Showing posts with label Aheadset bearings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aheadset bearings. Show all posts

Saturday 23 November 2013

With A Little Help From My Friends







Having returned from the midlands, I wasted no time in dropping the Holdsworth at Maldon Shot Blasting & powder Coating. Despite considerable demand for their services, Chris made concerted efforts to commence work on Wednesday morning, submerging it within their slightly sinister looking chloride tank, which softens the existing finish in a matter of minutes. Satisfied of even saturation, my ferrous friend is plucked free and placed within the iron oxide cabinet ready for blasting. Starting at the bottom bracket shell, these finer particles are projected at lower pressure, yet dismisses the beleaguered blue livery with remarkable efficiency, leaving behind a clean, lightly sanded texture perfect for receiving the new primer and topcoats.

Obviously, this chemical romance consumes filler too, so pre-existing superficial dents around the top and head tube will be given fresh helpings of Thermabond putty beforehand. Job-lot finishers would go straight to paint, attempting to mask these imperfections with heavier powder but this always bleeds though and looks second rate. Traditional fillers are porous, so will blow, ruining the finish as it oven cures, so the only other option would involve filling the affected with brass and smoothing it flat.    


Elsewhere, Uncle Benny came to my rescue on the coldest night thus far. Swooping serenely past his house on the newly fettled Ilpompino, our zen-like mood was rudely interrupted by the rear tyre’s sudden loss of pressure. Carrying said steed sixty odd metres to his welcoming (not to mention well-lit) veranda, I was extracting the rear wheel when he opened the door, inviting me and stricken spherical into the warm.

Boiling kettles muffled impolite curses upon discovering both tyre levers crumbling under moderate strain and several small but troublesome lesions in the previously invulnerable 24mm Halo rubber (which ironically had superseded 25mm thick slicks that succumbed to similar fate twenty three hours earlier). 

Having filled this with Bostick’s finest while slurping piping hot diesel strength beverage, I introduced a fresh tube only to find my ultra-efficient SKS hand-pump had also blown its last…Luckily enough, I’d a fully loaded CO2 dispenser en tow-110psi reinstated in a matter of seconds. Beverages consumed, pump binned and wheel repatriated, we were home in twelve minutes. Naturally I’ve since added two replacement tubes, levers, canister and mini pump to proceedings.

Despite forecaster predictions, artic winds have brought freezing rain as opposed to snowfall, thus Univega has retained those semi-slick Panaracer RIBMO for time being. Aheadset bearings have continued to slacken every forty odd miles, leading me to repatriate the spacer below the stem. Theoretically this configuration will increase the load exerted by its heavy duty headlock (as distinct from star fangled nut) cancelling out further outbreaks of unwanted play.

Experiencing creative fatigue, I noticed the rear derailleur cable run from lever to first guide seemed a little strained so re-routed and replaced its inner wire before drizzling some clever looking Muc-Off C3 ceramic dry lube into each and every chain link. “Alien” green upon contact, it cures clear and supposedly offers similar tenacity to a wet lube but with much slicker, cleaner running. Seems delightful thus far, making easy transition to cleat/similar mechanisms, doubling as a decent assembly paste on mudguard/carrier bolts too.

Most potions tend to consist of two parts-a super invasive polymer lubricant and boron nitride stopper/thickening agent that prevents dismissal come the first puddle. There’s even a UV torch included, supposedly ensuring comprehensive, unabridged coverage but while certainly different, in practice it doesn’t seem to offer any real benefit since green is pretty difficult to miss! Still, the next few hundred road miles will reveal this particular formula’s foibles.