LittleWheelsandBig, aka Dave, stopped round today, having come some distance to give my bike a listen and a look. He did this without charge, not even accepting money for petrol, my reward of a Conti GP5000 deemed sufficient (though he didn't ask for it).
We met at the village parking lot, a handy venue for mechanics as I discovered when someone started tinkering with several cars next to mine. At least I hope the guy wasn't hotwiring them, first responsibly taking care to top up the tyres with air for better mileage.
After the preliminaries Dave got down to business, taking my Litespeed for a few spins. (I had done exactly the same in advance, preparing myself for the bittersweet horror of finding that the noise had magically disappeared overnight.) He then set up a rather flash workstand and I got to see an actual mechanic in action, that being on his CV before he took to engineering.
It didn't take long for him to be satisfied that the issue is indeed with the bottom bracket.
He gave me a bottle of loctite and instructions. I hope to be riding a quiet bike again shortly. He wisely did not offer a guarantee, and said that he's wrong half the time (which I reckon is a better average than most), but I am confident that any continuing fault will be with either my application or a flaw in physical reality.
We also got the opportunity to go for a short tour of
Jack Fuller's follies, and for a bit of instruction on riding a trike, which I find challenging to say the least. Fortunately there is no footage of my attempts.
The consultation begins.
Box of answers somewhat better provisioned than
my own.The quietest bottom bracket of all.
Looks like I started a queue for service.
Don't remember exactly what this is, but now I want one.
He also loaned me a few tools. This is a bit like loaning books but much, much more dangerous.
Pointing out a poor weld on my En*gma.
That's right, it goes everywhere with me.
Trikin'