Longdendale Trail

At the weekend we took 3 bikes, 3 doggies, 2 little'uns and a little'uns trailer to the Longdendale Trail, which is a 6.6 mile long former railway line between Hadfield station and the Woodhead tunnels forming part of National cycle route 62. Among a card full of photos I did a little bit of filming too, probably boring, but I guess someone out there might type 'Longdendale Trail' into youtube one day :-)

Jeans, trainers & jumper....perfect cycling 'gear' for a day out. I took the Hopper & my first (rather dodgy) attempts at wheelbuilding stood the test of high speed cobbles and gravely bits really wheel ;-)

The trail runs alongside the reservoirs of Longdendale valley and is pretty damn pleasent along the entire route, certainly if you compare it to the A628 Woodhead road on the opposite side of the reservoirs (well known for its frequent holes in the walls due to overly ambitious driving).

The whole trail is surfaced with compacted gravel, but there is one particular section which rises up a steepish hill that has got lots of very loose gravel, meaning its extremely difficult to get up even in a low gear.

All the gates on the route are much more cycle, buggy, wheelchair, cargo bike etc friendly than on other abandoned railway route. they all look like the one in the photo above with a large wide gate or a choice of u-bend path or just nip through the gap if you fit. The bridleway gate is elsewhere.

We saw lots more cyclists and walkers, even an electric disability buggy. Some people you see coming back in the other direction as we did, others have carried on up and over the Woodhead.

This is a long distance photo across the reservoir looking at the A628 Woodhead.

The route doesn't actually go anywhere unless you intend on carrying on up and over the pennines, but makes for a great day out whether you are braving Mottram moor (we didn't) to get there, getting the train to Hadfield or driving.

When you get to the end of the railway line you find the 3 Woodhead tunnels, all disused by railway traffic, but now owned  by the National Grid who run cables through the North tunnel, but are in the middle of laying new cables through the newer and larger Woodhead 3 tunnel. You can't get near enough to it at the moment, but before they started laying new cables you could stand right at the tunnel entrance. Standing here was a very odd experience as the temperature was massively reduced in the space of a few feet by the draft from 3 odd miles of deep underground tunnel air.

It's a steady incline from Hadfield up to the Woodhead tunnels and a decent 10mph or so wind was in our faces for most of the way (not so much fun with a trailer to pull), but that just means it was plain sailing on the way back down. It's an excellent day out, whether you are just out for a leisurely ride or after a bit of hard work and fancy riding the whole way there and beyond. 

I built this! - (Hopper Pt 8)

In my last post about the Hopper the bike was pretty much done and working, but I was having trouble with the back wheel. Not only did it destroy a pair of Sturmey lock washers it was also had a tendency to try and pull the back wheel over to one side and cause an unhappy marriage of tyre with chainstay. After a lot of trial and error me and my brother worked out a combination of:

• Spreading the rear triangle a little
• Dishing the wheel a bit more
• Fitting SRAM lock washers
• Using a ½ chain link
• Removing the sprocket spacer on the hub so that the chain line was straighter.

I think this last point is the real deal breaker.  The Hopper’s Bottom bracket axle is quite short, whilst the new SAB steelite hub is a bit wider than a standard AW hub. This meant when the bike was rebuilt the chainline was way off. Even with all the changes it still isn’t track-bike-ishly straight, but its close enough to stop the wheel from wanting to cant off to one side when under a lot of torque. Which in turn led to having to overly tighten the axle nuts and end up crushing the lock washers. The half link in the chain allowed the wheel to sit further back in the dropouts and spreading the rear triangle a bit gave yet more room for error.

A little apprehensively, I rode it the 8 miles into work for the first time this morning and it all went smoothly. The X-FD & SAB brakes are fantastic – silent & powerful but very easy to modulate. The 46t-18t gearing on 20” bmx wheels is just right for cruising along at 12+mph in 3^rd meaning the two lower gears are just right for setting off and going up the steep bits. I didn’t feel like I was spinning out on the down hills either – it’s a cruising bike not a racer. The rebuilt SAB hub ran smoothly and changed gear perfectly, so it’s new axle and a re-grease has done the job.

a round up of the components:
New: stem, saddle, X-FD hub, spokes, kickstand, cables, chain & tubes
Laying around the garage: handlebars, grips, pedals & sprocket
Secondhand off ebay: 90's SAB hub, BMX rims & tyres
Original: Frame + forks, chainring, cranks, mudgaurds, shifter & brake levers

Here’s a few shots of it finished (and more reliably working this time!). The Hammerite paint is looking good in a homemade kind of way. I've also bought a tin of gold enamel paint to do some pin-striping but cant make my mind up whether to do it or not yet.

The ride home was just as great, but the lumps and bumps of Manchester's roads will soon weedle out the weak areas. & I did subtitle this blog ' Making, Breaking and riding bikes in Manchester' so here's the bit that broke. The original mudgaurd hanger was probably the rustiest part on a very rusty bike, but also a fuss to replace. So I cleaned it up a little and painted it. However it got bent the other day and gave up on the way home. Luckily I had an emergency zip tie in my bag.

Hopper build (pt 7)

It's been a pretty long time since my last post about the Hopper so here's an update.

All the various parts of bottom bracket, headset and cranks got a good soaking in turps and a rub with some wire wool.

The forks, frame and mudgaurds got sanded down with a combination of a cupbrush on an angle grinder and a dremel for the fiddly bits. No sand papering because thats boring. Then all the bits were given a good wipe down with meths to clear off any dirt as best as I could without actually putting much effort in :-).

In the past I've repainted a bike frame by going through the entire rigmoral of sanding it down, cleaning it up, applying undercoats, colour coats and then layer upon layer of laquer and you know what?....it's a complete waste of time and frankly the most boring process imaginable, plus the results are just not worth the effort to me.  So this time I decided to Keep It Simple Stupid and bought a tin of good ol'Hammerite. 

Then the entire lot was hung on a wire from the garage ceiling and given a liberal coating of dark green Hammerite. One thick coat is all it needs (ish) directly onto the bare metal, giving a tough shiny finish when you come back the next day which means it takes approximately 1 million less man-hours than spray painting and looks better in the end as well.

After that it was just a case of putting all the bits together, doing a bit of fiddling to get the chain tension right and the gears changing nicely then go for a test ride. (this is near the court in Ashton, just past a big gyratory of mortal peril)

The chain gaurd went on later (when I'd found it). The test ride exposed the rear mudgaurd as being rattly as hell, so the metal hanger for it got a piece of inner tube glued to the underside of it - which worked a treat.

Here it is in all its finished glory :-) its alot of fun to ride and actually has a very relaxed comfortable geometry. The drum brakes are amazing in the 20" wheels and just confirm to me that every bike I own from now on should have internal hub brakes where possible.

Unfortunately its out of action again now until I get round to replacing the lock washers for the rear hub. The ones I had weren't up to the task and have crumbled to pieces under presumably the torque of the drum brake and me standing on the pedals to test it out. Oops....

Drumy Brakey Wheelie Buildy (Hopper pt 6)

Here's a few shots of the 406 drum braked wheels being built up. They are a simple 2x cross lacing using plain short length spokes from SJS cycles.

To start with you need rim, screwdriver, spoke key, hub, 36 spokes & nipples and a glass of Aldis finest hungarian red. The nosey ginger bugger is optional. The front Hub is a Sturmey Archer 70mm X-FD, which is a lovely free running piece of kit and the way the drum brake plate seals around the edges is much more effective looking than the design on the old Steelite I'm using for the rear wheel.

Wheel building is actually pretty easy once you've finally gotten started. Here's one side started off with the first 9 spokes. Starting with the key spoke next to the valve hole and remembering to use the rim holes which are offset closest to the side of the hub you are lacing from.

The next 9 for that side go in the opposite direction, remembering to cross underneath the spoke that's already there.

From now on the photos of a wheel build get a bit hard to read, but when you are doing it it all makes sense. This is the other side of the wheel with that side's first 9 spokes laced in.

 And the next 9 spokes laced in, crossing underneath the last 9.

That's it!, now you just need to go steadily around the whole wheel tightening up each nipple until each spoke is nice and tight and singing from the same hymn sheet as the other spokes around it. Its not the truest wheel ever (due to being a slightly abused second hand bmx rim), but being a drum brake means it doesn't matter much. The rim I used for the back wheel was much straighter than this one and came into true with alot less hassle (shot of that below)

These wheels have had a test in one of the Triumph Twentys I mentioned in the last part and after a couple of little niggles with the cable pinch bolts they turn out to have some solid stopping power. Being used to V-brakes its a strange feeling to stop just as quickly but in a more gradual and quiet manner,  and considering they are supposed to be poor performing when brand new due to the need to 'bed-in' then I can only expect the front hub to get even better.

Manly DIY on a ladies bike (pt 5)

Before thinking about painting, the Hopper frame and mudguards needed a bit of work doing to them. The rear mudguard had a big split in it and was massively out of shape whilst the front one just needed reshaping to the 406 wheels. The frame needed the kickstand plate welding back on as the original welds had rusted through and it had snapped off when I tried to remove the kickstand. This same plate also holds the mudguard on.

I’ve never welded a single thing in my life and it’s about time I had a go. So my brother came over with his  MIG welder and we set about getting things ready.

This is where the plate snapped off.

Cutting the rusted bolt off the broken plate.

 

Old welds ground down.

Ready for welding

Some spot welds to hold it in place.

Feel free to laugh all you want my horrific piece of welding but bear in mind this is the first time I’ve even held a welding torch. Doesn't help that I couldn't see a thing through the welding mask.

An ugly weld looks the same as a neat weld when you’ve ground it down.

The mudguard was a different beast. The metal is very thin, so I didn’t risk doing this bit myself.   Here is what the split looked like after grinding off the paint.

During welding.

Ground down. Not perfect so we plopped a bit more weld on it and ground it down some more.

Both mudguards also needed widening to accommodate the fatter tyres on the 406 wheels. This was just done gently with pliers down the edges and a bit of hammering.

Now that the mudguards were wider the rear needed chamfering so that it would fit between the chainstays to bolt on to the newly welded kickstand plate.

Still all a work in progress. But here’s the rear wheel.

And the front wheel.

Welding is a very satisfying, as is all that grinding and cutting. I might have to find more excuses to do it in the future.

I wrote this post a few weeks ago and in the meantime I've aquired a couple of Triumph Stowaways (rebranded Raleigh Twenty) and I can see this bike getting neglected in favour of those, but they will all be sorted eventually.

Hopper hubs (pt 4)

This is the hub that is going be laced into the rear wheel for the Hopper. It’s a Steelite SAB 3 speed Sturmey Archer with a 70mm drum brake from 1994. I got it for £8 posted. Why so cheap?, well it’s because the axle has snapped in two.  The rest of the components are fine (missing a few ball bearings though), so with a new axle fitted it should be a fully working 3 speed braked hub for roughly half the price that a fully working one would cost second hand off ebay and about a quarter of the price of a new SAB hub. Plus, in the process I get to have fun stripping it down and fixing it.

This is a greased hub rather than an oil lubricated hub. Apart from the changes related to lubrication (i.e. sealing/ball races) the most obvious difference between this hub and the AW that came fitted to the Hopper is the width of the 3 speed internal mechanism. With this hub the internals have been shrunk down a bit to accommodate the width of the drum brake without making the hub shell too wide.

The trickiest bit of opening up these hubs can be unscrewing the Ball Ring. This needs either a special Sturmey Archer 'C' Spanner or a hammer and punch to get it loosened up. Normally it should be fairly easy to undo with a couple of taps, but this one was very stuck. Probably a side effect of this being a powder coated hub. It took some serious welly from a hammer and chisel to get it free. I ziptied the brake to keep it locked in the hub so that I wouldn't damage the thin lip near the spoke flange when it was in the vice.

You can see from this photo that the hub shell is wider.

Whilst in this photo you can see the internals are more compact. These two aspects together provide the room for the drum brake.

These hubs are very easy to strip down and shouldn’t be intimidating to anyone who fancies having a go. I would do a write up of stripping a standard AW hub, but there is no point when I can just direct you to this youtube video which covers almost everything.

One thing to remember when playing with these hubs though is the pawl springs. They are tiny. If you aren’t careful you could tip up part of the internals, a pawl pin can drop out and the pawl spring will vanish from the face of the earth. So it’s a good idea to put an elastic band around the pawls whilst you are working, just in case.

Here’s the disassembled hub. You could strip it down more than this, right down to every single individual part but this is enough for me to get it fixed and re-greased.

The original axle is a HSA534. You can't buy these, so you could be forgiven for thinking this hub is not repairable. But the reason you can't buy them is they have been superceded by a better design. This better axle is the HSA571, which is available quite easily. On the old axle the Sun Pinion is a seperately machined piece which has been stamped permanently onto the axle - this creates an inherent weak point and is the reason this axle has somehow gotten snapped. The newer HSA571 axle is machined from a single piece, problem solved. In this photo I've removed the small circlip from the old axle, ready to put it on the new one - it holds the Planet Cage assembly in place.

I couldn't find out what grease you are supposed to use in these hubs, or anywhere obvious which sold the actual Sturmey Archer grease. So I got a tube of Shimano internal hub gear grease. If it works in more complicated 7/8 speed Nexus hubs then I figure it will work ok in a simple 3 speed. the hub was making all the right noises when it was greased and back together, so it should be fine.

Here is the hub all cleaned up and rebuilt with brand new outer parts such as wheel nuts, indicator chain, brake cable parts and brake arm clip. It's now all ready for lacing into a wheel and testing out. The front wheel will get a standard X-FD drum brake. Happy days :)

You can find the Technical spec in PDF form on Tony Hadland's excellent site, which is essential for finding out the parts numbers. As with all these things though, you can only learn so much by looking at the exploded diagram, best to take it to bits and find out for yourself.