A tale of woe ..... No Laverda content , just more expense ........

rocketonarail

rocketonarail

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Gloucestershire,England
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Third bloody time this year ......... this particular tyre went on the rim last February , after the previous one suffered a terminal deflation ... ( cause unknown ..... it just went flat ) .......

........ and now , 7000 miles later , the replacement manages to pick up this little bleeder ........

That`s two ... the third was seven weeks ago when the R1 picked up an identical cross head screw to this one ..... it`s almost as if someone is going around sprinkling the things all over the local roads ..........

Need to use Holts TyreWeld to remain mobile and to be able to manoeuvre the bike at standstill ........ which means it`s buggered as far as a plug / adhesive repair is concerned ........ A replacement for the above has just arrived from Demon Tweeks at £89 ........ which could be worse .......

......... but fitting , balancing , disposal of the old tyre , and fitting of a new valve ( always a good idea , they can start to split over time ) ...... will more or less double that cost ........ and now it`s Christmas , my local repair shop will be closed for most of the next couple of weeks , resulting in an even longer wait than usual .......

At least the bugger above is forming a fairly air tight seal at the moment , together with the application of the TyreWeld ....... losing only 3-4 psi every couple of days ........ it passes the dribble test as you can see above ..........

Carrying a spare TyreWeld and foot pump around with me now , until I can get it fixed ........ don`t drive a car , never will ...... so this is my day to day transport , although I do have a couple of other bikes .........

........but what a pain in the ass ........ third bloody time in ten months ................
 
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I feel your pain,we had the car in for an inspection service the other day all covered under a service plan apart from the £9.00 charge to dispose of the pollen filter (Government incentive)..........Oh and the screw that was sticking out of the rear tyre!!.......bugger.
 
Part of the problem could be the road works which have been going on for the last six months on the main route into Bristol .......... converting a wide single carriageway road into a much narrower single carriageway road to make way for a cycle lane which no one will ever use .........

I wonder how many of the bubbleheads at South Glos Council who approved this cycle lane will be getting on their pushbikes at six in the morning on a dark / wet / foggy / icy Monday morning , to peddle the ten miles into Bristol ?

Anyway ....... as a result of all these roadworks , a testament to eco - zealot stupidity ..... and the tailbacks of traffic waiting at temporary lights which comes with it ........... means I spend most my time travelling along the centre of the road , between the stationary lines of petrol / hybrid / EV`s ....... ( who cares , they`re all the same to me ) ......... which means I am more likely to suffer picking up crap and rubbish in my tyres , hence these punctures ..........

Bloody stupid Council .............
 
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rocketonarail said:
I wonder how many of the bubbleheads at South Glos Council who approved this cycle lane will be getting on their pushbikes at six in the morning on a dark / wet / foggy / icy Monday morning , to peddle the ten miles into Bristol ?

Bloody stupid Council .............
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If Melbourne (Australia) is any indication, offering safe means for cyclists to travel attracts users. I commuted 36km across Melbourne and back on my commuter MTB (non-EV) and was amazed at the sheer number and variety of people using E-bikes ... Will probably never be an E-bike rider as I prefer to sweat and cycling for me is a way of extending my lifespan - but I see men and women with as many as three kids on their E-cargo bikes doing probably all their city travel on these bikes. Many are city commuters, dressed in suits and work clobber. Melbourne winters are cold and it can be a wet city, but these are year-round e-bike users. People like me on unpowered bikes are now the minority on Melbourne city streets.

Just like freeways, build them and people will fill them up (to the point where more congestion means the need for more freeways!). If you don't offer cyclists safe passage they won't drive.
 
Schurminater said:
I feel your pain,we had the car in for an inspection service the other day all covered under a service plan apart from the £9.00 charge to dispose of the pollen filter (Government incentive)..........Oh and the screw that was sticking out of the rear tyre!!.......bugger.
Click to expand...
Wait! Pollen is a natural and essential product of nature; the government should be paying you to collect and recycle it! Probably should also reward you for picking up that dangerous, sharp object off the public thoroughfare and keeping it out of the hands/feet of the precious children.
 
rocketonarail said:
View attachment 101304

Third bloody time this year ......... this particular tyre went on the rim last February , after the previous one suffered a terminal deflation ... ( cause unknown ..... it just went flat ) .......

........ and now , 7000 miles later , the replacement manages to pick up this little bleeder ........

That`s two ... the third was seven weeks ago when the R1 picked up an identical cross head screw to this one ..... it`s almost as if someone is going around sprinkling the things all over the local roads ..........

Need to use Holts TyreWeld to remain mobile and to be able to manoeuvre the bike at standstill ........ which means it`s buggered as far as a plug / adhesive repair is concerned ........ A replacement for the above has just arrived from Demon Tweeks at £89 ........ which could be worse .......

......... but fitting , balancing , disposal of the old tyre , and fitting of a new valve ( always a good idea , they can start to split over time ) ...... will more or less double that cost ........ and now it`s Christmas , my local repair shop will be closed for most of the next couple of weeks , resulting in an even longer wait than usual .......

At least the bugger above is forming a fairly air tight seal at the moment , together with the application of the TyreWeld ....... losing only 3-4 psi every couple of days ........ it passes the dribble test as you can see above ..........

Carrying a spare TyreWeld and foot pump around with me now , until I can get it fixed ........ don`t drive a car , never will ...... so this is my day to day transport , although I do have a couple of other bikes .........

........but what a pain in the ass ........ third bloody time in ten months ................
Click to expand...
A swingarm spoiler like the Moto Gp bikes would deflect most of those screws and nails.
 
piranha-bro2 said:
If Melbourne (Australia) is any indication, offering safe means for cyclists to travel attracts users. I commuted 36km across Melbourne and back on my commuter MTB (non-EV) and was amazed at the sheer number and variety of people using E-bikes ... Will probably never be an E-bike rider as I prefer to sweat and cycling for me is a way of extending my lifespan - but I see men and women with as many as three kids on their E-cargo bikes doing probably all their city travel on these bikes. Many are city commuters, dressed in suits and work clobber. Melbourne winters are cold and it can be a wet city, but these are year-round e-bike users. People like me on unpowered bikes are now the minority on Melbourne city streets.

Just like freeways, build them and people will fill them up (to the point where more congestion means the need for more freeways!). If you don't offer cyclists safe passage they won't drive.
Click to expand...

The thing is ......... this isn`t a city street ....... It`s a main route into the city of Bristol , semi rural in character , not urban .

The affected route links Thornbury ( population 14,000 ) with Bristol ( population 400,000 ) over a distance of about 8 - 10 miles , depending how far you want to travel into Bristol ........

I ride it regularly , a return trip , practically every day along this stretch of road and honestly cannot recall when I last saw a cyclist ........ I was out today , and nope ...... still a cyclist free zone as far as I could see ..........

Whether the provision of this new cycle lane will suddenly encourage the population of a small market town to suddenly jump on their pedal cycles and pedal furiously into Bristol and back on a regular basis is pretty unlikely ......... Even if a few did attempt it I would be surprised ........ I`ll keep an eye open for them anyway , you never know ........

An ebike may be an option , but most Thornbury residents who go electric are far more likely to choose a car , rather than a bike .......... it`s that sort of place .........

Likewise , how many of those 400,000 Bristolians are suddenly going to be smitten with the urge to pedal out to Thornbury all of a sudden ? ....... Nothing wrong with Thornbury , it`s a nice little town , but really ..... ? ..........

Population growth , as well as safer passage for these ghost cyclists are amongst the reasons for these road alterations ........ 90% of the projected housing development will take place within or on the fringe of north Bristol .......... which means it will become home to even more people with no wish to pedal out to Thornbury ........

Any journey these new settlers undertake will most likely be into Bristol , not out of it .........

Another provision included along this route is a bus lane .......... Fine .... except if there`s one thing you`re less likely to spot that a cyclist , then it`s a bus ........ really , I`m not joking .......

There may be a service between Bristol and Thornbury ... ( I know there used to be one that ran once a hour , if they could find a driver ) ....... but these semi rural bus services are often the subject of bickering between neighbouring authorities over who is responsible for funding / subsidising a forty seat bus which is carrying just one or two fare paying passengers ........... still , lets provide a bus lane anyway ....... the fact a bus has a special lane reserved for it is obviously going to encourage more people to use it , if it ever turns up ...........


Bloody stupid Council ........
 
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rocketonarail said:
The thing is ......... this isn`t a city street ....... It`s a main route into the city of Bristol , semi rural in character , not urban .

The affected route links Thornbury ( population 14,000 ) with Bristol ( population 400,000 ) over a distance of about 8 - 10 miles , depending how far you want to travel into Bristol ........

I ride it regularly , a return trip , practically every day along this stretch of road and honestly cannot recall when I last saw a cyclist ........ I was out today , and nope ...... still a cyclist free zone as far as I could see ..........

Whether the provision of this new cycle lane will suddenly encourage the population of a small market town to suddenly jump on their pedal cycles and pedal furiously into Bristol and back on a regular basis is pretty unlikely ......... Even if a few did attempt it I would be surprised ........ I`ll keep an eye open for them anyway , you never know ........

An ebike may be an option , but most Thornbury residents who go electric are far more likely to choose a car , rather than a bike .......... it`s that sort of place .........

Likewise , how many of those 400,000 Bristolians are suddenly going to be smitten with the urge to pedal out to Thornbury all of a sudden ? ....... Nothing wrong with Thornbury , it`s a nice little town , but really ..... ? ..........

Population growth , as well as safer passage for these ghost cyclists are amongst the reasons for these road alterations ........ 90% of the projected housing development will take place within or on the fringe of north Bristol .......... which means it will become home to even more people with no wish to pedal out to Thornbury ........

Any journey these new settlers undertake will most likely be into Bristol , not out of it .........

Another provision included along this route is a bus lane .......... Fine .... except if there`s one thing you`re less likely to spot that a cyclist , then it`s a bus ........ really , I`m not joking .......

There may be a service between Bristol and Thornbury ... ( I know there used to be one that ran once a hour , if they could find a driver ) ....... but these semi rural bus services are often the subject of bickering between neighbouring authorities over who is responsible for funding / subsidising a forty seat bus which is carrying just one or two fare paying passengers ........... still , lets provide a bus lane anyway ....... the fact a bus has a special lane reserved for it is obviously going to encourage more people to use it , if it ever turns up ...........


Bloody stupid Council ........
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Many moons ago I used to be a regular commuter between Bristol and Thornbury/Old Down. I very much doubt a cycle lane would have encouraged me to get off my bike and onto my bike - if you see what I mean.
Generally, I’m in favour of investment in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure but in the appropriate places. However, like you Tony, I am a bit sceptical about this one.
 
Andy J said:
Many moons ago I used to be a regular commuter between Bristol and Thornbury/Old Down. I very much doubt a cycle lane would have encouraged me to get off my bike and onto my bike - if you see what I mean.
Generally, I’m in favour of investment in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure but in the appropriate places. However, like you Tony, I am a bit sceptical about this one.
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And public investment in efficient public transport.
Paul
 
Quite often in is a matter of being given greenwashing funds that they have to use, so they build a bike lane, (but leave the light pole in the middle of it perhaps just to make a point).
 
Currently most of the money local
District councils spend ( getting from central Government ) must involve the integration of a cycle route in whatever they do - recently locally a very dangerous junction was only modified by the integration of a cycle route that no one uses because the set of offices that it runs to is being shut down apparently
 
Oh and don’t we know it, one weekend a while ago someone had the bright idea to provide a barrier for cyclists to manoeuvre around a corner in the busy town centre where we live,🤔it was not only an eyesore and cost a small fortune to erect but it also stopped any emergency vehicles from getting through the traffic 🤪 needless to say it’s not there now 😁
 
With reference to the thread topic: Here's my non-Laverda tale of woe. It's related to tyres, but other than replacing an old tyre with a new one, the problem wasn't the tyre itself.

A ham-fisted tyre fitter managed to bend one of the front disk rotors on my Benelli Tre-K. As is normal procedure when re-fitting a wheel, I pushed the disk pads apart to make it easier to slip the calipers back over the disk rotors. So It was no surprise that I had to pump the lever a few times to get them back in contact with the disks. But when I went for the first ride, I found I had no front brake. Well at least not without pumping the lever a couple of times. The run-out in the disk was such that it pushed the pistons back into the caliper on each wheel revolution. So every time I wanted to use the front brake, I had to have a couple of grabs at the brake lever to pump them back. Peering down at the front wheel while riding along, I could easily see the wobble in the disk .

So, what to do? I figured I'd have a go at straightening the disk.

I made up a fixture to hold the disk in the lathe, basically a dummy wheel hub (AKA an arbor) that's held in the 3-jaw chuck. Then I could bolt the disk onto the arbor and spin it to measure the runout with a dial gauge. I had 2.2mm of axial (sideways) runout. Pretty much all of which was in the alloy carrier as far as I could determine. Wit the disk was held firmly in the lathe, I could apply inwards or outwards pressure at various points around the disk and carrier using the lathe's tool-post and the compound slide. I did it cold since heating would probably affect the temper of the ally, not to mention messing up the gold paint.

The photo below shows the straightening apparatus. The clamp is there only to hook around the back of the disk, onto the aluminium carrier (where the bend was) so I could pull it with the tool post. The compound slide was used to do the jacking. It has a finer thread than the clamp so it's much easier and more controlled to apply pressure that way. Not that it needed much pressure. Those alloy disk carriers are pretty spindly and don't have much rigidity in the lateral direction. To push the other way, I just put a block of wood in between the tool post and the disk.

After a lot of pushing, pulling and measuring, I managed to get the runout down to 0.15mm. That was as good as I could get it.

As an engineer, I was a little dubious about undertaking this kind of bodge repair, but the alloy carrier only had to move about 1mm to get the 2mm needed at the outer edge of the rotor, and it was done in a careful and controlled way. I'd be very surprised if that small amount of deformation has done any harm. I haven't crack tested the alloy carrier, but no scary cracking noises like pings or clicks were heard during the straightening process. I did actually put some serious thought into risk assessment beforehand and came to the conclusion that it was worth attempting. What could possibly go wrong? If it was going to break, it would most likely happen during the straightening process. Once re-installed on the bike and working OK, I felt a bit more confident in the fix. I've been for two longish rides on it since then and have used the front brake pretty hard a couple times. Once from a very high speed (I won't incriminate myself by saying how fast) when when approaching tight corner. No problems at all.

If I could figure out a way to post a short video from my phone, I'd show you the gauge needle whizzing around the dial like a mad thing as the bent disk rotated.

Cheers,
Cam

Straightening the brake disk.JPG

PS: I figured out how to post moving images. You have to convert them to animated GIF files. Before and after runout measurements belo. One full rotation of the gauge is 1mm.

wobble.gifless wobble.gif
 
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