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Well, if Cap'n Blighty didn't think we were a bunch of dicks on this forum I'd say he does now.
Oh, no, not at all. I just close my eyes and remember that we kicked your asses out of our part of the world in 1778 and then did it again in 1814. And then had to pull your fat out of the fire in 1917 and again in 1942. Anything said kind of pales in comparison....

LOLs

Um. What kind of noisy? High-pitched squeaking like a plague of rats, or is it more of a 'gnurr, gnurr' grinding?

If the former, it's a tightness/lube issue, probably lube. Your chainline looks OK to me, not perfect but still pretty good. If the latter, you may be running around with a 3/32" chain on 1/8" cogs. This WILL make a grinding noise, because the steel chain will be grinding the softer ally away from the cogteeth. Check the chain for little flecks of ally.

It's OK to have a 1/8" chain on 3/32" cogs. That 1/64" on each side is about--what--3/10 mm clearance? No problem at all. But the other way will def. kludge things for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-8b04w6Y6Y

It is the home of Soul Asylum, Gear Daddies, Prince (and please accept my apologies for Under the Cherry Moon), Husker Du, The Replacements, Surly bicycles and Surly Brewing. It is the finest place in the USA to live, and if anyone from London wishes to join in, I will make sure you have a place to stay either free or very reasonably priced and have a bicycle that fits you to ride while you're here. I'll probably get you drunk, and put you in proximity to any number of tight-bodied young things (we're not all fat).

Can't say fairer than that.

Wally. Not Willie.

Jesus.

If you want to find Jesus here, you have definitely walked into the wrong shop, brother.

I've never been to London. Rome, yes; Paris, yes, Barcelona, yes. New York, never want to go there. But I've never been to London. I've been given to understand it's just a fantastic city, though the weather tends toward the dreary. Might drive everyone to take laudanum just to stay sane, and give rise to all sorts of Shakespearean ailments such as dropsy, ague, consumption and the pox.

So this winter, why not shake off the doldrums by coming to Minneapolis, Minnesota USA for The Greatest Alleycat Race On The Continent ©®™-- the annual Stupor Bowl? Come slip the surly bonds of fog and snow for cold clean clear air that's substantially below zero! Come ride like a madman over unfamiliar roads, dodging ignorant fat American drivers in ignorant fat American cars! Drink lots and lots of really good beer (seriously, Minneapolis has some of the best beer brewed anywhere. Even by British beer-drinkers standards.) and then ride like a madman( etc.), drunk!!

Sound like a good time? Okay, now that I've scared off the lightweights, here's what's happening: The race will be run on February 6th, 2010. It's the day before the Super Bowl, the American football championship event. Pre-race briefings take place in bars for most of the week previously. I'm sure any visitors, regardless of gender, will find many friendly tour guides willing to familiarize them with the town. The town itself is laid out, roughly, as two grids at an angle to each other, with the Mississippi River bisecting them. It's easy to get around in, even for visitors.

As to the race itself: Fixie/SS is the weapon of choice (though of course anything on two wheels is welcome), and the race is about 20-30 miles with some 15-25 checkpoints. One year, there was a checkpoint in a treehouse and another on the ice in the middle of a frozen lake. The checkpoints are usually fairly straightforward though there is talk of including something difficult for someone deep in oxygen debt, such as factoring an equation, finding Waldo (Willie, as I think you lot call the fella in the red-and-white striped shirt buried in the crowd) or one of those 3-D Magic Eye puzzles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupor_Bowl.

Freewheel Bike Shop, does rentals if you don't want to fly with your fixie

Minneapolis Bike Love forum, now welcoming new members!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q61GCdRE_y8
Kinda windy but gives an idea what the course is like, check out "related videos" for other SB events

Minneapolis is second only to Portland Oregon as a bicycle-friendly city, and there are those (myself among them) who would argue that the winters here add a dimension that puts us head and shoulders above the rest. If you've the time and money, hop the pond. Do some drinking. Have a ball.

edited 12-07-09 because of gender politics and my lack of desire for more confrontation in my life

Loctite or some other thread sealer is a good idea, too. Or you can use the bolts that have a nylon "friction patch" running down the shank of the bolt.

Carefully drill out the old rivet head. Drill into the quill body with an appropriately sized drill bit. Tap for appropriately sized screw.

Angle grinder is the way to go. Propane will not get the area hot enough to melt out the filler. In addition, you'd be pouring heat into a structure that has been carefully triangulated and in many cases, stress-relieved. Without some pretty elaborate jigging, it's all to easy to warp a frame well out of true. And you'd have a hell of a time using one to remove a derailleur hanger boss, as they're usually cast integral to the dropout, or welded on (not brazed or soldered).

Have you considered the Kona Paddy Wagon? Around $650 USD, good component spec. Right at 10 kilo.

Surly's a good bicycle, but considering it's a Chiwanese frame with Shimano and other PacRim components, it's kind of overpriced, I think the Surly name carries a premium that might be undeserved.

Just my two pence.

I wish I could understand the sun the way that windows do.
Brilliant. I've thought for years that a window is as much a mirror as it is transparent; that if you look out a window and see beauty and love and vistas of hope or if you see squalor and filth and despair, it really says more about you than the view itself. And I think it's the same with the view over the bars, ennit?

Here in the northern prairies of the You Ess of Ayyyyyyy, we didn't get much of an autumn; in the space of a week, the weather turned from sweltering turbidity to the dankest, coldest wettest October on record. Fortunately, I have nice Phillips mudguards on my old Raleigh Super Course SS, and was able to cycle through the drizzle in fairly good order. But like anyone else, I really treasured those days when the sun would come out and the maple leaves glimmered in that special light one only finds on the best of days, when the light penetrates into the world and shows you the true shape of things.

Winter doth approach, as it always does, and our National Weather Service has put out a long-term forecast warning of a long, cold, snowy season. I reckon that's going to have to be all right; there's nothing I can do about it, and (SSSHHHH!!! Big Secret Here!) I have long believed that if silence could be made manifest, it would look like falling snow framed in the streetlamps.

There is nothing, [i]nothing[/] in my life that gives me as much simple, present joy as simply riding the bike.

I can think of nothing else in my life that has

This one doesn't show her feet. I imagine they're clean.

Hello.

Yes, another bloody Yank has joined your forum. Please rest assured I shan't be loutish; nor do I plan to dismantle your language.

I may request clarification with some of the slang used, but I'll also try not to be a pest about it.

Cheers
Blight