199? (LA Cycles) Lee Cooper

[DaiP]

A bit more progress on this.
Received the my Ibis Titanium stem today, so that’s been fitted along with the X Lite titanium bars.
I’ve fitted an IRD 7 speed block to the rear wheel. Front DX callipers cleaned up and fitted. I had a bit of trouble freeing off the grub screw to adjust the spring tension but after a soaking of penetrating fluid and some heat from a map gas torch it unwound. The rear cantilevers have been taken apart and waiting to be cleaned up. New old stock DX brake levers fitted along with some well used DX thumb shifters. Got a DX front mech that’s in need of a good clean up. I’ve put in some brand new Hope skewers. Obviously they’re probably not really in keeping with the age of the bike but they were cheaper than I’ve seen tatty old ones being advertised on eBay. My gamble on the £10 DX rear mech hasn’t quite paid off. I was well aware the threads were knackered for one of the stop adjustment screws and thought I could repair it with a thread insert. Although the thread insert went in ok, it wasn’t successful in fixing the problem. Unfortunately, whoever drilled it in the past got the hole in the wrong place so the screw missed the actual stop. Not the end of the world as I’ve managed to get a reasonably cheap XT rear mech which has worn jockey wheels and the wrong cable pinch nut. So I’ll cannibalise the DX mech for its unused jockey wheels and nut. I also got a nice pair of SPD 525 pedals, now fitted.

 

[DaiP]

A bit more progress after work this evening. Panaracer Smoke and Dart tyres fitted. I managed to cobble together a decent working XT rear mech using some bits off a DX rear mech as a donor and put the lathe to a bit of use machining down the head of an M4 screw to use as a limit adjuster. Fitted front and rear mechs and adjusted the limit stops ready to fit the chain and make up some gear cables tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have the rest of it and working tomorrow. I’ll probably have to nick the saddle off my other bike to give it a test ride. I’d also like to swap out the seatpost for something nicer.

 

[DaiP]

Done (almost). Just bought a Flite Titanium seat but fitted the one off my other bike for now so I can give it a test ride tomorrow. I’d also like to change that seatpost, which I found in an old box in the garage and just happened to fit, for something nicer. It feels very narrow and twitchy compared to my other bike. It’s been nigh on 20 years since I’ve ridden a skinny steel hard tail. Can’t wait to get out for a spin on it now.

 

[DaiP]

First ride and really pleased with this bike. The only real issue is that I’m currently unable to use the bottom chainring as the chain is getting jammed against the side of the middle ring. I reckon that could be easily sorted by machining some slightly longer spacers to fit under the bottom ring (Middleburn RS2 Chainset). Although, I didn’t find myself needing the bottom ring as this bike flies up the climbs. Going down is a bit sketchy until I get used to it though. Apart from that everything runs incredibly smoothly, even the cantilever brakes work better than I remember.