Bicycle mirror repair #cycling

So, two broken mirrors, I bought a new one, but couldn’t bring myself to throw away the broken ones.
“Surely I can fix them?” I thought.

Super Glue – fail
Heat, melt the plastic etc – fail
Both fixes lasted 50 miles or so.
Hmm…. “How do I fix this?”

I needed to put more effort in, so here’s the kit I used:

• a drill and some bits (wood will do)
• screw driver
• pliers / something to hold the mirror
• a screw

Drill both sides with a small drill bit. Here’s the ball part (think ball and socket joint):

Looking from the other side:

Next I need a bigger hole half way through the ball side otherwise this screw wasn’t going in:

I chose a full threaded wood / chip board screw with a round / sunk head, otherwise it wouldn’t fit back in the socket.

Screw into ball and see what we have left, not much:

Trim some off, better:

The neck around the socket might get in the way now, shave it with a sharp knife.
Screw the ball to the mirror:

Then assemble, done, leave new one in the box Tim

After weeks of waiting, I finally fix up bluebell #cycling

For this I needed a new crank puller (a.k.a. extractor, Park Tool CCP-22):
And a new crankset (unbranded):
The crankset was recommended as the current replacement by SJS. Replacing the chainrings with the single chainring I already had on the old crankset.
The crank puller seems OK, though I don’t rate it above my last one, maybe equal to it. Anyway it worked twice which is all I needed. Important is to always remember to grease both threads and the tip of it, since the tip will be grinding against metal.
Here’s one side done, baby started crying that was all I managed that evening:
It’s also worth noting that I grease the bottom bracket axle before putting the new crank on, grease the crank bolt and give it a good tighten if you want it to remain in place. Greasing the axle is meant to decrease the corrosion that can happen between the steel axle and the alloy crank. Similarly greasing pedal threads is a must, which i forgot last time, hence the beginning of the problems I had. There are those that disagree which bits to grease, I sometimes change my mind, but I’ve had more problems by not greasing than by greasing.
After removing the RHS crank I need to swap the chainrings from new to old:
He’s the finished result:

The hawk eyed reader will note that my chainring is not reversible and is getting on in age (miles), when the teeth are like razor blades I’ll swap it, a derailleur setup would need this replacing already, my chain is 1% worn according to my chain wear indicator, I’ll replace that at nearer 2% probably, again derailleur owners would need to replace now.
The finished RHS:
While I was shopping for the above I also bought a saddle, Maddison Prime:
Here’s it fitted, note the road profile of it and the fancy ruler for elite setup:
I just stick it in the middle, angle the nose up a tiny fraction and that’s fine. Maybe I’ll fiddle with it in future, but I tend not to notice much difference. It’s definitely harder than my last saddle, but doesn’t seem to bother me yet as my cycling distances are tiny now I work closer to home and have a baby that takes up my cycling time.
That was that for that night, the next evening I did an oil change and tightened my mudguard bolts (Surrey roads rattle them loose). Next morning I’m all set for commuting again:

What a lovely steel machine she is.

DIY rear light mount from the rack #cycling

Having no visible seat post to mount a second rear light caused some head scratching. The rack has a light mounted on it, but I wanted another.
Here’s what I came up with

A spare rack part, a bolt, an old Burley connector (plastic pipe and a drill would be an alternative) and a standard light bracket.
The rack part (struggling to think what they are called) is bolted with two bolts to the rack, preventing it from moving in any direction. The Burley connector is bolted to the rack part which also has the light bracket holding it from moving.

Here’s the fitted results

It vibrates a little, so a more stiff joining piece of metal would be better (the rack part). The Burley connector could be cut down an inch too.
But it works.

Back to the Nexus for a while #cycling

My rear wheel has been feeling a bit wobbily recently as the spokes needed retuning, the rim was very worn so I was already in the process of getting quotes for a rebuild when I noticed this:

Without the flash if this is any better?

So that split has forced my hand, I’ve cut 32 spokes and boxed up the Rohloff for postage to SJS cycles to rebuild it. Evans wheel builder hasn’t heard of Rohloff, what??? Local bike shop builder was going to source parts from SJS anyway and would cost more! Anyway that aside, man is it difficult to cut 32 plain gauge spokes, my hands were really sore by the end of it.
With no other option, I kitted out the Nexus bike

Nearly forgot the mirror….

No time to transfer the Ergon grips, they will have to wait till tonight.

Rear lighting options, yep, commuting in the dark again #cycling

I’ve previously posted about my favourite rear light (Cateye TL LD1100), but a bike shop email reminded me why the others in the same price category don’t get my attention.
Here’s why I chose and repeatedly choose this particular light (in no particular order):

• high battery life
• fantastic rear visibility
• side visibility
• lots of modes with 5 or 10 LED operation (lasts a huge amount of time only using 5)
• easy to attach and detach from bike
• rack mountable (extra cost bracket)
• anything with 10 LEDs must be good, right? OK, that’s not true, but they are 10 powerful LEDs!

I own four of them, two for my bike, one for the Burley and one for the wife’s bike. She gets the one with the broken button (repeatedly dropping by me over the years caused that rather than a manufacturing fault).

The only thing I do have to do is throw away the plastic sleeves that sit inside the battery compartments, else it is a too tighter fit for my batteries. The bag / belt clip isn’t very secure, so doesn’t get used either, I wish they provided a free rack mount instead!
A friend had lost one and blamed the mount, but I’ve been using them for four years, every ride, even in bright sunshine and I’ve not had any problems. I do gently wiggle a light once attached to check it won’t bounce off, maybe that is why.

I’ve tried cheap Chinese lights, waste of money, but filled a gap at the time.

I once bought a competitor, the Blackburn Mars 4, though the single LED was bright, here’s why it was replaced after a month of being patient with it:

• poor battery life
• high performance of LED only on fresh batteries
• stupid AAAs when everything else is AAs
• rack mount or post mount but required tools to change between them
• small and inaccessible on off switch was annoying
• battery cover required a coin or key to open – which you did often, so it was surprisingly annoying!

There are new lights similar to the Mars around at the moment, but their quoted battery life is an instant turn off even if they don’t have the same shortcut comings.

I hope to have a dynamo front light setup soon, that’s a whole different post that is, but until then I haven’t given dynamo rear lights any consideration. Sure, the batteries wouldn’t run out, but here’s the things that put me off already:

• permanently attached, another thing to be stolen
• lack of support for two rear lights
• Burley light would still have to be battery
• more cabling / wires
• wires can fail etc
• they aren’t my current light

I’m tempted to do a DIY job and wire up a standard light of my choice, but I’m not an electronics guru and the AC is a bit if a pain. Maybe a USB hub for the dynamo (e.g. the plug) then a 5v DC to 3V DC (i.e. 2 x AA) converter or some resistors / whatever wired up to achieve that. Hmmm, worth further thought.