Any question answered...

Modern 26" wheels on a frame (and steel mudguards) made for 26 x 1 3/8" wheels. Yay or nay?

Biggest concern is the mudguards being further away from the wheel and being less functional I think.

Also, the chainstays are dented on the inside for tyre clearance, this'll be in the wrong place I guess.

650B (ETRTO 584mm) is very close to the old English 26×1⅜ (ETRTO 590mm), so that's what I'd go for to fit modern wheel to an old frame. MTB 26" rims are 559mm, i.e. 15.5mm smaller radius than 26×1⅜

As long as the tires are fat it shouldn't look too odd.
MTB wheel = 559mm
1 3/8 wheel = 590mm

^^ If you're going for a relatively rare wheel anyway, stay with the 590s, there are quality wheels and tires available in this size too.

Just realised that I've been using a 26" tyre on a 26x1,3/8" rim. Am I going to die soon? Been using it like that since September without any problems.

It's got a SA 3 speed Dynohub on the back the now and useless sidepull caliper brakes.

I've bought a set of modern 26" wheels on ebay the other day which have a Sachs 3 speed coaster brake hub off so I wasn't sure whether it'd be better to just run the modern wheels or to take the Sachs hub out and rebuild it into the 26x 1 3/8 rim.

It's my rainy day bike so I'd rather the mudguards fit correctly.

^^ If you're going for a relatively rare wheel anyway, stay with the 590s, there are quality wheels and tires available in this size too.

Yeah I have World Tours on it which seem decent, plenty other tyre options in 26 x 13/8 too.

O'Shane, the modern mtb wheel is smaller than the 1 3/8.
You won't die, in fact you must be a he-man to have gotten the tires on those rims in the first place.

Is there any way to fashion 28mm clamp TT bars to 31.8mm handlebars?

Just looked at the numbers, 31mm difference. Something tells me that I'm not riding a 26 x 1,3/8 rim and that it was mis-sold to me. (I didn't understand the meaning of the 1,3/8" bit at the time) Lucky me.

Listening to The Clash... Is it really so, that there are no good bands around these days, or is it yet another sign of me getting old?

*The latter being a rhetorical question of course.

I'd be inclined to put the shim slot opposite the stem clamp slot, but I don't think it makes much difference.

This, my Thomson shim instructions say to face the slot forward, opposite the stem clamp slot, but I can't see anything breaking if you do it the other way.

Listening to The Clash... Is it really so, that there are no good bands around these days, or is it yet another sign of me getting old?

*The latter being a rhetorical question of course.

The clash did a lot of mediocre stuff too, but their good stuff is pretty amazing for how young they actually were at the time.

I think good popular music relies on being in your time and in the moment. People have access to too much these days, hard for people to be part of a current movement that means something and really perfecting it. Instead they go picking out stuff thats retro/ironic/cool to be trendy and popular rather than actually good.

Also, with the amount of stuff our there its hard to find really "great" stuff amongst mediocrity. But there are gems.

For example Female Art-Pop singers, would you get someone as good as Kate Bush in the 80's or Bjork in the 90's?
The Frenchy Camille seems pretty close.

There is a lot of shit out there in Pop Music, we are probably just sick of hearing the same ideas recycled but in a less effective manner than the first time round.

I know, I know... I'm just a miserable old fart. Onto The Jam now... Good times.

Just a poor idea not uncommon. that frame looks like my MBK, just the same prob, use proper small dia outer and live with it, I'm working on an improvement, result about June I expect.

My front derailieur on new OTP bike is reluctant to shift onto big ring from the middle one. The limit screw is at its most open.

The bike had had a few months of light use, when it was new the chain used to get stuck to the chainring on downshifts but it never had this problem. Now I can down shift fine, but upshifting is a problem. Mainly but not exclusively when going uphill.

Most of the time if carrying good pedalling momentum it will upshift like there wasnt a problem, but uphill or even downhill where a good amount of pedalling momentum was not happening it refuses to shift up totally. Very annoying.

Chain is not rusty. The derailieur has not moved. I am using a friction shifter so poor adjustment aint it. Its really frustrating!

This.

But don't you mean "to maximise the surface interaction"?

What I meant was that if you put the gaps in the same side, you get less movement of the shim relative to the stem as you tighten it than if the shim gap is opposite the stem gap.

I thought that's what you meant. The counterargument is that having the shim bridge across the stem slot protects the steerer from the sharp edges of the slot, which are in an unnecessarily stiff section of the hoop due to the screw bosses, whereas the shim is uniformly flexible around its whole circumference so the shim slot is unlikely to do any harm wherever else you put it.

Shamim - cable tension?

^^Stop this shim nonsense, come save us from gear ratios.

Shamim - cable tension?

When you use my name its like a parent/teacher telling me off. Is that your intention?

But cable tension maybe one of the simple things I have overlooked, I guess it could have stretched a tiny bit. A possibility worth investigating... Thanks.

I wonder James, are you actually into dancing?

no, not schoolteacher esque

people call me james on here

just sounds like you need more cable pull to get the mech to move

I've heard them call you other things.

Snottyotter, is that a snottyotter in your avatar?

It's a lightning otter, kindly created by alfie.