# So, this might have happened... NBD - 2016 Fuji Touring workhorse



## wafter (4 Aug 2022)




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## wafter (4 Aug 2022)

It needs some work but is generally solid and I can't complain for what I paid for it.

Very much looking forward to a weekend of sorting it out then getting stuck into some proper utility rides


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## DCBassman (5 Aug 2022)

Does this mean the RR finally gets to retire?


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## wafter (5 Aug 2022)

DCBassman said:


> Does this mean the RR finally gets to retire?



Not for the time being - the Raleigh remains at the office in Oxford while the Fuji will stay at the more rural homestead for grocery / general utility duties.

If (when! ) I get back to the city I'd probably rather not leave this one locked up outside the pub so there will still be a place for the Raleigh; providing I can store them all of course!


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## fossyant (5 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> It needs some work but is generally solid and I can't complain for what I paid for it.
> 
> Very much looking forward to a weekend of sorting it out then getting stuck into some proper utility rides



Could do with something that would take wider tyres for my commute - needs to be faster than the rigid MTB and lighter, but still cope with some mud.


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## wafter (5 Aug 2022)

fossyant said:


> Could do with something that would take wider tyres for my commute - needs to be faster than the rigid MTB and lighter, but still cope with some mud.



It's currently fitted with 32s but will apparently take 38s; which is the same as the CdF. I've had no issue on that bike and the Fuji will probably get an easier life from a terrain perspective. I guess it depends on how gnarly your commute is though!

If I get back to the city this will be my commuter; would love to use it for that now but 25 miles each way would kill me on top of a working day


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## wafter (5 Aug 2022)

An update having had the chance to view the bike in the cold light of day after collecting it from a lovely, similarly cycling-obsessed Birmingham couple last night 

The bike as received. It's a "large / 56cm" frame, yet the published reach and stack values are a shade less than my "medium / 53cm" CdF. Yay for sizing conventions that are transparent and fit for purpose..






Book weight is about 12.9kg IIRC but my example comes in at a portly 16.6kg. In it's defence it does have quite a lot of additional stuff hanging off it; some of which will be going.

The frame is a propriatory butted Cro-Mo; with later models getting Reynolds 520. I imagine this one is somewhere between gaspipe and 520, or maybe comparable to 520.

Fuji started off as a proper Japanese brand, however are now apparently American-owned and sell bikes sourced in the east - with this one apparently being made in China.


The front of the bike sports a few additions; including an M-Part low-riding panier rack. It seems OK for what it is, however the fixings leave a bit to be desired and for now at least it'll be coming off since I have no bags for it, while it adds mass and fouls the QR skewers when the wheel's removed.







Can anyone tell me what the hoop is for at the front of the rack please? It's only held on with two bolts (about which it can rotate) and seems like a bit heath-robinson if intended to carry any mass at the end - as it is now.

I'll give the Cateye light a fair crack of the whip if I can find some suitable batteries, however my gut tells me it's probably not going to be overly bright and pretty heavy, so this will likely go in favour of something more modern. The little LED unit on the fork seems like a decent proposition; at least for being seen if not seeing where I'm going.

Finally at the front we have another intriguing rack bolted to the mini-V-brake mounts; I'm not sure whether this is intended for use with a specific bag or is just for general use with bungees.. thoughts on this would be welcome!


The bar tape has seen better days but I'm thinking is probably salvageable with a bit of a clean. The stem is apparently 110mm and I was considering swapping it for a shorter one (as is the norm) however the reach doesn't seem excessive so I'll see how I get on with it. Brake levers probably need re-aligning, while the brakes need a decent setup as lever-pull is excessive; especially on the back.







The brake levers are TRPs which seem pretty nice; these were downgraded to cheaper Tektro items on the 2017 model..







The bike is the first I've ridden / owned with (Microshift) bar-end shifters and while I might have preferred STIs I can appreciate the benefits they can bring and look forward to seeing how I get on with them..







The top tube has a protector fitted; which seems like a great idea given the bike's intended purpose, although I'm not so sold on the aesthetic..







The "enterprisingly fitted" spare tube is perished and will be going, as will the mudguards as they're a bit of a mess and don't appear to offer a lot of coverage. The default replacement will be some SKS Longboards as I love those on my CdF; assuming I can get them on with the mini-V-brakes as I hear these can be a bit squiffy for clearance. 







The only really serious mechanical issue I've come across so far is the RD cable, which has failed almost entirely and taken a fair bit of paint off the frame as a result. No wonder I could only select half the range on the cassette during the test ride! Otherwise the outers seem OK so I'll just look to replace this inner cable currently; recommendations for trusted brands welcome!







Flat pedals with straps / cages are original fitment, which is grand as I like these and wouldn't want clipless on a utility bike. The crankset is a Deore triple (48/36/26 IIRC) with an Alivio FD, and doesn't look too worn. The chain is (apparently) the original KMC X9 and still has a little life in it according to the Shimano chain checker tool; so I'll probably wax it and see how I get on. Out the back we have an Alivio 11-34 (again IIRC) cassette (which also seems in decent nick) and Deore long-cage RD 






[Continued in next post]


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## wafter (5 Aug 2022)

The bike has been fitted with a Brookes (B17?) saddle, which looks nice but I'm not sure will play well with my rear end, as I can already feel a couple of hot spots beneath my sit-bones having only ridden it for a short time. I'll see how it goes with adjustment (again, input welcome please!), but suspect it might end up getting sold for something more conventional and less theft-worthy - thinking maybe a used Genesis item or perhaps a Charge Spoon..







The saddle bag has definitely seen better days so will doubtless be going!







The rear, original fitment panier rack is fitted with a bolt-on rear light; which works but is tatty and rattles so wants a bit of attention..







The rear wheel has been replaced at some point recently with a Sputnik item from SPA, which looks nice and solid! Both this and the original front wheel are 36-spoke and running Deore hubs. Both appear to be running nice and true. The tyres appear to be the originals and have plenty of life left in them - I was assuming I'd swap them out for something wider, but they seem OK so far so maybe they'll stay.







I was pleasantly surprised to find that the seatpost clamp seems to be much better quality than the cack that came fitted to my CdF!







The bike is also been fitted with a stand; while I'm not averse to having one fitted this one evidently doesn't fit very well (thanks to the legit-touring-feature of the two spare spokes on the chainstay) so I suspect it'll be coming off.. I hope the paint's not too ruined underneath. I do love the spare spokes but it seems a little odd that they weren't fitted to the drive side, where they could effectively double up as a chainstay protector..







The bike's not in terrible nick but has plenty of battle damage and could do with a good clean..







Anyway, that's as it stands for now - I'm off outside to start pulling it to bits


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## Vantage (5 Aug 2022)

Nice looking bike. 
The hoop on the front is to stop the independent sides of the rack fouling the front wheel. Not something to be desired. 
The small rack on your brake bolts is for small bags/baskets/barbags.


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## wafter (5 Aug 2022)

Thanks, and ta for clarifying the purpose of the bolt-on bits!

Unfortunately I think the small rack's going to have to go, as it fouls the cabling and I think might be responsible for / have contributed to the failed RD cable.

Things have escalated somewhat since this morning..


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## biggs682 (6 Aug 2022)

Nice enough looking machine @wafter and should be ideal


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## newfhouse (6 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> I'll see how it goes with adjustment (again, input welcome please!), but suspect it might end up getting sold for something more conventional and less theft-worthy - thinking maybe a used Genesis item or perhaps a Charge Spoon..



I still have the (unused) Genesis saddle from my CdF if you’re up for a trade.


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## GeekDadZoid (6 Aug 2022)

Lovely looking bike. The spare spokes on my Galaxy are in the same place, I think on the drive side they would be problematic to removed from the holders with a spoke key. 

I would probably just stick some full size VBrakes on and get some Tektro Vbrake levers from Spa, they you don't have to worry about clearance and they are a bit better in my experience.


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## dan_bo (6 Aug 2022)

fossyant said:


> Could do with something that would take wider tyres for my commute - needs to be faster than the rigid MTB and lighter, but still cope with some mud.



I've heard the cool kids talk about 'cyclocross bikes'- have you heard of them?


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## wafter (6 Aug 2022)

Thanks guys 


newfhouse said:


> I still have the (unused) Genesis saddle from my CdF if you’re up for a trade.



Cheers - I'll keep it in mind. Might be up for a swap (presumably with a bit of cash my way ); but will see how I get on with it first. The saddle seems to be the "flyer" model, given the springs 

A few more points from yesterday - some will probably be relieved to hear I'll not be covering this work in my usual OCD-led detail as there's simply too much to do.

As it stands this morning the bike is stripped down to pretty much its component parts and there are many jobs left to do:


*Frame*
The frame has been washed and partially cut; the aim today being to cut the rest, maybe chuck some phosphoric acid on the rusty bits and wax it. It's certainly serviceable but has a lot of damage - especially underneath the chainstays where the b*stard stand has been tightened so hard its crimped the tubes slightly in places and taken off a fair bit of paint - needless to say that won't be going back on.

I've emailed Fuji re. touch-up paint availabilty (yeah, no chance I imagine) or at least a paint code so I can try to source some locally.


*Drivetrain*
Most of the really grotty work is out of the way - the drivetrain has been thoroughly cleaned and awaits re-assembly once the chain has been waxed. I struggled to get the chain off yesterday as like a muppet I've left my quicklink tool at work, but managed to improvise with some electrical crimpers.







The chain has so far been through three jars of paraffin and a couple of good scrubs; yielding an obscene amount of contamination. I've been using a magnet to fish it out of the solvent; which every time came out caked in steel particulates; no doubt the result of the oily grinding paste it was covered in - below is a photo of just some of what came out of the jar on the end of the magnet:







I'm aware that all this processing time might be wasted if the chain's near the end of its life - but I'm tight and this is supposed to be a budget ride so figured it was worth giving it a chance. The chain-checker is optimistic but I might measure it end to end once it's clean to try and get a better idea of the wear present.

Getting the crankset off was "interesting" as the preload plug in the NDS crank arm was difficult with the inconsequential plastic tool I have - mole grips made it happen in the end and I'm pleased to say without any damage to the tool 







Mistakes were made with the gearshift cabling. I'd initially thought the cable for the RD had failed internally, however it turned out that the ferrule on the end had failed; exposing the steel core of the outer. I think this was due to lateral loading during steering as the cable was hanging up on the now-removed rack on the front of the bike.

I'd resigned myself to replacing the cables, however thought I'd try to work with what's there so have carefully chopped off the exposed steel of the outer cable with my ever-impressive Proxxon rotary tool and will see if I can get away with refitting it with a new ferrule.

I also cut off the derailleur ends of the shifter cables in the mistaken belief that I needed to do so in order to remove the bar / shifter assembly from the bike; however I think there's still enough meat left to re-use them and if this doesn't prove to be the case I'll only have wasted a bit of time.


*Other Stuff*
The brakes, saddle/seatpost assys and a few other small bits still need cleaning but this shouldn't be a terrible job. If replacing the gear cables I was going to re-orientate the brake levers and re-wrap the bars with new tape (I don't think the tape would go back on again if fully removed) but for now I'll leave them alone until I've assessed the situation with the shifter cables.

The two sticking points now are a lack of appropriate assembly grease and the situation with the gearshift cable (as at the very least I need another ferrule) - I'm tempted to pop up to the LBS as I'm sure he'll have some, however (in the case of the grease) I'm always wary of blindly buying stuff without having researched it to death first..

As usual this is turning into a fair bit more work than anticipated; but if you're going to do it, it might as well be right. I'm also waiting for @SkipdiverJohn to pop up and berate me for making it look too nice; but as usual I just can't help myself 

On paper I knew if I got my arse into gear I could probably have the bike back together in a functioning capacity by tonight; but will have to overcome my fear of the unknown first!


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## bladesman73 (6 Aug 2022)

I got the flat bar version brand new earlier this year. Served me around Netherlands a few weeks ago, going again on Monday. Nice bike, heavy, but comfortable. Just stuck some marathon plus tyres on it, much better than the stock Vittoria Randonneurs it came with.


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## wafter (7 Aug 2022)

bladesman73 said:


> I got the flat bar version brand new earlier this year. Served me around Netherlands a few weeks ago, going again on Monday. Nice bike, heavy, but comfortable. Just stuck some marathon plus tyres on it, much better than the stock Vittoria Randonneurs it came with.



Nice work - does yours have discs? Having spent quite a while battling the V-brakes earlier I can't say as I'm a huge fan of these..


Another full day has been swallowed and I now have something vaguely resembling a bicycle again, although there's still more to do.

Once clean I laid the chain out on the floor and measured it; coming to around 1/8" longer than it should be over 54 link pairs; so around 0.25% worn / half way through it's life - not all bad and I'm glad I didn't put my hand in my pocket for a replacement.

A lot cleaner than it was and ready for waxing:







Other tasks today included:
- Finishing cutting the paint on the frame and forks
- Treating a small amount of rust on the chainstay
- Waxing the frame, forks and a few other bits
- Stripping and cleaning the brakes
- Cleaning the headset bearings
- Trim RD front cable housing and fit new ferrule

The rotary tool made a great job of finishing the cable; to the extent that I think I can save myself the £40-odd I was expecting to spend on a Park Tool cutter at some point:






I could have cut it back a bit more to get rid of the last bit of split plastic, but wanted to retain as much as possible as I feared it was already too short. This job was made more fun by the inability to withdraw the inner cable fully due to its kinked / frayed end , so I had to work around it with the cutting disc..

Nice and tidy with a new ferrule:






As suspected when it was refitted it does seem a bit tight; with the rad on the cable forcing it hard against the head tube and kicking it over in the barrel adjustor on the frame. I'll continue with it as it is for now, but ideally it looks like the cables want replacing with some longer ones.

Setting up the V-brakes has imbued me with a fresh hatred for them; since they need to run very close to the rims otherwise you run out of lever pull, while they appear to lack any form of adjustment so it all has to be done by slackening off the cable clamp bolt and gingerly shunting the cable through a mil at a time.. which is both tedious and inaccurate.

Tbh I think it's criminal that they didn't stick some in-line adjustors in the cables; might look at doing this as I have maybe 30-35mm of free cable while just like the gear cables, those for the brakes are also too short - so some adjustors would help this a bit... although really I think they need to be 2-3" longer ideally.

In addition to this there are about a million degrees of freedom in the brake shoes (up/down and rotation about every axis on spherical bolts) so getting these in place is also a pain.


Anyway.. just as the light was fading I'd got the bike together enough (no accessories, seatpost and saddle still need cleaning) to take it out for a short and repetative test ride; with mixed results.

The bike generally feels solid, stable and rides fairly nicely without too much vibration or harhsness.

The saddle is a lot more comfortable in itself now the nose no longer points ridiculously skyward, however as expected I'm struggling to get enough layback. Due to its shape the Brooks is very insistant regarding where you want to be sat on it, and IIRC I could do with it another inch perhaps further back.. which isn't possible as the rails foul the clamp as they begin to curve inwards and upwards.

Incidentally the seatpost assy appears to be geometrically identical to that on the CdF; and I can just about get away with the saddle layback on that I think because the seat is less picky.. so there's always the option to fit a similar saddle to the Fuji. That said I think that would be a shame as the more I look at it, the more frumpy / less thefty the big sprung Brookes looks.

The brakes are OK - bite point is currently wonky across the levers due to the pain of adjustment and while they feel a bit squishy (esp. the rear) the stopping power is there and modulation is OK.

I found the bar-end shifters alright to deal with; in themselves operation is nice (friction shifting only on the front, indexed with the option of friction on the back), however I have an odd problem with jumping a gear / ghost-shifting on the lower end of the cassette when in the middle ring on the front. Not sure how to resolve this as the rest of the shifting seems fine.. I'll check that the RD hanger isn't bent tomorrow. Worst case I'll have to run the rear shifter in friction mode I guess; although I'd prefer to have it indexed.

I also struggled with the triple setup somewhat; I think because of the greater need to shift the front which can be done more easily and at the same time as the rear with the STIs I had on my last triple.

Finally, somewhat predictably the wide range of the 9sp 11-34 cassette gives some very noticeably large jumps, which isn't ideal. While I love the range it gives (on paper) I wonder if there's mileage in something a bit less wide..


I also finally checked the geometry when I got home, and as it stands it's very similar to my CdF (with an 80mm stem), with the exception that the stack is 20-25mm higher so I might drop this down a bit to see how it feels as it's easy enough to do with spacers..

Anyway, enough rambling - I'm even starting to bore myself and I think it's time for bed. I suspect more toil will be had tomorrow..


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## DCBassman (7 Aug 2022)

Sounds like a good machine!
V-brakes: frankly, these are a doddle compared to cantis. Set up the blocks? Big elastic to hold the arms together, adjust away with the blocks. Lever travel insufficient? Ensure they are actually designed for V-brakes. No adjustment anywhere except the pinch bolt is an abomination! And also a pointer that the levers are not correct. Was this actually drop-bar from the get-go? The only other thing with them is learning to balance the spring tension. And I'm sure you know all this, just thinking of a check list, if you like.


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## wafter (7 Aug 2022)

DCBassman said:


> Sounds like a good machine!
> V-brakes: frankly, these are a doddle compared to cantis. Set up the blocks? Big elastic to hold the arms together, adjust away with the blocks. Lever travel insufficient? Ensure they are actually designed for V-brakes. No adjustment anywhere except the pinch bolt is an abomination! And also a pointer that the levers are not correct. Was this actually drop-bar from the get-go? The only other thing with them is learning to balance the spring tension. And I'm sure you know all this, just thinking of a check list, if you like.



Thanks - tbh I was on a bit of a downer with it last night after two solid days had yielded something that didn't fit me well, had wonky gears and dodgy brakes. I'd just cleaned it up a bit more this morning, fitted another saddle (the Selle Royal that's destined for the Routier), dropped the bars by 10mm and been out again - while still not right it feels so much nicer now.

If that's the case with Canti's they must truly be the work of the devil 

I've set them up pretty much as you've suggested (wasn't sophisticated enough to use an elastic band though, so held them instead), however maintain this isn't particularly straightforward due to all the movement in the mounts. The lack of adjustment is certainly extremely frustrating so I'll be getting some barrel adjustors in there as soon as I can find some that are appropriate / get the opportunity. Might end up in new cables though as I'll have to pull the inners all the way through the outers and given the state of the ends they might not go back again..

I think the levers are intended for V-brake use, and in this regard the bike is all stock (link to OEM spec page in first post  )

While a pain, hopefully once the brake block position has been properly set I shouldn't have to worry about them any futher, and should be able to fine-tune the pull / account for wear with some inline adjustors.

Oh, one last thing - I paid a bit more attention to the gearing issue and it apparently shifts fine to / from every sprocket on the cassette with the exception of the second-to-smallest, which is just totally skips for some reason. I'll have a play with the appropriate limit screw and cable tension later when I get the chance, but this certainly seems like an odd one..

Appreciate your input!


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## freiston (7 Aug 2022)

Looks like a promising project!

Re the indexing - check the hanger for alignment. I too have Microshift 9 speed bar-end shifters (& the same front & back tooth count as the Fuji) and run both in friction - it's easy to use and is one less job setting up.

The saddle is not a B17 - it has springs but the B17 does not. possibly the "Flyer"? Regarding the set-back: a leather saddle has a fair bit of give in it, especially one with springs and the height unladen is significantly higher than when you're sat on it. It could be that you've set the height unladen rather than laden and it needs to go up a bit - which in turn will increase the set-back. My personal & limited experience with leather saddles (I do use one but it's a Selle Italia Epoca and the only one I've used since the 70s when I was a delivery boy) is that getting the position just right is crucial but rewarding above any other type of saddle. Once you have got it more or less right, if you are still experiencing "hotspots" or points of unwelcome pressure, try small adjustments. Also, if your feet are more fore or aft than on your regular bike, then even if your saddle position is identical, it will feel different and could even cause pressure points (though a very small possibility - it could make the difference).


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## DCBassman (7 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> Oh, one last thing - I paid a bit more attention to the gearing issue and it apparently shifts fine to / from every sprocket on the cassette with the exception of the second-to-smallest, which is just totally skips for some reason


Off with the RD, remove and regrease pulleys, clean and lubricate to within an inch of its life. Might well fix it! Just done this to two mechs I'd considered iffy, they both now run well, and it has taught me to do that a bit more often...


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## bladesman73 (7 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> Nice work - does yours have discs? Having spent quite a while battling the V-brakes earlier I can't say as I'm a huge fan of these..
> 
> 
> Another full day has been swallowed and I now have something vaguely resembling a bicycle again, although there's still more to do.
> ...



No, I opted for rim brakes as I know how to service them.


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## Gunk (7 Aug 2022)

I’m after a black Brooks B17 @wafter let me know if you want to part with it?


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## freiston (7 Aug 2022)

Gunk said:


> I’m after a black Brooks B17 @wafter let me know if you want to part with it?



It's not a B17 - it has springs - looks more like a "Flyer" to me.


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## wafter (7 Aug 2022)

GeekDadZoid said:


> Lovely looking bike. The spare spokes on my Galaxy are in the same place, I think on the drive side they would be problematic to removed from the holders with a spoke key.
> 
> I would probably just stick some full size VBrakes on and get some Tektro Vbrake levers from Spa, they you don't have to worry about clearance and they are a bit better in my experience.


Thanks - sorry, failed to reply to your post last time!

Didn't think about spoke removal, although with the type of key I have I'd struggle with mine where they are. Hopefully I'll never have to use them anyway..

I think I should get away with the clearance on the brakes now they're all back together; while going longer would likely bring its own set of problems as lever pull is already as much as I'd like and longer arms will make this worse. Will just have to see how I get on, I guess 



freiston said:


> Looks like a promising project!
> 
> Re the indexing - check the hanger for alignment. I too have Microshift 9 speed bar-end shifters (& the same front & back tooth count as the Fuji) and run both in friction - it's easy to use and is one less job setting up.
> 
> The saddle is not a B17 - it has springs but the B17 does not. possibly the "Flyer"? Regarding the set-back: a leather saddle has a fair bit of give in it, especially one with springs and the height unladen is significantly higher than when you're sat on it. It could be that you've set the height unladen rather than laden and it needs to go up a bit - which in turn will increase the set-back. My personal & limited experience with leather saddles (I do use one but it's a Selle Italia Epoca and the only one I've used since the 70s when I was a delivery boy) is that getting the position just right is crucial but rewarding above any other type of saddle. Once you have got it more or less right, if you are still experiencing "hotspots" or points of unwelcome pressure, try small adjustments. Also, if your feet are more fore or aft than on your regular bike, then even if your saddle position is identical, it will feel different and could even cause pressure points (though a very small possibility - it could make the difference).


Thanks - I've eyeballed the (integral) hanger and it seems straight enough.

I'm impressed that the RH lever is switchable between indexed and friction could certainly run a full-friction setup if problems persist, although I do like the indexing and obviously there's less of a margin for error on the back.

Fingers' crossed I think I have it sorted now; I think the problem was down to the setup of the shifter and after viewing a really helpful setup guide from Microshift on Youtube I now have them adjusted correctly. I think the issue was too much friction on the indexed setting, meaning the levers wouldn't always click into their indexed positions so would rest at the natural overtravel points instead.

I've done a fair bit of fiddling tonight - adjusting cable tension on the fly using the really conveniently located barrel adjustors and can now get all gears cleanly in the middle ring, as well as the top and bottom six on the cassette on the big and small rings respectively 

You're spot on regarding the saddle (tbh it even says it on the side ) - it's marked up as a "Champion Flyer".

Good point about the height - I might try it a bit more higher but I think a lot of the problem comes from the concave shape of the saddle; now I know why I see them with the nose pointing up in the air! Not a look I really want to court tbh, even if it does work. When I next have the existing saddle off I'll maybe give it another go, but I can't see it staying.



DCBassman said:


> Off with the RD, remove and regrease pulleys, clean and lubricate to within an inch of its life. Might well fix it! Just done this to two mechs I'd considered iffy, they both now run well, and it has taught me to do that a bit more often...


Thanks - have already cleaned the RD thoroughly though, and as above I think I've sorted it on shifter adjustment 




bladesman73 said:


> No, I opted for rim brakes as I know how to service them.


Cool - how are you finding them? I think they may have switched to Shimano items on the later bikes..




Gunk said:


> I’m after a black Brooks B17 @wafter let me know if you want to part with it?


Grand - as above it's actually a Champion Flyer, not a B17, but if you're still interested I'll certainly let you know if I decide to part with it.


Today has been nice as I've not woken up knackered, knowing the house is festooned with bits of bike that want going back together. I did a few small jobs on it earlier, did a little shakedown round the village, then a trip to get some eggs and finally a 10-ish miler tonight in the last hours of the fantastic evening sun to try and get the gears sorted and just enjoy the fruits of my labour 

I managed to get the camera in the bag by removing the lens and packing them separately so got a few shots along the way.

As it currently stands - still some way to go but I think I've got the back of it broken 







I've lashed the existing bar tape back on and it's come up nicely for a bit of scrubbing with a toothbrush and soapy water, so for now it can stay. I've also fitted the 100mm stem from my CdF (that was removed in favour of a shorter alternative) in place of the original 110mm item.

I'd initially failed to notice / account for the difference in stem angle, so have dropped the stem down another spacer to retain the stack height.

After lots of measuring I now have the Fuji running about 10mm more stack at the bars than the CdF and around the same reach; while I prefer the aesthetic of the Genesis stem I'm less keen on the spacers sat on top - although as always fit trumps looks and I'm not chopping the steerer tube!

Bringing the bars down and back has also relaxed the cable runs a bit too; making it more likely that I can retain the originals.







For now I've pinched the Polar mount off my Boardman, while I come to terms with the prospect of spunking 20% of what I paid for the bike on another..







This ride's dust notwithstanding everything is now nice and clean, and I'm optimistic that I should be able to squeeze a nice set of Longboard mudguards onto each end.







The waxed drivetrain runs beautifully smoothly and I think is now behaving itself after some shifter adjustment. I think my fears about large jumps between sprockets were somewhat unfounded; being driven by the incorrectly setup shifter causing random two-sprocket jumps. They are a bit wide when travelling at speed and aiming to maintain cadence, but that's not really what this bike's about..







There's plenty of battle damage on the frame; although I'm quite impressed by how non-rusty most of it is (passivated pre-paint perhaps?). This bit on the chainstay was treated with some phosphoric acid which has done a great job of removing most of it. Would probably have got it all had I had the patience to leave it on longer..







I do love a clean bottom bracket. Note also the nice grot-free chainrings too (and nanny state sticker - I'm impressed they'll endorse dropping off stuff up to a foot high!)..







I'm a big fan of the colour scheme and subtle branding.







I was also very impressed by the ability of the triple's silly-low 26/32 bottom gear for very leisurly ascents 







So there we go. It's eaten two full days of my life; having been spent basically stripping the bike down to nothing and cleaning / treating it all, however (general purpose grease notwithstanding) it only owes me a quid in bits so far and I'm very happy with the outcome.

It rides very nicely and I'm really enjoying the bar-end shifters; previously I'd viewed basically everything as inferior to STIs, however on top of the touted reliability benefits I've come to appreciate other bonuses of this setup. A couple being that you can easily get an idea of what gear you're in just by glancing down at the bars, while you can rocket from one end of the cassette to the other in one swift movement, rather than the 3-4 cranks or more of the lever required by STIs.

I also really like the Microshift items fitted to this bike - they're nice and slick with the indexed right shifter offering really positive, rewarding operation 

While this is thankfully the bulk of the work out of the way there are still some jobs to do:

- Source and fit mudguards
- Source and install inline barrel adjustors in brake lines, setup brakes
- Source and install a Genesis or Charge saddle (hopefully curing the clicking I'm getting from the seat area during pedalling)
- Source and apply touchup paint
- Source and fit frame protection in areas of cable rub
- Possibly source and fit a better (Salsa!) seatpost clamp as the seat gradually slips down over time
- Refit rear panier rack with stainless button head bolts and washers
- Clean and refit tatty rear light to pannier rack
- Blank redundant bosses on fork with stainless button heads
- Replace missing rear valve cap
- Refit spare spokes (or more presentable alternatives)
- Investigate security options as yet again I seem to have ended up with a nicer bike than intended for utility purposes 


It's been a bit of a rollercoaster but so far I'm very, very happy with how it's turned out and I'm really looking forward to using it in anger for some hardcore grocery-acquisition action


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## Gunk (8 Aug 2022)

You’ve made a good job of that


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## bikingdad90 (8 Aug 2022)

DCBassman said:


> Off with the RD, remove and regrease pulleys, clean and lubricate to within an inch of its life. Might well fix it! Just done this to two mechs I'd considered iffy, they both now run well, and it has taught me to do that a bit more often...


Have you had a look at the cassette, I had a cassette that did it once and took me ages to work out there was a single worn tooth that had snapped and was causing it to jump. 

As for the mini V brakes, have you checked the spring location, the spring might need moving to one of the other three holes for better action. Had this on a kids bike once.


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## wafter (8 Aug 2022)

Gunk said:


> You’ve made a good job of that


Thanks 




bikingdad90 said:


> Have you had a look at the cassette, I had a cassette that did it once and took me ages to work out there was a single worn tooth that had snapped and was causing it to jump.
> 
> As for the mini V brakes, have you checked the spring location, the spring might need moving to one of the other three holes for better action. Had this on a kids bike once.


Cheers for the thought but I think it's all sorted now thanks to some adjustment of the shifters and cable tension. I did wonder if I'd done something stupid like fitting one sprocket back onto the cassette the wrong way around 

There's no issue with the return force on the brakes; it's just pad attitude and clearance really - not helped by the total lack of fine adjustment in the system. I did look at the spring positions upon reassembly as I'd failed to note them when I took them to bits; however it seems that the middle position is the only viable one as the lower one gives zero pre-tension and the upper one will presumably give absolutely loads..


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## SkipdiverJohn (10 Aug 2022)

That hasn't turned out too bad at all. If you are intending to use it mainly for utility rides, I wouldn't be too bothered about the cosmetic damage on the frame as it reduces thievability.


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## T4tomo (10 Aug 2022)

Pretty sure you have caliper levers and mini V brakes, which will "work" but is always a compromise. I inherited that set up on a bike and in the end upgraded to decent Canti's, which contrary to someome above, aren't too bad to set up and once fettled provided great braking, but for you that would be more expense.
Some online adjusters to help with the fine tuning might be enough, and pray a wheel never goes slightly off true!


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## Gunk (10 Aug 2022)

My Van Nicholas uses Dura Ace Brifters and TRP cantis and although they work well, they don’t give the same confidence that a decent pair of callipers give. However the benefit is I’m able to run 28c tyres


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## T4tomo (10 Aug 2022)

Gunk said:


> My Van Nicholas uses Dura Ace Brifters and TRP cantis and although they work well, they don’t give the same confidence that a decent pair of callipers give. However the benefit is I’m able to run 28c tyres



I fitted Shimano BR CX-50 canti's. They do a cracking job and get very good reviews and were pretty easy to set up.


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## Gunk (10 Aug 2022)

T4tomo said:


> I fitted Shimano BR CX-50 canti's. They do a cracking job and get very good reviews and were pretty easy to set up.



That’s a good shout, I may replace mine with these, I’m not impressed with the TRP’s


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## T4tomo (10 Aug 2022)

Gunk said:


> That’s a good shout, I may replace mine with these, I’m not impressed with the TRP’s



MY Oh isn't going to be best please if you nick her brakes though....


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## wafter (10 Aug 2022)

SkipdiverJohn said:


> That hasn't turned out too bad at all. If you are intending to use it mainly for utility rides, I wouldn't be too bothered about the cosmetic damage on the frame as it reduces thievability.


Thanks - on the whole I'm pretty pleased with it so far, however it still needs some work. Appreciate what you're saying about the paint, but as usual I'm torn between keeping it tatty as a deterrant and improving it to satisfy my OCD / prevent further degradation. Tbh unless it's really ruined I'm not sure how much attention a thief would pay to the paint anyway..

I often think about "reversible" ways of making it look less appealing - was considering a white seat cover with a big brown streak airbrushed down its length 



T4tomo said:


> Pretty sure you have caliper levers and mini V brakes, which will "work" but is always a compromise. I inherited that set up on a bike and in the end upgraded to decent Canti's, which contrary to someome above, aren't too bad to set up and once fettled provided great braking, but for you that would be more expense.
> Some online adjusters to help with the fine tuning might be enough, and pray a wheel never goes slightly off true!


Cheers - the bike is original spec but of course that doesn't rule out incompetance / indifference on the part of the bits-speccer..

Somewhat irritatingly the previous year's model had a rear canti mount spanning the seatstays, but it was deleted on my model year 

As it happens I've got the brakes as good as they've been (and probably will ever be) after a bit more fettling today. The rims run clean with maybe 1mm or less clearance on each side and the levers give a decent pull with enough stopping power before bottoming out.

As you say a bit of a ding in the rims would ruin all this, but they have many spokes and (the rear SPA item especially) seem pretty heavily built so hopefully they'll behave.

Oddly I've had the front wheel off twice today, and both times the brakes have needed adjustment on the return spring pre-tensioners to get them centred again; not sure what's going on there as the rim appears to be going on centrally / consistently..


A bit more of a tedious and pictorally-vacuous update. I've blanked the panier bosses with some stainless bolts, but need to order some longer ones to suit the actual rack once it's ready to go back on.

The impromptu-dropper-seatpost issue has been solved by torquing the clamp bolt up to the recommended value (evidently a fair bit more than my light-fingered efforts had achieved), however the Selle saddle still clicks with every crank rev and looking from the back is also canted, so I'm thinking I might have bought a turkey.. 

Today saw the largest single ride so far (around 19 miles) with mixed results. I'm getting a fair bit of harshness through the saddle; maybe because the frame's budget / thick walled (whole lot weighs around 3.9kg with forks). However, the rear triangle should be pretty stiff by design (with orders of magnitude less deflection than the tyres and saddle) so I'm wondering if it's a saddle fit issue, or maybe because I'm running too much tyre pressure.. more tinkering needed it seems.


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## T4tomo (11 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> Somewhat irritatingly the previous year's model had a rear canti mount spanning the seatstays, but it was deleted on my model year



There are ways round that, if you decide at some point to switch to canti's, as I found when I sorted the OH's Dolan. Uphanger off the fork on the front (preferable to a stem mount as the longer cable run off a stem mount can induce fork judder - DAMHIKT) and a seatpost collar hanger off the rear.


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## wafter (13 Aug 2022)

T4tomo said:


> There are ways round that, if you decide at some point to switch to canti's, as I found when I sorted the OH's Dolan. Uphanger off the fork on the front (preferable to a stem mount as the longer cable run off a stem mount can induce fork judder - DAMHIKT) and a seatpost collar hanger off the rear.



Thanks - tbh the brakes are now acceptable; the only real issues being the pain they are to adjust and small margins involved. Hopefully some cable adjustors will help with both to some extent 

The novelty is rapidly wearing off my new toy after a few less-than-pleasant rides, culminating in a 24-miler last night that's the furthest I've travelled on this bike in one hit. 

Unfortunately rides on the Fuji have come to be associated with discomfort - with aching in my quads (especially at the front / around the knees), the knee joint itself, back, arms and left foot - as well as a literal pain in my arse. 

I've set the geometry up to be very close to my CdF (which is fine; touch wood!) and think the problem lies with the seatpost's reluctance to stay put in the frame. I did have success keeping it still by torquing it up to the recommended figure, however before Wednesday's ride to Abingdon I had cause to move it as it was a bit skewed; and obviously (in the absence of a torque wrench) didn't do it back up tight enough. 

Not sure when it all happened but upon checking it last night I found that it'd sunk by around 20-25mm again 

I'd spotted that the branding on the seatpost tube was very much worn off in the area that's been repeatedly exposed and driven back into the frame - now I know why! While useable I don't like having to torque the clamp down so hard so will keep an eye out for a Salsa item as I love the one fitted to the CdF.

In the past I've had knee pain resulting from incorrect saddle height, while I can see how this might also affect my back and arms. I'm a bit concerned by the foot situation; could be saddle height related but I also have a weird gait that I've compensated for in my cycling shoes but not those I wear daily. 

Finally I'm not sure if the pain in my rear end is down to / exacerbated by the saddle issue, or whether the saddle is just crap / doesn't suit me. I've not compared them side by side, however the Selle item seems deeper with more curvature where it flares out to meet the sit-bones, with the Genesis item being flatter; so maybe this is the reason. 

I've got my eye on a few Genesis items so will hopefully get my hands on one at some point. The Selle item can still go on the Routier as was originally planned - hopefully it'll be less critical over shorter distances and if not I guess I'll have to punt it on again. 

Finally, the bike is still misbehaving somewhat in other ways - gears still occasionally ghost-shift which is really starting it grind.. I've slackened off the friction shifters a little more and tweaked the cable tension a little. If that doesn't sort it I'm out of ideas tbh.

Also the chain appears to have got a bit squeaky after only maybe 60-70 miles, when usually I get 300-400 miles before this happens. That said I've never waxed a chain that was this utterly filthy before (all others have been new / nearly new) so I'm wondering if the cleaning's failed to get all of the particulates out of the links.. 

I've got a load of bits lined up for purchase for this bike; however I think I'll hold fire until I know it's going to be viable before throwing any more money at it.. first stop decent replacement saddle I guess, then I'll take it from there.


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## wafter (13 Aug 2022)

Just missed out on a poorly listed Genesis saddle on ebay thanks to my inability to pay attention to anything for more than 20 seconds. 

For now I think this bike's going to be shelved until I can source a better-fitting saddle as this one clearly isn't working for me..


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## All uphill (13 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> Just missed out on a poorly listed Genesis saddle on ebay thanks to my inability to pay attention to anything for more than 20 seconds.
> 
> For now I think this bike's going to be shelved until I can source a better-fitting saddle as this one clearly isn't working for me..



I'm sorry to hear that you're struggling with the fit on this bike. It looks great and the issues all sound fixable. Good luck getting the saddle and seatpost you need


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## bikingdad90 (13 Aug 2022)

When you set up the Fuji, did you take the three measurements across;

Reach from brake lever hood to end of saddle,

Centre of BB to top of saddle for height,

Distance between front of saddle and the the centre of BB to get the for/aft position in relation to the crank and also the crank length.


View: https://youtu.be/x2bm8PAUdQE
this is a great video explaining how to take the measurements across.

I wonder if the fit is causing all the issues as it’s not quite the same.


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## wafter (13 Aug 2022)

All uphill said:


> I'm sorry to hear that you're struggling with the fit on this bike. It looks great and the issues all sound fixable. Good luck getting the saddle and seatpost you need


Thanks - your encouragement is much appreciated!

I'm pretty confident that a decent / more appropriate saddle will sort the issue; just a case of getting hold of one / not getting distracted 30 seconds before the ebay listing ends 




bikingdad90 said:


> When you set up the Fuji, did you take the three measurements across;
> 
> Reach from brake lever hood to end of saddle,
> 
> ...



Thanks - I've got a known value for saddle height relative to the BB that I use as a baseline for setting up any new bike. 

I've not checked the others; tbh I've always struggled with quantifying saddle fore/aft position as there's apparently no transferrible datum between seats - the nose seeming somewhat arbitrary since length and shape varies so much between different models. 

FWIW I apparently have fairly long legs (and femurs it would seem) so I always struggle to get enough layback and my bikes always tend to have the saddle at its rearmost position. I've tried shifting my position on the current saddle with no real progress; I can feel my weight is on my sit-bones so I must be somewhere close, it just seems that I get a hammering wherever I position myself. I suspect that the padding in this particular seat is probably degraded / too soft and it's allowing my arse to bottom out on the substrate below over bumps. 

I know the original-fitment Genesis item on my CdF suits me well, so if a replacement of this type doesn't sort the issue I'll start looking elsewhere. The Selle item was destined for the beater anyway and if it doesn't prove acceptable on this bike either I guess I'll just have to move it on.. perhaps it would suit someone lighter / with a different shaped rear end..


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## newfhouse (13 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> I know the original-fitment Genesis item on my CdF suits me well, so if a replacement of this type doesn't sort the issue I'll start looking elsewhere. The



I still have one if you want to make me a silly offer and cover the postage…


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## wafter (14 Aug 2022)

newfhouse said:


> I still have one if you want to make me a silly offer and cover the postage…



Thanks - very tempted and may drop you a PM - however for now I think I'm going to have another crack with the Brooks (as below) 


The latest scintillating update, courtesy of some late night / early morning tinkering on account of the heat upstairs in the house..

I decided to have another go with the Brooks saddle after reading some setup guides, and refitted it to the bike as far back as it would go and exactly level across the high spots at the front and rear before taking it out for a test ride. Oddly it felt really pretty good this time - could have been a bit further back but position felt OK, while pressure on the sitbones was obvious but not excessive - probably because I was sitting properly "in" the curvature of the saddle.

This brings us to the next point - I associate Brooks saddles with a very concave top surface and nose pointing awkwardly skyward; however it appears that this is largely as a result of not being tensioned correctly, and that they should probably start off flat / nearly flat.

In order to achieve this their own propriatory spanner is required since there's not enough room to get onto the tensioning nut with a standard item, while my saddle is so hard and bone dry it really wants some treatment before adjustment (otherwise I think I'll risk cracking it). I've put my hand in my pocket for one of the saddle care kits which contains a modest amount of leather conditioner as well as the spanner.

Really I think the saddle needs soaking in something from its porous underside to really soften it; I have some neatsfoot oil but have read that Brooks don't like this - equally it seems there's a reason not to use and leather treatment ever made for one reason or another (have been down this hole with a leather coat, and ended up getting nowhere)..

Anyway, the saddle needs a clean and once I've figured out how I'm going to treat / soften it hopefully I'll add some more tension and re-test. Fingers' crossed 


In other news I think the chain is toast - squeaking as it does so soon after being waxed; while there's an enormous amount of lateral deflection available (if I push in the centre of the chainline I can get it to touch the spokes) which I think might be responsible for the ghost shifting I've occasionally encountered.

I've ordered a KMC X9-EPT chain - 50% more expensive than their boggo "grey/grey" offering (which I've always found to be very good) but apparently electro-plated / passivated for corrosion resistance; which I thought was a good investment considering the bike's intended purpose and apparant lack of protection that waxing offers.

I've also ordered some Avid inline brake tension adjustors, so we'll see what sort of a mess I can make of all that when they arrive.


Finally while last night's cool test-thrash felt good, it highlighted to me how the hoods on the TRP brake levers are going sticky - not good at only 6-ish years old and potentially another source of outlay 


Will update once bits have started arriving later in the week / I've had a chance to make some more progress


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## DCBassman (14 Aug 2022)

Those brakes...OEM or not, I still think the brake levers are not matched to the V-brakes. There's no obvious reason for such a tight setup except lack of pull from the levers. Linear pull levers pull a lot more cable than standard, giving plenty of adjustment.


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## wafter (14 Aug 2022)

DCBassman said:


> Those brakes...OEM or not, I still think the brake levers are not matched to the V-brakes. There's no obvious reason for such a tight setup except lack of pull from the levers. Linear pull levers pull a lot more cable than standard, giving plenty of adjustment.



Indeed; maybe you're correct. According to this they're described as "short pull" which is pretty nebulous but there we go.. I guess it's hard to quantify these characteristics with such a wide range of lever styles - maybe the most straighforward would be to list a pull radius and total angular travel for the lever but nobody seems to quite actual values.

Assuming they remain serviceable I suppose the up-side is that they'll have a greater mechanical advantage than something offering more cable pull.


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## Vantage (14 Aug 2022)

Personally I wouldn't do anything to the Brooks other than rub a bit of the provided cream into it.
Soaking the thing in oils/other concoctions can pretty much destroy it. Many a Brooks fan will no doubt back me up on this, specially as modern Brooks saddles seem to made with softer leather than previous generations.
You'll find that after about 500 or so miles it'll start sagging to the rough shape of your arse (quicker if you take it out on a wet rainy ride) whereupon it'll keep that shape for many a year*. A tension tweak every so often may or may not be needed.
* so I've heard. Mines only 3 years old.
Nose up/down for me a comfort thing. If the saddle is level I find the weight on my arms is very heavy. Nose up keeps things balanced between arse and hands.
I've yet to see a Brooks saddle perfectly straight other than when new. Tension has nothing to do with it except in extreme cases. The leather stretches with use. The top will sag while the sides remain taught so using the spanner to straighten it won't work. It'll just bugger up the saddle.


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## wafter (14 Aug 2022)

Vantage said:


> Personally I wouldn't do anything to the Brooks other than rub a bit of the provided cream into it.
> Soaking the thing in oils/other concoctions can pretty much destroy it. Many a Brooks fan will no doubt back me up on this, specially as modern Brooks saddles seem to made with softer leather than previous generations.
> You'll find that after about 500 or so miles it'll start sagging to the rough shape of your arse (quicker if you take it out on a wet rainy ride) whereupon it'll keep that shape for many a year*. A tension tweak every so often may or may not be needed.
> * so I've heard. Mines only 3 years old.
> ...



Thanks - I've come to broadly the same conclusions re. treatment; if you dig a little deeper pretty much every touted softener / treatment is said by some to degrade the leather over time. It seems that (from researching leather garment care) mink oil is the gold standard, although I imgine that doesn't come from happy mink that once roamed wild, so I'll give that a miss.

I understand that the saddle will naturally sag as it conforms to my arse, however I think this is probably going to be exacerbated by lack of nose tension. Mine has basically zero tension on it and when squeezing the sides in (which straightens out the line along the top) the bearing surface of the bracket at the front squares up to the tensioning nut; suggesting that winding this in will pull it a bit straighter; but that remains to be seen!

I wonder if you setting yours nose up is allowing you to move back in the saddle a bit more to a more comfortable position?


I couldn't resist having a go at the saddle today; being an impatient sod.

It was pretty dirty so the first port of call was a warm wash in the shower with some mild detergent, which yielded lots of brown water and bits. Once wet it became very pliable so I pulled the two wings on the sides inwards and secured them by wedging the handle of a scalpel (the nearest appropriate flat thing) against the rails (hard to explain but nobody probably cares anyway ).

I left it out in the sun for a bit to dry (should probably have left it longer tbh) then applied some wax leather treatment to all accessible surfaces, however really the product was too dried out to be of any use. In the hope of getting it to soak in a bit more I applied some heat with a hairdryer, but that just made it dry out more; the lumpy excess eventually requiring removal with a bit of white spirit 

Next I broke out the good stuff and slapped on some Granger's G-wax (intended for hiking boots etc), again with some heat to keep it liquid, while moving it around so that the areas of the saddle soaking it up faster got more. Once cool and dry I buffed off the excess on the top and left the underside alone.

Once the scalpel was removed the sides stayed put, as did the upper profile which has become a fair bit straighter - the static deflection in the middle between the high points at each end falling from 16mm to 8.

It's now back on the bike awaiting a nose-tweak once the tool arrives. I might chuck on a bit of Brooks' own treatment too just for the crack, although some sources on the net proclaim it to be not much more than shoe polish, so I'm not expecting miracles.

It looks a lot better than it did however still a bit tatty; but I guess that's part of the charm..


















The seatpost clamp, which appears to be identical to that on my Genesis (branding notwithstanding). IMO one of the better ones I've used with precise angle adjustment thanks to the clamping bolt arrangement..







Back on the bike..












Since being "reset" the wings / sides of the saddle sit much further inboard (maybe 1/2" each side at their rear) making the nose a lot skinner where the saddle starts to widen.. This is welcome as I was aware of the sides of the saddle previously when pedalling. I imagine they'll splay out a bit again one my bulk's perched on top, but hopefully not as much as previously once the nose has had some tension added.


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## wafter (18 Aug 2022)

After a pretty miserable day I was looking forward to a bit more work on the Fuji following the arrival of some more bits.

Things got off to a crap start with the saddle adjustment. Opening the box for the Brooks "care kit" revealed a poorly finished, stamped, chromed spanner that looks like a piece of cheap tat out of a cracker, a tiny 25ml tin of "proofide" leather treatment and a cloth. I've found preferable ways to spend twelve quid..







I gently wound some tension onto the nose adjustor on the saddle (which started off loose), and as @Vantage suggested, this did little to affect the saddle's shape. At this point I also noticed that the front end of the saddle's frame hasn't been fitted onto the leather centrally / squarely, and one of the rivets is pished. All in all my experience of this revered saddle maker isn't shaping up too favourably 







The new chain also arrived yesterday. KMC chains are supplied with a very minimal, sticky grease - which is probably good for both corrosion protection and wear prevention (since it's not going to allow grit to migrate into the links) however it's horrible to handle and I know from that fitted to my CdF is an absolute magnet for contamination.











After comparison with / checking of the existing chain, one link pair was removed from the new one and it was slung in the wax pan.


Once the chain had been fitted it was pretty much dark, but I cracked out the lights and set out on a test ride around the village. With things initially feeling good, I pushed out the distance - finding the conditions pretty good (barring the odd bit of drizzle) and figuring I could do with a mental health boost.

Things started to fall apart a couple of villages out when I got out of the saddle to attack a hill; the extra load on the cassette causing the rear wheel to skew in the dropouts and bind against the LH chainstay. What little speed I had rapidly disappeared and I spent a very long second trying to get my foot out of the toe cage before I accepted my fate and keeled over onto the road 

While arguably this was a situation of my own making for not tightening the rear QR sufficiently, judging by the total lack of paint on the chainstays in the proximity of the tyre this isn't the first time this has happened..

QR done up brutally tight I continued on my way, growing increasingly irritated by the clicking / creaking that continues to eminate from the seatpost assy; despite the liberal amounts of grease added to the clamp area when the saddle was refitted. Increasingly uncompromising amounts of torque were metered out to the clamp screws, but again nothing worked.

While lovely and quiet the new chain appears to have done sod all to address the ghost-shifting issue, which took me by surprise on a couple of occasions - pinging back and fourth between sprockets as I tried to put some power through them 

I've visually checked the RD again and everything appears straight; I'm wondering if could be due to frame flex (although somewhat unlikely given how bloody heavy it is) or maybe a problem with the short cable runs - will try to pay more attention to steering input next time it happens.

After an infuriating and disappointing ride, the final insult came on a gravel path in the nearest town where my ever-dimming headlight (and now-dead crappy USB front light) failed to illuminate a large rut; putting me on my arse again and making a mess of my knee / the saddle / shifter 

The bike remains infuriating and disappointing to ride, and I'm increasingly feeling like putting a disc cutter through the hateful contraption tbh..


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## Vantage (18 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> After a pretty miserable day I was looking forward to a bit more work on the Fuji following the arrival of some more bits.
> 
> Things got off to a crap start with the saddle adjustment. Opening the box for the Brooks "care kit" revealed a poorly finished, stamped, chromed spanner that looks like a piece of cheap tat out of a cracker, a tiny 25ml tin of "proofide" leather treatment and a cloth. I've found preferable ways to spend twelve quid..
> 
> ...



I came to the conclusion some time ago that certain bikes are just plain awkward t***s hell bent on causing as much grief as mechanically possible. 
My Dawes Vantage was a blessing. Nothing ever went wrong with it and any time I needed to adjust something it was plain sailing. 
The current Spa Wayfarer is just a complete and utter bas***d in every way possible. Constant issues and even the simplest of adjustments turns into a 2 hour long battle using every swear word ever conceived. 
I can guess which category your new toy falls into


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## freiston (18 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> I've visually checked the RD again and everything appears straight; I'm wondering if could be due to frame flex (although somewhat unlikely given how bloody heavy it is) or maybe a problem with the short cable runs - will try to pay more attention to steering input next time it happens.



I would not be able to confirm a gear hanger to be straight just by looking at it (though I would probably be able to tell if it was really bent). I use a home-made gear hanger adjuster (basically a length of square section steel with a bolt through it that screws into the hanger) and measure the gap between the tool and the rim top & bottom, left & right (keeping the valve in the same position as the tool lest the wheel be out of true). I reckon I can get it within <5mm at the rim.


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## wafter (18 Aug 2022)

Vantage said:


> I came to the conclusion some time ago that certain bikes are just plain awkward t***s hell bent on causing as much grief as mechanically possible.
> My Dawes Vantage was a blessing. Nothing ever went wrong with it and any time I needed to adjust something it was plain sailing.
> The current Spa Wayfarer is just a complete and utter bas***d in every way possible. Constant issues and even the simplest of adjustments turns into a 2 hour long battle using every swear word ever conceived.
> I can guess which category your new toy falls into


lol - yeah, it certainly seems that way; glad I'm not the only one!

My Routier's a bit like that too, mainly because of tight clearances at the back and lack of QR wheels, which makes any work that requires rear wheel removal "fun". I've kind of made a rod for my own back with this one though, as part of that is down to (really too large) tyre choice.

While design and quality differences obviously play a part, I think there's a lot to be said for going through a bike top to bottom and making sure everything is sound so that it's less likely to present a problem down the line.

My Genesis has been (largely) great in this regard, but then I guess it's not fair to compare a brand new bike of that price with much older, neglected examples.

Sorry to hear about the Spa - they seem very well regarded it seems.. what's wrong with it?




freiston said:


> I would not be able to confirm a gear hanger to be straight just by looking at it (though I would probably be able to tell if it was really bent). I use a home-made gear hanger adjuster (basically a length of square section steel with a bolt through it that screws into the hanger) and measure the gap between the tool and the rim top & bottom, left & right (keeping the valve in the same position as the tool lest the wheel be out of true). I reckon I can get it within <5mm at the rim.


Thanks - you're probably right but I figured eyeballing it to make sure it's not horribly out of line was a start. I could probably do with a tool as you describe, however it's one of those that I'm likely to use so rarely and would probably take up a fair bit of space.. would be a nice thing to have though, just to be sure!


Yet again the Fuji has consumed a large chunk of my day. Chasing the various noises I've had the seatpost out; thoroughly cleaned and greased it again.. achieving nothing. I've stripped, cleaned and re-lubed the seatpost clamp, again achieving nothing (although I do need to properly torque it up yet).

The clicking was at the same point on the pedal stroke each time (DS crank at around 6 O'clock), was present regardless of chainring selected and went away if I put a lot of load through the pedals.

After I got nowhere with the seatposy assy I took a look at the BB. Thanks to last week's work the crank came out beautifully and I found the DS BB bearing cup required very little torque to remove, while it was incorrectly lubed with what looked like moly grease. After some cleaning with a toothbrush and paraffin the threads showed a reasonable amount of corrosion and fretting... at this point I was pretty sure I'd found the source of the noise...

The NDS cup seemed much better fitted; requiring more force to remove, apparently retaining its original lubrication and showing no signs of damage to the threads. As such I didn't go to town cleaning it.







Unfortunately I found the plastic guard inside to be broken; perhaps because it's been squashed between the two cups.. the "68mm" shell on the bike measured 67.7mm so is slightly under-size; not sure what sort of tolerances these parts requre..







The toothbrush and paraffin made light work of the inside of the bottom bracket shell and all looked good, barring some light corrosion on the DS. These threads and those on the DS cup were further cleaned out with a wire brush and refitted with some of this - which miraculously turned up on the back of the car recently 












I only tightened the BB cups to their minimum value (35Nm) and went out for a test ride; confident that I'd nailed the problem.. except I hadn't and the click remained.

The crankset came off again and the cups wound up to their full torque value of 50Nm, but this did nothing to sort the noise either. Next stop were the NDS crank arm bolts, again wound up to their full value of 14Nm with no change. I also checked the chainring bolts, which were all tight.

On one subsequent test ride I tried to narrow down where the noise was coming from and I reckoned I could feel it through the LH pedal. Once back both pedals were removed; proving to be loose, dirty, poorly lubricated and showing evidence of fretting / transferred material from the crank arms on the threads of one..






The threads were cleaned up using the usual method, then the pedals refitted with copper grease and the spanner given a smack with a mallet to nip them up. A quick test ride confirmed these were indeed the culprit - the ride now gloriously quiet (apart from the incessant creaking from the saddle area ).

Tbh I'm tempted to replace the pedals as they appear to be MTB items so are a bit out of keeping with the bike, while the bearings in them sound rough, there's a fair bit of slop and the toe cages are really too long; positioning my feel well forwards. I certainly don't want to chuck any more money at the bike currently, although will keep an eye out for used offerings.


Finally, I think I've sorted the last piece of the "irritating noise" puzzle - the saddle has been re-fitted with pasty-wax on the clamp-to-rail surfaces and not a lot appears to be moving in this area, while I traced a loud and disctinctive creak / click during pedalling to two touching sections of the saddle's frame near the nose, that want to move relative to each other under torsional loading but are in hard contact so it takes a bit of force to make this happen and when it does they creak. A bit of 3-in-1 dribbled into the affected area seems to ahve made the saddle silent!


Just the crappy gears and all the other bits left to do now, then...


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## DCBassman (18 Aug 2022)

What I hope for you, @wafter , reading this, is that you are sorting out years of neglect and that this bike will run pretty sweetly hereafter. Rather like my car, although massively less expensive...


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## wafter (18 Aug 2022)

DCBassman said:


> What I hope for you, @wafter , reading this, is that you are sorting out years of neglect and that this bike will run pretty sweetly hereafter. Rather like my car, although massively less expensive...


Thanks - I hope so too. Happy to put the work in to give it a fair crack of the whip; won't be happy if it keeps causing me grief though!

When I had interesting cars I used to take the same approach.. ensure the shell was sound and do anything mechanical well, knowing that it probably wouldn't need doing again afterwards - what are you running, just out of interest?


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## freiston (18 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> I could probably do with a tool as you describe, however it's one of those that I'm likely to use so rarely and would probably take up a fair bit of space.. would be a nice thing to have though, just to be sure!


I think it's a tool that is quite useful especially with a steel gear hanger that's part of the drop-out. They do bend relatively easy and if the bike falls over onto its drive side, that can be enough to cause problems. It's reassuring to give the hanger a check when you've got the rear mech off the bike for whatever reason too (or even to remove the mech to give it a quick check). It's easy and cheap to make a functional one (hardest part is taking accurate measurements from the tool to the rim) - make sure you've got enough clearance to rotate the bar without fouling the wheel nut or mudguard/rack fixings - and they take up about as much room as a hammer. You could even use it open-ended as a lever when you're struggling to loosen something with a spanner - dual purpose. As well as the square section steel pipe (donated by a neighbour), I used a 10mm bolt with 1mm thread pitch, some nuts to match and some washers. The nuts can also be used to allow setting of wheel bearing preload with the QR lever closed (I find it easier that way than backing off the cone to allow for the axle compression). Here's my cheap, easy, make-do gear hanger tool.


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## DCBassman (19 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> what are you running, just out of interest?


09 Merc C220 CDI estate. I think it's ok now, but incredibly difficult to work on yourself when you've no space...And not easy to work on anyjow. Example: to replace the air filter, you have to unbolt and disconnect the entire engine management system...


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## Vantage (19 Aug 2022)

wafter said:


> Sorry to hear about the Spa - they seem very well regarded it seems.. what's wrong with it?



My Spa is a self build. Everything right down to the wheels was done by muggins here. 
The problems I have with it are down to the frame design. 
A stand absolutely cannot be used on this bike as the chainstay bridge is positioned right where the clamp and bolt would go. The position of the rear disc caliper mounts prevent a stand being fitted there either. 
The seat stay bridge was drilled vertically instead of horizontally so fitting a mudguard has to be done right first time as any adjustments in height require making the drill hole in the mudguard elongated which makes that point more prone to slipping/breaking. 
The seat tube bottle cage mounts were drilled too high up and required a topeak bottle cage thingybob to make it useable. 
For a tourer, it sucks at having front loads. The shimmy caused by front panniers is ridiculous. No amount of adjustment on the rack or bags/loading seems to stop this. 
The front dropouts face forwards instead of vertical so the bike needs to be upright on its wheels before the skewer for the wheel can be tightened. A small issue but bloody annoying. 
I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get comfy on this bike. I've had it three years and I've yet to take enough weight off my arms to prevent discomfort on my hands and when I do manage that, the weight is transferred to my arse or I'm stretched out too much. Never had that problem with any other bike in 35+ years of cycling. 
Other things not related to the frame also seem to be a bigger pain in the ass to sort out than any other bike prior to this. I swear the damn thing is cursed. 
The day I have enough money to replace the wretched thing can't come quickly enough. I miss my Dawes Vantage.


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## wafter (9 Sep 2022)

freiston said:


> I think it's a tool that is quite useful especially with a steel gear hanger that's part of the drop-out. They do bend relatively easy and if the bike falls over onto its drive side, that can be enough to cause problems. It's reassuring to give the hanger a check when you've got the rear mech off the bike for whatever reason too (or even to remove the mech to give it a quick check). It's easy and cheap to make a functional one (hardest part is taking accurate measurements from the tool to the rim) - make sure you've got enough clearance to rotate the bar without fouling the wheel nut or mudguard/rack fixings - and they take up about as much room as a hammer. You could even use it open-ended as a lever when you're struggling to loosen something with a spanner - dual purpose. As well as the square section steel pipe (donated by a neighbour), I used a 10mm bolt with 1mm thread pitch, some nuts to match and some washers. The nuts can also be used to allow setting of wheel bearing preload with the QR lever closed (I find it easier that way than backing off the cone to allow for the axle compression). Here's my cheap, easy, make-do gear hanger tool.
> 
> View attachment 657882


Thanks - looks like a great piece of work! I assume you can use it for tweaking the hanger a bit as necessary too..?

I'm still not 100% convinced that the problem originates at the RD hanger but it'd be good to check and rule it out. I'll certainly keep my eye out for a bit of box section on my travels though; I guess the most difficult bits to source are the fine-pitch fixings.




DCBassman said:


> 09 Merc C220 CDI estate. I think it's ok now, but incredibly difficult to work on yourself when you've no space...And not easy to work on anyjow. Example: to replace the air filter, you have to unbolt and disconnect the entire engine management system...


Cool - tbh I don't envy you working on that! Seems that from maybe the mid-late '90s stuff started getting really silly to work on, especially the more prestige end of the market. Fingers' crossed you've replaced enough to make it reliable 



Vantage said:


> My Spa is a self build. Everything right down to the wheels was done by muggins here.
> The problems I have with it are down to the frame design.
> A stand absolutely cannot be used on this bike as the chainstay bridge is positioned right where the clamp and bolt would go. The position of the rear disc caliper mounts prevent a stand being fitted there either.
> The seat stay bridge was drilled vertically instead of horizontally so fitting a mudguard has to be done right first time as any adjustments in height require making the drill hole in the mudguard elongated which makes that point more prone to slipping/breaking.
> ...


Sorry to hear about all those problems - I've heard some good stuff about Spa in the past so I'm surprised by some of the seemingly unforgiveably basic issues you've had and bizarre design choices... That must be really disappointing, especially considering it sounds like you went into it as a labour of love 

Have you had a word with them about it? What are you looking to replace it with?


"Progress" with the Fuji has been even more glacial over recent weeks; the critical path being disrupted by issues relating to the sourcing of mudguards.

On top of this having done some more reading I decided to investigate the RD cable in the hope that this might shed some light on the shifting problem. I found the inner to be heavily kinked inside the outer, thanks to the previous damage it had sustained when the outer skewed in the barrel adjustor. This was causing a lot of drag and when it came out it brought with it several chunks of the liner that it had presumably eroded away.

I thought I'd give it a chance by straightening the inner with some heat (which may have eventually led to its failure; not sure what sort of heat treatment state they're usually in) but nothing ventured and all that. I got it nicely straight, however through a combination of the damage to the outer and frayed cable couldn't get it all back together again.. so a new cable it is.

While I'm at it I'm considering doing the brake cables too as the pull is bloody awful (heavy and draggy) compared to the Tiagra / 105 setup on my boardman; which apparently has the same cables. The choice of cables is bewildering; which coupled with a busy week still means I've not ordered any 


Yesterday my mudguards finally arrived; another set of SKS Longboards as already proven on my CdF. I'd planned to spend the day throwing woodworm treatment at various bits of the house, however as the motivation waned and malaise descended, it was all I could do to hopefully prod at the pile of new bits for the bike; one thing led to another and I ended up getting them fitted.

As anyone with any experience will no doubt attest fitting these mudguards is a feat of commitment and endurance; however once done they're great. Typically it took the best part of a day to get them on.. and that wasn't the end of the story as I then found out that the Pannier rack wouldn't fit; which was supposed to be my big reward at the end of the night 


This morning I looked at it with fresh eyes and managed to reach a workable solution, so the rack's now on, although the bike remains un-useable due to the cable situation and some areas of the recent work still need tweaking / sorting.

Anyway, as it stands (minus a few vaguely important bits):







I was concerned about mudguard clearance issues before fitting; turns out they're fine in all the areas I was worried about and crap in the one area I'd not considered (at the rack). Up front clearance with the V-brakes is absolutey fine, even with the mudguard as high up as it'll go.

All the fixings that came with the guards are M5 and BZP finished alloy steel capheads. As with the CdF I've replaced all of these with stainless button heads in the interests of corrosion resistance and aesthetics. Despite the lack of M6 fixings in the kit I think the front and rear brackets are intended to take this larger size which will also fit the fork and seatstay bridge; so I'll probably swap these in time as it should help to centralise the brackets a bit.







I ended up packing the guard away from the chainstay bridge by around 4mm with some washers to aid clearance between the mudguard and arm of the FD. Given the tubular nature of the chainstay bridge this all looks like a bit of a lash-up - I looked for concave washers to no avail and considered attacking a couple of the SKS spacers with the rotary tool to make some up; but with motivation as it was this was all I could manage. Perhaps a job for the future depending on how much it irritates me.

The mudguard struggled to fit between the chainstays and had to be squashed a bit to get the nut started on the bolt. I put a couple of bits of electrical tape on the contact surfaces with the insides of the chainstay in an effort to reduce the potential for rubbing / damage.

With this setup as it stands there's just enough room to allow the rear wheel to be removed from the forward-angled dropouts; with the 32mm tyres fitting very nearly inside the guard. I think this will be as large as I can go as anything bigger will likely hang up on the trailing / inner edges of the guard's front section during attempted removal.







Clearance at the FD is minimal but present. There is a bit of movement in the mudguard so I'll keep an eye on it once the bike's actually been ridden for a reasonable distance.







Thankfully there's plenty of clearance with the rear brakes too. Again, due to the round seatstay bridge the interface with the guard's bracket here is a bit sketchy, but it is what it is. If I could be bothered to knock up some concave washers..







After attempting to trial-fit the rack with the mudguards in place I was resigned to acceptance that it wouldn't fit without severely butchering something. In the end I managed to get it all fitted by releasing the two front / upper-most guard stays from the guard and running them through the rack from the outside to the inside, since there was insufficient clearance at the bottom of the rack to allow the stays to run inside.

This is all good, however does complicate things should the rack need to be removed. To reduce the amount of bending stress on the guard stays I packed them away from the frame using one of the 5mm plastic spacers that came with the kit.. not aesthetically ideal but for now it'll do.

The rack mount is spaced away from the frame with a small washer since there was evidently fouling at the frontal edge in the past. I also found that the RHS threaded boss on the dropout for the rack had apparently been welded on on't pish - not much I can do about that and it doesn't affect its use..








There's still contact between the stay and rack near its bottom, but this is light and depending on how things go I could separate the two parts with a bit of electical tape. Adding more deflection to the stays effectively made them shorter, however being of an anxious disposition I'd already cut them about as long as I could get away with so this didn't prove a problem.








So there we go - tantalisingly close but it's not going anywhere until I've sorted some cables, which is it's own can of worms. I think I know where I'm going with pannier bags and that only leaves a few small jobs remaining until I can hopefully get out and actually start using it for wholesome utility purposes


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## freiston (9 Sep 2022)

wafter said:


> I assume you can use it for tweaking the hanger a bit as necessary too..?


Yeah - that's how the shop-bought ones work too - you measure the gap between the rim and the tool at 12, 6, 3 & 9 o'clock to see if the hanger is out and if it is, give the tool a bit of a flex to bend the hanger, then measure again, repeat as required. When measuring the gap, always do it from the same point on the rim (e.g. where the valve is) - so you rotate the wheel with the tool - this way you rule out error due to the wheel being laterally untrue.


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## Gunk (9 Sep 2022)

Ideally the stays should be behind the pannier rack


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## wafter (10 Sep 2022)

freiston said:


> Yeah - that's how the shop-bought ones work too - you measure the gap between the rim and the tool at 12, 6, 3 & 9 o'clock to see if the hanger is out and if it is, give the tool a bit of a flex to bend the hanger, then measure again, repeat as required. When measuring the gap, always do it from the same point on the rim (e.g. where the valve is) - so you rotate the wheel with the tool - this way you rule out error due to the wheel being laterally untrue.


Thanks - good point about rotating the wheel with the tool. I guess one needs to make sure it's dead straight in the dropouts too!



Gunk said:


> Ideally the stays should be behind the pannier rack


Indeed, however this isn't going to happen without significantly bending the stays; something I'm reluctant to do in case I cock it up / run out of length.. I'm all ears if you have any ideas


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## Gunk (10 Sep 2022)

Put a spacer between the rack and frame and bolt the stays to the frame without a spacer.

or bolt them behind the rack using the same hole


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## wafter (10 Sep 2022)

Gunk said:


> Put a spacer between the rack and frame and bolt the stays to the frame without a spacer.
> 
> or bolt them behind the rack using the same hole
> 
> View attachment 660543



Thanks - however if you take a good look at the pics of my rack in my previous post I think you'll see why this is unlikely to work.

Having looked at images of a lot of other racks (including yours above), it seems that the tubing on the sides is mostly co-planar, with the centreline of the mount to the frame shared with that of the tubing above it supports.. so assuming you have 10mm OD tubing with a 5mm wide mounting flange at the bottom to bolt to the frame (and pretend that everything is square), the sides of the rack only project 2.5mm inboard of the mounting surface on the frame; giving plenty of space for mudguard stays inside.

Conversely the construction of mine is different - the rack's mount to the frame is a flat plate, to the inside of which is butt-welded one section of 10mm tubing, with another subsequent piece of 10mm tubing butt-welded inside that further up. Consequently the maximum projection of the inside of the tubes inboard of the frame's mounting surface is around 20mm.

Were I to take either of the routes you've suggested the mudguard stays are still going to foul one or more of these tubes as they did when I initially tried to fit the rack over the stays - it hanging up maybe 100mm above where it needed to be to be bolted to the frame.

As it stands the stays would need to move inboard by at least 20mm (two rack tube diameters) on each side to sit inside the rack (probably more like 25mm taking into account stay diameter and the angles involved). I could remove the 5mm spacer on the stays and bend / space the rack out by 20mm on each side, but I don't much like this idea for fear of damaging the rack or being unable to get it level...

I think realistically the only way I'm going to get around this is to replace the rack, which is only likely to happen if I score a decent used one as new ones doen't appear to be cheap!

It's certainly not ideal as it stands, however shouldn't present any problems in use and will only be an issue if the rack needs to be removed which I hope will be far from a regular requirement..


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## Jameshow (10 Sep 2022)

Gunk said:


> Put a spacer between the rack and frame and bolt the stays to the frame without a spacer.
> 
> or bolt them behind the rack using the same hole
> 
> View attachment 660543



Rack should go up against the frame, otherwise the bolt is continually being fatigued. 

Mudguard stay should really go in another threaded hole.


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## wafter (10 Sep 2022)

Jameshow said:


> Rack should go up against the frame, otherwise the bolt is continually being fatigued.
> 
> Mudguard stay should really go in another threaded hole.



Good point about the bolt - tbh if it's tight and only spaced out a little way I doubt it'd be an issue; the 20mm I was mooting earlier might be a different matter though!


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## Vantage (10 Sep 2022)

wafter said:


> Sorry to hear about all those problems - I've heard some good stuff about Spa in the past so I'm surprised by some of the seemingly unforgiveably basic issues you've had and bizarre design choices... That must be really disappointing, especially considering it sounds like you went into it as a labour of love
> 
> Have you had a word with them about it? What are you looking to replace it with?


You're not far wrong with me going into it as a labour of love. This thing was supposed to be my dream bike...you know, the one you lust after thinking you'll never get it. Asides from the issues I have with it, it is just that. 
The chap who designed Spa's frames is 531colin on the CUK forum and is aware of my grievances with it. Apparently the bottle cage mount issue is specific to my size frame which is stupid as with a small frame, you'd want a lower cage mount to get under the lower top tube. 

I have to say, your tourer is looking very nice


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## Gunk (10 Sep 2022)

Jameshow said:


> Rack should go up against the frame, otherwise the bolt is continually being fatigued.
> 
> Mudguard stay should really go in another threaded hole.



In reality, unless you're carrying really heavy stuff, doesn’t matter.


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## wafter (26 Sep 2022)

Vantage said:


> You're not far wrong with me going into it as a labour of love. This thing was supposed to be my dream bike...you know, the one you lust after thinking you'll never get it. Asides from the issues I have with it, it is just that.
> The chap who designed Spa's frames is 531colin on the CUK forum and is aware of my grievances with it. Apparently the bottle cage mount issue is specific to my size frame which is stupid as with a small frame, you'd want a lower cage mount to get under the lower top tube.
> 
> I have to say, your tourer is looking very nice



The problems sound especially disappointing given how invested you were in the idea - I felt / feel that way about my Genesis; although thankfully for me that turned out pretty well!

It must be somewhat awkward to actually know the guy who designed the bike, given its shortcomings.. although I guess it's still up to the supplier to actually sort these issues out rather than the designer. I assume any chance of anyone actually doing anything is now off the menu..? I'm glad to hear it's not a total disaster as you evidently still value it despite its problems 

Thanks for the encouragement with the Fuji - it's been a bit frustrating and of course taken far longer than it should have, but it feels like it's getting somewhere close now. Latest white-knuckle-ride of an installment below 



To recap, the RD cable was found to be somewhat sketchy; kinked, frayed and possibly the cause of the dodgy shifting on the rear so I elected to replace it. As usual this snowballed to include a load of other jobs with progress being delayed thanks to my indecision as to which components to buy and supplier delays in some cases.

I finally had all the bits at the back end of last week, consisting of:

- 5m brake cable outer (Fibrax)
- 4x stainless brake cable inners (Shimano)
- 2x inline brake barrel adjustors (Avid)
- 4m gear cable outer (Fibrax)
- 2x stainless gear cable inners (Clarks)






All was pretty much as cheap as I could find without buying obvious crap, and I think all of the above came in at about £30 give or take. I've found all of these parts so far to be great, and am happy to pass on details of where they were sourced from etc if anyone fancies some.


What I'd upsold to myself as a morning's work inevitably ended up swallowing most of the weekend. The first job was to remove the long-suffering bar tape while keeping a record of how it was wrapped as well as the cable routing its removal exposed.

Despite a recent cleaning, there's still a fair difference in colour between the exposed and covered sections of the bar tape:







Then it was on to removal of the rest of the relevant stuff - brake levers, shifters, all cables - then giving the bars a good clean with some paraffin to get rid of the tape residue. They're pretty intricately-shaped for budget bars, while the graduations for lever position were very much appreciated on reassembly:












The brake levers were stripped and cleaned; one binding lever-stop button (that's pressed in to give some more cable slack to facilitate wheel removal I think) was found to be bent, so this was straightened before the whole lot was reassembled with a sparing amount of synthetic grease on the pivots for sily smooth operation 

Here's what a TRP RRL looks like in bits, if anyone's bothered:







While the brakes were in bits I also tidied up the outer edges of the barrel adjustors' plastic outers and steel inners witha spherical grinding bit in the rotary tool, to remove some of the general roughness / damage that had occured when one of the cable outers failed.

I didn't delve too deep into the shifters as total disassembly required the removal of a spring clip, for which I didn't have a tool and even if I did I could see a high probability of it disappearing at speed into some dark corner of the kitchen, so I left well alone. I did take the opportunity to re-secure the loose plastic lever covers to the levers with a couple of dabs of superglue.


The re-cabling proper was far from straightforward since I wanted to re-assess the original less-than-ideal cable lengths and routing, as well as adding the inline adjustors to the brake cables.

Once the brake levers and shifters were refitted I started with the front brake cable; using the original as a guide to try to gauge optimum routing and length. It seemed that the original was too long as it didn't enter the ferrule on the brake's noodle square, while a new replacement of the same length caused the noodle to kick out forward away from the bike. Eventually I ended up with a total cable length about 60mm shorter than it was originally, with the barrel adjuster positioned just before the noodle in the area of cable subject to the least curvature.

The back brake was a similar story, with limited space for the adjustor but I got it in there and it looks pretty decent. I also lost about 15mm from the rear section of outer as this had similar issues to the front. Since both cable runs were shortened I got away with trimming and re-using the orignal cable inners - so that was a score!

While not as nice as others the brakes feel noticeably slicker / more snappy / positive in use; also setup is now a lot easier thanks to the fine adjustment afforded by the Avid parts. It's also interesting to note that now the outer cable runs are shorter there's a lot less cable movement when the levers are pulled; which I think has removed a little spongyness. They're still heavier than others but I think this may be down to return spring tension on the brakes themselves.


On to the gears and I'd hoped to try different cable routing at the bars to give some larger rads on the cables, however ended up going with pretty much the same format in this area as they were arranged in originally as options were limited. I considered butchering the bars to allow internal routing, but quickly sacked that idea off considering its potential for grief.

I did elect to run the gear cables to the cable stops on the opposite sides of the frame - originally each cable went to the closest stop on the same side of the bike as the shifter it served; however this was crap as it caused a lot of interference between the cables and head tube, required tighter rads than necessary and served to push the cables out quite far away from the frame.

Running the cables to opposite sides meant crossing them under the down tube so they continued to go to the correct derailleur, however a bit of research confirmed that this is not only perfectly acceptable but a fairly common approach (certainly on older bikes).

The gear cable outers are now a bit shorter at the front and the same length at the back. I managed to re-use the front inner cable but the back one was goosed (which of course is what precipitated this whole job) so was replaced with a new item.


As it stands there's still a bit to be done - bars need re-wrapping, cables trimming, indexing checking / tweaking and the crusty O-ring buffers on the rear brake cable replaced at the top tube to prevent cable slap.

I've always hankered for a bike with brown bar tape and saddle, however having removed the tape I quite like the front end black, so might go this way if I have cause to re-wrap the bars (the current tape's a bit tatty but I'm hoping to get away with it).

I'll chuck up some more photos when it's actually done, but for now those below show before and after shots of the cable routing at the front - doesn't tell the whole story and certainly doesn't appear to be a lot to show for two day's work, but it's a necessary job done and I'm so far very happy with how it's turned out 












Hoping to get it back in a useable condition later today and maybe take it out for a quick setup / shakedown; then I might put my hand in my pocket for some actual pannier bags


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## wafter (29 Sep 2022)

Typically life got in the way of much progress this week; however the bars are now wrapped, brakes & gears setup and the only significantly excessive length of cable (RD) gently looped back on itself and taped neatly to its outer.

The bike had a short outing earlier; the first since I've done _all _of the work (fit guards & rack, replace cables..). I took a more extensive than usual compliment of tools but it wasn't necessary - the only required tweak being to add a bit more friction to the FD shifter to keep it where it should be when set to the top ring.

On the down side the once-bent button on the LH brake lever still sticks in, meaning that when inevitably playing with it mid-ride you end up with a lot more lever travel than ideal.. I think it's the retainer rubbing the button's OD but that'll require the lever fully stripping again to check and sort.

Other than that I was really impressed. The issue with the gears ghost-shifting appears to have gone; while gear selection is a pleasure with the indexed rear shifter feeling really crisp and precise, the front feeling slick and forgiving.

There's next to no drivertain noise in any gear and the chain will happily play with the full range of the 9 speed cassette when set to the middle ring on the front. It's really nice to get back to a triple and it feels perfect for this utilitarian application, with its silly-low 26/34 bottom end and 571% range.

The brakes too feel noticeably slicker and more positive, a little less spongy and maybe with a bit more bite.

The more I ride this bike the more I appreciate its spec - somewhat austere, retrograde and unfashionable; but at the same time characterful, involving and hopefully practical, robust, reliable and cheap to maintain.

There are a few more small jobs still to do but it seems the bike is almost there - just need the pannier bags and new saddle to arrive then I should be able to press it into service


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## wafter (6 Oct 2022)

The bags and saddle arrived earlier in the week and are now fitted 

I had a short ride earlier in the hope of getting some eggs (nope) and photos..







The front Avid in-line adjustor that went on with the new cables - would highly recommend these.







The rear adjustor, which was harder to position than the front but I think ended up in about the best place.







Conveniently, randomly placed branding on the cables; which so far are perfoming nicely..







Re-wrapped bars are best described as "acceptable", but are a bit wonky and could be better. The tape seems to have held up well considering what it's probably been subjected to. Still need to do something with most of the cable ends..







I took the leap, cracked out the hairdryer and removed the conformity sticker from the base of the down tube as its red and white aesthetic / slightly nanny state overtones grated with the rest of the bike. I figured the "built in China" job could stay as it's a lot less conspicuous..







The rear brake cable originally had three yellow plastic "donuts" on its exposed section to prevent it noisily hitting the top tube. These were crusty (and probably originally white), so they were sacked off in favour of some BS104 O-rings I happened to have kicking about.. which fit perfectly 







The slightly shorter external brake cable run at the rear; probably still a shade longer than ideal looking at the angle of noodle-entry, however any shorter and the noodle would probably have fouled the rack under braking.







The saddle is a slightly-impulse-purchased Brand X item that came from SJS Cycles along with the bags. I wasn't getting on with the Brookes and ideally wanted to replace it with something analagous to the saddle on my Genesis; which is made by Velo and apparently shares its shape with a number of other Velo-made items sold under different names. Along with a used Genesis, another option was a Charge Plug (new about £24) and this Brand-X item at £12.

My inner Yorkshireman won and here we are.. Give or take a millimetre (easily swallowed in production tolerances) it's the same length and width as the Genesis, and appears to be the same shape. Foam feels a shade harder, the covering more grippy and textured. I've seen images of these saddles with Velo moulded on the underside; which this one doesn't. Maybe no longer added at the factory, or maybe the brand are now sourcing the same design elsewhere. Regardless, it felt good for today's short ride so fingers' crossed it remains that way.







Truth be told I was a bit intimidated / daunted by the bags at first as they're a lot of extra gear to have hanging off the bike. They went onto the rack well, I think I have enough heel clearance, quality seems very good and I think they look great. It was a toss-up between the grey and orange; the latter I think would have looked good on this bike but less-so on others so I took the safe option in case I want to use these on another bike in future.

The bags are user-friendly and easy to operate (at least so far on today's dry run, which didn't see them removed from the bike). As illustrated by the pic below, they're fapping cavernous!

I'd like to mention SJS Cycles who supplied the bags - they were a fair wedge cheaper than anyone else (about £112 delivered, versus a broader average of around £130+) and IME have always been a decent company to deal with.

Today the bags only carried my camera and lock, however I'm looking forward to loading them up a bit more. While handling the bike all this made it feel very arse-heavy, however it didn't really feel any different to ride.. which bodes well for when there's a lot more mass in the bags.







On the whole I'm very happy with the bike as it stands; although as always there's still more to be done. Despite my optimism last time the gears still ghost-shift, so they're remaining in friction mode for now until I can lash up a RD hanger tool. I also need to refit the rear light with a bit of bodgery and sort out a decent front light. I'm sort of tempted to mod the stand that came off so it fits properly and start using it again; as I imagine attempting to fit and remove bags is less fun with the bike leaning against stuff..

Anyway, time will tell... looking forward to using it in anger for the first time


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## Jameshow (6 Oct 2022)

Why would you put adjusters on the brakes? Gears yes..brakes???? I'd just use the Allen nut clamp.
.🤔🤔🤔


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## DCBassman (6 Oct 2022)

Jameshow said:


> Why would you put adjusters on the brakes? Gears yes..brakes???? I'd just use the Allen nut clamp.
> .🤔🤔🤔


The levers are seemingly not entirely compatible with V-brakes, and these have helped with the setup.


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## wafter (6 Oct 2022)

Jameshow said:


> Why would you put adjusters on the brakes? Gears yes..brakes???? I'd just use the Allen nut clamp.
> .🤔🤔🤔



Aye, as above - they're decent when setup but adjustment is critical and trying to shunt the cable through the clamp by half a mil at a time is tedious when attempting to fine-tune / account for pad wear. The adjustors make this a far less unpleasant proposition


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## wafter (7 Oct 2022)

After some midnight post-pub-poking it appears that there's a reasonable amount of play in my cassette; which I think might be causing / contributing to the ghost shifting issue.

The hub is a Shimano M610 which is apparently intended for 8/9/10 speed cassettes, and the cassette is a nine speed 11-34 (HG400 I think). According to the info I can find this should fit straight on without the need for a spacer; so assuming this is actually the case I guess I'm looking at play in the freehub... so another job to add to today's growing list


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## T4tomo (7 Oct 2022)

Jameshow said:


> Why would you put adjusters on the brakes? Gears yes..brakes???? I'd just use the Allen nut clamp.
> .🤔🤔🤔



Because he's not a neanderthal. 

Its got v brakes which don't have in built fine tuning like a caliper does (because the fine tuner is usually on the flat bar lever) and he's running it off drops. With in line adjuster you can compensate for pad wear simply and easily and more quickly that re-clamping a cable and leaving a messy looking double clamped cable-end.


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## wafter (7 Oct 2022)

T4tomo said:


> Because he's not a neanderthal.
> 
> Its got v brakes which don't have in built fine tuning like a caliper does (because the fine tuner is usually on the flat bar lever) and he's running it off drops. With in line adjuster you can compensate for pad wear simply and easily and more quickly that re-clamping a cable and leaving a messy looking double clamped cable-end.



lol - thanks 😊

Good case in point today as it happens; while the levers do have a facility to give some more cable slack to allow the noodle to be removed from its bracket so the wheel can be got out, mine's sticking but I managed to get enough room to get the brakes apart by winding the adjustor off four turns..

I also agree about the clamping - I try to avoid messing about with the clamps more than I have to as ultimately knackers the cable; making it look nasty, increasing its chance of failure and reducing its potential for re-use if it has to be pulled back through the outers for any reason.


Further to my last post the cassette's now off and the fit on the hub confirmed as OK as the hub sits noticeably lower than the face of the cassette that engages the lockring; so the play is in the hub. Off to do some research as to how to strip it; and can hopefully get away with a re-lube and adjustment rather than a new hub..


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## Tom... (7 Oct 2022)

Love this bike


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## wafter (7 Oct 2022)

Tom... said:


> Love this bike



Thanks 

Me too; it's allowing me to explore new realms of utilitarianism, experience types of components I'd not yet tried and has given me something positive to focus on.

Niggles notwithstanding (which I'll hopefully get ironed out in time) I think it's a nice bike in its own right and offers a lot for the relatively small sum it cost me / would have cost new. 

The current spec Touring Disc looks really nice too - encompassing better components, a lovely looking externally lugged fork and a really nice understated Khaki colour:






However, it now costs (on the face of it) around double what mine would have in 2016 while of course a new one would rule it out as being too nice for the purposes I bought this one for..


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## wafter (7 Oct 2022)

A further mindblowingly interesting update..

Stripped the wheel earlier and ended up faced with this:






The short story is that the play is definitely in the freehub assy, and I'm not sure whether this is because it's worn or just cack quality. I'd like to investigate futher but I lack to appropriate tool to remove this bearing cup and get to the guts of the freehub assy inside.


I've found a bit of info on the net, however I'm not sure if adjusting the preload on the freehub bearings (which I assume is the problem) is achieved by adjusting the position of the cup (less likely IMO) or shimming it. If it's the latter I'm unsure about shim sizes or availability..

For now it's all gone back together for the sake of having the bike working / not adding to the existing clutter in the house. 

It seems I have a few choices:

- Buy a tool (maybe £10-15) to strip the hub then take it from there,
- Buy a replacement freehub (they seem to be around £20) although I'm not 100% certain of compatability
- Buy a replacement hub assy (I've seen one for about £26 +post) - could just swap the freehub to avoid having to re-lace the wheel

Of course the play could be "normal" and not associated with the shifting issue; however after over 4k miles the cassette / freehub on my Croix de Fer is absolutely rock solid with zero detectable play; leading me to suspect that summot's not right.

As always, words of wisdom most welcome!


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## T4tomo (7 Oct 2022)

The free hub assembly should just unscrew from the back with a10mm allen key, replace like for like i.e compatible with what the wheel hub is?


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## wafter (7 Oct 2022)

T4tomo said:


> The free hub assembly should just unscrew from the back with a10mm allen key, replace like for like i.e compatible with what the wheel hub is?



Thanks - I've already had the freehub off the hub itself with a 10mm Allen key; I'm tempted to replace the freehub just as the easiest means of sorting the problem and allowing me to fiddle with the one that came off at my leisure; however I'm not 100% sure what replacement fits.

So far the closest I've come is the WH-R501-R freewheel, which looks the same (with the exception of the included washer) but is only listed as fitting complete R501 rims with no mention of the M610 hubs I have. Both are 10 speed while the drive interface and retention method look the same, but there's nowt concrete to suggest that they're interchangeable..


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## T4tomo (7 Oct 2022)

at least you know what hub you have!! maybe trawl shimano technical document on their website for that hub and see what are the compatible with


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## freiston (7 Oct 2022)

On the assumption that it like any "usual" Shimano freehub . . .
The cup is a combined cup on the outside (for the wheel bearings) and "cone" the other side (for the freehub bearings) and the freehub bearings are preloaded via a washer to obtain the correct spacing. From what I gather, the method used to adjust this is to beg old freehubs/washers from your local LBS then try for fit (I understand that due to tolerances, some washers are better suited to some hubs) - if anyone knows better, please say so. There are 50 (2x 25 top & bottom) ⅛" bearings in it so take it apart over a dish or something. There are two pawls spaced at ⅓ and ⅔ around the body (when I first opened mine, I thought I was missing one of three). I took mine apart due to a failure to engage - it was bunged up with grease. I put mine back together intending to use SFG only but it proved too difficult holding the bearings in place so I used a little silicone grease to hold them in place and then tried filling the unit as much as possible with SFG. I'm pretty sure the grease gumming the pawls up had migrated from the drive side wheel bearings and so I only use SFG on those too now, and "top them up" twice a year.

I bought this tool from ebay and it worked fine


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## wafter (7 Oct 2022)

T4tomo said:


> at least you know what hub you have!! maybe trawl shimano technical document on their website for that hub and see what are the compatible with


Yeah, that part was easy! I suspect nailing down exactly what I need in replacement will be less-so, as I don't think there are any part numbers on it and Shimano's compatability information seems uncharacteristically opaque for such an otherwise accomplished company.

Looks like a lot of web-trawling ahead of me.. although tbh if a complete hub's only a bit more than just the freehub assy I might just go that way instead and rob the hub.



freiston said:


> On the assumption that it like any "usual" Shimano freehub . . .
> The cup is a combined cup on the outside (for the wheel bearings) and "cone" the other side (for the freehub bearings) and the freehub bearings are preloaded via a washer to obtain the correct spacing. From what I gather, the method used to adjust this is to beg old freehubs/washers from your local LBS then try for fit (I understand that due to tolerances, some washers are better suited to some hubs) - if anyone knows better, please say so. There are 50 (2x 25 top & bottom) ⅛" bearings in it so take it apart over a dish or something. There are two pawls spaced at ⅓ and ⅔ around the body (when I first opened mine, I thought I was missing one of three). I took mine apart due to a failure to engage - it was bunged up with grease. I put mine back together intending to use SFG only but it proved too difficult holding the bearings in place so I used a little silicone grease to hold them in place and then tried filling the unit as much as possible with SFG. I'm pretty sure the grease gumming the pawls up had migrated from the drive side wheel bearings and so I only use SFG on those too now, and "top them up" twice a year.
> 
> I bought this tool from ebay and it worked fine


Thanks for taking the time to write all that - that really helps!

It's interesting to read some criticism on the net about the ratchet failing to engage at higher miles; but I guess this is most likely due to old sticky grease as you've found rather than wear so if they can be stripped (and adjusted) I suspect they can probably be kept going for a lot longer 

I found this video by RJ the Bike Guy helpful also; mostly as it gives an approximate idea of the size of the preload adjustment shim.. it being clear now that this is indeed the way the preload is controlled. The main retaining bolt (with the 10mm hex drive) is apparently thread externally to M14, so I reckon the shim is probably M18 or M20 (assuming it's a standard DIN size, which is a big if); not sure what sort of precision on preload the 0.1mm increments of the thinnest items would give you mind. All that said looking back at that vid the shim looks maybe a bit too narrow to be a standard size..

I'm going to do a bit more research, but currently looking at a straight swap for a new freehub then looking to rebuild the original at my leisure and avoid the bike being sat around in bits while I sort the shims out.. although if I can tolerate that it will ultimately end up costing less if the original hub proves to be serviceable..


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## wafter (7 Oct 2022)

Further, thanks to this site and its convenient provision of a parts diagram and BOM I now have a part number for the complete freehub assy (Y-4FL98090) - there being several on ebay for £20. 

That said there's also a complete hub for a little over £32 and £12 seems like a reasonable proposition for a spare hub body and skewer assy.. Best get one of them ordered then I suppose!


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## wafter (9 Oct 2022)

More "exciting" news..

Last night the Cateye rear light was inspected further, and like every other light I've experienced from this company sadly turned out to be cack.

One battery in particular was very tight to get in and out, a look inside revealing that this was because the light housing had been deformed where and excessively long mounting screw had bottomed out in its hole; impinging on the battery compartment. I tried to persuade it back with some hot water, however immersing the exterior resulted in the interior filling up, so it's obviously not as waterproof as it should be either.

I could flat back the deformed area but this will give yet another potential area for water ingress unless I take extra action, while the light is pretty tatty so think it can probably go in the bin 


I've got a replacement freehub ordered, however am now second-guessing its sloppyness as the cause of the ghost-shifting issue as there's a similar / probably lesser amount of movement on my Team Carbon's cassette - which is somewhat odd as I think it has cartridge bearings (rather than cup and cone like the Shimano hub on the Fuji).

On the flip-side the ghost shifting issue persists while using friction shifting; which suggests that (my inability to shift correctly notwithstanding) maybe the problem does lie with something downstream of the shifter. I assume that the reason a bent RD hanger causes ghost shifting is effectively alters the amount by which the RD moves laterally with each indexed shift.. so presumably a hanger issue shouldn't really manifest when friction shifting..

I'm intrigued by the prospect of altering the shims in the fuji to tighten up the bearing race, however am mindful that since this is done with finite thickness shims (rather than an infinitely adjustable threaded preload adjustor, as is the case with the main axle bearings) that getting it exact could be a bit of a challenge. That's assuming I can get any shims of course; although presumably since existing shim thickness would need to be reduced to increase bearing preload I could potentially stone down the existing one to achieve this... although it's not really an ideal solution.


In other news the Fuji undertook its first "proper" shopping trip today - into the "local" Sainsburys via the scenic route giving a round trip of 18.5 miles. Again it was a bit daunting but really it went about as good as could be expected and I brought back around 6kg of shopping (on top of the 1.9kg of the bags) with little descernible difference in bike handling.. and all in all was a really positive experience on a cracking autumn afternoon 😊


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## Jameshow (9 Oct 2022)

wafter said:


> More "exciting" news..
> 
> Last night the Cateye rear light was inspected further, and like every other light I've experienced from this company sadly turned out to be cack.
> 
> ...



Far cry from the cateye lights of old! 
The oval ones bitd were ace and wish they still made them!


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## wafter (9 Oct 2022)

Jameshow said:


> Far cry from the cateye lights of old!
> The oval ones bitd were ace and wish they still made them!



Perhaps.. sadly I've not experienced any of those. All the front ones have been heavy and dim, while the prevailing feeling has been that they've all just been a bit cheap and nasty. This one in itself would have probably been OK had it not relied on a super-shallow hole for a self-tapping screw to retain it, and had seals that actually worked..

Since it's essentially total loss I'm vaguely tempted to really go at it to see if I can make something serviceable out of it..


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## wafter (23 Oct 2022)

Another unexciting update since I have far more important things to be getting on with.. 

I think we're reached the point on the graph where the lines of enthusiasm and acceptable functionality cross. There are still jobs to be done but the bike's serviceable as it is, so my drive to finish the niggly bits is fading.

The replacement freehub arrived recently and I think I might have made an error in seeking to replace the one currently fitted, since there's a (broadly speaking) similar amount of play in the new one - probably because you can only get it so tight using fixed-thickness shims. At least now I have a spare I guess, although it doesn't get me any closer to sorting the indexing issue.

While I'd prefer indexed shifting the back's OK using friction only; although there's maybe a bit of finnickyness at the higher (smaller sprocket) end of the cassette for some reason. Not sure if it's a chainline thing, the smaller sprockets are more prone to this or perhaps are more worn than the rest. I still want to make a tool to check hanger alignment but that keeps getting punted down the road in favour of more pressing matters..

Most cables remain too long while I dither over how to finish them.. apparently stainless doesn't like solder due to the chromium oxide layer that readily forms on its surface (and is also responsible for resisting further oxidation of the iron). This can be removed using acid-based fluxes so I might have another go at some point using phosphoric acid.. although I currently seem to lack a soldering iron 

The one cable I am happy with is that for the RD, which has been curved gracefully back on itself to meet its outer, and taped into place (scintillating pic forgotten last time):






On the subject of the cables, it might be my imagination but the brake levers seem to be getting a shade slicker / lighter to operate with use, which I think could be down to the cable inners bedding in. When pushing some paper towel through them to clean them after cutting they did feel like they had some circumferential ridges inside, which may have smoothed out a little with use.


I'm also toying with the idea of fitting a new pair of bottle cages as I'd like more than one and of course they have to match. Currently keeping an eye on ebay for lower-end stuff; am vaguely tempted by some Topeak Shuttles and missed out on a new pair of silver ones for a tenner posted as I wasn't sure about the colour (I think I'd prefer black). There are a pair of used black ones on there for £14, but if going that far I might as well plump for a bit more and get some from Halfords for a little more than £18 new. I did buy some of these before for the CdF and wasn't impressed as they were a bit pished, but figured I might give them another chance as I'm less fussy about this bike and cost is obviously an issue too.


I've also just remembered that I probably want to remove the straps from the toe cages on the pedals, since I never used these as intended (bloody death trap tbh!) and only really need the cages to limit the forward position of my feet. If I pull the straps down too tight it gives little clearance to lift my foot enough to disengage with the long pins on the pedal (leading to mild panic every time I stop) while removing them would also mean I could pull my feet out from the sides as necessary - potentially helpful if muscle memory thinks I'm clipped into SPDs..


Finally I managed to sell the Brooks saddle for more than I paid for the replacement Brand X item, as well as also shifting the front rack for a few quid - which has further offset the cost of the bike as a whole. The top tube projector has gone to the charity shop, the really tatty bottle cage will probably follow.

This just leaves the stand (undecided as it was poorly fitted and has wrecked the underside of the chainstays, but I can see the appeal of having one fitted when trying to load / unload the bags) and front low-rider racks to do something with. For now the racks can stay off as I have no use for them and they get in the way when removing the front wheel, although I don't want to rule out their possible use in future. If this happens I'll need to find some way of retaining the hoop to the front of the racks since (just like most other things on this bike that were incomplete, bodged or broken) the little brackets that should do this are missing.. although I think I might get away with some P-clips.


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## Vantage (23 Oct 2022)

It's a slim possability but, have you tried using the gears with a shimano branded shifter?
The reason I ask is because prior to fitting dura ace 9spd downtube shifters on mine I had some by a brand called SunRace. They were recommended by a chap on CyclingUK and swore they were great. They never once gave me a clean properly indexed shift/ They were s****. DuraAce = perfect shifts every time. I think any shimano 9spd shifter would have been fine too but they were on offer as they're out dated these days. 
It might be worth checking.


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## Gunk (24 Oct 2022)

Why don’t you just cut the inner cables down with a cable cutter and crimp on a ferrule?


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## wafter (28 Oct 2022)

Vantage said:


> It's a slim possability but, have you tried using the gears with a shimano branded shifter?
> The reason I ask is because prior to fitting dura ace 9spd downtube shifters on mine I had some by a brand called SunRace. They were recommended by a chap on CyclingUK and swore they were great. They never once gave me a clean properly indexed shift/ They were s****. DuraAce = perfect shifts every time. I think any shimano 9spd shifter would have been fine too but they were on offer as they're out dated these days.
> It might be worth checking.


I've not - I have seen they're available (I think DA jobs are about £90/pr) but obviously the outlay to find out would be significant for a budget / utility hack.. I do completely appreciate how this could be the result of wear in the shifter or a slight compatability issue between parts (although they're all original fitment and one would hope the "manufacturers" did their homework while speccing the components.

Truth be told I'm still in a bit of a malaise with the gears as the shifting seems a little finnicky on the smaller sprockets even with friction shifting. The next step really needs to be to check the RD hanger alignment just to rule it out, although given my current situation that's a bridge too far at the moment.



Gunk said:


> Why don’t you just cut the inner cables down with a cable cutter and crimp on a ferrule?


I'd prefer not to have to remove the crimped-on ends if I need to pull the cable back through the outer for any reason and think that tinning the ends is just a tidier solution.


So, a few more inconsequential ramblings. My last jaunt on the bike saw the toe straps removed, however unlike the previous pair of cages I owned, these are pretty floppy so without the constraint of the straps did little to locate the foot fore-aft on the pedal. As such I got as far as the outskirts of the village, turned round and refitted the straps 

Not sure what to do about this now - could throw a modest amount of money at some shorter / stiffer cages, but for now will persevere with the straps and see if I can tolerate them.

I've also just taken receipt of a set of Moon lights (Pulsar and Nova), which also had their first outing yesterday. I'm already well familiar with the Pulsar (rear) and very impressed, and for the small extra sum required to get the set I thought I might as well have a "get you seen" front light into the bargain as well. Depending on my level of procrastination I might do a short review of these in isolation at some point..








Finally I was reminded again yesterday of the need for a bell on this bike, so really ought to start looking at somewhat more taty options for the CdF so I can move over the cheapo item that came with it onto the Fuji.

Exciting stuff indeed


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## wafter (10 Nov 2022)

And so this thread continues on its white-knuckle, vertical-drop, heart-stopping, pressurised-adrenaline-through-a-firehose rampage..

Having been after a Genesis saddle for a while I'd setup an ebay search alert, and after a long dry spell one popped up during the week for a reasonable sum. Despite having bought the Brand X item I reflexedly bought it, and it arrived today.

Predictably it wasn't as described (some marks and a good dusting of mold) however the seller was very aminible and I chose to keep the saddle following a partial refund.

After a good soapy scrub in the shower it was given a rub down with some boiled linseed oil and chucked on the bike. BX and Genesis items for comparison; they appear geometrically identical while the BX saddle has a stickier, more textured finish and maybe slightly harder padding:

















I figured the Genesis was more appropriate on the Fuji being used and ever-so slightly tatty, the BX item can go in the bits box for when I inevitably need a saddle for something else


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## Jameshow (10 Nov 2022)

wafter said:


> And so this thread continues on its white-knuckle, vertical-drop, heart-stopping, pressurised-adrenaline-through-a-firehose rampage..
> 
> Having been after a Genesis saddle for a while I'd setup an ebay search alert, and after a long dry spell one popped up during the week for a reasonable sum. Despite having bought the Brand X item I reflexedly bought it, and it arrived today.
> 
> ...



Probably a charge spoon copy?


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## freiston (10 Nov 2022)

Maybe not a "copy" as such but the Charge Spoon is of a basic saddle type manufactured by "Velo" that is produced with many finishes under many brand/model names - and those two are definitely examples of them - as is my Passport Navigator saddle - see this thread with a picture of the underside of my Navigator.


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## wafter (24 Nov 2022)

Yesterday a small packet of prospective joy was delivered:






While the King cages I have on the CdF are very nice, these were nearly half the price at £11.75ea with free postage from Fawkes cycles, who I've had decent dealings with in the past. 

Initial impressions are good; they're a bit less substantial than the kings and of more of a matt finish. For not much more than ally alternatives I can't complain, however I was a bit disappointed to find a step at the joint in the tubing on both cages. It doesn't appear to catch the bottle when fitted, but it's not ideal..






Anyway, they should get fitted over the weekend in preparation for the next ride.. which with the weather as it is probably won't be until May


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## Gunk (24 Nov 2022)

I’ve got a couple of Blackburn Ti cages on my Van Nic


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## wafter (25 Nov 2022)

Got these on earler; facilitated by various fixings and consumables recovered immediately from their known, tidied locations.. which in itself was satisfying.

I'm not overly sold on the cages as they apparently constrict the base of the bottle as it's pushed fully home, meaning they require a bit of a pull to remove and feel nowhere near as positive as the King cages.. which apparently hold the bottles as intended; restrained between the up-swept front edge of the base and top of the cage that sits behind it.

Not nec. a fault of the Blackburn cages as I suspect there's little standardisation across bottles, so these may work well with others.

I'll see how I get on with them anyway.. I suspect in use they'll be no worse than what came off and at least I can now carry two bottles to sustain those long winter rides that'll probably never happen 👍


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## wafter (23 Dec 2022)

Got out on the fuji for the first time in a long time today; ghost shifting issue seems to be getting worse but I still really enjoyed getting out and this once more served to illustrate how much I've come to value this bike.

In more riveting news I've moved the seat forward by about 5mm from it's extreme-rearmost position as it felt maybe a bit far back. As it happens it now seems to be in the same place relative to the seatpost as the setup on the CdF (which uses the same saddle and post; albeit the latter having different branding).

Hoping to get out on the fuji again soon, weather permitting


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## wafter (2 Jan 2023)

A mundane update.. despite a wet ride a while ago the relatively-freshly-waxed chain showed zero sign of complaint on yesterday's short ride, which is promising.

In the gritty wet weather there's an audible rubbing at the rear brakes in time with high-loaded pedal strokes (such as when out of the saddle when climbing in a low gear). Evidently the frame's a bit noodly and twisting under load; betrayed by the close-clearance between the micro-vee brakes and the rim. Not ideal but no deal-breaker and not necessarily any worse than any other bikes; just highlighted by the brakes in this case.

Finally I've noticed that the rear cassette really doesn't like the lowest gear, while there's a lot of shifter travel at the opposite end. I initially thought this might be due to cable stretch, however this would surely work in the opposite direction on the cassette. I wonder if it's a result of the bike falling over and maybe hammering the derailleur; just another reason to check the hanger alignment I guess.


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