Recent content by Carrera

I've experimented quite a bit. My original derailleur appeared to be clapped. It wasn't springing the chain back on release shift, only going up in tension. So, not wanting to buy an expensive new derailleur, I contrived to "lift" one from another bike (a road bike). First I had to dismantle and...

Not a serious bike I know but ideal for kids aged between 11 - 14 years. It's been sprayed up a bit and fully serviced. No actual suspension but rides O.K. It's a Phantom Integra with black frame, push button shifters and ready to ride.

Just thought I'd ask the following: First thing I noticed about the clapped out bike I'm fixing up was the derailleur mounting bolt was loose. Seems as if there had been a crash and it may have been the derailleur that smashed against the rear wheel and buckled the rim. I have a new wheel now...

It may well be the case the front wheel had been laced differently and I didn't notice when I took the rim off. It could well be the case I was doing a standard two over one under lacing pattern using a rim that may have been laced in a different way. What happened specifically was I had laced...

It was a bnit hit and miss. The spokes came from the original rear wheel hub but the rim was one lifted from a front wheel. I had to use a different rim because the former rim had been twisted by some unknown rider in the past. To be honest, I partly blame the book Mountain Bike Maintenance...

To cut a long long story short, my attempt to rebuild a very badly buckled rear MTB wheel failed. Initially the entire rim was knackered so I got hold of a front wheel rim as a replacement. My idea was to respoke the rear hub onto the new rim. I had real problems with the lacing of spokes as my...

I may be right or I may be wrong but this should be (according to those in the know) Daniel Larusso's bike in the original Karate Kid movie. A Mongoose apparently. Of course, I'm open to correction. If correct how much do these bikes sell for now. Presumably retro as Karate Kid was made in the...

Seems O.K. I'm planning on working with MTB and roadbikes to do up and sell on ebay and stuff like that. May even ride again. Sort of out of touch but heard Lance is pretty much retired now and Jan Ullrich too. Have been looking up eighties racers on ebay out of curiosity. Tyres? Let's just...

Thought I'd say "HI!" after some years of absence. I'm not racing any more but I have become interested in bike mechanics and bikes more as a career. I tend to just get bikes that need fixing and try and sort them out. So far, I've done chains, bottom brackets, cranks, derailleurs, freewheels...

Sorry, folks, been sold.

I like to cross train for very good (personal) reasons. Firstly, cycling is terrific but is very aerobic and cardiovascular related so tends to ignore bone loading and muscle strengthening. Also, too much weights at the expense of cardio leads to imbalance in the opposite way. I tend to cycle in...

"and if someone strikes at me well i'm gonna return the gester ten fold." That's the way I feel. Of course, bear in mind any confrontation is going to be unequal in numbers but sometimes it may be unavoidable. In such a case it then boils down to aggression and the natural instinct for self...

When you're on a bike (at least in my case) you're on your own so I take your point any confrontation is always going to be unequal in numbers. Really, this opens up a whole debate in itself because one point I'd like to make is I read a lot of incidents these days of solitary people coming...

Wouldn't it be nice to carry an anti tank rocket on the shoulder ready for such an event? I think that happened in the movie Falling Down with Michael Douglas.

I've been having major problems with this and have even had the bike vandalised. My bike was damaged by a group of drunken thugs when I left it for a few moments chained up outside a shop. I knew one of the thugs had damaged it but not which one and, to be honest, if I'd tackled them at the time...