rhodeskc

Broken brooks tension bolt (and the replacement). This is what happens when you don’t keep your tension bolts tight enough in Brooks saddles. The bolt starts to move around, and snaps off behind the nut.

FWIW, it is a royal BITCH to reinstall these.  There is no good way unless you have access to a hydraulic saddle stretching machine, like the one they have in the Brooks saddle factory.  I used two screwdrivers, a shit-ton of muscle and a lot of swearing.

Split Brooks Saddle tension bolt. I didn’t get to this in time.  You can order replacement bolts from Wallingford Bicycle; it’s easier to slide in the 64mm bolt than it is to slide in the 70mm bolt.

Reading online, some people say that you can substitute it for a different bolt and nut.

I discovered that a Metric 8mm x 1.25 x 2” Bolt with mushroom allen-head fits perfectly.

In theory any nut with an appropriately sized head would work, but what I’d suggest is getting one with a Allen key head, and a thread that runs all the way to the head of the bolt. I’d especially suggest this if the bolt broke while the saddle is new, as it’s much harder to get the replacement bolt in when the saddle is new (I broke two saddle bolts; the first had been stretched quite a bit and slipped in straight away.  The second took 4 hours to get the bolt in.)  Run the nut all the way to the bolt head, install it, then using the allen key, a crescent wrench and a touch of oil, just turn the bolt until the saddle tension is correct.

The bolt usually slides in through that round hole.  The head of the bolt lines up with the nose of the saddle.

Once the bearings are roughly aligned, slowly and carefully start to tighten the cone nuts.  When you feel an increase in resistance, the bearings are seated all the way to the back of the housing.

The idea here is you want to press on the outside bearing race and nowhere else when installing the bearings; applying pressure to the inside race will simply cause it to pop out and bearings to go everywhere. 

Installing the bearings.  Push the bearings in mostly by hand, then slide the solid axle in with the old outer bearing race on the inside of the cone nuts.

I got up at 3:30am, rode 31 mi to work along some of the busiest, most dangerous sections of road (completely deserted, of course), descended a twisting, winding hill at 33 mph with nothing but my handlebar and helmet light, got all the way to work safely…

Then tripped stepping out of the elevator, fell on the bike and broke my front brake.

MOTHERF…

If you like this, check out the other stuff I’ve retired (usually due to breaking).

I bet I’m going to be seeing a lot more brake pads look like this soon. The sidewalls are already pretty worn down, so I think I’ll have to hit up the LBS again to teach me how to build a bicycle wheel.

1600 hours.

I figure that’s the minimum number of hours of saddle time this helmet has seen, give or take 20, in all conditions - snow, hail, rain, sweltering heat…  No wonder why I was going though helmet pads every 6-9 months.

As of today, it will be a retiree, replaced with both a Fox MTB helmet & a Bell Array road helmet. I’m gonna miss you buddy.