Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Trigger's Bike

Just replaced the frame on my old mountain bike (used for commuting), with a new Dawes Watoga frame, and as a consequence also needed to replace: -

  • The brakes - the old Canter Lever brakes wouldn't work on the rear, as there was no centre-pull for the system, so I've had to replace those with Vee Brakes.
  • The front dérailleur - the old one was bottom pull only, and the routing on the new frame required a top-pull system.
  • Bottom bracket - I couldn't extract the old one from the previous frame.
  • The seat-post - the old seat post was way too narrow for the new frame, which accepts a big 31.2mm diameter seat post.

Incidentally, I had some difficulty measuring the seat post hole until I worked out that by rolling up a sheet of paper, inserting that into the hole and letting it unfurl; I could then draw a line all the way around the top of the hole. Measuring the length of the line with the paper flat gave me a length of 98mm, dividing this by pi gave me my 31.2. I checked that 31.4 should be 98.6mm and 31.0 should be 97.3mm and then rechecked the lengths.

Previously replaced on the bicycle are the following: -

  • Headset bearings - after the steering ground to a halt (lots of leaning around corners for a while there).
  • Front forks - after the headset was replaced I had too much rise for the previous forks.
  • Both wheels - after discovering splits in the rims.
  • Chain set - can't remember why I did this.
  • Pedals - upgraded from plastic things to SPD pedals.
  • Chain and Cassette - I got through three chains & two cassettes last year.
  • Tyres - On my second set of tyres this year.
  • Rear Dérailleur - The old one had worn very badly.

So all that remains from the original now is: -

  • The handlebars & grips
  • The saddle
  • The bell

I'm thinking about changing the saddle next :-)