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My new favourite bike is my Raleigh Dutch cargo bike thing, it's a brand new ex birkenhead council bike, it was an initiative to get people using all the new cycle lanes around Merseyside by loaning you a bike for three months free of charge to see if people would start cycling , hardly any body did and when I was issued mine I could buy it for £60 …poor guy nearly lost his arm😂 as I say it's a spanking new Raleigh in a heavy duty Dutch style, 7 speed, cargo rack front and back, hub brakes with dynamo , built in lock and cable and a custom low crossbar of box section with two inch tall registration numbers laser cut out of it, I can't find pictures of anything like it on Google, closest thing is an elephant bike . Friggin love it though and can't wait for spring to get out on the trains with it urban fishing around Cheshire. 👍roll on summer😎
As someone that moved to the Netherlands, what you said about the dutch attitude about bikes is very true! Majority of people leave their bike outside all the time, both because they're usually indestructible dutch bikes, and also they see them as a pair of shoes or their car, just something to get them to work or the train station. Though a lot of apartment buildings like I live in don't have easy access to a bike room, or if they do it's extra effort to get it in and out that most people don't want to do.
Hello Rowan, i hope you dont mind me offering some advice Re. the cotter pins. When ever i have used a puller or similar tool to rmove sharfts/bearings/Trackrod ends etc. i find it alot better after the initial loading up of the tool to give the part of the tool in contact with the threaded end of the cotter a sharpe rap with a hammer. The sudden shock whilst under load works so much better than just trying to put more and more pressure on the tool and risking bending the tool. Most pullers i have used have a solid end (the top of your threaded part) to take such a blow. Also if not useing a tool i find that placing the crank at 9 oclock/3 oclock and resting the blunt end of the cotter over a good piece of steel tube with the other end onto a solid surface(concrete floor) then hitting the threaded end sharply with a good hammer(Nut partly undone) this imparts all the force into the cotter and not through the bike frame/bike stand /carpet on the floor etc. Keep up the good work. Richard
Great video as always Rowan. I suspect that if we had the same level of cycling here in the UK as is the case in the Netherlands…most Brits would treat their bikes in a similar manner 😊
You were very insistent after I gave you the bike that the pedaling clunk was a loose cotter pin not bottom bracket, I knew I was right!
There was only one bolt holding the rack to the seatstay plate because only one of the two bolt holes lines up. I couldn't put the bolt in the other way around because then it would've made it impossible to fit the lock. I was in a bad domestic situation and couldn't find a way to justify to That Person that I needed to go out and buy different nuts and bolts. In fact I was nearly thrown on the street for buying a bike in the first place.
The lock was fitted with the two original self tappers. One of them broke loose as the hole is made of rust, and fell out as I was riding. The shop I was stopped in front of only had bright coloured cable ties, so that's what's going on there.
Kickstand is awful, but was the only thing I could get. Pump was fitted on downtube because I think putting it on the top tube is a misfeature.
When I had the bike the entire chain was bright orange with dusty rust. Opening the back of the chaincase and tilting the bike back caused an avalanche of rust particles to fall out. Again it would've been a three car police call if I'd brought a new chain and cog, so I threw some oil on it as I came home from work and hoped for the best.
The saddle was the owner before me. The LED bulbs I'll take credit for. I'm just glad it's being done properly with rust converter and going to wear a decent rack.
The Gazelle you gave me has a lot of slop in the rear brake linkage, the bolt is wiggling around in the hole near the head tube. Thinking to drill through and put an M6 in from the other side, but will need to jig something up to keep it straight. Front brake needs new shoes. Other than that, treating me very well. I like the chuffing noise it makes as the dynamo goes over the irregularity in the tyre sidewall.
10 Comments
Your regular reminder that Rowan needs our help if this channel is to continue. Please join and become a Velocipedian to thank him and allow him to continue sharing his knowledge and passion with us.
The current number of members as percentage of total subscribers is only 0.166%!
Coffee brown gone into the naughty corner!?!
Would i be correct in my thinking that most of these old bikes had been designed so that they all accepted the same length pumps?
My new favourite bike is my Raleigh Dutch cargo bike thing, it's a brand new ex birkenhead council bike, it was an initiative to get people using all the new cycle lanes around Merseyside by loaning you a bike for three months free of charge to see if people would start cycling , hardly any body did and when I was issued mine I could buy it for £60 …poor guy nearly lost his arm😂 as I say it's a spanking new Raleigh in a heavy duty Dutch style, 7 speed, cargo rack front and back, hub brakes with dynamo , built in lock and cable and a custom low crossbar of box section with two inch tall registration numbers laser cut out of it, I can't find pictures of anything like it on Google, closest thing is an elephant bike . Friggin love it though and can't wait for spring to get out on the trains with it urban fishing around Cheshire. 👍roll on summer😎
Batavus Cambridge came with these reflectors
As someone that moved to the Netherlands, what you said about the dutch attitude about bikes is very true! Majority of people leave their bike outside all the time, both because they're usually indestructible dutch bikes, and also they see them as a pair of shoes or their car, just something to get them to work or the train station. Though a lot of apartment buildings like I live in don't have easy access to a bike room, or if they do it's extra effort to get it in and out that most people don't want to do.
Hello Rowan, i hope you dont mind me offering some advice Re. the cotter pins. When ever i have used a puller or similar tool to rmove sharfts/bearings/Trackrod ends etc. i find it alot better after the initial loading up of the tool to give the part of the tool in contact with the threaded end of the cotter a sharpe rap with a hammer. The sudden shock whilst under load works so much better than just trying to put more and more pressure on the tool and risking bending the tool. Most pullers i have used have a solid end (the top of your threaded part) to take such a blow. Also if not useing a tool i find that placing the crank at 9 oclock/3 oclock and resting the blunt end of the cotter over a good piece of steel tube with the other end onto a solid surface(concrete floor) then hitting the threaded end sharply with a good hammer(Nut partly undone) this imparts all the force into the cotter and not through the bike frame/bike stand /carpet on the floor etc.
Keep up the good work. Richard
..like a pair of shoes……exactly
Great video as always Rowan. I suspect that if we had the same level of cycling here in the UK as is the case in the Netherlands…most Brits would treat their bikes in a similar manner 😊
You were very insistent after I gave you the bike that the pedaling clunk was a loose cotter pin not bottom bracket, I knew I was right!
There was only one bolt holding the rack to the seatstay plate because only one of the two bolt holes lines up. I couldn't put the bolt in the other way around because then it would've made it impossible to fit the lock. I was in a bad domestic situation and couldn't find a way to justify to That Person that I needed to go out and buy different nuts and bolts. In fact I was nearly thrown on the street for buying a bike in the first place.
The lock was fitted with the two original self tappers. One of them broke loose as the hole is made of rust, and fell out as I was riding. The shop I was stopped in front of only had bright coloured cable ties, so that's what's going on there.
Kickstand is awful, but was the only thing I could get. Pump was fitted on downtube because I think putting it on the top tube is a misfeature.
When I had the bike the entire chain was bright orange with dusty rust. Opening the back of the chaincase and tilting the bike back caused an avalanche of rust particles to fall out. Again it would've been a three car police call if I'd brought a new chain and cog, so I threw some oil on it as I came home from work and hoped for the best.
The saddle was the owner before me. The LED bulbs I'll take credit for. I'm just glad it's being done properly with rust converter and going to wear a decent rack.
The Gazelle you gave me has a lot of slop in the rear brake linkage, the bolt is wiggling around in the hole near the head tube. Thinking to drill through and put an M6 in from the other side, but will need to jig something up to keep it straight. Front brake needs new shoes. Other than that, treating me very well. I like the chuffing noise it makes as the dynamo goes over the irregularity in the tyre sidewall.