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It's surprisingly strong actually. I actually tested it on a tin can for fun, and it crushed it far more than I could with my bare hands.

Just thought I'd post the "mission accomplished" pic, and my worst bike experience to date.

Removed the non-drive side lockring very easily, and the cup with my bare hands. The other side was much more tricky. Eventually I ended up with this massive adjustable wrench and this really, really awesome clamp device with rubber feet. It was very, very tightly in place, but the clamp device came through and allowed me to put in the force required to get it moving.

That was the easy part.

Next, I found out that one of the bearings for the main bolt inside the rear derailleur was broken. With all my effort, and a couple of very damaged allen keys, I could not unscrew it. I noticed that I could turn the whole thing, and that also unscrews it, but of course when you do that it hits the chainstays. An hour and many hacksaw blades later, I cut off the derailleur hangar and I was able to rotate the entire thing.

Just to rub a bit of salt into the wound, the bottom bracket cable guide was also some kind of extremely shit design. It was built using a sort of fixed pin into a circular metal socket which had no thread could not be undone. I hacksawed the guide off, and then hammered the pin back down inside and finally managed to get it out. Terrible, terrible design - never seen anything like it.

Anyway, here she is:

After:

Before:

Bugger.
According to Mr. Brown, It should be okay with a longer spindle? Most of the online stores I'm looking at don't mention which their bottom brackets are, do I just have to go off the brand?
Thanks for the help.

I have one of these "Tange" ones, and they also do an even cheaper Stronglight one for about £20 shipped http://www.velosolo.co.uk/shopchain.html.

I have a 14mm socket wrench but no lockring tool. My lockring tool got rounded off and hid under my funiture don't know where it is anymore lol.

Heh okay, thanks anyway though. :)

Actually, gonna hijack the thread a bit, I'm just replacing the same kind of old bottom bracket with a shimano cartridge BB (UN-55). I assumed the square tapers would be the same thickness on both kinds, so just ordered the same width BB, though now I've got the cartridge in, the cranks sit too close to the frame and the inner chainring rubs against the chain stay. So I guess the Shimano tapers are narrower? PAIN IN THE ARSE.
Any idea how much wider BB I should order? The old one was 118mm, I'm thinking 127mm as it's making contact with the chains stays before I've even tightened it fully. Anyone else had this problem? advice?

Yeah you'll probably need a bigger bottom bracket (though 9mm bigger seems a lot) and also some of these: http://www.velosolo.co.uk/bbspacers.html
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=36416&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Shopping&utm_name=UnitedKingdom

You'll need a crank arm puller and (probably) a 14mm socket wrench first. Once the cranks are off, maybe you can loosen the lock ring by hand? You could probably loosen it with a screwdriver (Be gentle!) as for the other side (can't really see it under the grime!). It might be possible to unscrew with a wrench, though it's very hard to get enough grip on such a narrow surface. Why not get the cranks off, then take it down to a halfords and use their tools?

yeah you'll need that tool for the bottom bracket and the crankset will just need a normal crankpuller which you can get from halfords. Where abouts in southwark are you? I might be able to lend you mine if you wanted.

Thanks for the replies. I have a crankpuller, but I don't have either the 14mm socket wrench (I have a 13mm but it's too small) or the lockring tool. YellowJxC, do you have those? I'm near Canada Water

Hey guys,

I have a bottom bracket and crankset that looks like this, and I need to get them both removed by Monday afternoon at the latest. Firstly, which tools do I need - one like this I assume but what else?

Does anyone know a bike shop in or near Southwark that can do this without having to book in advance? Or even better, if anyone has the required tools that I could borrow, rent or buy then that would be excellent.

Thanks very much!

Just spent 9 hours in hospital being prodded and x-rayed having been hit by a car in essex this morning. I was conscious but on the deck after the impact and know there were witnesses, and the policeman that was on the scene came to the hospital to tell me the driver had been charged with dangerous driving (he basically deliberately cut me up on a roundabout at speed) but I don't know what this means in terms of do I still have to chase them up/push for justice, or given that I was whisked off to hospital and clearly the victim, it should speak for itself? I've got the incident no. but obv. no witness details-can I get them from the police? I've yet to give an official statement so want to go through this thread in detail and get my shit together so this stupid prick gets the sentence he deserves.

I'm a bit edgy as I've always had the impression the police want nothing to do with these sorts of things, and the policeman went from saying 'the driver hit you' to 'the driver clipped your front wheel' (I remember pounding into bodywork, and my front wheel is fine as my pelvis and shoulder took the impact), and I'm freelance doing a physical job, so if I can't work for even a couple of weeks, I be fucked.

Studpidly been meaning to join CTC for ages and put it off. Will be joining tomorrow.

Read the thread and you will have your answers.

I had a crash at the Weekend on my old dawes, I wanted to get back on the road as soon as possible so have allowed the drivers father to buy me a replacement bike. Am i likely to have invalidated any claim by doing so?

Also i was filtering through traffic down the left hand side, when the vehicle coming in the opposite direction took a right turn into a minor road and collided with me. Is this going to be classed as my fault, her fault or a proportion of the blame going each way?

Probably partial blame on each party. I suspect that it depends how fast you were coming out from undertaking the car. I don't think anyone broke any laws in this case as the law is defined in the highway code as "MUST". It does say "stay in your lane if traffic is moving slowly in queues. If the queue on your right is moving more slowly than you are, you may pass on the left", but also "only overtake on the left if the vehicle in front is signalling to turn right, and there is room to do so".

If you accepted any money for injury or loss of time then this will have invalidated any claim. Accepting a replacement bike may be "acceptance of liability" from the driver or "acceptance of settlement" from you, or both. You're best off contacting some specialist solicitors because this is quite a complex case. What kind of injuries do you have?

Edit: By the way, if you're each 50% liable then the driver is 50% liable for your injuries and bike damage, and you're 50% liable for the driver's car damage (presumably no injury). With "50%" meaning 50% of what you would pay if it was entirely your fault.

ooosh, look after yerself
Heh, I try... London is dangerous though.

Any good rides coming up? Saw the Randonee but don't think I'd be able to meet you guys as you'd start from a different spot.

is your injury gone now Ta2?
Nah it still hurts all the bloody time, however I am totally fine cycling. Word from the docs is that it will take 18 months to stop hurting completely (i.e. April 2012). Perhaps on the plus side, I think my pain threshold has gone way up from the constant pain. :P

Just a quick thanks for the advice, spoke to cycle aid who told me to tell the insurers to stick it as they were taking the piss and that £1K would be the minimum to accept for the injuries and that they should be paying out for my property and that there was no way the driver could not accept liability. Net result: they just folded. Cheque in the post and driver accepted liability so massive thanks ta2!
No problem bud, just spread the word so that other cyclists don't get taken advantage of by greedy ****s.

Well done guys and thanks for the route Sam! Here's a few snaps from my phone.

Album here: http://arcg.imgur.com/20110409_lfgss_to_bournemouth

At Boots in Alton. Where are you guys?

late to the party here but just checked the weather forecast. unbelievable. loving all this sun.

10 mph tailwind according to Met Office.

do people generally do this fixed or geared?
I'll be doing it geared - it's early season and I haven't done a big ride in a while.

I can't advise you properly, but your bike chain stay getting wrecked is probably pretty good evidence of it being the driver's fault. Don't get your bike repaired. I suggest you phone Cycle Aid tomorrow. When I got hit in July '10, I initially went to a local solicitor's firm in Bournemouth and the guy I got was totally useless, but I am with Cycle Aid now and they are very good.

In my case, a car pulled out in front of me and I rammed into the side of it. No witnesses. After the police report, the insurers admitted liability.

1. Don't accept any payment.
   
2. Phone Cycle Aid
   
3. Go to police station
   

Spoke to the police the night of the incident however due to the fact that I did not have a limb hanging off they wanted naff all to do with it! Spose it would not harm ringing them again.
Hmm didn't they give you an accident number or something like that?

You should probably go to the police station in person to report it.

Just wonder if anyone can help me with a bit of advice regarding my accident:
About a month ago I was knocked off as I exited a roundabout. The car struck my left chain stay writing off the frame and rear wheel, the impact with the floor destroyed my saddle and brake levers. The car stopped and after initially loosing my rag in a big way I calmed down and we swapped details. Unfortunately I had not seen this thread till i got back home so took no witnesses. Initially they said I was going too fast (until I pointed out had I been going any slower I would have gone through their windscreen!) then they said I had no lights on (until I pointed out the fact that I had 3!). First of all they said that they would just pay up so not to have to bother with their insurance however after receiving the quote to replace the bike etc they changed their minds.
After chasing the insurance company for two weeks they have finally come back saying that he is not admitting liability but they will pay out £350 for the bike (about half of the quote) and for a couple of the bits and £250 for my bruising. Is it worth pursuing this or just settle? I have photos of the marks I left on the road so it is clear I had right of way. Will him not accepting liability affect me?
Cheers for any help.
Contact the police immediately. They will take a full accident report of the scene (probably take them a month or two to get round to it) and the accident from the perspective of both participants.

Then I also suggest contacting Cycle Aid http://www.cycleaid.co.uk/site/home/ and they can advise you properly on what to do next.

Cheers

Just wondering, if you had to commute daily from the Castlepoint area (no jokes pls) to Poole Quay - what would be your chosen route? Options are:

[]Castle Lane > Redhill > Boundary Rd > Wallisdown Rd > Ringwood Rd > Longfleet Rd
[]Charminster Rd > Wimbourne Rd > Seafront > Shore Rd > Sandbanks Rd

Alder Rd looks pretty direct but how evil will the hill be with a gear ratio of 3.2?

Here's the route I'd take. Alder hill is much steeper coming back from Poole, and also there's some traffic lights ON a hill, which is a bitch. You should be alright though if you take up the whole lane. Also danger area is turning right from Boundary Road onto Wallisdown Road. I've done it about 1000 times, and probably had about 50 close calls and 2-3 REALLY close calls. You can easily go on the pavement though. It's fine on the way back though as it's a left turn. Alternatively go the cemetary junction route when going in that direction.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Unit+Z,+East+Mall,+Castle+Ln+W,+Bournemouth,+Dorset+BH8+9UZ+(Castlepoint+Shopping+Centre)&daddr=50.743438,-1.894236+to:50.73065,-1.9231921+to:50.7301061,-1.9554044+to:Poole+Quay&hl=en&geocode=FatwBgMdHunj_yGI_vMRVphBdA%3BFY5IBgMdpBjj_yl7bgAfiaFzSDHx0hZnMa4OEw%3BFZoWBgMdiKfi_ympeJfUbaFzSDHRe3utLa4OEw%3BFXoUBgMdtCni_ykbOvxTS6FzSDER4nqtLa4OEw%3BFT7OBQMdbKrh_yFXT-QqHA2z1w&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=3&sz=14&via=1,2,3&sll=50.736401,-1.935825&sspn=0.046553,0.132093&ie=UTF8&ll=50.737976,-1.914883&spn=0.093103,0.264187&z=13

1. middleofnowhere
   
2. braker
   
3. Arducius
   
4. ta2
   

Ive got a ATI HD2450 knocking about somewhere, used purely as a test card. I'll give the house a lil scout and if i find it ill give you a PM.
Awesome, thanks a lot!

I woke up this morning and found that my PC is dead in the water. I've gone through the usual troubleshooting (clear CMOS etc.) and I think I've narrowed the fault down to either the GPU (75%) or CPU (20%). Can anyone lend me a PCIe graphics card? Will trade for Soho beer credit, reedemable on weekdays... :)

Thanks!

Looking much better now. Tailwind and above zero...

http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/dayforecast.asp?zipcode=Woking&day=5

RAWR

"Feels" is going up and the wind is going down. Looking good.

Haven't decided yet whether to come back at 9pm on Saturday or some time on Sunday.