PurleySquire
Retrobike Rider
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Had to get it back on the road in a hurry
Things had been progressing well, I had started to reassembly brake components from the "kit" supplied, it was a joy to work with a totally clean frame and set of components, which made the job so much easier.
I was hoping to have the bike ready for a longish RetroBike style jaunt around London with some friends and set Friday 30th March as my deadline for completion, but fate brought the schedule forward unexpectedly.
My regular commuter bike started breaking spokes on the back wheel at an alarming rate and I had to get it off the road fast on a wet Wednesday evening around 8pm. This left me 4 hours to do what I could to make the bike roadworthy; at 12:30pm I carried out I quick run up and down my road and deemed the job complete. At 5am in the morning I set off for work some 15 miles away in the City, this was somewhat of a leap of faith!
The bike survived the shakedown and by the weekend, I had covered 60 miles on it without mishap. On Friday 30th March I had a few hours of minor tweaking, such as; changing the bottom bracket for a narrower model which put the chain ring in a better position for the cassette and made for better gear changing.
On Saturday 31st March, I set out with Chris and Caspar and followed an easy and flat route around London which covered some 60 miles over the period of a day. This was relaxed cruising by my standards but poor Chris is not a regular cyclist and was quite pooped out by the end of it.
The Marin performed well and the three outstanding issues I have left to sort are; gear selection (a bit haphazard in the low ranges), chain length (too long) and brake squeals (too much toe in on the pads?).
Page edited to show new image location
Things had been progressing well, I had started to reassembly brake components from the "kit" supplied, it was a joy to work with a totally clean frame and set of components, which made the job so much easier.
I was hoping to have the bike ready for a longish RetroBike style jaunt around London with some friends and set Friday 30th March as my deadline for completion, but fate brought the schedule forward unexpectedly.
My regular commuter bike started breaking spokes on the back wheel at an alarming rate and I had to get it off the road fast on a wet Wednesday evening around 8pm. This left me 4 hours to do what I could to make the bike roadworthy; at 12:30pm I carried out I quick run up and down my road and deemed the job complete. At 5am in the morning I set off for work some 15 miles away in the City, this was somewhat of a leap of faith!
The bike survived the shakedown and by the weekend, I had covered 60 miles on it without mishap. On Friday 30th March I had a few hours of minor tweaking, such as; changing the bottom bracket for a narrower model which put the chain ring in a better position for the cassette and made for better gear changing.
On Saturday 31st March, I set out with Chris and Caspar and followed an easy and flat route around London which covered some 60 miles over the period of a day. This was relaxed cruising by my standards but poor Chris is not a regular cyclist and was quite pooped out by the end of it.
The Marin performed well and the three outstanding issues I have left to sort are; gear selection (a bit haphazard in the low ranges), chain length (too long) and brake squeals (too much toe in on the pads?).
Page edited to show new image location
