Folding Bikes - Took my Twenty camping

I took my folding Twenty on the family camping trip.
I usually take a mountain bike to this location but this time I brought along the Twenty.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b400/fj40/clearlake2025.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b400/fj40/clearlake2009.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b400/fj40/clearlake2034.jpg
The only problem I had was loosing nearly half of the headset bearings as I was attempting to service the bike at the campsite.

Nice shots. Thanks for sharing. I was never a fan of brown, but either your lighting or the shade makes it look very rich and ... English.

What kind of bikes did the rest of the family have?

That's a nice little boat you've got there in the background. THAT must be the reason you brought the R20 instead of a MTB; so it would fit on your little boat. ;)

Nice pictures.

I did say to watch out for stray balls. I've done it myself, and more than once.

When you got inside those bearings did you find they needed any attention. My guess is that the bike is virtually new from what you said about its prior useage.

That's not my boat! I would be riding a gold plated Twenty if that was my boat!
The bearings and cups looked like new except for the hard grease. Curiously, one cone had two small pits that looked like a manufacturing defect.
I never got the bottom bracket apart due to the stubborn cotter pins but since the front hub looked new inside I just left it alone and rode it. I will repack it later this summer. If I can get the cotter pins out. And you did warn me about the balls falling loose!
My two sons took their vintage road bikes.
1981 Raleigh Grand prix and a 1979 26 inch Venture Sabre.

The bearings and cups looked like new except for the hard grease. Curiously, one cone had two small pits that looked like a manufacturing defect.
I never got the bottom bracket apart due to the stubborn cotter pins but since the front hub looked new inside I just left it alone and rode it. I will repack it later this summer. If I can get the cotter pins out. And you did warn me about the balls falling loose!
I remember pulling apart an ancient cycle I had when I was a lad. It might have been about 1964. I unfastened the headset, pulled the forks down and suddenly about eight ballbearings fell into the dirt and grass. What a mess. I remember crawling about scraping my fingers through the dust and grass until I found them all. I'm always pleased to find balls fastened in a neat little bearing cage so that won't happen. Usually, I prefer to work on a sheet so that bits don't get lost or contaminated by dirt. Personally, I'd never strip down something like that on a field trip or by the roadside - too uncontroled an environment.

My two sons took their vintage road bikes.
1981 Raleigh Grand prix and a 1979 26 inch Venture Sabre.

On a camping trip!!?? I must be forming the wrong mental image of camping, hehehe.

I never got the bottom bracket apart due to the stubborn cotter pins but since the front hub looked new inside I just left it alone and rode it. I will repack it later this summer. If I can get the cotter pins out.
Cotter pins can be a *******. I had to drill mine out on one side. Read Sheldon Brown on removal. I found an excellent foolproof way to remove them using a machine clamp and a socket.

Ricohman,
Nice looking Twenty! I love riding mine! I thought about making a camping bike out of mine, but I haven't a good way to secure it at the camp site!!!

Jur,
"I found an excellent foolproof way to remove them using a machine clamp and a socket." Please share with us!

Al

Jur,
"I found an excellent foolproof way to remove them using a machine clamp and a socket." Please share with us!

Al
This is a toolmaker's clamp:
http://www.abmtools.com/images/Vices_and_Clamps/Tool_Maker's_Paralle_Clamp.jpg
It has the ability to apply enormous force - needed for getting a cotter pin out.

Loosen the nut of the cotter pin until it is flush with the end of the threads, to present a unified surface for applying pressure to. Place a socket over the head part of the cotter pin so force can be applied via the socket to the crank. Apply the clamp on one side to the unified surface of the nut/threads, and on the other side the socket. Close the clamp up as much as it will go, and then apply the force by tightening it using the outer clamp screw. The cotter will suddenly pop loose just when you think something is going to break.

If you have a cotter that is not going to budge, then the clamp will mushroom the thread end until the nut is flush on the crank again. Tough luck. Take the nut off. Get the drill.

Installing a cotter also uses the clamp, the nut is covered with the socket this time and force applied to the head end. Give it heaps. But watch it or you'll mushroom the head end.

[edit]You may be tempted to use a G-clamp instead. I broke one before I remembered I had a toolmaker's clamp.

Jur,
Thanks, Good idea! I will try that the next time I have one to remove!!!

Al

As a kid, all my bikes were second hand, old fashioned 1940s / 1950s roadsters. We used to hammer those cotter pins out. Usually they were b*ggered and bent when they came out but we just stuck in a new one. Come to think of it, the only reason we wanted them out was that the crank arm was wobbling on the bottom bracket shaft, so they probably weren't all that tight anyway. Those bikes were sad old abused things, but we were never off them riding around on far too large machines, usually ladies models because at 11 or 12 we were only half grown and couldn't manage a 23 inch bike with a crossbar. Our tools were a hammer, stolen cutlery used as tyre levers, and a few rusty, ill-fitting spanners

I took my Twenty camping for the first time this weekend actually. We took it along with my girlfriends' Trek f400 in our VW Vanagon; True to form Twenty got a puncture within about a mile on our first foray and I didn't have a spanner with me. She is a very temperamental beast that one.

[edit] I meant to say 'your twenny is a beaut!' I love those near mint ones...
:)

I took my Twenty camping for the first time this weekend actually. We took it along with my girlfriends' Trek f400 in our VW Vanagon; True to form Twenty got a puncture within about a mile on our first foray and I didn't have a spanner with me. She is a very temperamental beast that one.

[edit] I meant to say 'your twenny is a beaut!' I love those near mint ones...
:)


LittlePixel,
That what Helen's R20 looks like, except I'm using the black narrow fenders from the Wasp and both the front and rear racks with panniers. The R20 is so easy to ride, even loaded.....no heel hitting and great stability.
But as I am still a TOTAL computer dinosaur, I can't figure out how to post pics on BF, even too dumb to know how to use photo bucket :o :o