Secondhand Raleigh Junior Rigid MTB: lemon or worth a punt?

[Jenkins]

Simlar cutters available from Chain Reaction and Planet X for around £15 plus P&P or from Decathlon at £13 and showing as in stock in Cambridge if you're in town
https://www.decathlon.co.uk/cable-cutting-pliers-id_8352340.html

 

[Reynard]

Thanks gentlemen

I will probably swing for those CRC ones. Will be putting in an order there over the weekend for a few bits anyways and can tag them onto it. Saves the faffage.

 

[raleighnut]

TBH most 'cutters' are up to the job, the trick is NOT to use them for owt else.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Thanks gentlemen

I will probably swing for those CRC ones. Will be putting in an order there over the weekend for a few bits anyways and can tag them onto it. Saves the faffage.

If they stop cutting cleanly, tighten that nut that holds the arms of the cutters together, as it does tend to work loose.

 

[Reynard]

TBH most 'cutters' are up to the job, the trick is NOT to use them for owt else.

A bit like me keeping a well-seasoned cast iron frying pan solely to do pancakes. Point well noted.

 

[Reynard]

Front and rear brakes are now cabled and tweaked to my satisfaction. Although I suspect a little more tweakage may probably be necessary once I actually ride the bike.

In the end, I had to turn the nut & bolt round on both hangers due to clearance issues. I also worked out the cause of the "grumble" on the front brake cable. That was down to the new outer being about 10mm too long, and therefore it wasn't seating properly in the stem-mounted guide when the brake levers weren't under load. Pull the brake levers back towards the bars and the thing would seat itself correctly. Easily solved, though.

The cantilever brakes actually feel pretty decent, a world apart from the weird sponginess and the "brake lag" I experienced on that test ride. The biggest difference is down to now having proper levers rather than those plastic covered wire jobbies, followed by new brake blocks. I fitted Clarks ones, so not too shabby.

And am I odd to have snipped off the old cable ends on the brake straddle cables and replace them with new ones so that all the ones on the bike will match?

 

[DCBassman]

And am I odd to have snipped off the old cable ends on the brake straddle cables and replace them with new ones so that all the ones on the bike will match?

No!

 

[Reynard]

No!

*phew*

Cos the ones I bought from my LBS are sooooooooo shiny!

 

[DCBassman]

Òooòh...shiny!

 

[Reynard]

Things are back in stock chez CRC. So today's purchases equates to Ergon GP2 grips (standard, small) and a pair of proper cable cutters.

So the current budget (sans tools) stands at £176 plus the following:

4ft of gear outers plus assorted gubbins - £9
Ergon GP2 grips - £35

So the new running total is £220

I gave in with the Ergon grips, as I have them on the hybrid and really like them. The grips I salvaged off the bike, once parted from their shifters, were simply far too small to be comfortable, and the combo of ordinary lock on grips and bar ends ended up not being that much cheaper than the Ergons.

An Idea I've been toying with is doing up the Emmelle over the winter. As a bike, it is now totally surplus to requirement; right now it's a sorry-looking frame and a pile of cannibalized parts. There is nothing inherently wrong with the bike beyond the battered paint job and a crotchety FD. Some of the bits I've taken off the Raleigh will be a nice upgrade, and it will make a nice town hack for a rider couple of inches taller than me. The bike owes me nothing as I rode it for many years despite it being the wrong size, and if I can recoup some of the cost of revamping the Raleigh, then why not...

 

[Reynard]

The bits I ordered from CRC turned up on Saturday.

So yesterday I sorted the grips. Ergons are ridiculously easy to put on and sort. They've had an upgrade recently (compared to the somewhat older ones on the hybrid), as they now have markings on the underside to help you set the angle of the integrated bar ends. And I got the placement of the shifter pods almost spot on after moving the measurements across from the Chartres.

And armed with a decent set of cable cutters, today's task was finishing the cabling on the bike. Discovered that if one isn't careful, gear inners have a horrible tendency to fray when trying to thread them through small holes. Ergo it is much better to cut the outers with a length of wire inside them in order to keep the cut "clean". A spool of craft wire was just the ticket for this, as it is the same thickness as the gear inner, but not braided.

Did the front derailleur first. Turned out to be pretty straightforward. Even better, the original Suntour FD fitted to the bike works perfectly. The shifts are nice and clean, and take place with a very satisfying click. Of course, I've had to guesstimate the placing of the FD clamp on the seat tube as I've yet to order the crankset, but still...

Rear derailleur was a little bit more fiddly, but still easy enough to do. I can't get shifting across the full range yet without the cable losing tension. But it's no point worrying about it, as I can't really finish sorting that until I've got the crankset and chain on anyway.

And as a result of the further fettling that will definitely be required in this department, I have left the gear inners untrimmed. They are capped with some insulating tape to stop them fraying in the mean time. I don't want to cut them to the right length until I'm absolutely sure I've got the shifting sorted.

I've pretty well much decided to go for this crankset from Spa, as it seems to be excellent bang-for-buck and comes with 160mm cranks: https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m8b0s109p2000/SPA-CYCLES-XD-2-Touring-Triple-Chainset

Oh, and threading inner cables into the outers is like just trying to shove cooked spaghetti up a cat's bottom...

 

[All uphill]

The bits I ordered from CRC turned up on Saturday.

So yesterday I sorted the grips. Ergons are ridiculously easy to put on and sort. They've had an upgrade recently (compared to the somewhat older ones on the hybrid), as they now have markings on the underside to help you set the angle of the integrated bar ends. And I got the placement of the shifter pods almost spot on after moving the measurements across from the Chartres.

And armed with a decent set of cable cutters, today's task was finishing the cabling on the bike. Discovered that if one isn't careful, gear inners have a horrible tendency to fray when trying to thread them through small holes. Ergo it is much better to cut the outers with a length of wire inside them in order to keep the cut "clean". A spool of craft wire was just the ticket for this, as it is the same thickness as the gear inner, but not braided.

Did the front derailleur first. Turned out to be pretty straightforward. Even better, the original Suntour FD fitted to the bike works perfectly. The shifts are nice and clean, and take place with a very satisfying click. Of course, I've had to guesstimate the placing of the FD clamp on the seat tube as I've yet to order the crankset, but still...

Rear derailleur was a little bit more fiddly, but still easy enough to do. I can't get shifting across the full range yet without the cable losing tension. But it's no point worrying about it, as I can't really finish sorting that until I've got the crankset and chain on anyway.

And as a result of the further fettling that will definitely be required in this department, I have left the gear inners untrimmed. They are capped with some insulating tape to stop them fraying in the mean time. I don't want to cut them to the right length until I'm absolutely sure I've got the shifting sorted.

I've pretty well much decided to go for this crankset from Spa, as it seems to be excellent bang-for-buck and comes with 160mm cranks: https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m8b0s109p2000/SPA-CYCLES-XD-2-Touring-Triple-Chainset

Oh, and threading inner cables into the outers is like just trying to shove cooked spaghetti up a cat's bottom...

I have those cranks (but 170mm) on two bikes which have done around 3000 miles each. They look good and do the job.😁

 

[Reynard]

I have those cranks (but 170mm) on two bikes which have done around 3000 miles each. They look good and do the job.😁

Ah, that's good to know A couple of other bods on here recommended them as well.

There's not a great deal of choice when it comes to the combo of short cranks and a decent number of teeth...

 

[raleighnut]

They're on offer too now.

 

[Reynard]

They're on offer too now.

So I noticed...