the Dean are a much bigger improvement.

My Belt Dive Project is finally up and running.

Calfee Dragonfly Cyclocross frame that I managed to pick up on the US ebay for relative cheaps. Need to put a shorter stem on soon and I'm definitely thinking of making it fixed but need a screw on cog for the back. If anyone is thinking of buying a belt drive I can definitely recommend Mark at Milkbikes. He imported a whole load of stuff for me and was incredibly helpful.

liking the belt drive calfee spinto, good work

also on mudguards, have found the crudcatcher mk2 to be adequate for tight clearances, but not as long lived as sks

what i did was use a wrench on it then with a piece of scaffolding put the spanner on the end and it comes off with much more ease
GCSE physics init pivots

Yep. Get an old seatpost quick-release or long bolt, put your spanner over the fixed-cup with a big washer or piece of drilled steel bar over the outside edge (so that the bolt doesn't just go between the jaws of the spanner), and put the bolt through the lot - tighten it up so that the spanner can't slip on the cup. Then simply turn the spanner as hard as you can - this has never failed for me. I've heard about people popping the seatstays off of the seat-cluster when removing BBs, though, so I would avoid holding the frame by them since they're only brazed on, rather than brazed into a socket.

I never found the Sheldon method to work. I could never get it tight enough, even tightening it up with a scaffold pole - so the washers would always slip on the bottom bracket cup rather than turning it.

I tried those crud catchers but i couldn't see any way possible to stop them rubbing, looks like they are designed for 25c tyres or smaller, which is just silly

A recent forum purchase that I've been tweaking/adding more black components to.
A reluctant seller :)

like! lush frame & black bits go very well together

but why are the bar ends tilted up?

Sick!

But what is up with those bars? Surely the shifters need to move down and rotate bars up? Or you could cut the ends off.

Not fiddled with that yet. The pervious owner had a bad back so perhaps the drops in this position suited him?

Obviously I'm only seeing it from the photos...

... but the thing that I find interesting is that it looks like he's turned a big pair of ergos with a deep drop into bars with a very shallow drop.

I tried those crud catchers but i couldn't see any way possible to stop them rubbing, looks like they are designed for 25c tyres or smaller, which is just silly

yes they are. bluemels / sks for 28 upwards

yes they are. bluemels / sks for 28 upwards

My frame has no eyelets to fit those, But maybe some P-clips will work

I still have to compromise somewhere, it sucks.

Just dropped forks that I cut down the other night at my lbs, as he reckoned I needed about 3mm cutting off. As he's got the tools for the job, and won't charge me much, I figured it would be best. Hopefully it'll have a nice clean cut too. It also means I mat be able to build it up for tomorrow (using ten bars/stem combo).

This is awesome, close to the perfect London bike IMO.

I had to destroy them to get them out unfortunately....

I do have some Suntour 6 speed for £22 posted if you're interested.

I'll PM you.

What top cap is that?

let the slavery begin...

What top cap is that?

Its currently a black patch of tape.

G, that is truely lovely.

Fancy joining me and a few other North London folk for a nice run out into the countryside when you've finished it?

Sounds great Tim def let me know.

I'm already in for the Dynamo fo' sure.

looks OK this side.