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This is a photo from two years ago, i stood there for a good minute wondering how the hell and why this weird cycle path was there. It is in southern France, on the climb to Col d'Ecre, bit north of Nice.

Take a guess, i finally fully understand.

Follow up as I got the tire off the rim after work. Definitely seems like it's starting to split. But only on one side. Is this indicative of being pinched by the rim? Ridden on asphalt trail 95% of the time.

I couldn't find almost any tutorials on how to disassemble or service this particular eBike motor (Bafang M400), so I just started removing screws and pulling out parts while taking a ton of pictures.

I found two dirty, rusty bearings that I cleaned and re-greased, along with all the gears, and then put it back together. Not only did I manage to avoid breaking it, but the noise seems to be gone as well. This was by far the most intimidating bike repair I've done so far. I've serviced every other part before, but I hadn't dared to touch the motor until now.

It also turns out that the motor is much better sealed than I expected, so I'll happily continue doing deep river crossings with the motor half submerged in the future, just as I have done until now.

Was going to go for a simple ride tonight. Noticed this strange wear on my tire right next to the rim. Is this bad/a big deal?

Update: thank you all for your quick replies! I will be not be riding it and change it out. My rim is definitely very slightly bent, I can feel it when I ride. Definitely need a new bike since I know I'm too heavy for this bike.

When we were kids, you may have had a honky-horn with a bulb on the end, perhaps you had bells with gears that strike multiple times as they unwind like one of those self-propelled matchbox cars. Maybe you unscrew your bell halfway so the cracks on the trail ring it as you weave through a crowd of other trail users. Or maybe you ride a folding bike through the airport with a little electric horn. Perhaps you're the best kind of DIY redneck and have fitted a literal tugboat horn to a bike trailor so you can scare the bejeezus out of a coalroller after they dump a load of black smoke on you.

Whatever it is, I want to know about it and why you chose it.

When i went onto my first solo cycle trip some years ago (from germany to marseille, france), my coworkers joked that i should ride mont ventoux. I had no idea what mont ventoux was, but read it up. On that trip i happened to cycle around this mythical mountain, looked awesome, but i never seriously considered going up ever.

On two more cycle trips i cycled around mont ventoux on different routes, and it always looked just so cool from afar. This trip i wanted to hit mont ventoux, but i got sick basically on the western foot of it. I rode in recovery mode east past it, through the valley, looked awesome again. I then continued towards the high alps but eventually decided to turn around because of the weather forecast, back south into the prealps of provence.

And today i actually got to ride it. I rode it from Sault, because that's where i was coming from, which i guess is not what the OG's do or consider "riding mont ventoux", but cycle tourers are aloud to do that, haha.

Lots of roadies going up there. And it lived up to its name, it was real windy. In the morning at the bottom of the climb one roadie told me that it might be too dangerous to ride to the summit today but thankfully the wind chilled out a bit as i was going up, and also the cloud that had covered the top went away.

Picture is bit below the top on the descend to Malaucene. That glider plane was going nuts, that stuff looks absolutely crazy.

The one where it says "terre de cyclistes". Pretty cool slogan, metropole nice cote d'azur.

I don't even know what to say to this. Some of these are great and then there's ones that haven't made it to even prototyping.

Alternative Youtube Link

Written Article about the bike, for those who are bandwidth limited.

I lost four spokes on my morning commute when the chain decided to jump off the big cog. Of course I don't have a spoke protector. (Who needs a dork disc? Bad things won't happen if you keep your bike maintained. /s) I was lucky to skid to a stop rather than crash when the rear wheel locked up.

PSA: keep a few zip ties in your repair kit.

Long story short: completely stripper the hex slot on the back of the freehub body while trying to remove it. It’s incredibly tight. Can I just take a pipe wrench to it from the front or do the teeth seen here on the new part lock with the wheel hub making it impossible to turn?

Edit: The way I had it in the photos is correct. Thanks for helping me out, those who chimed in!

Original question:

I replaced the straight handlebars with risers on my mountain bike, and because of the slightly longer distances involved, I have to replace the brake and gear cables with slightly longer ones.

Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the cable clamp for the front derailleur before I undid it. Now I'm clueless as to how to route the replacement cable - basically the same problem as this poster on RetroBike, except their derailleur is different from mine.

I have super old parts, so I've had a hard time finding documentation online. The best documentation I've found is the following:

• Parts List (1-page PDF)
• Service Instructions (1-page PDF)

In the service instructions, third column, "SIS adjustment" section, three-quarters of the way down, it says:

• Cut off any unnecessary cable, attach an end cup, and hook it onto the pin.
• Note: Pass the cable through as shown in the illustration.

What is absolutely throwing me for a loop is the illustration seems to show the cable running from the bottom upward, but... how? Can anyone help me figure out what I'm missing? I feel like a dumb dumb.

Blew my freehub muscling up a steep incline. This is why I ride with half of my workshop in my backpack. Had zip ties packed up specifically incase of this happening.

I once snapped a chain and had to walk my bike back home. I never wanted to do that again so I've been pretty much prepaired for anything ever since. Usually it's just flat tire I've had to deal with. Had to fix the chain another time too but had a chain tool and a masterlink that time. So far the greatest breakdown has been when I snapped my derailleur hanger and had to shorten the chain and convert it into single speed to ride home. The freehub had been experiencing skipping for some time now so I can't say I was too surprised when this happened.

A man who narrowly survived an ebike battery fire that killed his partner and two children says he is tormented by grief and guilt but determined to fight to change the law to avoid similar tragedies.

Scott Peden, 31, was placed in an induced coma for a month after suffering 15% internal burns when he tried to wrestle his burning ebike out of his Cambridge flat last June. He also smashed his heel in three places jumping from his bedroom after the battery exploded.

When he was pushed back by the flames and toxic fumes he called to his partner, Gemma, 31, and children, Lilly, eight, and Oliver, four, to jump from the same bedroom. “She said: ‘I can’t get out.’ That’s the last words I heard. I don’t know what happened,” Peden said.

He added: “Gemma knew I tried to help, but did the kids? Was their last thought ‘where’s Dad?’ I feel so much guilt and fear about what they went through in those last couple of minutes, it hits me every day.”

Peden learned of their fate only when he emerged from the coma in a burns unit in Broomfield hospital in Chelmsford. He says: “They told me Oliver was found in his bedroom. Gemma was found in our bedroom doorway and Lilly was under our beds with the two dogs.” The fire destroyed the family’s council flat and everything in it.

Cambridgeshire police told Peden that his family and the dogs all died from lithium gas poisoning. An inquest into their deaths will take place after police have concluded an investigation. It has so far focused on the previous owners of a secondhand battery that Peden bought online days before it exploded in his hallway.

Gemma, Oliver and Lilly were among 11 people killed in fires caused by ebike batteries in the UK last year, believed to be the highest number in a single year. Coroners, fire officers and campaigners have expressed growing alarm about rising sales of unregulated and potentially lethal batteries.

The number of fires from ebikes and escooters in London more than doubled in two years, from 78 in 2021 to 179 last year, according to figures from the London fire brigade. In the first five months of this year there have already been 66 such fires in the capital.

Peden is backing a campaign by the charity Electrical Safety First (ESF) for a law change to ensure there is independent third-party certification in the sale of such batteries, as there is with other dangerous products such as fireworks.

Speaking from the Cambridge flat where he has been rehoused, Peden said he was an “unlikely poster boy” for the campaign as he was dealing with his own trauma. He said: “I used to dream the whole experience over and over again. The PTSD means that sudden bangs put me in a panic attack.”

But, he added: “Campaigning has given me a sense of purpose. My life has been ruined but I can help save someone else’s.”

At the time of the fire, Peden was working for M&S unloading early-morning delivery trucks. He shared the ebike with a colleague who worked the evening shift. When the battery was stolen he could not afford the £600 it cost for a new one.

After having struggled financially, the family was looking forward to Oliver starting school as Gemma could get a part-time job. He said: “Our lives were just beginning. We were looking forward to finally taking the kids on holiday. And it all got snuffed out in a night.”

Peden has not spoken to Gemma’s family since the funeral and says they are unlikely ever to forgive him. Asked what he would say to them, he said: “I’m sorry, that’s all I can say. Should I have just used a push bike? It’s all my decisions that I have to live with.”

It was not Peden’s fault that the battery was unsafe or that it was so easy to buy online. Picking up his phone, he showed that within seconds he was being targeted with adverts on social media for similar secondhand batteries with no safety warnings or certification.

The Department of Business and Trade said a Whitehall taskforce had been set up to tackle the problem and research had been commissioned to understand the cause of fires in lithium batteries.

Peden is frustrated by the delays. “The longer they take to regulate, the more the bodies will pile up,” he said. He urged the next government to introduce ebike safety laws as soon as it came into office. “If my story doesn’t show the desperate need for a change in the regulation, then I don’t know what will.”

In a campaign video for Electrical Safety First, he said: “We are trusting the government that they are safe, but they are not. They need to be regulated, they need to be checked. Change the rules to save someone’s life.”

Lesley Rudd, ESF’s chief executive, said: “Across the country people are dying because of these fires, and people like Scott are left living with the grief and devastation. The status quo is killing people and ruining lives.”

So after a hard winter of riding, the preload adjuster snapped off on my old Dart 3 fork.

The plug itself is still usable to hold the spring in place, but there is now a clear opening for water, dirt, and whatnot to get into the spring side of my shocks.

They do well enough for the riding I do, so I'd just as soon not get new forks. If I could find a replacement adjuster I'd be a happy camper, but alas - Rockshox/SRAM doesn't have decade-old parts available that I can see.

Any other leads you good folks could offer?

So after a hard winter of riding, the preload adjuster snapped off on my old Dart 3 fork.

The plug itself is still usable to hold the spring in place, but there is now a clear opening for water, dirt, and whatnot to get into the spring side of my shocks.

They do well enough for the riding I do, so I'd just as soon not get new forks. If I could find a replacement adjuster I'd be a happy camper, but alas - Rockshox/SRAM doesn't have decade-old parts available that I can see.

Any other leads you good folks could offer?

I recently scored a free 1974 Deelite Apollo 10 speed. As far as I can tell, it has all original parts, but most of the stickers have faded out and there are a few places where the paint has failed completely on the tubes.

As a project bike, would you consider stripping and painting the frame, or simply replace what needs done (tires, bar tape) and ride it as is?