On Wednesday I was out on the Yuba Mundo “foraging” for supplies at a distant ASDA (Trafford Park again). The seat post on the Yuba has always had a tendency to slide down slowly with use, so that it needs adjusting every few rides. This was more of a problem with the stock 30 mm post & 0.9 mm shim stock configuration than it is with the new Yuba 31.8 mm micro-adjust post. It does still happen though, possibly due to a slightly excessive application of lithium grease to prevent the post sticking in the frame when the bike was being assembled at Practical Cycles. I have been worried that I will round off the Allen head whilst I am out in the middle of nowhere, but instead I managed to strip the threads out of the binder, roughly 10 km from home. Luckily the Mundo is the bike which just keeps on giving, I was able to sit on the rack and ride the bike home chopper-style (but quite slowly).
Looking at the bolt, I at first thought that was where the stripping occurred. On closer examination I realised that the bolt was fine:
I pulled those twisty metal bits out of the bold threads and realised they were from the binder itself. I have ordered a new 34.9 mm quick-release binder so this shouldn’t be a problem in future. Sadly this leaves me Mundo-less for a few days. The moral of the story, Yuba Mundo owners, maybe its worth getting a spare 34.9 mm seatpost binder before the stock one breaks on you when you are far from home.
Perhaps in a pinch you could drill out the old binder and utilize a bolt and nut arrangement. My V3 came with a quick release style seatpost tensioner- works well unless someone torques on the stoker bars.
ReplyDeleteI did consider de-tapping the binder with a drill, but I remembered my terrible experience with a bent nut-and-bolt arrangement on an old Raleigh I was doing up for my dad. I was just about to buy a dremel when I managed to snap the bolt head off by accident. I replaced it with a quick-release skewer and all was fine. It might be worth using a nut and bolt if I get desperate over the weekend.
ReplyDeleteWell- there is your other solution- a quick release seat post skewer. At least we have a collection of bikes= something like this gives you a chance to ride something else! JR
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