Today's Bike Ride

[mr brightside]

Road bike help needed!

Just been to see a vintage 80s racer, nice, but the back wheel doesn't line up with the centre of the back brake caliper. It is true and lines up in the chainstays fine but i can't get it centred in the seatstays...is this a problem???

It's as if the mech side dropout is slightly lower causing wheel misalignment by about 7mm. The frame is bonded (glued) aluminium.

Any advice??? It's a seriously nice bike and i wouldn't walk away from it unless it had a nasty gremlin lurking.

[Stagger]

Well Done Dom.

[dominion]

Road bike help needed!

Just been to see a vintage 80s racer, nice, but the back wheel doesn't line up with the centre of the back brake caliper. It is true and lines up in the chainstays fine but i can't get it centred in the seatstays...is this a problem???

It's as if the mech side dropout is slightly lower causing wheel misalignment by about 7mm. The frame is bonded (glued) aluminium.

Any advice??? It's a seriously nice bike and i wouldn't walk away from it unless it had a nasty gremlin lurking.

Sounds like the drop out is bent? If it's steel it'll be repairable - you just need to decide if you think it's worth it. The problem with old bikes is so much has moved on. 1 1/8" fork steerer instead of 1", 700c wheels instead of 27", threadless headset instead of threaded. Vintage bikes are nice, but getting parts is a pain.

[dominion]

Bob Jackson is the place to go in your neck of the woods,

www.bobjacksoncycles.co.uk

[Graham Breeze]

Rescued the thread from page 3! 32 miles in the bag, Ran out of energy badly after about an hour, which I don't normally do. That said, the first hour was where all the climbing was, from half way it's predominantly downhill - with a few short sharp climbs. Need to start thinking about 'nutrition strategies' for 2 hour + rides. Half a bottle of Lucozade Sport clearly isn't enough, although it got me back home.

Neat.

Another benefit to a Garmin is that it tells you at exactly what speed your frail body hits the unforgiving tarmac when a patch of oil means you and your bike part company on a curve.

[mr brightside]

Sounds like the drop out is bent? If it's steel it'll be repairable - you just need to decide if you think it's worth it. The problem with old bikes is so much has moved on. 1 1/8" fork steerer instead of 1", 700c wheels instead of 27", threadless headset instead of threaded. Vintage bikes are nice, but getting parts is a pain.

The dropout looks to be fine. It's a very low milage bike and any trauma would show up. It's an aluminium dropout, so it would show signs if it had suffered damage. I'll give Bob Jackson's a ring about it.

[wheezing donkey]

Personally, Mr B, I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole:- A couple of mates have bonded Alan aluminium cx frames from the 80's; in time everything becomes "tired" and the bonding between the tubes and lugs begins to fail - yes it might seem ok now; but for how long? The mis-alignment could even be due to someone attempting to re-bond a tube into a lug and getting it wrong? Plus, unless the bike has been dissembled regularly and re-assembled with plenty of copper slip, the rear mech, the bottom bracket bearings and headset bearings will probably be bonded into the frame. A third mate, a very skilled tool-maker / fitter in the aerospace industry, bought a secondhand bonded aluminium Peugeot. Having given the rear mech mounting bolt a good soak (submersion) in anti-seize oil, his efforts to remove the rear mech mounting bolt resulted in breakage of the ( non-replaceable ) mech hanger from the drop-out. Also, with age, all aluminium can stress fracture without warning.

[alwaysinjured]

Scarborough to whitby return, along dismantled railway around 40 miles.
Great day out, recommended, including a great location for a cuppa at ravenscar! Which is the only nav issue. Follow the road then down leftby the national trust centre. Only disppointment was the bike station at Hawsker. No butties, and no loo in as far as we could find, which is close to Whitby so we were relying on without wanting to go into Whitby from the viaduct above it.

[Lefty]

The book is purely one mans opinion of course and we could all add our own favourites and disagree with the choices made but " 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs " offers some good challenges. In recent weeks along with friends I've been going out midweek ( the joys of retirement ) and cycling the more interesting local climbs, notably in the Dales, Peak and Lakes. Certainly the Yorkshire Dales climbs are great and you can sling a few together to make a tough but interesting circuit. Buttertubs Pass, Tan Hill, Malham Cove, Langcliffe Scar, Oxnop Scar, Fleet Moss, Park Rash, and Lamps Moss all great climbs and much recommended.
The Author gives marks out of 10 but you can make you own mind up. The highest mark goes to the Bealach na Ba climb in Scotland which he gives 11 out of 10. I've done the climb and its a good one, perhaps the longest you will find in the UK at 6 miles in length but whilst there are a couple of steep bits it never get off and walk !
To my mind nothing is as tough as Hardknott Pass. In the Fred Whitton it comes after 90 miles or so and many resort to a walk, in the recent Lakeland Loop Sportive it came after 60 miles and I managed it without a push but it was touch and go on the hairpins near the top.
I'd like to hear of your favourite climbs and your impressions of the limbs outlined in the oak.

[PaulE]

Curiously enough, I heard about that book a couple of days ago. I'd just turned up at a shop looking a bit sweaty as I'd ridden curbar gap and got talking to the owner who told me I'd just done one of the top 100 and he was worried he was becoming a bit of an anorak ticking them off!

Next time I'm in a bookshop or on amazon I'll treat myself to it.

Back on topic, I've got out on the bike a few times this week. Doesn't sound much (about 50km &1000m on the road bike, plus an hour on my new trials bike) but it's the first trips out as a dad of two, and the new arrival didn't cause too much trouble for MrsE!