Universal-ly sh*te

The other day I was presented with a Universal "Blowout" bike (Can you
imagine a better name?). It was bought by a colleague for a friend who
visits him occasionally and likes to have a bike to ride around on.

He asked if I could take a look at the gears as the bloke who'd set it
up didn't seem to have got them working.

At first glance it has gripshifters but wait... they just keep clicking
lots, far more than there are gears. Both sides are effectively
friction. I didn't think anyone would do friction rear in this day and age.

So I started my standard once over of the bike which naturally included
the brakes. I was somewhat surprised to find that with the front brake
on full as hard as I could get it (And with the lever still not touching
the bars) I could "push through" the front wheel by rolling the bike
forward. Ah... V-brake arms of cheese. These have no been replaced with
my old Tektro Vs. I was never overly impressed with the Tektros, but
they do at least stop the bike.

Tomorrow I attempt to work out what bloke X has done to the gears. There
should be a law against bikes this ****!

Jon

Ah yes, Universal, that brings back memories. First bike I managed to snap
a stem on !

Jon Senior wrote:
The other day I was presented with a Universal "Blowout" bike (Can you
imagine a better name?). It was bought by a colleague for a friend who
visits him occasionally and likes to have a bike to ride around on.

He asked if I could take a look at the gears as the bloke who'd set it
up didn't seem to have got them working.

At first glance it has gripshifters but wait... they just keep clicking
lots, far more than there are gears. Both sides are effectively
friction. I didn't think anyone would do friction rear in this day and age.

Check the "gear" cables, I'd bet Colnago to Concept they're running
through nice flexy brake outer. Needless to say this does nothing for
the shifting. Bitter experience also suggests they'll be bone dry, and
probably kinked at least once.

(why, yes, I *am* fed up with trying to repair these things, how *did*
you guess?)

So I started my standard once over of the bike which naturally included
the brakes. I was somewhat surprised to find that with the front brake
on full as hard as I could get it (And with the lever still not touching
the bars) I could "push through" the front wheel by rolling the bike
forward. Ah... V-brake arms of cheese. These have no been replaced with
my old Tektro Vs. I was never overly impressed with the Tektros, but
they do at least stop the bike.

Tomorrow I attempt to work out what bloke X has done to the gears. There
should be a law against bikes this ****!

I'd vote for that law :-)

Marvin wrote:
Check the "gear" cables, I'd bet Colnago to Concept they're running
through nice flexy brake outer. Needless to say this does nothing for
the shifting. Bitter experience also suggests they'll be bone dry, and
probably kinked at least once.

Far more likely that bloke X attached them with no real understanding of
where the shifter should be. I'm guessing on a vast amount of slack.

(why, yes, I *am* fed up with trying to repair these things, how *did*
you guess?)

Thankfully, I've managed to avoid most of them so far. The responsible
party had also managed to thread the lock ring for one of the brake
adjusters onto the brake outer and the wrong side of the adjuster.

My other rant is:

When is someone going to start manufacturing a front V brake for the
British market where the arms are swapped over, thus removing the need
for the 135 degree feed tube.

Jon

Jon:
When is someone going to start manufacturing a front V brake for the
British market where the arms are swapped over, thus removing the need
for the 135 degree feed tube.
Whatdoyoumean, British market? RH/Front is Euro standard now, isn't
it? Germany's always had them, remember the days of the "German
Brakes! Whoo! Sliiiide!"? Well, the front was the RH (and only) lever.

Jon Senior wrote:

When is someone going to start manufacturing a front V brake for the
British market where the arms are swapped over, thus removing the need
for the 135 degree feed tube.

Take advantage of the fact that everyone has the brakes the wrong way
round. If you put the front lever on the LH side where it *should* be in
the UK, then the routing works fine.

Bring on the brake physics jihad... ;-)

--
Mark.
http://tranchant.plus.com/

Jon Senior wrote:
sothach wrote:
Whatdoyoumean, British market? RH/Front is Euro standard now, isn't
it? Germany's always had them, remember the days of the "German
Brakes! Whoo! Sliiiide!"? Well, the front was the RH (and only) lever.

Generally, no it's not. All the continental bikes I've seen and ridden
(Limited to France admittedly), have had LH-Front set ups.

To be perfectly honest I have no idea which side any of my bikes have
the front brake (except the one which has only one lever). They are
probably set up to minimise cable distortion, which could mean either
handedness.

...d

sothach wrote:
Whatdoyoumean, British market? RH/Front is Euro standard now, isn't
it? Germany's always had them, remember the days of the "German
Brakes! Whoo! Sliiiide!"? Well, the front was the RH (and only) lever.

Generally, no it's not. All the continental bikes I've seen and ridden
(Limited to France admittedly), have had LH-Front set ups.

Jon

From the Thoughts of Sheldon Brown:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html#bikeculture

Mark Tranchant wrote:
Take advantage of the fact that everyone has the brakes the wrong way
round. If you put the front lever on the LH side where it *should* be in
the UK, then the routing works fine.

Bring on the brake physics jihad... ;-)

I personally prefer having my right hand control the front brake as I am
right handed and have better control over my primary brake that way. Why
do you think the front should be on the LH side in the UK?

Jon