CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[CitroJim]

Wax shop is ready when you are...

Excellent

[CitroJim]

Bluebell dried nicely in the breeze this morning and is now tucked up in her garage again

Interestingly, and perplexingly, when I started her to run her into the garage there was no cloud of oil smoke or indeed any smell of it...

She seems to have given up smoking!

I'm finding that with every run she's improving in all sorts of little ways. Maybe another instance of things settling down and bedding in again after an unknown but likely long period of dormancy...

All I know is that cars do seem to thrive on regular use so she won't be resting for long... Just until the next spell of fine and salt-free weather

[Zelandeth]

I wouldn't worry too much about the smoke. It sounds like slightly worn or just dried up valve stem oil seals, so unlikely to get suddenly worse or cause issues for a non-cat emissions test.

My 306 used to vary depending apparently based on the prevailing weather in Peru combined with the phase of the moon between absolutely zero smoke and behaving like a stone cold Gardner for the first 30 seconds.

Never saw the slightest bit of smoke or smelled it when following you back. If we wanted to do a real test the hill heading into MK from Olney is a great one - coast down there off throttle for most of the hill, then boot it at the base - if there's anything getting drawn into the inlet side it'll show itself then.

[CitroJim]

If we wanted to do a real test the hill heading into MK from Olney is a great one - coast down there off throttle for most of the hill, then boot it at the base - if there's anything getting drawn into the inlet side it'll show itself then.

That's a good one Zel We'll do that next time we have an opportunity

[CitroJim]

Bluebell received a present in the post today...

BH Auto-Balm

It comes highly recommended... I shall report back and hopefully the tin will contain enough for both my Citroens...

Today I've finished writing my April CCC A to Z column and submitted it to the editor Look out for it in the Citroenian at the appropriate time. It's a good 'un

The March edition should be out soon - my column will make more good reading In fact the whole magazine is a good read these days...

During the drafting of the column I took a photo of my method of testing a cambelt tensioner roller by spinning it whilst holding it...

They behave just like gyroscopes and are great fun to play with

[MattBLancs]

...
During the drafting of the column I took a photo of my method of testing a cambelt tensioner roller by spinning it whilst holding it...



They behave just like gyroscopes and are great fun to play with

I too can't help but spin bearings and indeed generally keep any that aren't absolutely knackered as they seem such a perfect object (i.e. a bearing is pretty much a "perfect engineering solution" = there's practically no point trying to make a better one)

If only we had more of an entrepreneurial spirit, could have been ahead of the game and made a fortune!

Spoiler: show

From https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284569303129?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=592akWJeTv6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=wDXJ_quFQ-S&var=586164474106&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[Hell Razor5543]

If only we had more of an entrepreneurial spirit, could have been ahead of the game and made a fortune!

Spoiler: show

The person who supposedly came up with the fidget spinner never made any money from them.

[MattBLancs]

The person who supposedly came up with the fidget spinner never made any money from them.

Ah, well I can legitimately say "It could have been me!" in that case!

[CitroJim]

If only we had more of an entrepreneurial spirit, could have been ahead of the game and made a fortune!

Definitely missed a trick there Matt Mind you, the ones I like to play with most are the noisy and graunchy ones. They may have been hard to mass-produce

The person who supposedly came up with the fidget spinner never made any money from them.

James, amazing the inventor never made anything from what really as a massive craze!

[mickthemaverick]

Jim, I wondered if you wanted to bring your test equipment up to date?

BFTW

BFTW

Details here

[CitroJim]

Jim, I wondered if you wanted to bring your test equipment up to date?

That's some nice stuff Mick The old stuff is often still very serviceable Most of what I use regularly is definitely on the vintage side!

A great day today at parkrun, although it was chillier than Antarctica at my my exposed marshal point I then spent some quality time with the family and pushed Autumn in her buggy for a few miles whilst catching up on news with her mum and dad. Precious moments

I then collected my new running shoes. Asics Nimbus 25s. Very much a premium shoe and reflected in how much they cost... Luckily I got a big discount...

They are lovely and I've already taken them for a run to run them in ready for tomorrow Over three runs today I've just about run a half marathon and walked around 4 miles, all told.

Tomorrow I'm timekeeping at MK Junior parkrun and then running the MK Winter Warmer 10K... A good weekend well spent!

[CitroJim]

Last evening I unexpectedly found myself rostered for timekeeping at Junior parkrun - very much a task that needs huge concentration as timekeeping a mass of junior parkrunners all sprinting for a fast finish is a bit like herding cats...

Junior parkrun is huge fun and seeing how the children thoroughly enjoy it is really quite magical so I didn't mind a bit when I found myself on the roster...

One issue was of timings... Junior parkrun starts at 9AM and my Winter Warmer 10K run would start at 10AM. Juniors timekeeping was all done by around 0930 so even though the locations are at opposite sides of Milton Keynes it should be doable, just... I had to be at the Winter Warmer by 0950 latest to register and collect my race bib.

So, 20 minutes... Could I, given I'd have to park the car, pay for parking and then get to the race registration desk. I found the car park full. B***er, that's it, all over All I can do is try to find another parking spot and free-run it And I really ragged my Saxo across MK to try and get there in time...

I then spotted a parking space, a rare roadside one near the start, and it was free of charge Result

I got to the registration desk with barely 2 minutes to spare!

It was a great event My run in my new shoes was excellent and the weather just about perfect It was good to meet up with many of my running friends and the whole thing ended up being very social - as all good runs do...

Lovely sky!

Afterward, I went for a good bike ride... It's been a most superb weekend

[CitroJim]

After a decent five mile run early this morning, the rest of the morning has been spent servicing my bikes...

One badly needed new tyres as the old Conti GP5000s had worn right down to the absolute limit and were showing signs of perishing. No way was I happy to ride a lot of miles on Saturday during the Cambridgeshire Classic Sportive - the first big cycling event of the year...

The old Contis had done well, worn right down to their TWIs and not one puncture... Tubeless tyres on bikes are good...

Except when renewing them. It's a messy job due to the sealant, which takes ages to properly clean off the rims, and they are a very tight fit on the rims.

Tubeless bike wheel rims are hooked* and the compatible tyres have hooked beads to match the rim hook profile. They are not airtight until the bead is properly seated and hooked in. On the old Conti's that was easy and I could always seat the beads just using my track pump and they'd become airtight, even with no sealant, very readily.

I have a special tool - an air reservoir charged with a track pump to around 140 psi and then it can release air as a big high-pressure blast into the tyre to help the beads seat...

This tool comprehensively failed to seat the beads of my new Vittoria tyres and thus they refused to become airtight...

I had to resort to making a special adaptor so that I could attach my garage compressor/airline directly to the tyre valve stem.

That worked, eventually, and the tyres are now holding air I should say at this point it is potentially dangerous to use a high pressure airline to inflate bike tyres, especially ordinary tubed ones, so don't! I did with care and only held the pressure long enough to snap the beads into place and hear that satisfying noise I can't quite describe...

I had the chains off both the bikes being serviced and thoroughly cleaned them (and the chainrings) before refitting and re-lubricating.

During that operation I found one of the rear derailleur jockey wheels was partially seized. Off it came for a clean and lube... Playing baby gyroscopes with it shows it's a bit graunchy so an new pair will soon be on order...

I now have two happy bikes and one that'll be fit for close on 100 miles on Saturday...

* The very latest high-end tubeless rims are now hookless. This is still very much bleeding-edge stuff. Debate rages about the benefits and potential issues... Interestingly, my new tyres have a big warning cast into their sidewalls to warn they are for use on hooked rims only...

[MattBLancs]

Was the "baby gyroscopes" driven by hand operation only, or did a quick blast of compressed air whilst you had the airline on the go? Imagine can get them flying round with a blast from that! (Also seems to be a favourite method of fidget spinner testing to destruction on YouTube!)


There's a car tyre version of your air tank gizmo - "Bead Blaster" I think. Also an amusing video online of someone who'd persuaded "the apprentice" it'd be just the job for clearly a slow draining gulley.....

[CitroJim]

Was the "baby gyroscopes" driven by hand operation only, or did a quick blast of compressed air whilst you had the airline on the go? Imagine can get them flying round with a blast from that! (Also seems to be a favourite method of fidget spinner testing to destruction on YouTube!)

I love aiming the airline nozzle at them during cleaning Matt Thy make the most lovely sound - a sort of 'wheeeeeeeeee'

There's a car tyre version of your air tank gizmo - "Bead Blaster" I think. Also an amusing video online of someone who'd persuaded "the apprentice" it'd be just the job for clearly a slow draining gulley.....

'Bead Blaster' is a good name for them Matt - except mine proved just a bit too feeble for those Vittorias... The car sized version would have been ideal... Had to giggle at clearing a gully with one - I can just picture it