And today I did......

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Did the CTC rendezvous run today on the Dawes, 40 miles out and back, head wind coming back phew! :facepalm: And I saw a Retrobike in Ravenscraig Park in Kirkcaldy a red Rock Lobster with citrus Mavic rims the bike looked well sorted. And I also saw a early Yamaha XT500 beautifully restored being ridden along the prom in Kirkcaldy. :cool:
 
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Talking of bike shops :cool:, saw a nice Cannondale Raven in the LBS when I took a bike back after removing cranks for replacing BB. The owner of Raven was local but I couldn't wait the 10 minutes till he arrived to collect it. :facepalm: The bike I took back belongs to the husband of a friend of my wife.
It's a Giant Trance X3, 2008 I think, the extractor threads on NDS crank had stripped so crank arm was looking like getting destroyed to remove it to replace knackered BB. So when I saw him at the weekend last he asked me what could be done to fix his bike, idiot that I am I said "I'll get it off nae bother" :roll: . Tried a method that had worked on an old Shimano crank, a ball joint splitter, widnae fit due to BB having spacer for arm to hold against. So tried a bearing puller that locks the pulling arms in place but due to steel puller and aluminium crank the puller was just sliding and scratching crank. Feck.
Then I had a bright idea of somehow bolting/fixing another crank arm that had good extractor threads onto fecked one. Removed pedal then bolted the 2 crank arms together with a spacer between pedal threads so that BB ends of cranks were in line and square to each other. Rummaged in shed and found a 2" diameter exhaust clamp, fitted this with the u-bolt part around the back of stuck crank with a big socket in hollow in the back of crank to prevent damage from the u-bolt, the other part of clamp, the pressed steel bit, just clamped up against the "extractor" crank. Tightened it all up, it wasn't moving. Had to cut down a longer bolt to about 40mm to fit inside the bolt threads on BB so that the extractor could reach being too far out from the BB axle.

So the moment of truth arrived, tightened extractor and the 2 cranks were no longer tight together :( , did the clamp nuts up tighter but then noticed that the cut down bolt in BB had crumpled with pressure. Replaced it with slightly thicker bolt which didn't bend as much, gave the crank arm a bit of a tap with tool number 1 and off it came. Apart from scratches which are merely cosmetic and a wee dent from big hammer the crank is OK and can go back on with new BB.

For future use I'll find a proper high tensile steel bolt that will thread into BB axle to sort the bending of the bolts made of cheese I had to hand.
 
mikee":2tpk518u said:
Good bit of engineering there Jon , like it

On the other hand, loosening off the bolt just enough to allow the crank to come loose when it frees, but not fall off also works.

You simply take the bike for a wee ride and bounce around a bit on the pedals until the crank frees up. Works most times.
 
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Thanks Mike. :cool:

Brian, it's not a square taper but a splined BB/crank, FSA Alpha Drive cranks and Power Drive BB. When I took off the DS crank, which was OK, I needed to keep screwing in the extractor bolt till it was virtually off. Not like a square taper where once you crack it they fall off. It wasn't my bike or I might have tried the riding till they fall off trick, but didn't want to possibly damage the crank.


And I'm just back from testing my brakes on the F800. The front caliper has been doing my head in with the pistons sticking so decided to change it. Took the bike along to the car-park at Vane Farm and rode, aye right, mostly pushed up the new foot-path that goes over the hill to the woods near Ballingry on other side. Had a wee explore there before our ride there tomorrow.
Coming back down foot-path was good, 32.5mph at one bit and 27+ on other bits. Wonder what the smell was at one point, no Ah hadnae shat ma kecks, it was the brakes, they were a tad hot after braking for all the hairpin bends on path. I'll need tae have a better go at bleeding it though, nearly to bars. Fecking hate bleeding brakes.
 
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