Members' bikes

[clarion]

Was it at the top of that hill that you stopped racing?  I wouldn't be surprised, given the grimaces all round

[Cudzoziemiec]

1981 is not so terribly long ago, and yet there's not a single sponsor's/advertiser's name on any of those jerseys. 

[Tail End Charlie]

Those leather helmets look great, I'd even consider wearing a helmet myself if I had one of those. 

[IanDG]

1981 is not so terribly long ago, and yet there's not a single sponsor's/advertiser's name on any of those jerseys. 

I could get to like you

[IanDG]

Was it at the top of that hill that you stopped racing?  I wouldn't be surprised, given the grimaces all round

LOL

edit: I should have done, I crashed on day 2 - a mass pile up on wet roads and I hit the person who came off in front of me and went over the bars landing in a ditch. With a spare wheel I got back on but never managed to rejoin the bunch and rode the last 50+ miles alone to the finish. The frame was creased (top tube and down tube just behind the head tube) Charlie put in two new tubes and it was resprayed within a week and I was racing on it the following week-end.

[Cudzoziemiec]

1981 is not so terribly long ago, and yet there's not a single sponsor's/advertiser's name on any of those jerseys. 

I could get to like you

Sorry, I've just been reading my geology text book. 

[IanDG]

1981 is not so terribly long ago, and yet there's not a single sponsor's/advertiser's name on any of those jerseys. 

I could get to like you

Sorry, I've just been reading my geology text book. 

 
It seems like another lifetime - wish I still had the 'same legs'   

[Riggers]

1981 is not so terribly long ago, and yet there's not a single sponsor's/advertiser's name on any of those jerseys.  

I could get to like you

Sorry, I've just been reading my geology text book.  

 
It seems like another lifetime - wish I still had the 'same legs'  

Once you've had the 'change', I'm not sure they can reverse the procedure, can they?

[Oscar's dad]

... Surprisingly the mech BB7 depend on bending the disk slightly

Paging Ham, paging Ham!!!

I am struggling slightly with setting up my BB7 brakes.  How did you bend a BB7 disc?  I suspect this will solve my problem.

Thanks muchly.

[Ham]

... Surprisingly the mech BB7 depend on bending the disk slightly

Paging Ham, paging Ham!!!

I am struggling slightly with setting up my BB7 brakes.  How did you bend a BB7 disc?  I suspect this will solve my problem.

Thanks muchly.

Little bit of background - I came to the BB7 from a few years with Avid Juicy (same pad). When I got the Pomp, the brakes were very poorly set up, so that you couldn't pull enough to get them on. I started off setting them up the same way as I would the hydraulics and couldn't get a decent "pedal" to use a car expression, so I read the manual   (oh, and this post Avid BB7 mini resource - How to set up the Avid BB7 )

Basically, when you apply the brake, the disc should flex slightly, which makes you think it doesn't release properly, but it works well and seems jolly fine after about 2,000 on it.

[Oscar's dad]

Thanks Ham.  The attached article is very useful.  I have just ordered some compressionless cables and will start again once they arrive and after reading that article several times!

[PaulF]

Thanks from me too. That PDF is really useful! Times like this we need a yacf 'Like' button

My BB7s have not been delivering enough 'oomph' which I'd put down to being used to the hydraulics and larger rotor on my MTB. Then realised that a calliper bolt was loose   15 minutes fettling and all seems great!

[Feline]

My son came home with a new (very retro) bike, from the Cheddar recycling scheme. It cost him £90 and came with new tyres and brake pads, fully serviced and working. He is chuffed with it and has been zooming around. I've not heard of a BSA Shadow frame before so no idea if it's any good. He is now going to stick the mudguards back on his Kona Smoke hybrid to use in the wet and use this as his fun and fair weather bike. A whole bunch of his friends have also bought retro bikes from this place so there is definitely a keen cycling vibe in the 17 year olds of the Cheddar valley at the moment 
Saddle needs to go up a fair bit, but the frame seems to fit him well (he's 6'3")



He says he might want to add some brakes he can use from the drops to it instead. I'm not sure what his options are lever wise. If the brakes turn out to be not very good I have some brand new SRAM Apex ones that I think would fit the bike.

[itsbruce]

Good luck googling for BSA Shadow, since it's also a name they gave to a range of air rifles and motorcycles.  Still, if that's an indication of the cycling tastes of your local yoof, thumbs up

[TimO]

... He says he might want to add some brakes he can use from the drops to it instead. ...

In itself, replacing the levers with some bog standard road levers would be easy enough, but it'll mean that the bar tape will need to be replaced, which is probably the most fiddly thing!

You'd also need to replace the brake cable outers near the handlebars, and the inners, because they'll be too short.

(The SRAM Apex levers look to be DoubleTap ones, which quite possibly won't work with the rear changer, and aren't necessary for the front, which has no changer.  A pair of cheap road brake levers alone would be fine eg Shimano R400 levers on ChainReaction).

[GruB]

The rear reflector is good for low flying air traffic, but not much good for motons behind at that angle. 

[Feline]

The rear reflector is good for low flying air traffic, but not much good for motons behind at that angle. 

He has already taken both the reflectors off   I think the recycling project has to put them onto every bike they do.

[Feline]

... He says he might want to add some brakes he can use from the drops to it instead. ...

In itself, replacing the levers with some bog standard road levers would be easy enough, but it'll mean that the bar tape will need to be replaced, which is probably the most fiddly thing!

You'd also need to replace the brake cable outers near the handlebars, and the inners, because they'll be too short.

(The SRAM Apex levers look to be DoubleTap ones, which quite possibly won't work with the rear changer, and aren't necessary for the front, which has no changer.  A pair of cheap road brake levers alone would be fine eg Shimano R400 levers on ChainReaction).

Ah thanks. Those basic levers look just the job. Fortunately I know how to do bar tape. There are similarities between applying bar tape and bandaging an animal's leg, we decided when Tewdric first did mine. I've redone it since when I moved my levers. Chris' best friend has a similar retro bike that has the levers that go across the top of the bars as well as down the drops (I think the Raleigh racing bike I had as a teenager had these). Chris seems keen on getting hold of some of these if he can because he declared them retrotastic. I might have to hunt for some on ebay!

[jane]

We used to call those suicide levers.

[jane]

I've got some old Saccon levers that will fit a 24.5 handlebar you are welcome to. They're from the late 80's or thereabouts but in good nick as far as I can see. They came off an old Raleigh I fixiefied for my daughter. I don't seem to have any suicide levers though. Most of my retro bits and pieces came from my great uncle's shed and he thought they were a modern affectation for people to lazy to shift their hands of the top of the drops. Plus they didn't work.
   

[Cudzoziemiec]

I really don't recommend those sucide levers. I've taken them off my bike of similar vintage because they are totally useless - they hit the handlebar before applying any decent braking force. Actually, I've only removed one because I found they do act, on these particular Weinmann levers, as a decent spacer to the main lever. If your son really wants them I could bring them along to the Bristol meeting next Tuesday - I ought to ask the bike's owner first but I'm sure he won't mind!

[corshamjim]

otoh I used those Weinmann extension levers without any problem on my tourer back in the '90s.  I guess it depended on the kind of brakes, the shape of the handlebars and maybe even how the bars are taped up whether they worked well or not.  I would happily fit them to my current road bike if it weren't for the cost of replacing STIs with bar end shifters (and I'd need smaller diameter bars).

[TimC]

I had them on an old steel racer back in the eighties, and if adjusted properly they worked OK. Any cable stretch, however, and they were the proverbial chocolate teapots!

Jim, Specialized fit bar-top inline brake levers to several of their entry-level race and sportive bikes (they look similar to Feline's son's levers, but operate differently). They simply need the cable outer to be split so that they can be fitted - your STI levers remain in place and fully functional. They are probably available from the larger online bike shops. They work well.

[itsbruce]

I had them on an old steel racer back in the eighties, and if adjusted properly they worked OK. Any cable stretch, however, and they were the proverbial chocolate teapots!

Jim, Specialized fit bar-top inline brake levers to several of their entry-level race and sportive bikes. They simply need the cable outer to be split so that they can be fitted - your STI levers remain in place and fully functional. They are probably available from the larger online bike shops. They work well.

^ This.  Have a Tektro RL720 interruptor on mine.  Works well.

[Feline]

Thanks Jane and Cuzdo for your very kind offers!
And thanks all of you for the suggestions 

I will discuss it with him and show him some pics. I might treat him to some Spesh Bar Phat tape too when I come to fit things for him.

itsbruce, you bike's lack of symmetry gives me a feeling of weirdness when I look at it! I really like the look of that Gazelle frame!