New Carlton Thread

Reynolds 501 or Reynolds 531 tubing?

Now that is a question isn't it!

According to the specifications 501 is the heavier tube stock, but this is weired, because my 23 inch [BB centre to top of seat tube] framed cycle weighs less than many 531 framed cycles. How can that be I think to myself. 

The essential difference between the two [older] Reynolds tube sets is that the 501 has greater resilience against denting and twisting, which I can vouch for considering the massive crash I had twelve months last December, which the cycle survived with frame undamaged. Also when I had the frame properly stove enameled at Argos Racing Cycles in Bristol they were delighted that a 501 tube set would survive for the future as people write them off as being heavy and not the topline of tube sets. Their comment was that there were and are lighter framed cycles made from more exotic steel, let alone novel materials, but if you wanted to make a trip across primitive terrain then the 501 has one signal advantage. It can be repaired with a blow touch and some silver solder even in in the backwoods of Siberia, by any blacksmith! The only mode of failure found with 501 tubes is lug joints breaking.

So though it is like running a junior Naim amp compared to the topline there can be some operational advantages!

So if you have a cycle in 501 tubing, please don't throw it out because it is not the most advanced Reynolds tubing of the day! It still has many sterling qualities ...

ATB from George 

Just done my first repair on another person's cycle. Not quite the same style as the Carlton, but it does have two wheels! And front suspension, which to me make the bike feel broken backed on the road. It does not induce confidence when cornering, for example.

Last week my one work coleague said that the front hub had calved down, and he used his fiancee's cycle to come in to work. I suggested that I could get it going again if he brought it in, and next day I re-assembled the hub using the existing parts. It was rough and did not turn well, but at least it was working after a fashion. The poor guy has had the damnedest luck with repairs on this bike, and has lost faith in cycle shops to do a job that holds together. 

So today I went to three different cycle shops to get a suitable spindle and spindle cones. Fortunately the hub cones looked okay - well not perfect but not pitted at least. I could not buy ball bearings of the right size anywhere in Worcester. What is wrong with cycle shops? But I sorted through the original eighteen, and found nine good ones for one side, and I have a broken Campag spindle, and still the eighteen balls from that, which just happened to be the right size. It must be an odd size though, not being easy to find in normal shops. So with nine original balls, nine on the other side from Campag, I remade the hub [with the new spindle and spindle cones], and it runs absolutely smoothly and no grittiness or rocking at all. I hope that this will last longer than expensive shop repairs. If the hub cones go it is a new wheel because the cones are not removable from it. 

Mind you it is sad to think that such terrible quality parts can be sold in a cycle that is younger than three years old. A cynical operation to fleece cyclists. I knew that people should buy quality, but in the old days quality used to extend to the bread and butter cycles such as the Raleighs, Elswicks, and Eagles [etc] that were a reasonable price. We should never have exported the factories for the majority of the British cycle industry, as the cheap end of the market is no cheaper now than it was relitively when the cycles were made in UK, and now they are rubbish. And who dreamed up the bright idea of disc brakes? Another totally un-necessary additional complication that is beyond many to set up well. I shimmed out the cone lock nuts to exactly centre the disc in the caliper. I do have quite few redundant odds and ends hanging round!

A great shame, IMHO. ATB from George

I've just heard from George that he has again been in collision with a car.  He has sustained a knee injury and the rear wheel of his Carlton is badly damaged.

He requested that I post this news here.

George 

Best wishes for a speedy recovery. 

Dear George.

Sorry to here about your accident .Wishing you a speedy recovery. Hope you are soon back home listening to your well loved Quads.

Best regards

Graham

Dear George,

Very sorry indeed to hear this news. A difficult time for you I can imagine.

Please get well soon.

Best from Peter & Gail

Frank,

I sent him an email earlier just in case he was away from his phone.

Please pass on my best wishes to him and ask his sister if he wants a visitor if he is in WRH as I am about tomorrow and then later next week.

Jono

Get well soon George.

Steve

Hi George -

Sorry to hear about your accident.  Hope your surgery went well, and you are on the mend.

All the best.

Hook

Wishing you a speedy recovery  young man!

B.R.

Tony

Oh George! What a run you seem to be having. Get well soon, buddy.

Ouch George!

it’s darn rotten luck you having another accident : (

Hope they’ve mended all your injuries and taking good proper care of you in hospital.

Get well soon!

Debs

Wishing you a quick and relatively pain free recovery.

Hi George

I had not seen this thread and was unaware you are still in hospital. I have been trying to ring you.

I look forward to speaking to you when you are out and wish you the best for a speedy recovery.

Julian

Sorry to hear about your accident George. Get well quick.

Best wishes

Geoff

Frank,

I am away on business now until Thursday evening.

Please let George/his sister-in-law know that I am available for visiting Friday and over the weekend.

Jono

Frank,

I will be online until 17:00 BST.

Jono

I'm sure we all wish George a speedy recovery.  George is overwhlemed by your kindness and concern and very much appreciates all the well-wishing for his recovery.  I have been asked to close this thread for the time being while George is unable to reply in person.  It will be re-opened once he has internet access again.

Haha! sayeth the warhorse as he smelleth the battle far off ...

And the sound of the Triumph came roaring up the valley.

Two favourite Old Testament verses ...

Seven weeks not just to the day, but the actual minute, from the crash, I was riding the Carlton home from the cycle repair man! Okay only on bottom cog at about five miles an hour, and not only getting on and off the bike are comically slow, but also avoiding falling over once I stop, but not bad really. The cycle survived rather well with only a couple of grazes, and a wrecked back wheel. The frame still straight!

I still have a lot of work to do to get my right leg muscles back to normal, but the bone is fixing nicely, and the knee has retained perfect alignment so that there should be not particular additional risk of arthritis. I have been back at work for the last two weeks - on light duties

I have two pins up under the knee joint in the tibia, so any airport metal detector will find me every time from now on!

Gradually I'll get back to full strength.

As it is either pedestrian streets or official cycle path all the way to work from my new flat, cycling to work should be much safer than than before. Otherwise that would have been an end to commuting on the cycle.

Best wishes to all, from George

Hi George good to hear you are on the road to recovery   Home we get some better weather soon to help you with your recoupartion. 

Please take care remember its hell out .

Regards Graham

Read yesterday that 58% of US teens say they regularly text while driving...

In addition, I know that my city has seen a large increase in the numbers of immigrants from Somalia, Kenya and Cambodia settling here over the last decade.  No knock at all on diversity -- my point is that the roads here now a have a lot of new, first-generation drivers.  They were not raised in car cultures, and so never had the chance to learn best driving practices from their parents when they were young.   I remember my Dad making me prove to him that I had learned correctly before I was granted any driving privileges.   Always best I think to be taught by someone who wants to make sure you survive long enough to take of them in their old age! 

Anyway, my overall subjective impression is that the roads in my city have become much more dangerous to drive over the years.   So I can only imagine how much harder it is now for bikers and motorcyclists! 

Glad to hear you are on the mend George, and that your new commute is a lot safer than your old one.

ATB.

Hook

Good to see you back here George. Photo posted as requested.

So what happened?

Dear Derry,

A fracture eight or nine inches long in my right tibia two days before moving house, so a week in hospital as the result of a car broadsiding me on the Carlton - thee car emerging too boldly from a side road and clipped my back wheel So over I went just a like a domino! The house move was a week later and was a barrel of laughs for sure. .

You may see the graze on the saddle where this hit the road after I parted company with the old tcycle!

I think the details are in the posts above  and the lower part of the previous page, but not everyone follows the "Carlton blog!"

Some might think it boring, and some may find it interesting!  or .

ATB from George