Hillbilly Repairs

One benefit of being home with small baby (and a not so small toddler) is the opportunity to get stuff sorted.  In this instance, general repairs to my Hillbillies.  This certainly isn't a moan about Hillbilly - these gloves are around 18 months old and have regular weekly use with plenty of ground contact.  With 90% of the glove in good condition, it makes sense to repair where possible, particularly as cash isn't flush right now.

Being made of leather, Hillbilly are very easy to restitch, in this first case along where the strapping was coming loose.  Good, strong, tough string should keep this in place for a while but I've no idea what string I've used here - it's some my Dad got for me for repairing my shorts a while back.

On the other glove, a section of leather, again sourced through Dad has been used to provided thumb protection.  In this case the leather has been cut to size and then glued into place.  Araldite seems to do the job nicely.

Not a bad evenings work and makes a nice change from stinky bearings.

ABS Brake Repair

After breaking the brake hose a couple of weeks back up in Allestree Park, the hunt was on to either get new parts and repair, or find someone else to do the honours for me.  But what was the bit that was broken, and where to get new parts from?

Pretty soon, I had a pretty good idea of what was required though it was looking likely that buying a kit and bits to refill the hydraulic fluid and bleed was going to be reasonably costly.

However, things we looking good in that I had received a response from Nick, the man behind Alpine Brakes who did have the relevant parts in stock and would be happy to give my system a once over if I were to post it out to him.  This was great news and meant that in a worst case scenario, I knew something could be sorted.

But another option presented itself.  A suggestion was made on the Surfing Dirt forums that I should try one of the local bike shops and see if they did repairs.  I got in the car and went on the hunt.

Shop 1 gave me a straight 'no', but pointed me in the direction of another bike shop a mile down the road.  Fair enough.

Shop 2 initially looked good, but then changed their mind.  I asked if they they'd have a look anyway to give me an indication of part numbers.  They said 'no' and suggested I contacted Magura direct (the brake is essentially a Magura brake with custom bracket to attach to front axle).  I couldn't be arsed with this, especially if it still meant that I'd have to do the bulk of the work.  Shop 3 was suggested on the other side of town.

Shop 3 looked promising.  I was sent to the rear carpark to the service department who were happy to take a look; make enquiries on my behalf; and assuming they could get the right part, refill and bleed for me.

Three working days later, and success!  I have picked up the brake, and apart from reattaching to the front axle (five minute job), is ready to go.  All for £18 (£8 parts and £10 fluid and fitting).

And that is why we recommend using Samways, Ashbourne Road, Derby for all your hydraulic brake repair requirements.

Behold the Short Trousers of Dooom!!!

Eagle-eyed readers may think that these 'Short Trousers of Dooom!!!' are just a pair of shorts with a bit of leather stitched to the left arse cheek, secured with a bit of super glue here and there.

And they'd be right except that the headline 'old pair of shorts gets a new lease of life' doesn't sound quite so exciting.

And, how many power slides do you think it'll take to rip the leather clean off revealing a large hole and exposing my delicate bum flesh and/or rapidly deteriorating Hillbilly impact shorts?  Not many I guess, mainly because I know the quality of the leather stitching isn't that great, and because my power slides, though effective, are technically harsh on the buttocks, resulting in the hole in the first place.

Perhaps a new pair of shorts is in order - they usually last me a season.

Thinking out loud, a friend of my dad's an expert in leather printing, leading me to wonder just how many boarding folks would want their respective logos printed in leather?  Could be a nice novelty but quite hard wearing which always helps in this game.  All I know is that he's called Peter and he works with leather, and the internet being what it is, I'm reluctant to type 'leather' into Google...