Friday, May 13, 2011

Build a Bike - Part something

oooh, time marches on doesnt it?

sunny as well, and the garage isn't quite so damp and dark, to time to press on to the brakes.

Easy enough to mount on the handlebars obviously, then just route the cables to the mounts. So the rear kinda takes care of itself, however the front presented a bit of a snag. It appears (unknown to me) that there are two types of brake mount: post mount, and IS mount.

here is a wee picture


you know what is coming next, my forks were IS mount, but the brakes Post mount. all is not lost however, a handy adapter saved the day.

Ta da!

That led to this


which in turn leads to


You'd think that would be it , but the pads were too far to one side, scraping the rotor, and making a definite noise they shouldn't do. They would work ok if the calipers were unscrewed slightly, but that isnt something we want to do on brakes is it? The trick turned out to screw the caliper on at the same time as holding the brake lever. Easy when you know how...Nice wee rear shot for you (pfnarr)


So, not much left to do apart from gears, ooh and the chain.Had new get new cables and outers, so plumped for these, I am indeed last of the big spenders. New outers from ebay for a similarly high price!All I needed to do was do a bit of cutting the outers so they fitted and routed the cable, no fuss at all. Odd...

New bike - new chain says I. SRAM jobbies, so it comes with powerlink which are really quite nifty.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=9911

Chains are normally too big by design so to get the size right you fit the chain over the largest rear sprocket and largest front. Oddly you don't thread it though the rear derailleur when sizing . Dunno why. that was what the book said anyway.I also popped on the front derailleur. again nothing too scientific just lined it up by eye. Somehow I think this fairly haphazard method wont work long term.

So put chain on, it was far too big dangling all over the place, so I just removed some links (think it was about 5) until it "looked good". Yup, that scientific. Re-break it, then put it through derailleur and pedal like stink. And find that the gears slip all the time....

Another quick look at the book said cable tension too slack, fixed by just turing the barrell a couple of times. Heh Heh...

So,we are almost at the end of our story. We are good to go apart from the seat. Could get a nasty surprise if we forgot that eh? Bargain off forums time again! £20...ok that innit. SDG. Tres posh.

Well it would be if it would fit into this

Lesson 2) (to be filed beside different brake mounts), is that you get different saddle mounts too, so check before you buy, Ibeam (the saddle I got) and the old fashioned rails. Dohhh...

Back to shopping (last time surely?) for this

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/charge-spoon-saddle-with-cromo-rails

so, that then leaves us with........


Ithankyouverymuch.... (takes bow). Well it certainly looks like a bike anyway.

Test ride next week methinks, lets hope those brakes hold.... Will also produce a price list to see how much I have put down the pan.

1 comment:

  1. Nice. Whole things been a bit like that 'Lifecycles' really, just more entertaining :p

    ReplyDelete

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