Servicing BSOs

[The History Man]

Re:

Were there BSOs in the 70s? We would cane anything we could find but I don't remember too many failures. All over engineered from good old British steel.

Stinging fingers from big old caliper springs on 3 speed sturmey cowhorn conversions. Lots of chrome domed bolts etc.

 

[The History Man]

Re: Re:

Were there BSOs in the 70s? We would cane anything we could find but I don't remember too many failures. All over engineered from good old British steel.

Stinging fingers from big old caliper springs on 3 speed sturmey cowhorn conversions. Lots of chrome domed bolts etc.

I remember an rsw we couldn't kill.

 

[Woz]

Re:

There was low end stuff, but it
was still built to last as that was a corner stone of the epoch and engineers / technicians were respected.

Marketing, cheap production, cheap supply chain, the poor lass in the procurement department who won't get a 0.3% bonus if she doesn't in source 10% cheaper than last year have overturned engineering common sense nevermind excellence.

I was at the tip today, the quantity of shit filling the containers was max 15 years old, whereas I bet there are still Singer sawing machines doing their intended task for the third generation owner.

Get the point?

 

[tufty]

Re: Re:

I bet there are still Singer sawing machines doing their intended task for the third generation owner.

Mine's a Pfaff, but yeah. Date stamped 1937. My lathe's from 1948.

 

[legrandefromage]

Re: Re:

I bet there are still Singer sawing machines doing their intended task for the third generation owner.

Mine's a Pfaff, but yeah. Date stamped 1937. My lathe's from 1948.

shouldnt you have gone digital by now?

:facepalm:

 

[tufty]

Re: Re:

I bet there are still Singer sawing machines doing their intended task for the third generation owner.

Mine's a Pfaff, but yeah. Date stamped 1937. My lathe's from 1948.

shouldnt you have gone digital by now?

If you believe the marketing hype, yeah. But my outdated sewing machine still sews just as well as it needs to (it'll happily sew leather), my outdated lathe is still capable of 1/100mm accuracy if used properly, and my 1990s bike is still perfectly capable of being ridden offroad (in all honesty, newer bikes are almost certainly better, but it's not the bike that's the limiting factor)

 

[FluffyChicken]

Re:

Offer BSO are buy and dump somewhere if not knocked.

There is no point servicing them as it cost more than buying a new BSO.

Oh and my Car has drum brakes and some sort of suspension, a people carrier. It stops and drives quite fine even in an motorway emergency stop.

Nowt wrong with them

As there is nowt wrong with threaded headset as long as they are good enough. Not unground wonky things.
I've seen plenty of A-headset not setup right as they just will not work and the bearings are shot. The headset is loose.
There is absolutely no difference to the user, the seller though gets to make cheaper forks, just one style is needed, not one for each tube length and no threads to cut (though on mass produced BSOs it doesn't matter as they are made in such a quantity).

I've seen single speed BMX type rears that wobble from the start and the cranks match in such a way you get tight and slack spots with no way to fix it.
That's nothing to do with 'tech', just pure shiteness.

Next time they ask for a BSO fix, tell them the cost of parts including time at £7.50/hr and mention that's cheap.

 

[Woz]

Re:

Short update on the serviced BSO
I did....

The rear tyre has blown off the rim
all by it's own accord at 40 PSI.

On close
examination and farting about, the
rear wheel diameter is smaller so
no tyre bead properly engages under
the rim wall hook.

Why doesn't World In Action or Panorama do some investigative journalism into this in China with
hidden cameras and shit?

Interviews with Chris Boardman,
CEO of Halfords and Argos etc.

Chinese child labour making iPads and S4s and whatnot is covered but I want to see exactly how the bottom bracket is reamed and by whom.

 

[xerxes]

Re:

The BBC's Watchdog series did a small article on "flat pack bicycles" a while back:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeAVosPXFTw[/youtube]

 

[tufty]

Here's a quick overview of a $99 MTBSO from walmart.

The money shot is around 6 minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq35_9ywau8