Author Topic: Tool choices  (Read 7518 times)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Tool choices
« Reply #50 on: 09 December, 2018, 05:17:08 pm »
One 'tool' that I try to almost always have with me but which I don't think has been mentioned is a headtorch in case of nighttime fettling.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Tool choices
« Reply #51 on: 11 December, 2018, 08:49:49 pm »
so many rear hubs now have a freehub body that comes off either without tools or with (easy-to-carry) allen keys. a no-brainer for a serious trip/tour.

Rear hubs offering this facility were in fact available in the 1930's, although their use was not widespread. They were probably just getting known when the world went to war!

Re: Tool choices
« Reply #52 on: 12 December, 2018, 01:01:12 pm »
so many rear hubs now have a freehub body that comes off either without tools or with (easy-to-carry) allen keys. a no-brainer for a serious trip/tour.

Rear hubs offering this facility were in fact available in the 1930's, although their use was not widespread. They were probably just getting known when the world went to war!

one comment I would make is that (in their modern form anyway) such hubs almost invariably impose extra loads on both the axle and the RH  hub bearing. It is not that it is impossible to engineer a system that avoids these and other pitfalls, it is more that IME this is usually not done 100% successfully.  Thus there are very few such hubs that I would happily use on a lengthy/loaded tour.

cheers

Re: Tool choices
« Reply #53 on: 12 December, 2018, 02:32:02 pm »
I haven't gone to the length of packing spare spokes yet. This is on the basis of there being a strong chance of a spoke going on the rear wheel in a place I can't get to without removing the cassette.

That's why you need a cassette remover too.

Or a FiberFix.


(TBH, I'd only really worry about fixing spoke breakage properly for loaded touring.  For normal riding, a bodge will get you wherever.)

Unless you are somewhere completely away from civilisation carrying a spoke means it can be fairly quickly repaired at a bike shop. Most bike shops in towns have a cassette tool but you will have to wait a day or two for the spoke length you might need.

Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped

Kim

  • Timelord
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Re: Tool choices
« Reply #54 on: 12 December, 2018, 02:35:12 pm »
Spare spokes are also useful for toasting marshmallows, or as an upgrade on Terra Nova tent pegs.

Re: Tool choices
« Reply #55 on: 12 December, 2018, 03:07:15 pm »
I haven't gone to the length of packing spare spokes yet. This is on the basis of there being a strong chance of a spoke going on the rear wheel in a place I can't get to without removing the cassette.

That's why you need a cassette remover too.

Or a FiberFix.


(TBH, I'd only really worry about fixing spoke breakage properly for loaded touring.  For normal riding, a bodge will get you wherever.)

Unless you are somewhere completely away from civilisation carrying a spoke means it can be fairly quickly repaired at a bike shop. Most bike shops in towns have a cassette tool but you will have to wait a day or two for the spoke length you might need.

In spite of religiously carrying spare spokes in all 3 required lengths I have never in my recollection had to change a spoke at the roadside (except for the first trip away with the newly refurbished tandem in 1981 - changed rear wheel at Camarthen, bought 12 spokes at Waterford, used 6 getting back to the campsite, used the other 6 in 10 miles the following day, pushed tandem back to ferry and train home; the first and last time I have broken spokes on a tandem).

Re: Tool choices
« Reply #56 on: 12 December, 2018, 03:09:20 pm »
Ditto (apart from your tandem significant breakage which is difficult to account for) but for the sake of a couple of spokes taped to the down tube of each of mine and mrs trekkers touring bikes, I'm not taking the risk of having to use a SPORK when toasting marshmallows  :thumbsup:
Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped

Re: Tool choices
« Reply #57 on: 12 December, 2018, 03:21:28 pm »
Likewise, I haven't broken a spoke since about 1979 when I attempted a somewhat ambitious jump on my Raleigh Grifter as a child. I'm not likely to be touring in Outer Mongolia anytime soon, so if I do bust a spoke I'll just find a shop. I have toured with a friend who busted a spoke mid-tour, but you'd be amazed at what cable ties and gaffer tape can do  :P
Those wonderful norks are never far from my thoughts, oh yeah!

Re: Tool choices
« Reply #58 on: 12 December, 2018, 03:46:07 pm »
Ditto (apart from your tandem significant breakage which is difficult to account for) but for the sake of a couple of spokes taped to the down tube of each of mine and mrs trekkers touring bikes, I'm not taking the risk of having to use a SPORK when toasting marshmallows  :thumbsup:

re tandem spoke breakage, read low cost, crap wheels in 27" size, too much weight and total inexperience. The replacements broke one spoke in 25 years ( 26" wheels, 12g spokes lf hub brake hubs, trailer for load carrying - so much more fun!)

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Tool choices
« Reply #59 on: 12 December, 2018, 05:18:49 pm »
Ditto (apart from your tandem significant breakage which is difficult to account for) but for the sake of a couple of spokes taped to the down tube of each of mine and mrs trekkers touring bikes, I'm not taking the risk of having to use a SPORK when toasting marshmallows  :thumbsup:

You tape them to the downtube? I use the seat stays...

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: Tool choices
« Reply #60 on: 12 December, 2018, 09:19:08 pm »

....In spite of religiously carrying spare spokes in all 3 required lengths I have never in my recollection had to change a spoke at the roadside (except for the first trip away with the newly refurbished tandem in 1981 - changed rear wheel at Camarthen, bought 12 spokes at Waterford, used 6 getting back to the campsite, used the other 6 in 10 miles the following day, pushed tandem back to ferry and train home; the first and last time I have broken spokes on a tandem)....

....re tandem spoke breakage, read low cost, crap wheels in 27" size, too much weight and total inexperience. The replacements broke one spoke in 25 years ( 26" wheels, 12g spokes lf hub brake hubs, trailer for load carrying - so much more fun!)...


sounds like a baptism of spoke breakage fire, that.  Some wheels are no-hopers of course; cheap parts that don't fit one another (eg where the spokes are anchored in the hub) or bad quality steel in the spokes, or badly made spokes (eg I have seen some with creases on the inside of the J-bends; these spokes are effectively pre-cracked..... ::-)) . But for average quality wheels on half-decent bikes these days (aluminium hubs, stainless spokes) the single biggest thing is stress-relief in the wheelset.

 I learned the hard way (at least 35 years ago now) that 'new wheels' were not 'good wheels' unless they had been stress-relieved; a rash of rear wheel spoke breakages whilst on tour with a load on (in the first few hundred miles on new bought not built wheels) looked like it wasn't going to stop, so when the third or fourth spoke broke in the same wheel, I set to and stress-relieved the wheels thoroughly and hoped for the best.  Several thousand miles later I had yet to break a further spoke in that wheelset.  [I'd already built several other sets of wheels for myself for other bikes, and they had been OK. I've only used one set of machine-built wheels since then myself and I broke spokes in those too.]

In fact I would go as far as to say that in all the wheels I have newly built since then (including many sets for other people) I have had no spoke breakages.   I don't recall handing over a set of wheels without asking that they should be sure to tell me if it ever happens...

cheers

Re: Tool choices
« Reply #61 on: 14 December, 2018, 09:04:00 am »
Ditto (apart from your tandem significant breakage which is difficult to account for) but for the sake of a couple of spokes taped to the down tube of each of mine and mrs trekkers touring bikes, I'm not taking the risk of having to use a SPORK when toasting marshmallows  :thumbsup:

You tape them to the downtube? I use the seat stays...

J

Well, not the downtube, I was in a hurry when typing, more accurately they are cable tied to the back of upright part of the bottle cage on the seat tube and nestle in the weld that joins the downtube to the seat tube a little rubber band around the end stops them rattling and protects the paint.
Duct tape is magic and should be worshipped