I'm with Smokin Joe on this, plenty of punctures in the old days, friction gear levers, an art to getting a smooth non indexed change, brake cables sprouting from levers, you could still ride decent wheels but hubs and rims and all components of the bicycle have improved with time, giving a much better choice nowadays.
Bike repairs and the 1980s...
- Thread starter Cp40Carl
- Start date
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ayceejay
Guru
- Location
- Rural Quebec
I'll offer my view on old bikes in two words - ball bearings. anyone who has chased those buggers across the floor knows what I mean.
subaqua
What’s the point
- Location
- Leytonstone
Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
I just got a steel bowl and a big old speaker magnet , and used that arrangement. Plenty of blown speakers around back then.
Flying Dodo
It'll soon be summer
If you compare a 10 speed cassette with a 5 speed freewheel, the quality of engineering is vastly improved, as the old equipment was agricultural in design. But being so solid and over engineered meant it lasted, unlike modern, lighter stuff. Swings and roundabouts I guess.
Oldbloke
Guru
- Location
- Mayenne, France
Going back to the 60s I was paying weekly visits to a local garage where the mechanic there straightened out my buckled wheels, caused by reckless racing and jumping the old bitsa wrecks I had around the local woods.
I was reminded of that garage when I saw the mock one set up at Beaulieu motor museum, Old Holborn tins to store nuts and bolts etc.
Used to replace tyres regularly after scorching them through doing broadsides...and trying to adjust cone nuts after changing bearings using those crappy thin spanners.
And cotter pins....
I was reminded of that garage when I saw the mock one set up at Beaulieu motor museum, Old Holborn tins to store nuts and bolts etc.
Used to replace tyres regularly after scorching them through doing broadsides...and trying to adjust cone nuts after changing bearings using those crappy thin spanners.
And cotter pins....
Flying Dodo
It'll soon be summer
I don't miss cotter pins!
One issue with modern transmission is that it is now designed to be made from high-end materials in Dura-Ace and Ultegra forms, but as the technology trickles down the groupsets, the materials cheapen but the specifications don't.
It may be OK to stamp an 8-spd sprocket out of soft cheese but try that with 9 or 10 speed designs and you end up with egg all over your face.
It may be OK to stamp an 8-spd sprocket out of soft cheese but try that with 9 or 10 speed designs and you end up with egg all over your face.
S.Giles
Guest
I can't quite decide if that's a mixed-metaphor or a recipe for an omelette!
- Location
- the post-brexit wasteland
the number of the elders of my cycling club who ride the modern kit and regard the old stuff as old tat is the best evidence for the fact that modern bikes are better than old, although a steel frame is still a great ride…
Smokin Joe
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Because us elders know exactly what the old stuff was really like.
nickyboy
Norven Mankey
- Location
- You want hills? We got hills
When I was a lad I used to go all over the place on the old 5-speed. Never took any tools with me and had no idea how to fix a puncture
I still go all over the place on the 2x10 speed now...but I wouldn't go out without spare tubes, pump, multitool, tyre levers.
I wonder if I was full of the recklessness of youth or maybe I've become a cautious old fogey now
I still go all over the place on the 2x10 speed now...but I wouldn't go out without spare tubes, pump, multitool, tyre levers.
I wonder if I was full of the recklessness of youth or maybe I've become a cautious old fogey now
deptfordmarmoset
Full time tea drinker
- Location
- Armonmy Way
I think the old chains were tooled up for 5 speeds at most and a broken chain was almost unheard of. Reduce the tolerances - 7, 8, 9,10, 11 cog cassettes and you're always going to be weakening the chain unless you change to a better material or widen the space allotted to the cogs. These days I ride carrying a quick link and a chain splitter just in case,yet I've still never managed to break a chain.
Cotter pins were the devil's work. I remember taking to a hammer in frustration with one. Unmissable. As in no one will ever miss one.
mrbikerboy73
Über Member
- Location
- Worthing, UK
You beat me to it with cotter pins. Utter rubbish. Thankfully they are no more (I hope).
deptfordmarmoset
Full time tea drinker
- Location
- Armonmy Way
I mean, let's face it, I'm still happy to use a wedge to keep a door open but not to keep a bike on the road.
