I nipped into Woking earlier to pick up a few things and on the way back decided to check out the canal that I could see from the main road (I’m still new to the area). Wow, turns out there’s a lovely towpath down there that goes on for miles. Took a snap at Lock 6, which is a very original-looking manual lock, and there was a nice little bridge I could use to get back onto the road after a quick check of the map to see where I was. Will definitely be going back there for a longer explore
I nipped into Woking earlier to pick up a few things and on the way back decided to check out the canal that I could see from the main road (I’m still new to the area). Wow, turns out there’s a lovely towpath down there that goes on for miles. Took a snap at Lock 6, which is a very original-looking manual lock, and there was a nice little bridge I could use to get back onto the road after a quick check of the map to see where I was. Will definitely be going back there for a longer explore
I like a ride along that canal towpath myself. My best tip if you are new to the area is that in the winter some sections of towpath between Woking and Frimley can turn into deep mud. Make the most of it in the summer
I like a ride along that canal towpath myself. My best tip if you are new to the area is that in the winter some sections of towpath between Woking and Frimley can turn into deep mud. Make the most of it in the summer
Thanks for the tip - might pass you down there one day then! This wasn’t really the right bike to be riding down there tbh. 25mm slicks weren’t the right choice for that surface so next time I’ll either take the Herse or go on a mountain bike.
I rode the entire canal a couple of weeks ago and it was fine on 40mm tyres although as has been said thing could change after rain, either way I second the suggestion of doing all of it, there is even an old castle to visit at the other end.
One day I will the full "circular" thing in a day...... Farnborough to Greywell, back the other way to the Wey, the back to Farnborough in time for tea
Will have to get back to proper levels of fitness first lol
The headset was notching into the ahead position (and probably contributed to a crash I had) so I gave it a going over a couple of weeks ago. I was expecting to find the crown race badly brinelled, but it was in fact the race in the lower headtube cup which had the most damage. I don’t have a method of re-dressing race surfaces, so I opted to do the old trick of turning the crown race round a couple of degrees one way, bottom cup a couple of degrees the other way and top cup out of phase with everything. Then the divots don’t line up and the headset doesn’t keep locking into the ahead position. It’s not a fix, per se, but it’ll extend the life of a worn headset.
It had loose balls in it and I’d planned to replace those with caged ones, in an attempt to prevent the loose balls rolling freely and collecting in all the low spots. Annoyingly, the cages made contact with the races and everything was a tight fit. Instead I decided to fully fill the top and bottom bearings with balls, using the logic that if the races are fully populated the balls don’t have anywhere to go other than where they are. Now, if you fill a bearing until all the balls are touching each other, the bearing is tight. I filled it until it did that and then took one ball out. I wanted to use balls all the same size in the same bearing and I didn’t have enough new ones to do that (would have needed nearly 60 balls), so I used the old ones in the top race and the new ones in the bottom race.
That was a frustrating day of dismantling, re-assembly, check, repeat, repeat etc until I got it right. However, a month on all is still fine, so I’m going to call that life extended for a rare Brampton headset.
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In other news, the rear mudguard had started rattling and it was driving me crackers. I narrowed it down to where the stays clap to the underside of the guard. I made up an H-shaped piece of rubber to go between the stay and the guard and it’s now quieter than it’s ever been!
I’m going to need the mudguards today, it’s about to start hosing it down…
