Donohue 853 lo-pro track/road fixed

gets brompton in black

paints fixed bike brompton orange

looks good!

Thanks.

It's darker than Brompton orange. More baked beans colour. Plus I didn't get a Brompton in black - the broken Brompton I inherited happened to be black.

Looks good. Build it!

Looks rad! When did you get the Brompton up and running? You'll be Tommy Twenty Bikes soon...

The Brompton is technically up and running, but still hasn't had the derailleur or hub gear cabled, so I have been riding it on something like 52x14 for a week. I think the pedals are about to snap off after every traffic light and hill.

Over the course of the afternoon I've hit a couple more snags with the Donouhue too.

Firstly, I went to chase and face it myself at my old workplace. The driveside threads don't go in far enough, and even with the chasing tool, it was impossible to get enough thread clear to face it properly, and the BB protrudes c.1mm, which I will need to fix with a spacer.

Then it turns out the Campag BB I bought the other week has the (correct) BSA thread drive-side, but the NDS cup is Italian threaded. D'oh. I fitted the Shimano BB-UN53 again as a stopgap until I can get the right cup.

Thirdly, one of the seat clamp 'ears' was bent and wouldn't admit the clamp bolt. This was relatively easily fixed by gently bending it with an 8mm hex key.

Finally, and what has made me give up for the day, is the fact that I still can't get a seatpost to comfortably fit. I can get one to go down about as far as the old seatpost was stuck, and then no further, apart from with huge resistance. Which is bad. I now have a theory has to what helped the old seatpost get stuck - I suspect the frame is made for a 27.0mm seatpost, and a 27.2mm post was forced in. Fingers crossed a 27.0mm seatpost, when I find one, will fit, otherwise I'm stuck again.

FML, and FTB.

(fuck this bike)

Tommmmm do you by any chance live on an old indian graveyard?

get the seat tube reamed properly to 27.2 as far down as you need. far better solution than trying to find a 27.0 post and hoping the tube is still tight enough to not cause trouble later on.

On the other hand, 6 inches is plenty, if its not a precious seatpost, cut it.

Who is going to bore a seatpost for me? That's not standard bike shop fare, is it?

I think boring might be the best idea, it's actually about 4 inches that it will go in, any more than that and it leaves gouges on the seatpost. If it is just slightly misshapen or something sticking out boring would hopefully sort that as well.

On the other hand, 6 inches is plenty

Is that what you tell all the girls?

Mrs Ncjlee didn't need telling.

Mrs Ncjlee didn't need telling.

Who's that then :-(
foreveralone.jpg

your mam, not your mrs!

That would be Dr Lee to you.

Precisely why she didn't need telling, gave me a thorough examination....

it's actually about 4 inches

That's what I heard.

Who is going to bore a seatpost for me? That's not standard bike shop fare, is it?

I think boring might be the best idea, it's actually about 4 inches that it will go in, any more than that and it leaves gouges on the seatpost. If it is just slightly misshapen or something sticking out boring would hopefully sort that as well.

Hutch from Retro Di Corsa reamed a seattube from 27.0 to 27.2 for me.

I have bought a 27.0mm seatpost as well, just in case that works. It was cheap anyway. Going to try that after the football.

Who is going to bore a seatpost for me? That's not standard bike shop fare, is it?

Fitzrovia cycles

Orange looks boss!

Thanks, it's a good shade in real life, maybe not quite so bright as it looks there.

So I bought a 27mm seatpost today just to try it out. It slides in nicely, like a well-fitting seatpost should, but then the clamp won't properly clamp it and stop it sliding from side to side.

It's almost as if the top four inches or so have been reamed to 27.2mm, while below that it's still 27mm. Or maybe it's just that the area where the seatpost was stuck was properly wire brushed after they removed it, and further down has a couple of burrs or some corrosion which is stopping it from fitting properly.

I reckon if I can get it reamed (which is probably going to have to wait a while seeing as the new job starts tomorrow), I can then turn my attention to the other things which are bound to go wrong.

could you maybe fashion a shim out of something for that top 4 inches?

tommm, ryan @ oak has a shaver thing to ream the rest of the ST to 27.2

he did the same to my alan