Orange Clockwork

[3narf]

OK, I bought this bike new in 1992. It had Suntour XC Expert gears (very early 8-speed with lovely indexed thumbshifters I still have), rigid forks (not the Kona Project 2s you see here), orange anodised bars and a 130mm stem.

Other bikes have come & gone and now I have a dedicated trail bike I thought it might be nice to have this as a general purpose runabout. I hesitate to use the word hybrid...

It was once a cutting-edge XC racer but it never felt fast to me; it's always seemed too compliant and not very rewarding when accelerating. I've geared it up, though, and swapped the wide riser bar for a narrow straight one with bar ends (to replicate the riding position on my wonderful Falcon Team Equipe 'Aryton,' and combined with the road tyres off my daughter's Islabike, it finally feels like it wants to accelerate!

I'm going to do a 30 mile ride tomorrow and see how it feels in its new role.

 

[fossyant]

You can't ever get rid of that. If you do I will come and find you and.........

 

[3narf]

Ready for yet another first ride on my 25-yr-old bike! It's had more relaunches than a Samsung Galaxy!

 

[Drago]

You can't beat a decent 80s/90s steel MTB. Comfy, versatile, fun.

 

[3narf]

It was a good ride; I only did a short 20 mile one as I couldn't really spare the time to do a longer ride.

It was fine, more effort to climb and sustain high speeds but I was expecting that. What I wasn't expecting was when it threw the chain twice; both times at over 30mph while chasing the gear. Fair enough, with tight and loose spots on the chain, and high cadences on bumpy roads it can be explained, but the chain is slightly too tight, and why have none of my other bikes done it? Is it because I'm using a cog from a Shimano cassette, with the sculpted teeth designed to throw the chain off to aid shifting?

If I wasn't the least spiritual person I know, I'd say it's almost as if this bike doesn't want to be a singlespeed...

 

[Drago]

I see you've fitted a wooden side car.

 

[Milkfloat]

What I wasn't expecting was when it threw the chain twice; both times at over 30mph while chasing the gear. Fair enough, with tight and loose spots on the chain, and high cadences on bumpy roads it can be explained, but the chain is slightly too tight, and why have none of my other bikes done it? Is it because I'm using a cog from a Shimano cassette, with the sculpted teeth designed to throw the chain off to aid shifting?

Chainline look straight.

 

[Kajjal]

I have a 1996 orange c16r stored abroad in my father in laws shed. I recently stripped it down and fitted all new gears , shifters, brakes and bar. I use it to go up through the forestry into the mountains nearby. It is very different to modern bikes with 3 x 8 gears but very smooth to ride and soon get used to it again. The only real issue is my 29er xc hardtail is better at climbing as it grips the trail a lot better but apart from that is good fun to ride and reminds you a good bike is a good bike

 

[FishFright]

Id fit a chain tension of some kind , it needn't cost much and will help a lot with dropping the chain

 

[ChrisEyles]

You could get a narrow/wide chainring, that should help with chain retention. Somehow a chain tensioner seems like a slightly inelegant solution to me, but if all else fails that should work too.

Don't want to teach you to suck eggs but did you faff around tapping the chainring into dead centre while you were tightening up the charinring bolts (Sheldon Brown's site has a good description of how to do it IIRC, seems to be more important on five bolt cranks like yours than on a four bolt set-up like mine - though both are much better than cottered cranks like I've got on my Raleigh Sports SS!).

The bike looks ace by the way, I like the new incarnation!

 

[Threevok]

I run a Narrow wide ring with single speed sprockets (not ones with ramps for shifting)
I also use a KMC Koolchain BMX race chain, which has larger plates than a normal chain. Expensive but worth it.

I've never dropped a chain once, even when I am running a setup where I cannot use the chain tugs.

 

[biggs682]

You can't beat a decent 80s/90s steel MTB. Comfy, versatile, fun.

and cheap to pick up as well

 

[3narf]

I've fitted a proper single speed cog and it seems OK so far!

 

[MiK1138]

Ready for yet another first ride on my 25-yr-old bike! It's had more relaunches than a Samsung Galaxy!

View attachment 351831

Man I am getting doo lally as i get older spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out what the purpose of the piece of green tubing running from your saddlebag, thought you had fitted a catheter system

 

[biggs682]

Man I am getting doo lally as i get older spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out what the purpose of the piece of green tubing running from your saddlebag, thought you had fitted a catheter system

i think it could be made a bit neater by being shorter in length