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I did it once using A-roads in somewhere between 6 and 7 hours. It was a hard ride, I was trying to do it at a good speed and I was really fit then too. I do not remember any hills of any significance. 129 miles from where I lived in East London. Unless you are VERY fit (I was racing then, long road races and team time trials) go on main roads or take two days over it.

Yes, sounds perfect, you should be able to get up almost anything with that, spin up to 25mph on the flat for short distances, and go down hill at any speed.

Brake cables rusty inside outer cover?

Try spraying lots of WD40 in from both ends or replace them?

Headset loose? Hold the forks in one hand, handlebar stem in the other and wiggle, if you can feel there is play in the headset then that is the answer. Tighten it or you will pemanently damage the ball-bearing races.

Dear All,

Apologies for not replying to the many messages - I will - sorry but I realise I need to get some photographs before it is going to be realistically possible to discuss prices and whether you folks are interested. As soon as I do I will post again.

1. Joe Waugh 531 C. 22 1/2" frame, cinelli cast crown and bottom bracket, chrome dropouts and chainstay. Shimano 7400/Campag record components. Ice blue colour.

2. Steve Thornhill 531C. 22 1/2" frame. Shimano 600 EX/Campag Record components. Light pink.

3. Roberts 531C. 22 1/2". Track bike. Very rigid. Campag hubs. Dark blue. Drilled for a front brake.

All in my sister's attic in Alvechurch - sorry no photos as I live in London now. All in VGD.

Offers, and questions are welcomed.

Make a small hole in the underside of lights so water can drain out.

I use the Sheldon method, more or less.

Put the bike upside down, turn until you find a tight spot, slacken bolts but not completely just enough to allow the chainring to move if it receives a tap, then tap the chain to move the ring slightly - because it is at a tight spot it should move the chainring slightly in such a way to remove some of the tight spot tension, then tighten bolts a little, rotate again to see if there is still a tight spot then begin again if yes. Aim to have a significant improvement, not perfection.

This has worked for me.

Afterwards when you position the wheel do in a way so that there is a little slack in the chain when you feel with your fingers, but not enough that you can feel movement when you check by moving the cranks backwards and forwards. The wheel should turn freely, check over the whole rotation as a really tight spot left will potentially damage bearings and also increase drive train resistance (of course).

One thing that will break spokes is if the tensions are all out of balance throughout the wheel putting stress on individual spokes - okay that is obvious, and already said.

One way to check if this is the case is to pluck the spokes (like a harp) if they all have more or less the same 'note' (which will be a different 'note' on each side of the wheel if it is dished) then okay - it is another problem.You will probably find though is that there are very different notes even if the wheel is more or less true, in which case you need to properly retension those with much higher and lower notes whilst keeping it 'true' (easier said than done unless you have some skill here - better for a 'builder' with a jig to do), just replacing snapped spokes will not work - they will snap again.

What

For general road/commuting I would begin with around 72" - for instance 48 front ring, 18 sprocket, if your rear wheel is threaded both sides then put a bigger sprocket on the other side - to make a smaller gear when you turn the wheel around for polo. When you do this make sure that your chain is the right length so that you can run both size sprockets.

One thought about gluing the cuts - superglue 'gel' works best.

Dear all, thank you - very useful, I will do/bear all of this in mind and see how this new tube does now .......

Thanks, good idea, I will try it.

Thanks - but the same thing happened twice with two different makes, I cannot remember which makes now, but I am sure they were different ...

Any thoughts on this please.

On the same wheel I have in two weeks had the rubber split next to the valve stem causing a puncture.

The stem-hole does not seem to have any sharp edges, I have kept the tube at the same pressure (for the last two years - the same wheel, same pressure).

The valve is in at 90 degrees. I do not even have a wild theory about why this is happening. Any thoughts out there please?

This will sound silly but you can easily check spoke tensions by plucking them like a harp - it will not tell you the right tension, but an unevenly tensioned wheel will have very differently sounding spokes, and it may then give you some ideas where to begin retensioning. If it is beyond anything minor and unless you know what you are doing, and have a jig, I would suggest taking it to a builder to retension

I did this once - reused old spokes, it works, but it adds quite a bit of time undoing the old wheel, cleaning, swapping damaged nipples etc.

I would not do this again, unless money was a big issue.

Adjusting speed in traffic is a pleasure on fixed, on SS you will need 5 times as many brake blocks ...

48x17 with 25mm tyres gives about 74". I can get up any hill I need to although Highgate area is a push and 30 mph is quite achievable on the flat without spinning out. I would try around 74" unless you are going for long rides with steep hills. I dropped down to 71" once or twice but just couldn't stop myself putting the 17 back on a week later ....

Make sure you are turning it the right way too - check carefully about the thread direction, I seem to remember that the threads go the opposite way on each side of the BB. Someone else confirm that has an old BB set ?

From what I remember of my threadless it simply slid into the bottom bracket shell and the lock nuts at either end clamped it in place - so it does not matter about the condition of the threads in the bottom bracket at all. Probably if you can make it a really snug fit in the bottom bracket shell and 'locktight'/glue the lock rings then it will work fine.

Yes, I used a threadless for a while but the lock rings kept working loose..

You can rethread it by running some silver solder in and then re-tapping it, but unless you have all the tools necessary it would be best given to a frame builder to do.

Hairspray ... clean the grease off the seat pin and inside of the seat tube with acetone, or some degreaser, mark the correct height, spray hairspray on the seat pin, tighten seat bolt, and .... see if it works ... it did for me in a similar situation.

Spare 18 here 1/8.

Yes, off the bike spin the wheel and look at the gap between the wheel and one of the brake blocks, you will probably find that the wheel is no longer 'true' and hits the brake block at some points and not others.