i24

My "pavement special" needs some TLC if it is going to get round CTCT again and I need some parts. It is a Hansom rigid steel frame "mountain bike" from about 1990. It still has an original Shimano "Biopace" chainring. But it is worn and needs to be retired. I an happy to replace it with a conventional round chainring (I will keep the old one in case someone wants to restore it to original one day) but for the moment I want to ride it. The original is a combined item with chainring riveted onto the cranks. So I need a 3x (7 speed) chainring, 48, 38, 28 teeth (but wider ratios could be fun) on 170 mm crank arms, all to fit on a square taper bottom bracket. Then I am also battling with the square taper bottom bracket. I have been through two modern cheap "cartridge" type BB's in the past few months, but these have fine threads and the non drive end is a thin walled item. It seems the threads strip or slip and come loose in the frame (the frame threads might not have very tight tolerances). I am looking for an old fashion square taper bottom bracket with cones and loose balls, 128mm long. Or can I use locktight on a threaded bottom bracket? 🤔🙄 Finally I need to get the wheels rebuilt. It has galvanised spokes which are now more rust than steel. The aluminium rims are also tired - the rim brake surfaces are worn and the front rim is a bit distorted where the aluminium hoop was joined. The hubs are decent quality and rather unique so I would like to keep them. So I need 2 off 36 hole aluminium mtb rims, spokes, brass nipples and somebody to put them together. Tubeless compatible rims might be nice, but I currently use tubes + sealant which works well for me, so I am happy for something that is closer to period original. But the wheel project can wait till after the CTCT. Any advice where I should go shopping for the above? Or does anybody have surplus items they want to sell? Nothing needs to be new or modern, nor totally original, on this build. But it will get ridden regularly, so quality and reliability would be appreciated.

Set a maximum weight for the battery (or batteries if spares are used). No recharging en-route.

There is a correlation between the number of cyclists in a group wearing matching kit and the size of their egos. While cyclists hunt in groups wearing matching lycro on their customised R200 000 carbon steeds waiting to out sprint any lost roadie that happens to occupy the tar in front of them... Notwithstanding the above, I have been cycling the shoulders of the roads in the Southern Peninsular for a decade or two. My experience is that the motorists are more accommodating now days than they were in the past and the cycling groups are also trying harder to share the road. But this is Argie season and Sunday mornings is when it all happens! Still that does not change the fundamentals, when car and bicycle try and occupy the same piece of tar at the same time, the cyclist always comes off second best. We each have to look after ourselves.

Google Maps also has location sharing. I have used it before during CTCT. You need cell phone data, reception and battery for it to do useful stuff. Setup is easy and the default settings are not too onerous - the sharing cancels automatically after an hour or day, depending on what you choose.

Hypothetically if you cross the line a second time, you will have to go through the chutes again and the Rotary lady will give you another medal? Maybe choose a different chute.🤔

I regularly ride my vintage rim brake mountain bike. They are old centre pulls, not even v-brakes. Before that I rode a Merida with V-brakes. Both have been up and down Tokai. Provided V-brakes are maintained they work adequately and when you have been through water, you just need to apply them a few meters early so they can dry off the rims. (But the Shimano hydraulics on my DS are in a completely different class. Don't test one of these till you ready to upgrade 🤫).

My son broke the plastic handle in cheap tubeless repair kit fixing a car tyre. I have a slightly more expensive one from Midas (still < R100) with a single metal handle that is shared between boring and plugging tools and have successfully plugged a number of car tyres. You sometimes need a lot of force on that handle, particularly if the tyre is under inflated.

That looks like a nice route to ride 😁 If I may, a couple more questions: Is the rev counter taped up as well as the speedo? (It is the only instrument that works really well on my Guzzi.) Do you need to START the regularity sections on time. Ie arrive early and wait till the stopwatch says it is time to go. I assume if you break down your buddies cant stop to help. So for the back markers it might be more of a reliability event instead of a regularity one 😏

Not recommended for use with dropper seat posts 😳

That looks like fun 😃 What event was it? I notice the "nav stacks" seem to block the instruments (rev counter, speedo etc), is this an issue?

Looking at your photos. The master cylinder on the handle bar is not from a Mk II, maybe it is off a MkIII. Mine front brake has a cable going to a master cylinder under the tank. My front brake is very heavy and not very powerful, but the foot brake is coupled to the 2nd disk on the front as well as the one on the rear and it is dangerously effective. Does yours have electronic ignition? That was only on the Mk II, they went back to a distributor with points etc on the Mk III.

Wow, that is the same as my Guzzi! I hope I can keep riding mine when I am 86+ Is it that the original red paintwork? Mine is blue but it needs a respray. I always liked the red ones and am considering getting a change of colour. But I have seen many shades of red on re-furbished Guzzi's and I would like to find out which was originally used on the V50 Mk II. I think the some of the Le Man's might have been a different shade. If it is let me know. Your fairing and tail piece don't look original for a '79 V50 Mk II, maybe they are off a later bike. If you need help with stuff, give me a shout. I have been tinkering on mine for nearly 40 years and I have learned some things the hard way. There is lots of documentation available on line, including full workshop and spares manuals. There is a local guy, Charlie, near me in Cape Town who has working on Guzzi's for decades. He is a useful contact and has accumulated a garage full of spares. I can pass on his contact details if you like. Finally you probably want to follow http://www.guzziriders.org/. That has mainly UK contributors. There are many V50's in the UK but they never made it to the USA, so it is a more useful resource than some of the other forums. I have been buying spares from https://www.stein-dinse.com/en/. They have a very comprehensive catalogue although some parts are no longer available. You have to persuade them to courier, not post via SA Post Office, or make another plan for delivery. Have fun! PS: This is obviously not the one advertised on Gumtree, anybody know if that was sold? PPS: Don't trust the side stand if it is original. They are spring loaded to retract automatically and not very stable. Basically guaranteed to drop the bike sooner or later! Your Dad will have to master using the centre stand.

Seems the bike was either was stolen or belonged to her ex. Was it sold at a discount? (And if you buying a car, check if it comes with the spare keys)

My understanding is that multi-grade has additives to prevent the viscosity getting too thin as the oil gets hot. In a modern car they can use thin multi-grade oil that does not cause too much drag and scores good brownie points on the emissions test while the engine is cold, but still stays "thick" enough when it warms up, to keep the engine happy till the end of the warrantee period. None of that is applicable to fork oil - especially bicycle forks, cause there is no way you are going to get the oil very hot, even on a downhill run. (Maybe on motorbike forks in competition use, but even then I doubt it). Difficult scenarios for lubricants are things that get hot and things that rotate very quickly. Bicycle lubricants have an easy job.

If you do get to sample the mountain passes in Switzerland, mind the speed limits....

That's a square taper bottom bracket. The bearing face on the shaft is a wear item, if you use a 2nd hand one make sure the bearing face is not worn. You should be able to buy a complete new assembly for about R300. Make sure you get the right length to match your old one. The cranks fit onto the taper, if you managed to break the bolt you could have easily damaged the cranks or got them so tight they never come off. You get special tools for pulling the cranks off and also for tightening/loosening the castle nuts on that cartridge.

I assume you reported the theft to SAPS and get a case number when it first happened? Otherwise it might not have been so easy for the SAPS in PE to help ... 🤔

I have tried to do this before. The balls that came out of the pedals were an imperial size. The only ones I could get in Cape Town were metric, close but not quite right. I ended up ordering some balls from e-bay - back in the days when the post off still delivered stuff. In the end the pedals were a bit too far gone and the exercise was not effective.

Just a follow up on this. Thanks to the generosity of Lieb47 this bike now has working brakes! So you no longer need to panic if you see it behind you in the traffic. It now has new brake leavers and calipers. I also replaced the cables and fitted a new chain.

I think it spoils the racing. When a faster bike comes up behind a slower one we want to see an overtake. 😳

If you stripped all of the aero aids off the MotorGP bike, what would the difference be then?

I am looking for a set of brake levers for V-Brakes for a commuter bike to replace ones like this in the photo below. (Sorry focus is not lekker). If the calipers are available I could use them too. The bike is a department store special that I donated to my gardener a while back. But I also supplied a free "maintenance contract" 🙄. The barrel adjusters on these levers slip and loose all cable tension. One fell off and got lost so that brake has stopped working altogether. I am located in Cape Town southern suburbs. I am happy to contribute towards shipping or component value. (I should really find a replacement bike. But if I do, I know this one will get passed on to another commuter. So best the brakes get fixed first.).

I have Giant Anthem and a vintage, rigid, steel MTB. Both weigh about 13kg. I have a desire for an N+1, that weighs less than 10kg. Now if your bike could loose 550g ... 🤔 Or maybe N+1 should be a road bike ...

50% depth of charge sounds too much. Google "lead acid life vs depth of discharge". Most sites show 500 to 1000 cycles at 50%. With today's loadshedding that is less than a year. I have a 3kVA invertor with 4x100AH lead acid batteries. I try not use more than 15% depth of charge. The recharge time for lead acid depends on what the batteries will take rather than what the inverter can deliver. I posted the following last month.

That looks like it could be a very useful ride. I am curious, what does it weigh?