1986 (?) Muddy Fox Courier - commuter/work bike project

[focomat 1c]

Re:

So your spokes have ' aged pretty badly ' !!!!!?

What on earth does this mean ? it sounds like the sort of thing that unscrupulous mechanics say to less knowledgeable motorists about their cars

Spokes can get rusty or loose and occasionally damaged/bent locally and even break but I have never seen one that has aged pretty badly

You don't say what your spokes are made of , in the worst case they will be ' rustless ' that have gone rusty in places , so clean off and treat the rust
If you buy a spoke nipple spanner you can tighten any loose spokes you find , even remove individual damaged spokes entirely to straighten
or replace them . The wheel won't go significantly out of round when you do this , and you can learn something about wheel building

Personally I would question the motives of anyone who made an adverse comment about my spokes ! particularly in regard to the original rusty
spokes on my 1946 BSA Paratroop , let alone your spokes that are 40 years younger

Your bike shop has clearly employed some sort of soothsayer/fortune teller who can look at a spoke and tell that it has 'aged pretty badly'
might cause ' a major mishap mid -ride ' but should be ' fine for the near future ' You should ask them to predict the next lottery numbers and go elsewhere

 

[jacobTFH]

Re: Re:

Ahh not simple fix then, that's a bummer. I'd check that the floating jockey wheel is still actually floating then and if that's ok start looking at bent stuff, derailleur cage or hanger.

Bummer! Cheers, I'll take a look at the jockey wheel when I get some time to take it apart and get a closer look.

 

[jacobTFH]

Re: Re:

So your spokes have ' aged pretty badly ' !!!!!?

What on earth does this mean ? it sounds like the sort of thing that unscrupulous mechanics say to less knowledgeable motorists about their cars

Spokes can get rusty or loose and occasionally damaged/bent locally and even break but I have never seen one that has aged pretty badly

You don't say what your spokes are made of , in the worst case they will be ' rustless ' that have gone rusty in places , so clean off and treat the rust
If you buy a spoke nipple spanner you can tighten any loose spokes you find , even remove individual damaged spokes entirely to straighten
or replace them . The wheel won't go significantly out of round when you do this , and you can learn something about wheel building

Personally I would question the motives of anyone who made an adverse comment about my spokes ! particularly in regard to the original rusty
spokes on my 1946 BSA Paratroop , let alone your spokes that are 40 years younger

Your bike shop has clearly employed some sort of soothsayer/fortune teller who can look at a spoke and tell that it has 'aged pretty badly'
might cause ' a major mishap mid -ride ' but should be ' fine for the near future ' You should ask them to predict the next lottery numbers and go elsewhere

Hmmm, well it's not the kind of place that would do that on purpose. I've probably just misremembered exactly what the guy said about my wheels, I've got a brain like a sieve, and I spent a very long time in the shop chatting about what needed doing to it, so it's likely I've mixed up some bits of his advice with others.

But cheers though, it's good to know I can trust these spokes for a while yet, if yours from 1946 are still going strong!

 

[jacobTFH]

Went for a ride up the Lea river towpath this weekend. Issues with the rear derailleur appear to have gone away after some fine tuning of the limit screws. Not sure how adjusting the limit screws would have solved the problem with the upper derailleur pulley but it seems to have worked?

Anyway, here's a pic with the bike the right way round this time. With the very exciting additions of a home-made mudguard flap and some Kellogg's spoke reflectors.

 

[Augustus]

Re:

Lovely. It's a 1986 Courier.

The '86 had riser bars, the '87 had flat ones and indexed Suntour XC5000. Otherwise largely the same.

Quite Lovely.