Recent content by TheRadioGuyUK

This is less a question or a thread about insights of x vs y vs z, what is right and proper etc. It’s more about rationalising your options and why you chose a route. It’s ultimately, motivated and determined by you and only you - screw opinions about what’s the best purist view of which way...

I guess, maybe we shouldn’t forget the countless cups of tea we probably consumed as an essential, I’m more a coffee addict (although some friends thought my coffee was inspired by V2 fuel) but even the caffeine addict consumed far too many cups of tea during the contemplation and feverish...

Well that traditional combo was never not bombproof - as long as you remembered (bearing in mind we didn’t often realise the salt content of household detergents) to flush a few times with clean water and wipe it dry fully. The onset of advanced vehicle rust, where steel was predominantly...

Well, regardless of what you use in your setup, riding under extremes that send even the Mx/Enduro and Quad riders to seek the warmer comforts of beer, video games etc is at least 50% technique/awareness and setting yourself and ride up to suit the conditions, the other 50% you figure out by...

Well, clearly you’re motivated to making a decent job of restoring/resto-modding it. But you’ve probably realised, maybe even used in places, stuff that’s not necessarily in the common list of cyclist purist ‘approved’ cleaners/degreasers/de-oxidiser jellymound ‘must use’ variety. More often...

Sticking purely to bicycle specific parts :- Fibrax Surestopper Black/Red v-brake shoes & Continental Sprinter 26x22 tyres. Actually the specific Continent Sprinters I used are not in production anymore, mine were barely semi-treaded slicks but the Sprinters still made are about as close as...

Well, I’d be more interested in finding the best suitable sized (for geometry reasons) item that’s in good or nearly new condition - given the importance of getting it right - it’s better to pay more to get the best known quantity item that you know has been a solid performance item paired with...

Have agree with it needing investigating, even if just remove paint in affecting areas and try to determine the depth and actual extent. Lesson you learn, the hard way but hopefully not the dangerous way, is visible corrosion is often only half the story, and it’s the hidden damage that’s...

Well, as for the first - one of countless branded/sub-branded/sometimes overpriced boutique branded ‘junk’, not what enthuiasts call ‘a proper MTB’ bike, we pretty much all (bar the rich gits and bank-of-parents monied gits) had either one of that grade as a starter MTB or maybe an old much...

Unfortunately, no pics/photos exist any more. Simply, at a particularly stressful chapter of my life - i had a pretty nasty meltdown and trashed literally everything relating to the past, including anything to do with the fun parts. So everything i write that recalls past stuff literally is...

Well given a lot of examples talked about in retrobike circles as the modern end are in the 80s/early nineties generation - there were some serious liberties taken when describing the purity of materials and equally even some hi-ten steel pipe built frames were taking liberties in their claims...

It’s worth mentioning, when talking about flexible or how much flex a frame has - that a frame can horribly flexible which is much a reason to avoid the frame, but equally a positive ‘flexible’ is a comfortable one which (especially in fully rigid frame/fork combos) allows the bike to track well...

Kind of ironic that the former SU was the biggest quantity source of Ti, where a lot of the Ti used on the SR-71 got back door sourced from, yet products utilising Ti in part or whole are rare sights from that part of the world. I actually owned a military spec SU sourced camera (SLR) that has...

The reference to dark magic and sorcery was polite reference to how people treat the invisible complexity that actually goes into the design and engineering of anything that’s not a matter of assembling in the right order and tightening up a few dozen nuts/fasteners out of an idiot-proofed kit...

I think it may have been a very early Dynatech series (I don’t recall the variant, beyond it was the literal top variant which were special order) my friend had which got stolen a week later after a three month pre-order wait. By all accounts (i only know two people who owned the only two sold...