05-11-2022, 02:47 PM
Hello all. My name is Andrew, and I reside in sunny Bognor Regis, UK. I have been an avid BMX rider my entire life, but my body has taken a battering and I now have arthritis creeping in and if I am really lucky* I will also inherit my mother's osteoporosis.
*yeah was being sarcastic. No other form of comedy funnier etc lol.
Any way, when my body started to fall to bits and I had a bad BMX wreck last (2018) I decided to explore other aspects of cycling. I have always hated geared bikes but I would say rather that they hate me. I am not easy on bikes and have broken several derailleurs over the years. I also could not get my head around tuning gears, hence why said things broke. I don't have much patience.
Any way, this is the bike I currently ride.
It's a single speed fixed gear bike. I have removed said fixed gear sprocket and replaced with a freewheel, then used the sprocket mount to fit a disc brake.
However I am not opposed to rim brakes at all, it was just on these wheels the powder coat was wearing thin and I didn't want them to go manky. Since building the bike (I put a lot of miles on during the summer, but live on the beach so winter riding would be miserable) I have slowly upgraded the parts. The original wheels arrived damaged (I got the bike NOS from 2009 and it was stupid cheap) so I bought these alloy mags you see. They are pretty heavy, but at the time I did not trust myself on delicate thin wheels. Since then I have learned to be slightly less stupid, but have replaced the following.
Cranks. The bike had steel cranks on (a sin on a bike such as this). I have restored and fitted a set of FSA SLK carbon cranks (solid forged carbon) and fitted a Kooka ceramic ISIS BB.
Seat post. The alloy one has gone in favour of carbon.
Seat. Carbon rail/body Flight.
Bars. Gone are the ones that make you stare at the ground and replaced with Box One carbon BMX race bars. I love the sitting position as my back is bad and I don't like leaning over.
I've also fitted some Superstar sealed pedals and a couple of other bits.
OK. So this year more than any other I need to lighten the bike further. Due to said arthritis my right shoulder is very bad and I am having trouble raising my arm above my head. I also moved into a new apartment/flat and it has 104 steps and 5 flights of stairs. So getting a heavy bike back into the flat (I am not allowed to store it in the building and I am not putting it outside) is becoming harder. As such I have bought some SH carbon forks and will refurb them and paint the silver areas black.
They are Bontrager and take a wider tyre. Now onto the wheels. The part I knew was going to cost me a bloody fortune. Every year since I have had the bike (I built it in 2017) I have looked, and every year I come back to the same. I like the Encore mags, but they are £600ish each. I really don't want a mag on the front but the back is nice, given I am quite a heavy guy.
So I just bought this.
It is a vintage HED 3 mag. The branding has been changed to HOTTAS, who it seems are a UK based company who build road bikes. The wheel appears to be from the 90s. It was cheap, but it is missing the axle, and given my 0 experience with these sorts of wheels I know nothing about freehubs and so on.
Now in the close up pic the hub appears to be unsealed. Am I correct?
Which would mean I can fit a regular easy to obtain axle, bearings and skewer? However what I am failing to understand is why there appears to be two bearing races. An outer one and one underneath it. I would also like to rebuild/replace the freehub but need to know which type it is so I can study to get a better understanding of how to remove it and or replace/rebuild.
I did find a set of these wheels for sale but they are £1000 and appear to be sealed bearing.
I would like a spoked wheel on the front to really get the weight down, and I don't have £1000
Thank you for reading and thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer
Andrew.
*yeah was being sarcastic. No other form of comedy funnier etc lol.
Any way, when my body started to fall to bits and I had a bad BMX wreck last (2018) I decided to explore other aspects of cycling. I have always hated geared bikes but I would say rather that they hate me. I am not easy on bikes and have broken several derailleurs over the years. I also could not get my head around tuning gears, hence why said things broke. I don't have much patience.
Any way, this is the bike I currently ride.
It's a single speed fixed gear bike. I have removed said fixed gear sprocket and replaced with a freewheel, then used the sprocket mount to fit a disc brake.
However I am not opposed to rim brakes at all, it was just on these wheels the powder coat was wearing thin and I didn't want them to go manky. Since building the bike (I put a lot of miles on during the summer, but live on the beach so winter riding would be miserable) I have slowly upgraded the parts. The original wheels arrived damaged (I got the bike NOS from 2009 and it was stupid cheap) so I bought these alloy mags you see. They are pretty heavy, but at the time I did not trust myself on delicate thin wheels. Since then I have learned to be slightly less stupid, but have replaced the following.
Cranks. The bike had steel cranks on (a sin on a bike such as this). I have restored and fitted a set of FSA SLK carbon cranks (solid forged carbon) and fitted a Kooka ceramic ISIS BB.
Seat post. The alloy one has gone in favour of carbon.
Seat. Carbon rail/body Flight.
Bars. Gone are the ones that make you stare at the ground and replaced with Box One carbon BMX race bars. I love the sitting position as my back is bad and I don't like leaning over.
I've also fitted some Superstar sealed pedals and a couple of other bits.
OK. So this year more than any other I need to lighten the bike further. Due to said arthritis my right shoulder is very bad and I am having trouble raising my arm above my head. I also moved into a new apartment/flat and it has 104 steps and 5 flights of stairs. So getting a heavy bike back into the flat (I am not allowed to store it in the building and I am not putting it outside) is becoming harder. As such I have bought some SH carbon forks and will refurb them and paint the silver areas black.
They are Bontrager and take a wider tyre. Now onto the wheels. The part I knew was going to cost me a bloody fortune. Every year since I have had the bike (I built it in 2017) I have looked, and every year I come back to the same. I like the Encore mags, but they are £600ish each. I really don't want a mag on the front but the back is nice, given I am quite a heavy guy.
So I just bought this.
It is a vintage HED 3 mag. The branding has been changed to HOTTAS, who it seems are a UK based company who build road bikes. The wheel appears to be from the 90s. It was cheap, but it is missing the axle, and given my 0 experience with these sorts of wheels I know nothing about freehubs and so on.
Now in the close up pic the hub appears to be unsealed. Am I correct?
Which would mean I can fit a regular easy to obtain axle, bearings and skewer? However what I am failing to understand is why there appears to be two bearing races. An outer one and one underneath it. I would also like to rebuild/replace the freehub but need to know which type it is so I can study to get a better understanding of how to remove it and or replace/rebuild.
I did find a set of these wheels for sale but they are £1000 and appear to be sealed bearing.
I would like a spoked wheel on the front to really get the weight down, and I don't have £1000
Thank you for reading and thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer
Andrew.