Amid the chaos of wholly unnecessary central heating oil tank replacement (resultant from a
neighbour’s vitriolic refusal to accept two independent, qualified reports that
the old unit was completely sound and fit for purpose); one's freelance canoe has been paddled with renewed vigour and seemingly positive results. Aside from
the usual projects/collaborations, I’ve been weaving through the web's many
strands of opportunity, albeit slightly undecided about some.
Anything with the “homeworking”
tag targeted specifically at women sets my senses on red alert. For decades this was a euphemism for sweated, piece rate labour that often cost
participants more money to acquire the raw materials than they actually made-£5 per
thousand envelopes being one of the most commonly advertised lures that springs
to mind.
This appears to have crossed into creative, skilled vocations in
recent years- $5 for 1,000 word feature ring any bells among fellow
freelancers? Frankly, anyone foolish enough to plunder these depths i.e.
willingly compete in such races to the bottom will find precious little
sympathy from this corner.
While shifting half a tonne of
new central heating receptacle through the side gate and to its newly set concrete
plinth, “Uncle” Benny happened to mention one of his bike’s fit n’ forget
square taper bottom brackets had finally turned sloppy, so I agreed to supply
and fit a cheap but fairly cheerful Shimano replacement. In this instance we settled upon the Japanese giant's basic UN26 complete with composite sleeves and solid steel axle-£7 inc postage. Removing the
resident "Power pro" unit proved less taxing than I thought given a brief blast of
penetrant spray inside the seat tube and using sheer leverage from Lezyne's CNC rod.
Despite giving the incoming
unit’s threaded sections a liberal slathering of ceramic polymer grease and
using precision tooling, these components are decidedly soft and very easily
stripped-overcome by applying gentle pulses of super invasive penetrant spray
while surreptitiously winding it fully home in gentle bursts.
No sooner had we everything
reinstated and double checked, it became apparent that his entry level road
bike’s unit had succumbed to the same fate despite only a handful of rides! Given
our experience with the UN26, he’s requested I supply and fit the UN55, whose
superior bearings, seals and hollow axle should amass much higher mileages
before singing that familiar swansong.
Staying with square tapers, this
rather fetching System EX crankset has replaced the cheap but decidedly
charming Stronglight ST55. 44 teeth maintain the road sensible 77 inch gearing,
eliminating risk of spinning out on the flat or straining on moderate
climbs.46/48t are the preserve of track or pancake flat TTs, though
supply of 130 BCD fare is reasonable should wear or whim dictate.
At a glance 669g is fairly beefy-less than some super stiff hot forged track models but in keeping with
other sub £60 fare and 170mm arms will suit production fixers, conversions or
indeed some single/hub gear builds with lower bottom bracket heights since
there’s less risk of grounding out when cornering hard.
Mirror polished finishes are vastly superior to paint and this one should resist the salt monster’s advances for several
seasons-longer fed periodic helpings of decent quality polymer car polish. In
common with others in this class , detailing's a little workman-like
around the inner spider but this isn’t glaringly obvious/likely to prove a deal breaker on trainers/club builds.
Initial
impressions are extremely favourable with excellent power transfer and nominal
whip under sprinting or climbing efforts. However, we’re only 50 in to a
300mile plus evaluation for a new consumer focused title, so said remarks must
be regarded as formative at this stage.
Rummaging through my spares drawer
resurrected these low-profile, dual-sided shop branded Ritchey WCS homages for
more convenient getaways and further improved ground clearance.They’re actually rather well made
by FTP-another Taiwanese marque, boasting nicely machined, powder coated
aluminium bodies, super reliable Cro-moly axles turning on remarkably smooth
cartridge bearings.
Ironically (and this seems true of other patterns) while
perfectly accommodating of genuine Shimano cleats, they seem happiest with VP,
Wellgo, Btwin and indeed Exustar! On that note, I’m off to pedal my wares and
invest further energies into matters marketing/promotional.
