Show us what you did today, thread

[ajm]

Re:

Another change of plans meant I had the morning free unexpectedly and it wasn't raining, so I headed out on the roadster again to see where it would take me.

It was clearly feeling historically inclined, first taking me past the ceremony for the unveiling of a memorial on a nearby aerodrome, past the old command centre and quite a few miles later to this place:

A WWII prisoner of war camp. Not such a melancholy place as you might think - several of the inmates enjoyed their time there (working on nearby farms) so much that they never went home and one of them is still living not too far away!

Further on along the back roads we came to what must be one of the most scenic large fuel storage depots in the world, also from the 1940s:

There's space for 5.6 million gallons of fuel oil in that hill although you wouldn't know it - which was the whole point of course!

I carried on another few miles onto completely unfamiliar roads, before deciding it was more than past time to be heading back and dropping down from the hillside to the seaside, this unusual church being the turning point:

From there it was past the port and the oil rigs in for servicing, along the scenic shore road in the sunshine and back onto more familiar roads towards home.

At almost exactly three hours and 42 miles that was a pretty long ride compared to those I normally have time and energy for, but I finished it feeling considerably less beaten up than I would have been had I been on my road bike.

The biggest problem, not having any food for three hours, should be solved by the saddlebag I ordered yesterday (the original which came with the bike was lost about fifty years ago.)

A thorough convert to this kind of properly retro biking... I really must work on stopping to take pictures during the sunny parts of my rides though, I seem to stop taking pictures as soon as the sun comes out!

 

[epicyclo]

Great stuff. If you're on the loose tomorrow, try nipping across the NIgg ferry to Cromarty.

Mark Stevens is having an exhibition of his model creations in the Old Brewery. Well worth a look.

(He's got a considerable collection of old bikes, a fellow member of Rod-Brake Roadster Randonneurs FaceBook group)

 

[ajm]

Re:

Had another hour on the roadster before tea today, then after coming home I did something I should have done a few years ago - wiped some of the oil from the rear hub shell and actually read what it said...

THAT explains the problem with slipping in top gear! Sadly it also torpedoes my repair plans. All this time I just assumed it was an ordinary AW hub.

A bit of Internet research suggests I'm fortunate it doesn't slip in every gear... oh well. It is supposedly lighter than the AW, the lower first gear is kind of nice to have for climbs or stiff headwinds and I dare say the higher gear would be great for tailwinds, if it didn't cam-out unpredictably

It also explains the lack of ticking when freewheeling - I thought it was maybe just tired pawl springs or enough gunk inside to dampen the action and noise a bit, but actually there aren't any pawl springs in it to tick.

Not sure what to do now - by taking it apart and upsetting it I might even make it worse than it is and there's no chance of getting unworn spare parts.

On the plus side, it was made late on in the short production run so will likely have all the mods to make it less bad than the earlier ones...

 

[epicyclo]

Don't know if this is a case of teaching granny to suck eggs

With a slipping gearchange on a S-A hub on an old British roadster, there's a couple of things worth eliminating before suspecting the hub or the shifter.

First is the cable stop on the toptube. It can be reasonably tight but able to creep slightly, which effectively throws out the cable adjustment. So it's important to make sure it is really tightly clamped.

Second is the pulley on the seattube. Same thing.

The other things are the more obvious. Make sure the cable is not overly stiff from having been left idle for years, and that the cable outer is not in too tight a curve, and that it is in good condition and that its ends are square cut.

 

[ajm]

I'm happy to admit to being far from an expert on hub gears, just dabbled with them a wee bit in my youth, but I don't think this can be cable related (sadly, as it'd be much easier to fix!)

The main reason is that it only ever slips in third / top gear, which should theoretically be rock solid even without an intact cable - I'm happy that the cable's adjusted pretty much spot on as it shifts really quickly and reliably into every gear, both up and down.

What I'm finding is described on the SW page on Sheldon Brown ( https://www.sheldonbrown.com/sw.html ) in the "Camming out" section... if I'm going downhill or with a tailwind I can change into third perfectly and "encourage" the bike along with steady gentle torque on the pedals... after a little while though it suddenly slips even if I haven't increased the torque in any noticeable way, just like something has cammed its way out of engagement

Do you have a SW on any of your bikes?

 

[mk one]

Re: Re:

A WWII prisoner of war camp. Not such a melancholy place as you might think - several of the inmates enjoyed their time there (working on nearby farms) so much that they never went home and one of them is still living not too far away!

Further on along the back roads we came to what must be one of the most scenic large fuel storage depots in the world, also from the 1940s:

There's space for 5.6 million gallons of fuel oil in that hill although you wouldn't know it - which was the whole point of course!

Looks an interesting ride. The POW camp looks a bit easy to escape though i have never seen that fuel depot before either, is it still in use?

 

[ajm]

Re: Re:

Looks an interesting ride. The POW camp looks a bit easy to escape though i have never seen that fuel depot before either, is it still in use?

It was in use, or under maintenance at least, until the 1980s but it's unused now. It's interesting keeping an eye out for all the associated bits of the pipeline and pumphouses etc, all the way down to the docks in the town... the biggest pumping station has been converted into a house, I wouldn't be surprised if there were still a faint oily whiff about it!

Edit to say - another useless fact is that the tanks are actually the world record holding location of the longest echo - 112 seconds!

 

[Jamiedyer]

That looks a very interesting route, would definitely be interested following you on a rerun of it.
The POW camp is quite interesting and would like to hear more. I lived near a Japanese POW camp in Cowra back in Aus and it had some interesting individual stories as well as crafts come out of it.

Jamie

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

Re:

Think I remember a TV programme that actually went inside that fuel storage depot, it was on the telly year or more ago. It looked scarily huge and dark inside, really echoey and guy said it still stank of the fuel oil used by the Navy's ships.

Jamie, there's an old POW camp just south of Comrie near Crieff, Cultybraggan Camp, think it was used in both wars. Seem to remember BBC Scotland doing an article a while back, a year or 2?, about one of prisoners who settled in area after war, he was interviewed by them.

 

[Jamiedyer]

Keeping with a bit of a retro conflict type theme I have a couple of pictures from a ride I did in Germany just local from where I was staying at friends in the small village of Rade in Gifhorn, lower Saxony. The village is tiny and a real farming village that has a forest/woods running along the outer side of the village. I was told this was the old east/west border and if you follow a small dirt track in the woods you will come to an anti tank deployment and if you go just past you will see a piece of the wall and a sentry post still in place alongside. You can also see the usual concrete tyre paths that were laid from one end of the wall to the other. I was riding my friend Nils Commencal which while a bit big was still good to be out riding.
I went along this path and was surprised how close it actually was there was trench, anti tank deployements and then a bigger trench with a section of wall and sentry sitting on the far side of the wood. This opened out onto the farmers field on the other side. He had left the section of wall, put down some gravel and there was a nice undercover picnic bench alongside. There were also interp boards on both sides showing how it was in the day with photos of it being dismantled and the plans showing how on the farmers side it was all lights, barbed wire, bunkers etc for a good distance back from the border.
Whilst I am used to being in Berlin etc and seeing the wall and it's divisions etc it was a bit different seeing it in this very rural setting just literally a block or so from where you sleep. A bit more real maybe? I don't know, just bit of a sombre feeling. This was made all the more so by the farmer giving a wave while feeding his cows who slowed on his way back past to gesture if I was needing anything. Just made me think that only 30 odd years back this would have been a very different place.
Another thing that was noticeable was that the bunker was concrete block and the only door was from the east and the sighting slots were steel reinforced so the was no was you could use one to go west. Young conscripts were used to man these and the remit was to shoot anyone coming near the border on the western side, east too I imagine if they got that far. I was told if they refused or didn't do it properly they would be imprisoned and have no opportunity at either education or work and most likely repercussions for their family. This only stopped in 88 I think, when it was opened up.

w1 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

w2 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

w3 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

w4 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

w5 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

w6 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr