2013-10-26 Herne Hill Polo Court grand opening

after work thought

I'm a mechanic, and I can work one day next week. PM me, if needed.

Can do Monday.

will PM you when HH replies to my email

I can help with the bikes fixing. I worked 5 years as mechanic although I keep breaking derrauliers XD

I'm a mechanic, and I can work one day next week. PM me, if needed.

will post on here when we know what needs doing. thanks

I'm happy to give a hand with this but I don't think I can do it during the week.
Let's see some pictures about the stuff they have so whenever I go I can take the right tools and parts.
If not we can always repair them in between games when we start playing there.

Update: heading down tomorrow at 2pm.

Beagle?

Sounds good.

cool, see ya there

I'll pop up if my desk is clear...

You riding your commuter? Will get the Kona out of storage if you are.

might get the overground to denmark hill...

k.

might get the overground to denmark hill...

Wimp

il can come to help too I have tools and a pair of double beavers some cassette spacer and cogs..ben let me know when you guys heading down

I have a pair of double beavers

quoted for posterity

Wimp

puts on sidis

Bring your polo bikes, a bit of 2-on-2 might be in order...

Wont be bringing my polo bike, will ride the Kona instead.

likewise, saving myself for mitch <3

Gay lets play abit in the drome

Wont be bringing my polo bike, will ride the Kona instead.

likewise, saving myself for mitch <3

TS nerged for losing the keys

TS nerged for misleading me and Antonio, Roti Lady was not open.

I noticed that too, she must be ill...

Good work today, guys... If only they'd found those keys!!

Update: As you know we went down today to have a look at the bikes. We only saw one because the keys couldn't be found. Pleasant surprise was that the one bike we saw (which was not in the same condition as the others apparently) was in good condition.

A few issues are as follows:

Cranks
The cheapo cranks don't use chainring bolts; instead they are riveted. So we can drill out the large ring, then we will have to angle grind off the teeth on the middle ring and use it as a bashguard for the inner ring that will be used for the drivetrain (28t). We can't remove the middle ring as it is used as a base for the inner (I know, right?!). We decided (up for discussion) to set them all up as 28x18 (assuming around 2" tyres) will end up with around 40 gear inches. If you really feel that all the bikes should have 23/25/28c tyres this will obviously change the chosen ratios. I'd be wary of leaving the 16-18t range as this is where freewheels are generally cheapest.

Rear block
The issue here is that it is a screw-on block, not a cassette. This means that we can't use cassette spacers and a sprocket, instead we will have to use a screw on freewheel. The upside is that with the inner 28t chainring and a narrower 9/10/11 speed chain we will probably have a good chainline from the outset.

Brakes/tyres
The brakes are fine (on this bike) but we were told that the other bikes have knobbly tyres. Is this a problem? My assumption is no, for complete beginners that are gonna be riding slowly, but they may want to replace them as part of a later, more thorough check.

In summary, we only saw one bike, but it can be converted easily. A few freewheels, some double levers, new cables where needed and a bit of drilling/angle grinding and we're good to go. I'm confident that it can all be done within their budget.

Again, all this is on the assumption that all 10 bikes are the same as this one, and that they are in similar condition. I won't discount the possibility of us needing more for some but at the same time less for others. I have trade price connects, but I won't start buying anything until I've been back to see the remaining bikes.

More pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/apollo_0/sets/72157636597064123/

NB: My personal opinion is that we should also anglegrind off the cable routing brazeons on the toptubes, as they may cause injury, but HH may object to damaging the frames.

Hope all this was helpful! Thoughts?

A

Vertical dropouts, so tensioner?