JaccoW

So, like I said I wanted to use the quick release functionality of the Bagman but didn't want to risk the Carradice bag in day to day use in the city.
Carradice doesn't have any way to lock the system so I had to make something myself.

I bought a padlock and drilled a hole through the adapter around the place where the sliders would move.
While I can explain it some more I think the pictures tell a pretty complete story for such a simple modification.
The end result at least is that the bag is secured to the mount and I can safely take it into the city. Well at least as safe as can be for a commuter bike that does get left outside for longer periods of time when I am out and about.












Dinner on a hill overlooking the city.

cudak888 

Ah, I'm glad this build hasn't ended yet. I never get tired of looking at the final result

-Kurt

JaccoW

Grabbed some big and small bungees the other day so I could actually use the front rack for what it is designed for. Had fun hauling wood for our backyard fire pit.

JaccoW

A set of Carradice Bagman support strutts. Not really necessary but I like the look and possibility to haul some heavier stuff in it when necessary. And it's probably safer with the nearly 3 Kg (6.6 lbs) worth of lock and other bits and pieces in there when going up and down sidewalks.

I will be rouding them off later tonight.

noglider 

That's very cool. I bet you have all sorts of accessories available to buy that we don't, yours being such a cycling-intensive country. What web sites do you use?

JaccoW

For Carradice stuff mostly the UK sites

• PracticalCycles and their eBay
• Carradicefactoryshop for some fun one-of versions of their bags.
• VeloDuo and their eBay

Dutch websites mostly

• Hollandbikeshop as they have all the small parts you might ever need for Dutch bikes and even most Sturmey Archer models. Hard to search sometimes but just browsing can net you those rare parts you didn't know you needed
• Libertecycles for those rare randonneur parts though all modern
• TimTas & Rek for custom lightweight bags
• Mantel for consumables and mostly cables
• Rat-bikes mostly for small parts as they specialize in fixies

Lots of German websites:

• Bike24 for affordable Schwalbe tyres and lots of parts
• Bike-components for similar items to Bike24 but sometimes it is a lot cheaper and SON cable parts are easier to find here
• GoldSprint Berlin based shop for fixies but lots of cool rare parts. Red anodized rims that are not available anywhere else? Here's the place for them.

International/Japan:

• Blue-Lug Japanese store with lots of cool collaborations with Japanese and American part builders like Nitto, Dia-Compe and Panaracer
• HobbyJapan eBay for pretty much every Dia-Compe part available
• Bankrupt bike parts for a weird assortment of parts from old shops
• Rideisyourpride eBay store for custom print handlebar plugs

All the Japanese stores are currently either closed or shipping is insanely expensive (2-3 times before Corona, and Japan never was cheap to begin with) think $46 in shipping for a $26 seatclamp bolt.

Those are the ones I can think of from the top of my head.

noglider 

Thanks. Now I know how I'll be wasting my time for the next few days.

JaccoW

Did some final work on the support strutts by shortening them and rounding them down with a dremel and some sandpaper in different grits. Makes for a fine finish if I say so myself.
I also moved the headlamp inwards even more. With even a small stretch it tends to bump into unexpected places and this is still fairly visible from the side.
Reinforced the bottom of the bag with a plate of plastic that I had laying around but perhaps I will replace it in the future with something a bit more crack resistant. We'll see.


Shortened the rods and gave them a nicer finish


Final installation on the rack
Looking good! (except for the slightly twisted saddle


Side view


Inwards tuck of the head light

JaccoW

My chainring has been scraping on the inside of the chainguard a bit the past week or so and I could not seem to fix it. It's always on the downstroke though so I took another good look at it yesterday. Turns out it wobbles. A quick scan shows the chainring itself is straight so I might have broken or bent that axle when I bumped into a speedbump while cornering over it at high speed.
Something to take another closer look at this weekend when I take it apart.

cudak888 

Did you sneak a hollow-axle, titanium Super Record spindle onto this bike when we weren't looking?



-Kurt

JaccoW

No, but that would be sick though.

cudak888 

I've had one. You really can feel it flexing under you (then again, I'm a 230 pound fat arse on a Raleigh Professional). Regardless, it is not reassuring.

-Kurt

JaccoW

That does sound a bit scary! But hey I'm a hair over 90 kg (198 lbs) and most of that is muscle. I never had that much luck with lightweight components. They either broke on me or snapped off at the worst times.

JaccoW

Anybody interested in a 60cm model of this bike? Current bid at €25.

JaccoW

Well, took the cranks off and sure enough, the axle is slightly bent on the drive side. I put a round Hex key in and rotated the axle around while holding it steady and there is a definite wobble.
I put the cranks back on rotated slightly differently but it looks like I will need to order a new bottom bracket.

While I had the chainguard off I took some time to take a look at the rear wheel. The rear brake lost some stopping power and I suspected some oil seeped into the drums. Turns out accidentally mixing chain oil and white lithium grease isn't the best combo.
The braking was getting better the past few days but as you can see on the picture below that was because it was turning into a nice glaze... not the best for braking.
Cleaned everything, sanded the pads a bit and put everything back together with better (waterproof) grease and sowing machine oil (what is recommended for AW hubs) and put everything together again.

Last week I came across the old chain guard for the Koga-Miyata RoadAce that met an unfortunate end last year. It has a nice silver strip instead of the black one on the SilverAce and looked compatible, so I tried if it fit. I think I like the look.

The rear mud flap has proven to be great at keeping spray low when going through puddles (which is appreciated by my girlfriend when I cross in front of her while overtaking other people) but it does get a bit dirty when the filthy water runs back down. So I cleaned everything up and added a layer of thick duct tape. Early tests show it works a lot better. Good to know for when I use these lightweight flaps again.


Mixture of grease and oil in the middle that shouldn't be there.


Degreased and cleaned the inside after this, including the excess silicon.


Nice glaze on the padding that had to be removed


Old RoadAce chainguard with the silver strip


Silver strip on SilverAce


Duct tape over fender flap


Overview

EDIT: @Velocivixen I saw you mentioned over in the RoadAce thread you hoped I would update that thread. I didn't but perhaps you enjoy what I did here.

cudak888 

Even though this means taking it all apart again, I highly suggest using "00" grease in an AW hub. It's what Sturmey uses in modern hubs now. Fantastic stuff, quiets the hub like you wouldn't believe, doesn't gum the clutch, and it doesn't wash into the thicker grease in the bearing races (I use a waterproof marine grease on my bearing races, just to be sure). It won't get into the drum or the shoes.

This is what it looks like when slathered inside a hub:



Incidentally, that stainless trim on the chaincase really does the trick. It was a bit too plastiky before.

-Kurt

JaccoW

Tiny teaser of something I will be experimenting with soon.



Hint: It has something to do with a clutch.

JaccoW

Received a Koga-Miyata head badge today, probably one from a road model. It will most likely fit in well with the SilverAce with its gold and blue accents though getting the sticker off that I have on the frame right now has proven to be difficult. Not sure if it's the weather or the material but I think I will need a hair drier to get it off.

cudak888 

Good catch on the badge. Strange approach to the stick figure though, especially given no bike and huge arms. Last time I saw that pose, someone was barfing into the can, but that's another story.

That spring soldering has me intrigued. I would have guessed something for the Gazelle tandem if it wasn't in this thread...

-Kurt

JaccoW

It's a known issue on these hubs that the 4th gear can be difficult. 3 > 4 and requires an upshift + downshift to 5 > 4 to go into gear.
Shifting works with 1st gear being the tightest on the cable and 5th being completely limp and the indicator chain pushed into the hub by the clutch spring.

My thinking was that this is mostly because a) there is insufficient pressure to push it into 4th on an upshift or b) sticky cables. I have mostly ruled out option b and one way I can see option a working is with a stronger clutch spring.
I have no idea what this will mean for the other gears or even the shifter but its a relatively easy fix to experiment with and won't require the complete disassembly of the hub.

Fingers crossed.

JaccoW

Well, I swapped the springs today and it seems like it pretty much fixed the shifting problems on this hub. Shifting is much crisper in both directions and it even seems like the exact position of the indicator rod is less critical this way.
It's a relatively small operation, only requiring the drive side locknut to be removed, spring swapped and then put back together again.

I will update for a long term review in the future.


Original spring


Double spring

cudak888 

Interesting. It's as if Sturmey never really did get over spring tension issues ever since the FW 4-speed.

Speaking of which, what are you running in that hub? (If you mentioned it before, I've since forgotten). I've found 00 grease or the Sturmey stuff works exceptionally well. I even got that cantankerous XRF-8 (the first gen) hub working properly with 00 grease, even though some suggest ATF is an alternative. I tried it and it most definitely isn't an alternative, especially for the more complicated, modern Sturmeys.

-Kurt

JaccoW

IIRC the old 4-speed hubs could be turned into 5-speeds with an extra shifter but the 4-speed hubs never were all that popular. From what I've read the spring needs to be weaker on some of the 4-speed models but we'll see what happens when I eventually get to working on the Gazelle SuperLicht and the FM hub I plan to use for it.

Right now there is a mix of lithium grease, regular ball bearing grease and a sort of marine grease in there. But I think some of the leaking issues stem from accidentally filling the hub with allweather chain oil instead of light sewing machine oil. It seems to interact with the lithium grease. For now the hub seems fine but I will probably clean and overhaul it in spring. Especially since it will require a deep clean and rebuild of the hub and that takes me a long day or a weekend of work.

Narhay

I've been quietly following this thread but appreciate the good work. Didnt you have a tandem project at some point?

cudak888 

Back in the 1970's, when IGH offerings were limited, I can see where the extra gear of an S5/S5-2 would have been of interest to gain an extra ratio out of the hub. My riding is on level ground though, and I despise the double shifter idea for a commuter (especially in flat terrain). Giving benefit to the popular doubt around the FW was one of the best things I ever did - as was putting a bit of faith in the long-arm Sturmey 4-speed trigger. It is - without hesitation - my favorite shifter of all time.

I'm rebuilding a 1948 FW and a parts-built FW (with springs from McMaster Carr based on the '48, and a compensator spring collar made by @scarlson) at the same time, so we'll see how much trouble I get myself into.

The right marine grease should tolerate the oil leaking out, but the wrong one can wash into the hub and make a mess of it. Definitely try out the 00 grease. It turned the AW hub on my '52 into a virtually silent beast.

-Kurt