This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Blast... Ah well. Evil square tapers eh ;)

Tx...

New bike/10

Clipped front mudguard with toe overlap, had to suffer a slight rubbing of tyre on last 1/4 mile.
May have rubbed itself better on way home.

Are you using a torque wrench?

Threadlok and 50 nm might be worth a try.

I have to admit, no I am not using a torque wrench.

It looks the spindle has bitten into the crank the wrong way and it's a bin job :/

I could try to file it a little and threadlok, but chance of success are low. I guess i've nothing to lose...

Since it's a non driveside crank arm, bin it and get another 170mm diamond one.

40 nm is recommended for most square taper cranks. It is more than you would think. Buy a new crank and find someone with a torque wrench.

Edit after spotting photo upthread.

The damage to the inside of the taper is from your dodgy crank puller. I reckon that crank will stay on fine.

Beer can shim. Had a set of Campy square taper in much worse condition, and a small section of aluminium when fitting made it snug for ages.

I inspected the drive side: There are some very very shallow marks where the spindle sat. But I can't feel any edges with my fingers, which I can on the NDS.

I've tightened it several times, strange enough the drive side never comes of... and it's been installed by me also :/

addToBuyingList [torquewrench] :)

Nice commute this morning, quite warm out and slightly less traffic than usual, Stockwell remains a mess with more road works screwing things up.

-4 degrees for me - cold ears and nose! -
followed orions belt all the way and it warmed up on entry into the City, just missed the sea harr rolling in (it messes with my glasses).

It was wet on the south coast this morning so I tried out some new kit.

Sidi Gore tex boots - Ace dry feet.

Gore - Gore tex over shorts - dry bottom but why so baggy!!, had to pull them up like Simon cowell to make them vaguely acceptable. if they had the same cut as a pair of rapha touring shorts they'd be brilliant. (I guess there for Mountain bikers to get rad in)

Big shout out to the prat who sat on my back wheel up through Kennington and lost it when I stopped for the red light. Hope you have a great day.

Otherwise enjoyed the silence of a creak free bike having gotten up early to strip and rebuild the chainset/BB on the CAAD.

Not that cold, but very very damp here in Belfast. The sort of clammy cold you need to protect your fingers/toes against.

All the drivers were spot-on today, it was the cyclists being pratty with one guy running about 4 red lights and a ped on a shared lane that just refused to move a little and kept in the middle of the path. No idea...

First week back riding fixed after about three (probably over-cautious) years on the gears following some pretty hefty ankle surgery. Forgot how much better it is around London! Think I'll keep both brakes fitted while I get back into the swing of things and re-discover those back-peddling muscles! Only a tipper truck swinging across two lanes at me without indicating wiped the smile off my face.

Big low loader with a whacking great pile of timber on the back going through E&C this morning, driver on the phone for all to see. Too much traffic for me to even get a glimpse of the company name let alone the reg.

He wasn't even trying to hide it, clear as day, cunt.

Half-term is great, rode down the A1010 for a change and it was actually pretty pleasant, I think I only got stopped at two set of lights and there was minimal need for filtering. Strava says I managed a 19mph average for the first 20.8 miles, which was nice. Turns out a clear A1010 is much nicer than the A1055.

I really enjoyed the countryside bit of the ride today as well - all misty fields, sunrise (sort of behind me) and birds flying above me. Oh and I was wearing fake POC glasses with clear lenses so I looked like an absolute top pervert.

beeped at by a bus driver on a narrow rat run road with cars parked on either side. fucking arsehole.

In what way did he lose it? Seems like you were doing him a favour and if hes sitting on your wheel he should be ready to brake. I prefer dropping douchey wheel huggers even if it means sweatiness and panting.

I notice that after about 6:30 am all the roads in inner London are crammed full of traffic, and still full of traffic until at least 10pm at night. I guess it is because London is just too overcrowded today and far too many people who live in London drive cars! Why can't car drivers in inner London use public transport instead as I often see loads of buses drive past me that are almost totally empty!

Best way to fuck off wheel huggers is to subtly speed up and slow down inexplicably.

Are you staying there's traffic jam from 6:30am till 10pm?

Do you live in London?

the worse ones are the ones who puke their guts to get up to you and pass you super fast , and then cannot maintain it - thats when i wheelhug them all the way home whistling a happy tune ;)

Called me a fucking something or other before jumping the lights. Perhaps he was expecting a Madison style hand-sling through?

@Skülly - Evil and hilarious. Might save that for some Friday fun.

I had the same with Campy square taper cranks on a Tifosi cartridge BB. Torqued up correctly the bolt kept coming loose. I used cut up feeler gauge to shim 2 adjacent sides of the square and used threadlock to hold the bolt in. What have you got to lose?

encountered a few promuters on kennington road this morning, one of which was probably feeling a bit tired and decided to wheel hug me for a bit, did the inexplicable slow down / speed up trick and he left pretty quick. Thanks for the tip!