Yesterday was the first decent weather day when I hadn't been super busy so with a few hours to spare I decided to head out for a bit of leisurely riding on the Super Tourist. More of a test ride of sorts as I had been tinkering away here and there trying to sort some of the shifting issues I have had since I got it.
There are several issues I believe all coming together to make it inconsistent on shifting and when it goes wrong, a bit dangerous on two occasions. Minor and niggles to be expected really but on an otherwise sweet ride they are annoying.It would shift onto the large chainring but was rubbing the front Arabesque guides on the derailleur, I retrimmed this on a couple of occasions thinking it was sorted, though the Arabesque cages are very narrow, I did check against another I had and they were both the same. After the weekends ride I managed to put it down to a slightly warped chainring by 1.23mm and a joining link where the two pins stick a couple of mm past the backing plate, enough that now it's just a very annoying, rythmic tink, tink, tink. The other issue was the rear Suntour derailleur being a bit 'sticky', I would get trimmed up really nicely when at home and very slickly clicking through the gears to then get out on the road and it would not go onto the largest gear and would rub, that was easy enough to see as it was hitting the metal pie dish spoke protector before it could shift the chain onto the gear. The main issue though is while it was trimmed and working fine at home it would then hit the spokes on the rear, would try and over throw the chain only to land between the spoke protector and cog and would generally miss the odd shift, this too got a bit better with a good strip and degrease and then lube up the pivot points and the springs and then the third issue being the freewheel itself, have tried to clean out the old grease, regrease and make sure it is well lubed but it still just randomly will disengage, most noticably after a run with a bit of pressure, say on a long flat and then when you shift to go up a hill, it takes a second to realise that it's not engaged and you are just spinning, then hunt both directions to have it engage before you topple over still clipped in
These are legacies of a bike sitting unused for 30 odd years with grease hardening, things drying out etc so minor things in the scheme of it but definitely must get it sorted soon as I couldn't trust it on a long tour and to be honest the three things combined would drive me mad on a long tour. I will most likely swap out the rear derailleur, freewheel and replace the joiner on the chain and, if then needed, the large chainring, I am sure this will cure it.Otherwise yesterdays ride was a really nice ride out to the southwest of the county. Sticking to the quieter single track roads I could ride along getting more and more familiar with this Jack Taylor. In a similar style to my Super Clubman it has that very relaxed but responsive feeling. You can certainly feel the touring geometry being longer with more relaxed angles and more rake on the front. I think that this one, even more so than the Super Clubman would handle even better with a bag on the front. Maybe if I try a brevit down to Dingwall to Brians overnight as a test run I will just have my trunk bag and a couple of small front panniers and see how the handling goes.
I have adjusted all the contacts to fit and it feels very comfortable and everything just falls to hand. So once I get niggles out the way I am looking forward to some good quality miles in the spring and summer.
Jamie
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