RVL's Ugly Ducklings

Your garden is so lovely, very jealous of it currently. Nice bike too!

Thanks, never have I been more happy to have it! plenty of time to keep it pristine too!

So good!

Cheers mate

this is bonkers.. :) also, sell me that seatpost! or could you just measure the cradle's diameter, please? i got one with missing parts and wanted to buy a new one for parts or make the bits myself..

why thank you!
re: seatpost (ITM Millenium) - mines a bit battered but I'm happy to swap it for another of similar quality (27.2)
Also I'm more than happy to put a vernier to it - it'll have to wait till later in the week as I'm in the labs quite a bit over the coming days.

Very nice. Not sure about the chainrings but a very well proportioned build!

Cheers, yes they're quite weird to ride on at first but you get used to them after about 10 miles.. I just fancied trying them out and thought that the 105 chainset looked a bit boring with plain silver rings!

@Rik_Van_Looy I was trying to find how you straightened the forks again on your rat but the photos are not working anymore.. I'm doing something similar atm so any tips on how you did it?

Ah, yes I think they got lost in a dropbox purge!
sorry.
It was quite a while ago (2014?) but if my memory serves. the fork crown must be protected in the jaws of the vice so you know you're bending the blades not stressing the joint - Cover vice jaws with something compliant (yellow stuff)

1 Attachment

Next step is to attach some bike chain to a length of wood - I used a 1.5m length of 100 x 50mm pine - the sort of thing used for internal walls....
The longer the better really....
Put a bit of bike tyre around the fork blade to protect it from the chain and then use the wood to pull the blade out until it looks right....

1 Attachment

You then move the fork in the vice so you can do the other blade - same process and do it by eye.

To check you've got it right, you need to find an even surface - kitchen worktop?
Place the fork down as shown in the diagram and use a vernier scale or steel rule to check the height of the crown above the surface - I think I had a proper poncey height gauge but an upside down caliper will do.

1 Attachment

The next bit is trickier - you need to check that you're centred side to side.....
I found a straight bar of steel that fitted neatly in the hole at the bottom of the fork crown....
It may be possible to do this with a piece of string and a weight or by wrapping a straight bar in tape till it fits in the steerer - you need to know that a=b in the image below

1 Attachment

All these steps are theoretical suggestions for how one might go about straightening a bent fork and what sorts of things you need to look out for.....
This is a bloody stupid thing to do and only a fool would do it.

Having said that it worked fine on my Chas Roberts

But I can also promise that any compromises you make will flash through your mind and haunt /torment you as you try and concentrate on your cornering line at 40mph - I did a Gran Fondo event in the Mendips on that bike and those forks and am still alive to tell the tale!

1 Attachment

Thanks a lot! Appreciate it

no worries and good luck!

I did something similar on a project a few years ago. My fork was only off side->side though.

Ah, yes that looks like a good technique for alignment check
If you make a centre mark on the dummy axle
Pull string so it follows steerer centre-line
String should align with mark on dummy axle when forks are right - no measurement required!

Exactly. But I measured a bit all the same, and scratched my head here and there.

fair enough.
The other thing that your dummy axle solution does is give a quick check that you've still got 100mm OLN which is also pretty important when you bend the forks!

thanks, would appreciate it (i think it's easier to measure than to swap it given the current circumstances)

Cool, no worries.
I'll get the calipers out tomorrow

Oops, forgot about the millenium post. will get on it tomorrow.
On the subject of millenium schizz I tarted up my Duratec this week with carbon milleniums, S500 brake levers, a bontrager speed limit brake tanwall duranos and some freecycle Fuji Feather wheels from @Pathracer

1 Attachment