Technical > General Technical
New (old) bike help required
lewis noble:
Good luck with the bike and sorting it to your tastes and needs.
Drops / straights?? Very much a personal choice; I rode straight bars for years / decades but have adapted better than I expected to the drops on my Audax. I think a lot depends on riding style, terrain etc. - I and most others prefer straight bars for trail riding.
The brakes - I think they are called centre-pull or cantilever? For years they were standard on most bikes, now largely replaced by v-brakes where rim brakes used. Would you replace them with v-brakes or are they fine as they are? If you do decide to replace the lighting system with bar mounted kit, and retain the centre-pull brakes, bear in mind that the stud / front light bracket from the fork crown is an essential safety feature of centre-pull brakes - without that, if the brake cable breaks or slackens off inadvertently, the springs can pull the 'joining' cable down onto the tyre and jam the wheel (not sure of my terms here) - at least, so I was told years ago, and I never wanted to test that out!
And it's surprising how better bikes feel when they are clean and well lubed and maintained! An extra 10 miles a day I reckon . . . .
Lewis
ourclarioncall:
--- Quote from: lewis noble on May 12, 2022, 11:22:28 am ---Good luck with the bike and sorting it to your tastes and needs.
Drops / straights?? Very much a personal choice; I rode straight bars for years / decades but have adapted better than I expected to the drops on my Audax. I think a lot depends on riding style, terrain etc. - I and most others prefer straight bars for trail riding.
The brakes - I think they are called centre-pull or cantilever? For years they were standard on most bikes, now largely replaced by v-brakes where rim brakes used. Would you replace them with v-brakes or are they fine as they are? If you do decide to replace the lighting system with bar mounted kit, and retain the centre-pull brakes, bear in mind that the stud / front light bracket from the fork crown is an essential safety feature of centre-pull brakes - without that, if the brake cable breaks or slackens off inadvertently, the springs can pull the 'joining' cable down onto the tyre and jam the wheel (not sure of my terms here) - at least, so I was told years ago, and I never wanted to test that out!
And it's surprising how better bikes feel when they are clean and well lubed and maintained! An extra 10 miles a day I reckon . . . .
Lewis
--- End quote ---
Thanks Lewis , I hadn’t thought through the brakes yet other than they are a bit weak, maybe the pads need adjusted or renewed. I will take a closer look. I think I see what you mean about the brakes cables And the bracket thing the light is attached to which sort of catches it a bit if it were to snap somewhere
ourclarioncall:
I forget that I am almost 17 stone (I feel like I’m 12 inside ) (I’m in my 40’s and also feel like I’m 21 lol)
If I lose a few stone the bike will feel even quicker than it already does . Maybe ? . But that would be a bonus
I wasn’t sure if I could change the current brakes to v brakes , would that work ok ? I might not do it yet but maybe later
PH:
--- Quote from: ourclarioncall on May 12, 2022, 03:44:11 pm ---I wasn’t sure if I could change the current brakes to v brakes , would that work ok ? I might not do it yet but maybe later
--- End quote ---
You can, though they have to be matched to the appropriate lever.
Those brakes should work fine, they look well set up with a good straddle cable angle, cleaning the rims thoroughly might help as might better blocks.
Those levers match those brakes, if you fit V brakes you'll need V brake levers which have more cable pull, if you change to straight bars you may as well change the brakes, but I wouldn't bother otherwise.
Lighting - if you've nothing better to do it might be fun to get that setup working, but really by modern standards it'll be pretty rubbish even if you do. Any tenner battery LED light is likely to be brighter. I'm a fan of hub dynamo LED systems for bikes that are going to be used in the dark a lot, but it's an expensive upgrade for those that are not, my bikes are half and half, top quality dynamo system or cheap battery light in the saddlebag.
PH:
--- Quote from: lewis noble on May 12, 2022, 11:22:28 am ---bear in mind that the stud / front light bracket from the fork crown is an essential safety feature of centre-pull brakes - without that, if the brake cable breaks or slackens off inadvertently, the springs can pull the 'joining' cable down onto the tyre and jam the wheel (not sure of my terms here) - at least, so I was told years ago, and I never wanted to test that out!
Lewis
--- End quote ---
Not with mudguards fitted it won't ;)
This was an issue when knobbly tyred MTB's were the norm, Shimano introduced their own link wire to overcome it, which instead of a one wire yoke, had the main cable running all the way down to one arm. But the best way to stop it was always to take care of your cables!
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