SantaHul
Retro Guru
Why I hate my bike
An essay by Stephen Hulley
I hate my 84 CB Dalesman lately. The brakes are rubbish. I upgraded to Shimano 105 Golden Arrows but they're rubbish too. They don't stop the bike, they just bend. I almost went into the back of a lorry the other day.
The headset has no sweet spot. It goes from too tight to too loose. In fact right now its both stiff to move and slightly wobbly at the same time. I changed the cage and bearings and packed it with loads of grease. This made approximately 0.1% difference.
The seat post won't stay put no matter how tight I get it. I cleaned out the seat tube and put a newer bolt on that I could screw even tighter. That made approximately 10% difference. Its 10% worse. - Solved. See below.
The friction shifters friction shift by themselves. I know there's some washer that needs replacing but I hate friction shifters, I want indexing. Problem is all the 6 speed index shifters out there are those ugly matte grey things Shimano were producing in the 90's. Isn't there anything period I can fit?
I hate the fact that the fork crown is so low my £50 GB mudguards don't actually fit. They're on top of my wardrobe now.
I hate the front mech which refuses to stay on the big ring, probably (definitely) because of the shifters.
Why oh why did I sell my Majestic? It refused to break no matter how badly I treated. Even when I was hammering it around fully loaded and bits of metal were flying off, it always got home. And never killed me once.
I don't hate my wheels. They're great (and brand new).
edit: For future reference, thanks to suggestions in this post, I just resolved the seatpost issue. It had been fitted with one a size too small and then the neck of the seat tube had been over-tightened in a attempt to make it grip the smaller post. Had to use a screwdriver to open the slot on the rear of the neck up then the post slid in easier and neater than the original.
An essay by Stephen Hulley
I hate my 84 CB Dalesman lately. The brakes are rubbish. I upgraded to Shimano 105 Golden Arrows but they're rubbish too. They don't stop the bike, they just bend. I almost went into the back of a lorry the other day.
The headset has no sweet spot. It goes from too tight to too loose. In fact right now its both stiff to move and slightly wobbly at the same time. I changed the cage and bearings and packed it with loads of grease. This made approximately 0.1% difference.
The seat post won't stay put no matter how tight I get it. I cleaned out the seat tube and put a newer bolt on that I could screw even tighter. That made approximately 10% difference. Its 10% worse. - Solved. See below.
The friction shifters friction shift by themselves. I know there's some washer that needs replacing but I hate friction shifters, I want indexing. Problem is all the 6 speed index shifters out there are those ugly matte grey things Shimano were producing in the 90's. Isn't there anything period I can fit?
I hate the fact that the fork crown is so low my £50 GB mudguards don't actually fit. They're on top of my wardrobe now.
I hate the front mech which refuses to stay on the big ring, probably (definitely) because of the shifters.
Why oh why did I sell my Majestic? It refused to break no matter how badly I treated. Even when I was hammering it around fully loaded and bits of metal were flying off, it always got home. And never killed me once.
I don't hate my wheels. They're great (and brand new).
edit: For future reference, thanks to suggestions in this post, I just resolved the seatpost issue. It had been fitted with one a size too small and then the neck of the seat tube had been over-tightened in a attempt to make it grip the smaller post. Had to use a screwdriver to open the slot on the rear of the neck up then the post slid in easier and neater than the original.
