I have just come back from Mid Wales and the POLARIS CHALLENGE. If you do not
know Mid Wales it is very hilly and bleak with the tracks being constructed of
loose shale and is considered some of the toughest and technical moutain bike
terrain in Britain. Unfortunately I did not ride, partly health (I have had
a bad virus infection) and partly my co-riders either breaking bits of their body,
being wimps or having to work and being unable to ride. I did marshell and offer
Duncan and Andy Castling some support. I will not ramble on too much about it as
Duncan is writing a peice for you that I will post when it arrives with me.
What I will say is that they had 143 points after the first day (I camped with
them at the over night camp) which would have put them about two thirds up the
field - this is incredible and the best yet! It does look as if the 26" mountian
uncycle from Pashley was working wonders (these only arrived with them a few
weeks befor the event). I don't know how they faired on the second day as I was
mashelling some 50 miles away and did't get to see them on their return.
On to other things LOOSE CRANKS, I have noticed on several of the wheel
hubs I have inspected that they are incorrectly manufactured. The taper where
the crank fits on should be 1 degree, it is not consistantly this due to the
excessivly heavy chroming on the component. It was also on the minimum tollerence
for it's length. The combination of these 2 means that what ever you do with your
crank it will come loose. Sorry I cannot offer a good solution, I machined mine,
not an easy solution.
I will add a quick note about THE CARBON FIBRE UNICYCLE. Thankyou to everyone
who has offered support to us on getting it into production. I hope I am not too
far from producting the first production item. The bearing housing are due
here today (these are bolted from bottom to allow for easy change of wheel
while being rigid). I have found another and better tube manufacturer who
assures me that he can reduce the waight of the carbon peices by half and give
double the ridgidiy.
That's all folks
Rgr
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Roger.Davies@octacon.co.uk
Cleveland
UK
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