Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Swings and roundabouts

The Auckland Anniversary weekend started with promise, when Dave from Wellington opted to Buy it Now, relieving me of my long-neglected GT I-Drive.
This was possibly my full allocation of good fortune for the holiday:

My plan to fit Mafac Top 63 centrepulls to the Hurlow foundered when I discovered that the brakes don't have enough reach, even though the bizarre sliding whatchamacallit appears to have plenty of adjustment left. It is possible to get the brake shoes lined up with the rims, however the lefthand anchor point for the straddle wire fouls the arc of the front brake arm. I think that swapping to 27" rims might solve the problem, but that's not an option.
Despite buying new bushes, and spending a few hours polishing, this is but a minor irritation, unlike the next calamity which really pissed me off.....

The seat tube on my Holdsworth Whirlwind cracked. I was intending to restore the frame this year, so I guess its a good thing that it happened now, and not after I had spent hundreds on nickel plating and new paint.
The frame is repairable, so I may yet grind out the old tube and braze in a new.

8 comments:

Rob said...

Is the broken seat tube anything to do with the mass of the rider?

David Benson said...

I put it down to the immense power output required to wheelsuck behind a fat triathlete last Sunday morning.

Anonymous said...

Besides the huge power from your bulging quads, why did it break where it did? Was that the end of the seatpost??

David Benson said...

Not me. Matt Sinton, whose quads do bulge somewhat, rode it a couple of times a few years back, so maybe it's his fault.
The seatpost extended about an inch below the crack, so I don't think that's the problem. I think it's either metal fatigue or something indiscreet that I may have done with a seattube reamer a long time ago.

Anonymous said...

DB, that's way too much information about the seattube reamer...

JustinH said...

How come 27" rims aren't an option. BOH has a stack of nos Araya 27" rims somewhere. I had some trouble with tire fit on them though - the tires I've tried (including Conti) are loose and don't like going over 90psi.

David Benson said...

Nothing wrong with 27", but I like to keep things simple, and another tyre/rim size is something I can live without.
Do you know what model BO'H's rims are?

JustinH said...

I was mistaken. The rims are Ukais, and have no other markings. They are double wall, eyeleted and sill wrapped in brown paper. Nothing more enjoyable than tearing off original packaging, especially if it's in front of folk who like keep their sofas in plastic. Sad about Sheldon Brown's passing.