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OK, I know exactly what you mean. I have put the same brake on my current project and I have the same issue. My guess is that it is poor manufacturing. Which is a bit shoddy really.

And today on Playschool, we're going to look through the round window...

Actually, other than the wheels (and the huge number of spacers on that headset), I rather like it.

Wrapping one turn of masking tape around the place you are going to cut can help - stops the hacksaw slipping.

Is it the front third (If so, this is called toe-in)? And does more of the pad touch if you squeeze the brakes harder?

Because of the way the wheel moves through the pads, if the front third of the pad touches as you start to brake, the motion of the wheel will pull more of the back part of the pad onto the rim as you continue to brake. I believe this set-up makes the brakes as efficient as they can be.

I remember years ago spending ages tinkering with the pads on my MTB's canti brakes to get the right amount of toe-in for maximum braking effectiveness.

Have a look at this article, right down at the bottom.
http://www.jimlangley.net/wrench/brake1.htm

103mm JIS BBs are fairly easily available. I just bought the Tange one from Velo solo for not very many notes with great service and speedy shipping. Shame your LBS did not know where to look.

But yes, a spacer should work, provided that there is then a good amount of thread left to screw on the freewheel. If the freewheel is hanging on by too little thread, you risk knackering the thread.

Yes, must admit, the same thought went through my head when I was walking to the station yesterday (strange the things you suddenly mull over when you're not on your bike).

Having said that, it does assume that the propulsive force is spread fairly evenly across all the sprocket or chainring teeth that are in contact with the chain, rather than the majority of the force being applied to one chainring tooth and one sprocket tooth (which, unless I am imagining this wrong, would happen if the chain spacing were marginally greater than the tooth spacing).

Been a long day, so ignore if I am being totally stupid / nonsensical.

Ordered a Dia Compe rear brake from them since they were the only store I could find in the UK that seemed to have any in stock, but I rang them first to double check they actually had the item and that the website was not lying. Order arrived a couple of days later, no problems. Free shipping too and price was lower than most other retailers.

Will be slightly more cautious in the future having read all the bad rap they receive here.

So postal service finally got itself sorted out and I received most of the bits and pieces I was waiting for, for my Peugeot conversion. Have posted a couple of photos in the Current Projects thread in Bikes & Bits:
http://www.londonfgss.com/thread6261-322.html#16067

My frame was very similar (identical?) to Sam's a few posts above (the maroon colour). Currently trying to work out what to do about grips (see photos post).

103mm Tange BB, EighthInch cranks (chainring on inside of spider), Halo fixed/free rear, Andel cog seems to give me a pretty good chainline (on the fixed side) at first glance.

Work in progress. Fixed-singlespeed flip flop (although I doubt I will use the singlespeed - beginning to wish I'd bought a fixed-fixed)

Currently struggling to work out what to do about grips. Really like the anodised straight bar*, so feel like it would be a bit rude to cover it up with grips. On the other hand, don't want to lose too much control / comfort... Current options:
1) Leave as is with no grips
2) Transparent grips
3) Do something funky (homemade) with some offcuts of blue leather (if I can find some)
Thoughts?

(* not as nice as the lino ones, but a helluva lot cheaper)

I was looking at some of the fixie / singlespeeds in Evans the other day and there were two Charge Plugs, one with the chain mounted like hippy's picture above, and one mounted the other way around...

:-p

Wicksie,

Walking distance from centre of Brixton. Will be in this evening. Can you bring the frame with you - going to be needing the tool over the next couple of days, so would rather not let it go!

PM me, and let's see if we can work something out. Of course, can't promise my tools will be able to sort it out - I don't have a bench vice.

No pics taken yet. It is currently looking sorry for itself. It has been sitting in the stand for 2 weeks now with no further work. Currently just has brakes, stem, seatpost and saddle attached. Other parts as follows:

• Front wheel (in box in loft, waiting for its rear mate to arrive)
  
• Rear wheel delayed by Halo's total inability to keep up with demand
  
• Brake levers, cables, pedals sitting around waiting for something to attach to
  
• Bars + cranks, came from US, delayed because of postal strikes
  
• BB, sprocket, lockring, freewheel, decent lockring tool, all delayed because of postal strikes
  
  

I'm a bit bloody fed up with postal strikes (if you hadn't noticed)...

If some of these bits and pieces arrive in the next couple of days, I will take and post some pics at the weekend.

Wicksie,

Bottom picture with hexagonal bolt-head thing - should turn anticlockwise to remove (judging by the picture of the threads - unless my eyes are deceiving me, or you have flipped the image). You will need to remove this one first (don't bother putting a spanner on the other side at the same time - it won't help).

Other one (top picture) likely to turn the other way to remove. However, the tools you have in that picture look totally inadequate for that job. I tried removing mine with a big, good quality adjustable and failed, but when I found my big flat spanner (designed for BB removal), it was actually really easy.

Where are you based - anywhere near SW9? Otherwise, find somewhere nearby with a big vice you can borrow for 60 seconds.

31trum: rear sprocket will turn ~3 times for every turn of the front (assuming something similar to a 48 front, 16 rear), so you would expect it to wear out 3 times quicker.

Malaysian: Alloy will wear out quicker than steel, but you are right, it is lighter (although that would not be my deciding factor given the extra weight I carry around my middle...). I asked myself the same question about alloy vs. steel on Monday this week, and figured I would go for steel this time because I tend to accelerate pretty hard, and (over time) do tend to deform teeth on alloy chainrings.

The key advantage of alloy (from my perspective) is that you can get some cool anodised colours. Was very tempted by the gold ones available from Velosolo and also some of the other colours you can get from Charlie the Bikemonger.

Robadob.

Very, very likely to be English BB. It was early 80s that Pug switched over to using English BBs (perhaps late 70s?). My Pug (which is slowly coming together - many parts stuck in the postal strike (I hate postal strikes)) is a carbolite and was extremely similar to the pic you post (albeit mine was maroon, not white, and is now blue).

Very easy to work out whether it is an English BB - just check the thread direction on the right hand side of the BB. If the turning the BB cup clockwise unscrews the cup, it is English.

D'you think (s)he's doing it on purpose? And if so, where does (s)he get the time?

Having said that, I'm finding it all pretty entertaining.

A EF: Perhaps an uninformed / naive question, but are you sure that the distance from centre to shoulder is the same on the freewheel side of the hub as it is on the fixed side? By centre, I mean exactly half way between the locknuts, not half way between the flanges.

Example:

• If centre to shoulder on fixed side is 35.6, your chainline will be 35.6 + 6.4 = 42mm
  
• If centre to shoulder on freewheel side is 34.11, your chainline will be 34.11 + 7.89 = 42mm
  
  

Now, I am sure it won't work out this perfectly, but if centre to shoulder measurement is different on both sides, it will impact how much spacing you need behind the Surly / Andel.

Perhaps I am being a bit dim (quite possible) and missing the point. If so, please ignore.

Some info for all of you with Aerorage wheels on back order.

I just spoke to a very nice chap at Ison Distribution (the UK distributor), and a container is due to arrive in the UK on Monday. It was due in this week, but got delayed.

I was told that there is enough stock in there to clear some but not all of the back orders.

My guess is that if you ordered over 6 weeks ago, you have a good chance of getting your wheels towards the end of next week, but if you ordered over the past couple of weeks, you are likely to have to wait until the next shipment which is due in at the beginning of October.

Fair challenge. Unless you are incredibly lucky, your chainline will be rubbish when you throw on a standard single-speed freewheel. You may need to respace your rear axle and redish the wheel to make this work - good article on Sheldon's site on this:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/deakins/how-to-fixed-conversion.html

Looks really great in red. Build that baby and let her run.

There was a thread on exactly the same freewheel over the weekend:
http://www.londonfgss.com/thread28938.html

I believe I have a tool that would get this freewheel off the wheel, if you are anywhere near SW9 (or KT1 during working hours). When you get the freewheel off, you will find that the hub is simply threaded, which should mean that you can just screw a bog standard single-speed freewheel on it (probably much better option than trying to take the current freewheel apart).

If you take this to your LBS and buy a freewheel from them, they may be very willing to swap the two over for you at no extra cost.

Spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch.

Hang on, that's something different...

Been into loft - not got old freewheel, so can't work out if it comes apart :-( Found freewheel removal tools tho'

Reckon your best bet is to find a way to get 5spd freewheel off, and replace with dedicated singlespeed freewheel. If you go and buy freewheel from your LBS, they will likely be willing to take the old one off and fit the new one for you at no further charge.

Otherwise, I reckon your sprockets probably simply unscrew (in the normal way). You could try:

• Put wheel back in frame with chain properly attached (but not to smallest sprocket).
  
• Fix cranks into a set position somehow. If you have a big G-clamp, put it around cranks and downtube (or seat tube) to fix cranks.
  
• Using chain whip, try to unscrew / loosen smallest sprocket
  
• Pray you don't trash your fingers when something slips
  Note: would recommend using some heavy duty workman's gloves, just in case
  

Can anyone tell me the chainline on a Halo track hub? Is it the standard 42mm? Done a great deal of searching, and the closest I can find to getting this info is the combination of the transmission database:

Sugino RD + Sugino/103mm + Halo + Halo = Hotwls

and Harris Cyclery which tells me that Sugino RD on 103mm Bottom bracket gives 42 mm chainline with the chainring on the inside of the spider

Unfortunately Hotwls combo does not tell me whether the chainring is on the inside or outside.

Unfortunately, can't measure the thing myself: ordered Halo Aerorage wheel weeks ago and seems UK is out of stock, so no idea when it is going to arrive. Need to work out what length BB to get (want to get the rest of the bike built before the wheel arrives)- I know that my cranks will give 42mm chainline on a 107 JIS BB.

Thanks all.