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71
Bikes For Sale / Sherpa Wanted
« Last post by robbieonthenet on February 10, 2026, 11:37:38 PM »
I am looking to buy a Sherpa 969 9 speed medium/large size.
I am 6ft tall living in Bournemouth but willing to travel to collect.
Message me if you have a Sherpa for sale.
72
Rohloff Internal Hub Gears / Re: Changing gear during heavy rain
« Last post by DGR on February 10, 2026, 06:37:29 PM »
Many thanks to everyone who has made a suggestion.

So I can now think of myself as being in a win-win situation. 
  • If it's not raining heavily, that will be good, because the problem won't arise.
  • If it is raining heavily, that will now be sort-of good, because I'll be able to try one of the suggestions!
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Thorn General / Re: Early Club Tour rims
« Last post by Mike Ayling on February 09, 2026, 05:00:27 AM »
Crikey, postage/ freight costs a lot these days!
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Thorn General / Re: Early Club Tour rims
« Last post by B cereus on February 08, 2026, 01:10:10 PM »
Thinking some more about this, I’m wondering if a Shimano STX-RC  V brake would work. They’re full-sized Vs and they use the same type of unthreaded brake pads that the OP is currently using. Would they allow more adjustment on the pads to accommodate the narrow bosses?

A quick search on eBay turned up several hits.

 https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=STX-RC+V+brakes&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313


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Thorn General / Re: Early Club Tour rims
« Last post by B cereus on February 07, 2026, 07:13:58 PM »

I sympathise with your dilemma. Your problems arise from the previous owner’s botched conversion. The bike probably previously had drops with bar end shifters and drop bar levers. If the vendor still has the bar end shifters you could claim them and mount them on thumb mounts. You would need to buy the thumb mounts and a pair of short pull flat bar levers.

There are other ways around your problem but firstly I think I’d be inclined to try V brakes. It’s the simplest option and well worth a try. The spacing on the rear will likely be OK and on the front, as Martin suggests, swapping around the spherical washers will gain you extra millimetres, it might even work without the need for the rather expensive Thinline pads.

Club Tours of that vintage were also available with flat bars and the same Cantilever brakes that you have. So that option would certainly work. but would need both new flat bar short pull levers and new shifters.
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Thorn General / Re: Early Club Tour rims
« Last post by PH on February 07, 2026, 06:03:56 PM »
Quote from: AdrianStone on February 07, 2026, 10:36:10 AM
Thank you - that was what I was trying to do, but on checking the brake bosses on the forks, they are @67mm centre to centre, from my reading around I think any V-brake needs something closer to 80mm apart, I assume they would fit after a fashion, but the arms not be parallel to the forks?
That's generally considered too close, you can sometimes get them to fit, but you won't get good braking,
Quote
it might just be easier to remove the combined brake/shifters and fit separate brake levers and shifters
That's what I'd do, it needn't be expensive. You could probably find some secondhand.
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Thorn General / Re: Early Club Tour rims
« Last post by martinf on February 07, 2026, 12:03:33 PM »
Quote from: AdrianStone on February 07, 2026, 10:36:10 AM
Thank you - that was what I was trying to do, but on checking the brake bosses on the forks, they are @67mm centre to centre, from my reading around I think any V-brake needs something closer to 80mm apart, I assume they would fit after a fashion, but the arms not be parallel to the forks?

With the brake pads and holders I use there is quite a lot of scope for adjustment by changing the order of the concave washers on the pad holder. See attached image file.

I generally use standard brake pads, they have the same stack of washers. But that image shows "thinline" pads that might work better with relatively narrow forks. Link to Thinline pads here :

https://www.koolstop.eu/rim-brake-pads/cantilever-v-brake/thinline-threaded/t2-thinline-salmon-ks-tltsa-re-335/
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Thorn General / Re: Early Club Tour rims
« Last post by AdrianStone on February 07, 2026, 10:36:10 AM »
Quote from: B cereus on February 05, 2026, 11:06:24 AM
Quote from: AdrianStone on February 04, 2026, 05:16:44 PM

I do indeed have the wrong brake/shifters on flat bars, they are Shimano ST-EF35-8 and ST-ET35L,


I’m not surprised that braking performance was poor with V brake specific levers.  I would make it a priority to fit full size V brake callipers both front and rear before I rode that bike much further.

Decent V brakes aren’t expensive and there’s a good supply on the secondhand market. The cheapest options generally use the frame mounting boss as a pivot bearing. Paying a little more will get you internal pivot bearing bushes and better brake shoes with replaceable pad option.

Thank you - that was what I was trying to do, but on checking the brake bosses on the forks, they are @67mm centre to centre, from my reading around I think any V-brake needs something closer to 80mm apart, I assume they would fit after a fashion, but the arms not be parallel to the forks?

I'm going to have to rethink everything, it might just be easier to remove the combined brake/shifters and fit separate brake levers and shifters, again nothing I know about apart other than it's a triple front chain ring and 8 gears at the back.

Again, thank you all for the advice, it does seem to be a mine field and I seem to have bought a 'pig in a poke'
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Thorn General / Re: Early Club Tour rims
« Last post by PH on February 07, 2026, 12:59:36 AM »
Quote from: mickeg on February 06, 2026, 11:43:19 PM
I was only aware of one model of Tektro brake levers that were long pull for drop bars. 
I think we're going down an unnecessary rabbit hole here, there's at least three brands of drop bar long pull levers, but that's irrelevant as the OP has straight bars and there's countless short pull levers for those.  Anything pre V brakes for a start, then when fast hybrids became fashionable all the manufacturers reintroduced levers to work with caliper brakes, SJS list at least half a dozen.
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Thorn General / Re: Early Club Tour rims
« Last post by mickeg on February 06, 2026, 11:43:19 PM »
Quote from: PH on February 06, 2026, 10:00:13 PM
Quote from: mickeg on February 05, 2026, 07:09:05 PM
Quote from: PH on February 05, 2026, 03:45:20 PM
...
It's confusing that people are referring to these a road or MTB components.  There's long and short pull brakes and brake levers, whilst it's more common to find short pull used with drop bars, they are in no way exclusive.

Sorry if I am confusing, but that is the way I learned it many years ago.  Long cable pull was specific to V brakes, and I only saw those on mountain bikes at first.
Not just you, which is why my moan was more general, I see it all the time... But there are drop bar long pull levers for V brakes and straight bar short pull levers for caliper or canti brakes, while mechanical disc brakes are available in both flavours.

I was only aware of one model of Tektro brake levers that were long pull for drop bars.  And as far as I know, no brifters are designed for long pull brakes.

It is us people that do some of our own mechanical work that understand the concept of long pull and short pull levers, but other bicyclists that don't do their own work do not understand the difference between long and short pull.  But they understand the difference between mountain bikes and drop bar road bikes.

All of the bikes that I built up have drop bars.  And they all have short pull levers or brifters.

Only my errand bike that I bought used has flat bars, that bike is a 1994 Bridgestone MB-6.  I paid $5 USD for it, but it cost me about $50 in parts to make it useable.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/bridgestone/1994/pages/36.htm
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