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Decided I really want one of these Gazelle trolley tokens. For the integrated lock on my Tour Populair. Anyone got one?

https://www.reallyusefulbikes.co.uk/gazelle/gazelle-trolley-token

You should never remove rim tape, should you? Ignorance being bliss and all.

Some of these spokes are protruding 3mm beyond the nipples. All the nipple washers are badly rusted. Some rusted all the way through. Then at the hub end, some of the spokes are almost pulling through the eyelets.

Going to replace all those oval washers and add some hub-end washers to the most dodgy looking spokes.

Not sure there's much left to break or replace.

Aaaaaand....three broken spokes on the rear wheel.

Can bikes get coronavirus? Coz if they can, this one will.

Yep. 9mm nuts fit snug. So there you go, kids. Don't mistake a 3/8in nut for a 9mm nut. That 0.525mm makes all the difference.

How long before the next breakdown I wonder? Not sure there's much left to break or replace.

Bastard rear wheel slipped a few weeks back. Think I've solved that problem by tightening my nuts. (Did it outside the Vauxhall Tavern, on my commute back home; weak pun intended).

Then last week the bastard front wheel slipped in the dropouts. Wheel nut and axle threads both look a bit worse for wear. Could be because the wheel nuts were 3/8in (not actually sure) on an axle designed for 9mm. Difficult to tell until some new 9mm nuts arrive in the post.

I scarcely dare say it .... but I think this bike might be finished. And finally the gods of bicycle restoration smiled on me.

I tentatively wired up a cheapo new bottle dynamo to the original (and fabulous) headlight and the new (and ugly) tail light, then spun the front wheel obviously expecting absolutely nothing to happen. After all, the internal wiring had been redundant probably for the best part of 30 years. It was bound to corroded. Or broken. Or incomplete. Or something. Because everything on this bike was broken.

But no! Light! Electricity! Be still my beating heart! My bike produced actual electricity! Honestly, if my one-year-old daughter started walking tomorrow, I don't think I'd feel the same level of pride and relief as I did at that moment.

So, time for some finishing touches. A little Gazelle badge at the bottom of the rear mudguard (I was clearly too excited to drill the holes straight) and some totally garish pipe-cleaners around the hubs, for that authentic Dutch touch. In orange, obviously.

No, the tail-light I bought doesn't fit under that protection loop thingy. Shoot me.

Ha, I come to this thread for the monostay and what do I find? A picture of myself chatting Gazelles. Good memories! I totally recall meeting you by the side of the road when that rear mech snapped too.

Bump for a really helpful seller (from an unhelpful non-buyer)

PM'd

Yeah, I thought about bending that loop thing, but it really doesn't want to bend. It's definitely there to protect the rear light (which I'm yet to order).

Potentially a better bodge would be to bring the axle pretty much all the way forwards in the dropout then mount the rack directly behind it in the dropout, using a short, axle-diameter bolt.

I'll try that when the chain starts to go slack, after about 15 years.

Yeah, TBF lockdown may be ruining the lives of my wife and daughter but it has been good news for the bikes and the lawns in this household.

Anyway, the new clutch, pinion pins and gear ring (new dogs; woof) have been installed and the signs are good so far: no slipping gears at all. Hallelujah! But all it takes is an overnight stay in the bike shed and it could all go tits up again. We'll see.

Anyway, the next job is/was getting the kickstand working. Because EVERYTHING on this bike was broken, the hingy bits of the kickstand were bent wildly out of shape. Really soft steel though, so it bent back easily enough after a bit of attention from a mole wrench.

But what's this all about? The kickstand is axle-mounted but in order to give it enough room to clear the mudguard stays, the axle needs to be as far back in the dropouts as it will go.

Obviously that doesn't leave much room for error with the chain length. In fact, in order to give the kickstand the necessary clearance and keep the chain tight enough that it doesn't drag on the bottom of the chainguard, I've had to use a half link.

Why, why, why is this kickstand (and rack) axle-mounted?!

The twin giants, Ebay and SJS, have delivered.

Love a NOS parts box.

Also, check this out: Sturmey knew best all along.

Bad dogs.

Boom. There was one on Ebay after all.

But just to make sure, I'm also ordering new bearings, a new clutch, new pinion pins and new cones.

The part that I need is HSA 118. But that's long discontinued. Can't see any up for sale on ebay either.

Anyone know if any of the options on SJS are compatible? Seems like they could be interchangeable, but that's a big assumption.

Put everything in that Sturmey Archer hub back together, all beautifully cleaned, oiled and regreased. Reinstalled the wheel I'd finally cracked it when I took it out for a long evening ride and it didn't miss a beat. Glorious. Put the bike back in the bike shed feeling very satisfied.

Took the bike out two days later, started riding it and ... it's back to slipping around in second gear like fish on a waterslide.

FFS. FML.

Took it all apart again tonight to have a closer look and think I might have found the issue.

In second gear (which is where the gear slips), the clutch engages directly with these teeth in the gear assembly. On mine, the corners of these teeth are worn down. I reckon that's causing the clutch to slip off. I can temporarily solve the problem by tightening the gear chain so that the clutch engages higher up these teeth....but that causes problems with the alignment in the low gear instead.

My gear assembly has only four teeth. But by the look of the SJS spares list, all the replacement gear assemblies have many more, which presumably spreads the load and prevents the teeth wearing so quickly.

Put this all back together and reinstalled the wheel.

Everyone (including @Jonny69 above) says that, to get the gears operating properly, there should be a tiny bit of cable slack in the high gear position and an even tinier bit of indicator chain movement in the low-gear position. Trouble is, I can't get both.

In order to get the cable tight enough to stop the gears slipping in 2nd, the cable is so tight in 1st that I fear something is going to snap. There's no movement at all, which isn't right.

There's also no play in the rim, which there is supposed to be.

All of this leads me to think that the drive-side cone is too tight. By loosening it off, I should increase the range of movement in the driver.

So that's tonight's task.

Best jigsaw I've done in lockdown.

My guru

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHHaajDcL_g

Closer inspection of the SA rear hub strongly suggests that my LBS were lying when they said they disassembled and serviced it.

I'm waiting for this beast to arrive in the post, so that I really can get down and dirty.

Five months later and I'm interested in this project again. And, no longer trusting my LBS, I've opened up a Sturmey Archer-flavoured can of worms and I'm tucking in. Yummy.

Resolva's lawn-safe weedkiller is your friend. Works unbelievably well. Grass doesn't even notice it; dandelions are totally gone in days.

PM'd.