N-Scale TGV - Using Heat-Shrink Tubing to make new Traction Tyres!

My Lima TGV was having all kinds of trouble when I got it, starting with truly unreliable power delivery through the rails. After stripping the model down I notice that the front wheels are dedicated to electric-pickup and the motor drives the rear wheels only. The contacts that touch the wheels were cruddy, along with the inside of the wheels themselves and it took quite a bit of cleaning and adjusting the contact pieces to get power reliably through the track, which was also cleaned a bit. Next, I found the paper-thin traction tyres had deteriorated to the point of not moving the train forward, rather spinning the rear wheels. The most gradual of starts would produce wheel-spin at the slightest sign of resistance on the track and even once moving the partial tyres were causing the loco to rock side to side and bounce around on the rails. I duly removed the remaining tyres and set about creating new ones, eventually using heat-shrink tubing which works very nicely.

Removing Creak from Crank Arms / Bottom Bracket:

Loud creak when pedalling? Is it particularly on one side? And on the downward power-stroke? Chances are it will be this.

On older bikes, the square-taper where the pedal-arm attaches to the crank is prone to loud creaking, particularly where an alloy arm fits to a steel axle, which reverberates up the whole bike and can be difficult to diagnose. This is particularly noticeable after the pedal-arms have been removed for servicing. They are notoriously difficult to set back down perfectly again and this is what causes the arms to creak through the whole frame. If they are out of flush by even just a tiny bit, they can creak. So...

• If you are removing your pedal-arms for servicing or fitting new ones then remember to grease the square-taper on the crank before banging the arms on, this will help reduce creaking even if they are a tiny bit out.
• The creaking pedal-arms could simply need knocking on a bit more to get them flush and kill the creak, so loosen the locking-nut and give the arms a few good whacks and see if they will seat better.
• If the above tip doesn't work then the pedal-arm will have to come off and be re-fitted. Remove the arms, grease the square-taper and re-fit the arms making sure they go on securely and even.

https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/124/creaking-from-cranks-spindle-how-to-fix

Raleigh/Carlton Grand Prix: New head stem bearings.

Original head stem bearings full of crud and some balls missing.

Races cleaned up nicely and are in great condition.

A pot of new 5/32" ball bearings from Dr Sprocket bike shop in Wallasey.

Packed in with fresh cycle-bearing grease, 25 in each race, so 50 in total.

Big up Dr Sprocket in Wallasey Village, Wirral - www.DoctorSprocket.com

Guerilla Bumper-Repairs Vol. 1 - Hilux HL2

Cats-claws = eyesore. New bumper = £250. Solution:

Only the drill-copter will do for the 320-grit polyester sanding-pad.

Neatened and masked up, it's ready for Lord Lucan.

Expensive U-POL high-build bumper-primer sticks like glue to ABS-plastic, but does not adhere well to Tamara Ecclestone.

U-POL fancy textured bumper-paint, mid-grey. Yes, it's the shit. You would never, ever, not know there had not once been a bumper damage.

Exploding Macbook Pro power adapter!

We've all heard of the fake iPhone and iPad chargers going boom, but this was a 'budget' one I bought for my Macbook Pro. Had I not been sat next to it and seen the black smoke rising, it could have torched me room!

Amazingly it still works, as in supplies power to the laptop, but ejects a shower of sparks from the hole every time it is plugged in. It then glows red and after 10 minutes the plastic begins to melt and bubble, but the fuse does not blow and it continues to get hotter...

Apple needs to take note of this in the same way as the fake iPhone/iPad chargers - looks like they're all  dangerous... Is this an unwanted side-effect of Apple doing something to devices to prevent the use of imitation accessories?!

Rather than buy another cheap imitation charger, I opted to once again repair my original Apple charger, pictured below, which now has exposed wiring and must be the crudest fix in the history of electronics - yet it has been working fine now for 6 months... eclipsing the entire working life of the fake charger by 5 months!

The next time this breaks, I'll be removing the split cable entirely and soldering in the intact one from the burnt-out charger - I would advise doing this from the word go if you buy a fake charger.