G-Usain Bolt

In the last year there really has been no time for riding or for working on bikes. So apologies that everything has been very quiet. Having said that being back on the bike has shaken a few things loose. The first bolt to er.... bolt was a crank bolt on "I should Coco". I finished the section holding the crank on by force of will and foot. Now call me stupid, but I would have thought that with a simple machine like a bicycle the range of methods for attaching the crank arms to the bottom bracket were pretty standard. So stopping in Peaslake, I popped into the bike shop for a replacement bolt. Howard he say "No" - apparently no high tech enough for the bikes he sells. Fair enough.

At home I start a search on the internet for a replacement. There on the page is a veritable smorgasborg of crank bolts, all with about information on size, fitting and suitablilty missing or phrased in some sophisiticated arcane manner that makes selection impossible.

One of the beauties of the internet is its accessibility and the range of information available - this time it fails miserably. My nearest bike shop is miles away (to the extent where I think opening one up would be a good business move, if I was incilined that way). Eventually, I make a trip in the right direction and pop in with the other bolt. It takes 10 mins of rooting in the spares draw, but eventually they find one that matches (visually) to what I need. I still have no idea what size, configuation the bolt is.

The process of fitting a new crank bolt is simple - especially when you have put everything together from scratch. Everything is fantastic and I make the next ride some months later it has to be said with no bike failures. However, I don't follow the simple advice that I should clean down and check the bolts etc at the end of each ride. I forget that I have not tightened to precise torque settings and that a few things may have shaken loose from the last failure. So I am out riding solo across some trails and feeling goof about how the bike is handling in the summer sun when clank, clank, clank. Pulling up I discover the bashguard is hanging off to one side. A closer inspection reveals that 3 of 4 bolts that hold the chainring and the bashguard together have gone AWOL. Perhaps that should be LWOT (lost without tightening).

A familiar story on the internet - but here just a bewildering array of choices. A trip to a bike shop that deals in high end gear is unproductive in walking out with desired product, but helpful in learning about variations in chainring bolts and lengths. I am able to order parts and replace.

Time for reflection

I promised, sometime ago, that I would pause and reflect on my experiences of constructing a bike from scratch. I think I am going to split this into sections, mechanical, philosophy and riding.

On the mechanical side of things I am surprised. OK so this wasn't a design and build a bike from bits of steel, but I did start with nothing in mind. So it was a surprise that the mechanics of assembling a bike were quite simple. True I did have to buy some extra tools that were not in my basic bike tool box. This added to the overall cost of the build so perhaps not a good idea if you don't plan to build another, but I suggest that having built one you will build another.

What you do have to be careful of is mixing and matching components. Some gear shifters don't work with some mechs. Some bottom brackets don't fit some frames and also need different tools. Wheel hubs will only accept certain sizes of cassettes. Even the frames have different capacities that affect headsets and wheel/tyre choice. All in all the idea of just picking things up in a random fashion is not a good idea. From a mechanical stand point, I'd suggest a list of choices, and a little research. Being a blind bike builder can be a slow and expensive process.

Start off with an idea of what you are going to use the bike for and develop that. There are no rules that say what you initially put on the road/trail is the finished article, so don't hold out for the ultimate kit if you can get hold of an alternative that will get you out riding sooner. Parts will always need replacing, and I missed being able to ride when I had taken both bikes off the trail.

As you develop the idea of what you need the bike for, a certain frame type and gear/wheel combinations  follow on. Be guided by the price of components. Put the higher priced ones as the guide for getting the rest that are dependent on that.

Mechanical assembly is pretty straight forward. A bike is after all a bit of pre-fabricated engineering. Most bikes are developed to be relatively simple to assemble and parts in general fit a logical scheme. Whilst a generic understanding of how a bike fits together is important, either through analysis of an existing bike as a template or through experience, most of the build is suggested by location. Bolt front wheel to front axle, rear derailleur to rear stays on the right is not exactly rocket science.

Getting the tools for job is important, but a reasonable £30 bike mechanic kit will do all but fitting a headset and servicing the forks on a bike. As you can see from the blog the former needs some pretty specific tools, or which there are pro, amateur, and DIY versions. Depending on your choice of drive train you may also need a different tool for the bottom bracket. But if you stick to the taper type, you can save an awful lot of money if you are not requiring a high standard of performance.

Finally, what you don't know you can find out. I tried to do most of this build without to much reference to the internet and books, relying instead on my abilities to analyse a system and understand how it works. Having said that "Zinn and the art of mountain bike maintaince" was invaluable for checking my logic. If you get stuck and you need a practical demonstration then the Bicycle Tutor has excellent "how to " videos. Other riders were also helpful sources for ideas, although not always correct. You can find all sorts of conflicting advice on bike forums, based on conjecture and one off experience, they will give you an idea but don't take them as gospel. Instead, go to Sheldon Brown who has compiled lists of technical information in a much more rigourous manner.

Bottoms!

Today I decided that I would tackle the bottom bracket fitting on the bike. Now I have to confess this is not entirely new territory for me as I have removed and replaced one before. Essentially, so long as you are careful and don't lose bits it is a slide out slide in job. However, you do need some specialist tools for the job one of which is a lockring spanner.

Bottom bracket shell, TT Gigapipe and TT chainset with chain retention device

The first job is to clean the gunk and paint from the inside of the bottom bracket shell. This is a simple job of toothbrush, white spirit and a cloth to clean up. I don't need to worry about losing some of the paint at the exit as a) its a cosmetic cover up and b) no one is going to see it behind the lockring tool.

Now the real reason for choosing a spare hour and a half to do this is to check out the fitting of the Gigapipe bottom bracket (BB). This is new to me as all my experience is with old square taper brackets. The first thing I notice is that the usual method of locking into place is probably not going to work here. I think I need another tool for the toolbox. I have a bottom bracket tool, but it doesn't look as if it is designed for this type of BB. Curse the world of non standard international design. Shimano are the market leaders, but they do what they like, at least everyone else tries to work from a standard. Although I suspect they wouldn't if they could get away with it. Anyway, it is a Shimano BB tool not an ISIS one. Plus I discover as I look in the tool box there is no lockring tool either. Now where did I put that? Ah Uncle Riotous has it in his garage!  Looks like this will have to wait until the tools are assembled in the same location.

So lesson, learnt I pack it all away again (Bottoms!). Time to drop a message to uncle about said tools. Not all wasted though as having looked at the set up I can see that it is really much easier than a cup and cone or square taper style BB. As an all in one there are no ball bearings or cartridges to chase around and apart from ensuring it is all greased and done up tight the job itself is as simple as pie.

First blind moment

I am faced with seat issues - not my rear but the seatpost itself. I had expected differing size seat posts, but I am left with two paths to functionality. Current seat post and a shim or a new post of 34.9cm. A larger area is better able to dissipate impact so new wins there. Current seat post is a little crappy and for safety I have already stolen the seatpost off my sons Hotrock 20" bike. So with an ex-stock EX seat post for £11 and a quick release seat clamp from Halfords I set about installing the seat post.

OK that was unexpected, despite both being the same size they are not, and we are not talking about layers of paint out of size here. The seat post clamp is clearly smaller than the post. With much effort and prizing the seatpost clamp open, it fits on snugly to the bike frame and the the seatpost itself slides snugly in with a fresh coat of grease.

Abendessen des hundes

My eye runs over the matt black frame and alights on a sudden flaw in my plan. I can see two cable guides on the top tube. One for the rear mech and one for the brake cable. Where can I run the third for the front mech? There is no room in the existing guides, so that will be a non-starter. To the batcave Robin! Several hours of internet research later and I find I have two options. Braze on series of guides - possible as there is a local bike builder round the corner from me (Renowned Chas Roberts)- but pricey as I would need to strip the frame, and respray again. Epoxy glue a guide to the frame - a sore point in forum threads on the subject. Buy a seatpost clamp that adds the guide to the bike (Problems Solvers). I look back for the post where in my early research I had read that a P3 had been converted to a 3x7 gear bike. Yes you can, but quite frankly it looks like a dog's dinner and uses the seatpost clamp. Given that the seller has been using it as a commute bike, I am not entirely sure that it will survive much of the hammering it will get from me. So we are going to have to go for a 1 x ? combination and walk up hill, no actual change there then as my current stamina level is still low.

So for a very simple parts exchange and upgrade model we are now beginning to look towards a total rebuild. The shopping list now requires

Crank
Bottom bracket
Single chainset with guide if possible
 

with the following upgrades
9speed hub
9 speed mech
brake arms
new forks if possible to return the freebies back to the pool.

first small steps

The frame is far from the mint proclaimed, but then I never expected mint. Who keeps a frame in the garage that long without using it? Expecting to have only minor touch up on the paintwork, I'm a little disappointed to find some relatively large tool marks from where they frame has been stripped. A minor bit of epoxy filler work is all that is required, but the more I look at it the more the frame seems to require than the simple touch up paint routine. My heart sinks - its a respray job. I haven't done one of those since I was given my grandfather's fixie to do up when I was 13. There are several nightmare moments that await a respray - 1. you are only going to chip the paint again. 2. the pro companies use kilns to harden the paint 3. a spray gun is better than any other method. So no kiln and no spray gun and bearing mind issue number one I go for the overcoat method. Here the aim is to prep the surface to hold paint - apply a primer and then several coats of car paint.

Set up with some old dust sheets in the very small shed at the end of the garden I set to work with primer. Wow, I'm not bad at this, the old skills haven't completely gone. Nice even coat with no show through. Damn I've left a sticker on the frame!! Bugger it, I'll leave it as this a cover up not a vanity job.

Matt black goes on well and I have managed to find a sign printer who runs of decals, so I can brand the bike for those who care about such things. It seems that finally I am ready to start the swap from one bike to the next. All I need to do is start sourcing components required to upgrade the bike.

What am I doing???

There are plenty of things I have thrown myself at without realising what it is I am about to do. Facing the mountain never gets less intimidating even with increasing years. So it is again that I set myself against a new challenge. Bike building. Quite why I should be doing this is a lesson in a renewed love of cycling, economics, and the need for some hardware. Now I have to say my natural forte tends to be in the more theoretical aspects of life, but even so I do tend to manage to bodge and muddle through most tasks because I have at least thought the process through. So it is with the logic being:- I have a cheap mountain bike (given to me free), I have been out riding single track a lot, I am now entering the zone where the flexibility in the frame and some of the components are not going to be so tolerant of where I am trying to be on the hillside, (that is to say not down the slope in the trees). I enter the fierce arena that is ebay and come out with a Specialized P3 from around 2000/2001. My plan was to make a straight swap of components from the old bike to the new and then upgrade at leisure. I could never has been so wrong!