Bar-end Mod...

Having invested in a new set of bars, I thought I would re-do my home-brew bar ends & share it with y'all. I find that a set of plastic bar ends will last about a session or 2 before they have snapped & splintered into a nice sharp edge to cut yourself on! This mod just replaces the existing plastic cap with a custom made alloy one...

I'm using the stock bar ends that come with a new set of Odyssey Gedda II grips here but I have used other brands successfully in the past.

My Dad fabricated the alloy end caps up for me, I've been running this set for about 12 years now & they are still going strong...

1. To start I took the existing bar ends apart, setting aside the screw & wedge pieces

2. Saw off the existing plastic end cap from the body



3. The shoulder on the alloy end cap is 9.5mm diameter, so I drilled the plastic body to fit. You can see all the parts & the drilled out plastic body below



4. All the work done, now just reassemble the parts, the shoulder on the alloy cap is a good tight fit into the plastic body.



5. Ready to go - these should last a good while & it's only a 15 minute job to do ;-)



Sorry for the rather poor quality foto's...

Ian Schwartz Bio

Ian is an amazing rider, check him out, thanks to whomever uploaded this on youtube...

More mods...

OK, recently it seems that quite a few people are having problems with their Flybikes brakes. From arms waggling about on the posts to brakes squealing like the proverbial 'pig stuck under a gate' these symptoms will all lead to eventual failure of the brake post on the frame.

read: snapping off!

Alex has come up with an easy solution to your fly brake dilemmas & this will indeed work for any 'U' type brakes:

1. get hold of some PTFE TAPE (PTFE tape is plumbers tape that is used to make pipe connections water tight)

2. Remove your Fly brake & clean up & re-grease your brake posts

3. Lay the first length of PTFE tape across the posts as shown below

4. Place your second length of PTFE tape over the posts so that you have a 'cross shape' of tape over the top as shown below

5. Apply another layer of grease on top of the PTFE tape

6. Re-mount your Fly brake arms

7. You now need to make a small hole in the tape at the top of the post (you only need to pop it, the tape is so flexible that the fixing bolt just pushes it down into the threads and it all does up fine.)

8. Replace all your brake hardware & then its clean-up time, cut away any excess tape using scissors or a knife** & remove any excess grease etc from around the brake assembly

9. Go test your new brake! you may need to experiment with varying amounts of PTFE tape depending on how good or bad your brake fit is.

Thanks to Alex Leech for taking the time to take all these foto's & for sharing this great mod with us ;-)

**remember kids, get a grown up to help you with this stage, you don't want to be testing your new & improved brake with blood pissing out of your hands/arms/face...

Midweek sessions...

After not getting to ride last Saturday or Sunday, I was determined to put in an appearance at 'the local chav recruitment centre' aka - Banbury ramp park. Seems like everyone & their dog had the same idea, best turn out of riders that I've seen in a while ;-) the only face missing was Tom, I think...? Now your probably thinking 'there's always this amount of riders here' or 'silly old tosser needs to ride a bit more' & you're probably right!!

The thing is, I honestly never thought that we would have such a strong & varied body of riders, thinking back to when it was really just Ray & myself riding the local park, just goes to show how the times they have changed. Anyway it was good to see you all & the riding was as good as ever...

catch you all again Saturday... I hope :-)

Combe - Trip - Anybody...?

I have lots of fond memories of riding with friends at Combe, We have been there at the very least, once a year since the early 90's, so it's something of a tradition to visit our old friend at the bottom of the cricket field... So would anyone be up for a bit of 'as laid back as it gets' concrete bowl action? If you've not had the pleasure, you should be under no illusions that this will be some kind of 'extreme' adventure park! Far from it, just line up at the top of the keyhole & carve yourself some lines, chill out & just soak up the tranquil atmos ;-)

The only pics I found were courtesy of www.middle-age-shred.com but they were enough to bring it all back :-)

Let me know if you are into going...

OWP...

Here's some foto's I took on a trip to Oxford back in March 2003. The fact that these were taken 3 years ago is mad, my how time flies!

First is Milkey Mikey lashing out a foot-plant to fakie, he landed on his arse a few times as I remember (got a foto of that too ;-) but he did lay down a fair few nice ones :-)

Although this next one is out of focus, I still like how it came out. Chris - table



To wrap up, here's a couple of 'arty' sun down shots of the Keano, ruling as usual





laterz