Recent content by Matthew F

Hi all, Apologies for the slow reply. This thread seemed to have disappeared off the forum yesterday, during which time I received PM from member Tobias Rodriguez and agreed to gift him the bike. Thanks for all the interest! Cheers, Matthew

One minor but significant edit to the above post - the bike must be collected by the 22nd July!

Sadly I have to admit it’s time to move this one on to a better home! The pictures are from 2013 when I’d recently acquired and refurbished this bike. Following these pics I enjoyed a couple of thousand glorious miles on it - a beautiful machine to ride. I’m embarrassed to admit, however, that...

Re: Re: Not a stupid question, a good one! I've always assumed it's a 135 as when I bought the bike it had a modern deore hub fitted which would certainly have been 135, and the hope hub is exactly the right width for the dropouts - no flexing required to fit the wheel. I'll check it with the...

That's a good story and very useful! I'm up in Walthamstow (not far from Epping hence the tyre choice on the Explosif)! I'll get in touch with Herne Hill Cycles and will see if we can work something out. Ordinarily I'd strip the frame down and hop on the tube to Brixton. Not such a good idea in...

I've measured as per Sheldon's article and see about 2mm more gap between string and seatpost on the drive side than I do on the non-drive side. I guess it's cold set time or a cheeky dropout modification then! I'm a little bit scared of the former, knowing how thin that Columbus Max tubing is...

Wheel turned around on the Explosif and still offset to the right. (It's not in exactly the same place as before - one brake pad contacts the rim slightly before the other now so there may be a small dish error, but it's minimal compared to the overall offset to the right.) The axle looks...

It is indeed a Hope Ti-Glide. Thanks for the tip on turning the wheel round, will try that in a minute. Will check Sheldon's site, and the dropouts too. Now to make things thoroughly confusing, I've just had a look at my wife's bike (a '99 Fire Mountain with hand-built wheels from Merlin) and...

That's a good question, it was some time ago I spent a while trying to sort the rear shifting and couldn't get the chain to run on the largest sprocket no matter what I did, without the derailleur cage rubbing on the spokes. My inclination was that the cage was rotated on the vertical axis, so...

Hi all, I've recently been enjoying getting back out on my '96 Explosif, but had forgotten just how badly out of alignment the rear end is. The picture below hopefully gives an idea of the scale of the problem. Believe it or not, the brakes are properly centred with respect to the rim! In its...

Re: I have this same bar / stem set, and very nice it is too! Potential buyers should note that the bar clamp diameter is 22.2mm (I think) as opposed to the common 25.4mm standard of the era. I seem to recall that the bar and stem were only sold as a set for this reason. Good luck with the...

Re: Wow, thanks for all that info! Sounds like C2s can be a perfectly serviceable option then. I'll need to have a think about which calipers I might need; the bike in question is currently equipped with Manitou X-Vert forks with the 68mm post mount, which I believe would be best mated with a...

Re: Thanks both! RickTheUncivil, I've pm'd you. Dyna-ti, the red bulb hubs with 5-bolt rotors and the C2 brakeset would seem to fit the bill nicely, although I'm a bit scared of the long term servicing implications of running older Hope hydro kit. (It's intended for a bike which will be a...

Re: Thanks! I'm interested in C2, O2 or M4 calipers and Bulb or Bigun hubs with 5-bolt rotors. Not really sure how committed I am to this plan though, I'll send you a PM in a bit! Matthew

Re: Green like this one? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Specialized-S ... 7675.l2557 I remember these bikes, they were below the hardrock line in terms of spec and price. Priced under £200 back in the mid 90s if I remember correctly.