Cyclete ride and Bottom Bracket installation

This is a long post but I hope its provides insight, knowledge and a new found appreciation of the Cyclete with a few laughs along the way. Photos to accompany the story ☺️ 

This was a Cyclete ride with two goals - hit over 200K and fit a new bottom bracket (BB) on the Cyclete at half way. I think changing the BB was definitely the more ambitious part of the plan 😝 but I would be ablely assisted by friend Andy who has the know-how and the tools for the job. For context the reason for want to install a new BB was because I was 90%+ sure that the existing one was the source of constant creaks, clicks and squeaks that I could hear on every ride recently. I spoke to Steven about it and got his valuable advice. But as Steven said its always hard to be 100% certain and identify where sounds originate from. However I thought it was definitely worth it and the BB is a part that will definitely wear over time and it is not expensive. I picked it up for £18. BB's are not indestructible and are a replaceable standard bike component for a reason. Water ingress can be the main culprit. I have some big rides planned for this summer so I need my Cyclete to be in tip-top condition.

The new and old bottom brackets are pictures. You can see the corrosion on the old BB. Note  I own the original Cyclete. The BB in the new Cyclete is redesigned with a wider profile.

I rode 67 miles (107K) to Andy's house north of where I live in the South of England. I set off at 5am and arrived just after 10:30. Not bad. It was a wonderful ride with smooth country roads plus the highlight -  a 15 mile off road trail called the Brampton Valley Way which is an old disused railway line. It cut through the English countryside and offered great views and was a blast to ride. The Cyclete crusied along taking it all in its stride.

After a cuppa and good catch up with Andy it was down to business to install the new BB. It took some time to get the old one off but we managed it in the end. Note to others that might be brave enough to try this themselves. You do need specialist tools and you also need to be aware that the threads on the left side and right side turn in opposite directions. To loosen both sides you need to turn them in the opposite direction to the pedal stroke. So on the right side the pedal stroke is clockwise so to loosen you need to untighten anti-clockwise. And on the left side its clockwise to loosen.

Now the fun really begun because to replace the BB you have to take off the front chain ring and sprocket for the belt drive, the belt and the running gear is detached too. TOP TIP: Learn from our mistake!!.. Take a photo of exactly how everything is aligned on your Cyclete BEFORE you remove anything because as Steven will tell you it matters ALOT!!!! More on this later 🤪

With the new shiny Shimano BB installed it was time to reassemble the belt drive, chain ring, and running gear. Okay Andy so this should be easy right!! 😬 We just have to put everything back on to how it was.... But how was it exactly!? Andy mentioned that he was concerned about the phasing of the tear drop pedal stroke and that it might not be as easy as we thought to refit. So anyway we bolted it all back on and I went for a ride.... OH DEAR!!! 😫 ... Andy was right! Something was most definitely not right. Everything was so out of whack making it almost unrideable. The forward and back stroke was misaligned to the lift of my foot and heal. It felt so odd!!! Like I was going forward but felt like the pedal stroke was in reverse!

We didn't panic. Stay calm! We can figure this out. That's when Andy had a bright idea. Did I have a  photo of the Cyclete showing the running gear and alignment. Haha yes I've got tonnes of pics on my phone of my Cyclete (I'm sure we all do right!!! ☺️) so one of these must give us a good view of the running gear and the exact set-up and alignment of the rear drive arms, the pedal cranks and positioning of the footplates.  BINGO! I found one I took on the ride at the start which showed it clearly. We examined the alignment in the photo and then compared it to how we had fitted it all back on. Oh yes it looked different! Photos show this. Even being a little bit out makes a big difference to the Cyclete's tear drop motion. This really gave me a new found appreciation of just how complex and intricate the running gear movement and design is to get that perfect motion. This stuff is on the same level as the Theory of Relativity!! Steven Ascher shares his name with Stephen Hawkins for a reason right!! 😜

So we studied the photo and looked at the key angles and mirrored the set up carefully reassembling all the parts. And remember too I was doing all this to get rid of the creaking and clicking so I was just as excited to find out if it was indeed the BB that was responsible for these mysterious sounds. 

But this time when we tried to turn the running gear in a stationary position it wasn't even moving!! The rear wheel wouldn't move at all despite me lifting it off the ground. What had we done differently!? This was a real head scratcher. Andy then casually said "it's just like the brake is on" ... 😆🤣 Haha oh yeah I had my hand firmly applying the rear brake!! 😆🤣 what a dummy!! Once we stopped our belly laughing we rolled the Cyclete out for test ride number 2 🤞🤞🤞 

I climbed aboard and rolled down the driveway onto the road and started to pedal. PERFECTION!! We had done it! ✅ Not only was the stride feeling great and silky smooth it was also completely silent!!! 👍🤩☺️ YAAAASSSSSS!! I was so happy. No creaks, no clicks, no squeaks. Just poetry in motion. And we had done it all ourselves. 

I had another 107KM to ride home again to enjoy the Cyclete experience. This time a much quieter one! But not before I thanked Andy by going out for lunch to a local English pub for burgers, chips and cookie dough ice cream. The perfect day!!

Side note: Steven - Can you study the final photo of my Cyclete and the alignment and confirm that we have got it correct? Andy thought we might potentially still be one notch out on the belt drive sprocket? And when I rode home the climbs felt slightly harder but I couldn't be sure if this in my head or because I have created a faster 'Cyclete Flatlander'!