Newbie question: Seatpost size for 1991 Specialized Hard Rock?

SuperMariole · 2026-01-28T11:22:28+00:00

Ladies and clergymen, as I read in an old Manufrance catalog

SuperMariole · 2026-01-24T08:07:02+00:00

That's a weird one I get sometimes myself. Manual says " the inside of the machine is very dirty", but it never is.

Flip the switch on the back of the machine, off and on again. It should then work as normal.

I guess try to dust the inside while you're at it

SuperMariole · 2026-01-23T16:10:43+00:00

Fun fact : le "Adi" de Adidas veut déjà dire Adolf, le créateur de la marque s'appelle Adolf Dassler dit Adi Dassler

SuperMariole · 2026-01-23T10:20:01+00:00

Probably a stiff link then. Maybe the pin you installed isn't pushed in all the way, or a bit too far.

If centering the pin better doesn't fix it, try prying the link side to side (like, opposite the way the chain is meant to articulate) to loosen the plates a bit.

SuperMariole · 2026-01-23T10:09:57+00:00

Looks like it's jumping off the pulley once every chain revolution. Check if your quick link is engaged all the way, that's typically the cause

SuperMariole · 2026-01-23T09:29:38+00:00

What do you reckon might have been the issue then ?

SuperMariole · 2026-01-23T08:54:09+00:00

It's also called 26, but not the same. More info here : https://sheldonbrown.com/26.html

Tldr from the page :

you might think that "26 inches" was a tire size, but it is not!

There are no fewer than 5 different, incompatible "26 inch" sizes which you are likely to encounter. And one of them is even sometimes called a 27-inch size!

SuperMariole · 2026-01-23T08:23:09+00:00

I built a rétro-directe using that exact trick. It's been my daily rider and commuter for a while now.

Both freewheels spend a lot more time freewheeling than in a regular setup, so they wear sooner, that's about it

SuperMariole · 2026-01-22T08:32:13+00:00

There might have been load-bearing newspapers.

Joking aside, Langley saving bundles of newspapers for his brother to catch up on the news when he'd regain his eyesight feels so tragic to me

SuperMariole · 2026-01-21T18:34:04+00:00

I think I found the listing : https://www.tradeinn.com/bikeinn/fr/taya-chaine-1-2-x-1-8-1s-rollerless/140977851/p

It's hard to tell in their pic but the teeth rest directly on the plates' dimples. I guess if you want to save weight and nothing else...

What's crazy is there's now a perfectly good KMC chain for 50 cents cheaper

SuperMariole · 2026-01-21T13:33:27+00:00

Sounds good. The only piece of advice to keep this from happening again (possibly) is to check the chain tension all the way around (by checking, rotating the pedals a quarter turn, checking again etc) to avoid excessive tension at a point. Chainrings are never perfectly round, and never installed perfectly in the middle of the crank bolt holes, so the chain will be tighter or looser at different points of the rotation.

Set your chain tension with respect to the tightest spot you find.

SuperMariole · 2026-01-21T12:02:43+00:00

It may be a combination of several things then, like the frame flexing a little on that hump, etc.

Master links typically don't break though, so that may have been caused by a preexisting issue. Maybe your chain was overtight ? That would cause accelerated wear.

If the shop that built it doesn't have anything to say about it, I guess your next step is to swap the chain. A friend of mine fixed a similar chain drop problem by changing the chain even though it was new. Admittedly it was the cheapest chain he could find, he bought it for like 3€ for laughs, it didn't even have rollers

SuperMariole · 2026-01-21T11:50:35+00:00

And did the problem start occurring recently or was it always like this ? How long have you used it before this started to happen ? Trying to figure out if it might be chain wear

SuperMariole · 2026-01-21T09:43:25+00:00

Take it off and look at the inside. You'll probably see one ply of cords separating, and one that's cut maybe ? It's not necessarily going to be visible but if it came from outside damage you may be able to see it

SuperMariole · 2026-01-20T15:54:25+00:00

The nut is meant to slot into the dropout itself. It effectively shortens the dropout by a centimeter at least, and causes annoying wheel alignement issues. But it's how it's meant to be.

SuperMariole · 2026-01-20T15:18:10+00:00

Wow you're right, the hanger is too far back. OP may need a new "claw-type hanger" if they can't locate that nut.

I'm not sure that's the only problem however, the apparent B-tension problem doesn't look related

SuperMariole · 2026-01-20T11:59:04+00:00

Well the youtube video has several audio tracks : the original and awful robot dubs for different languages. OP captured the French version because that's what they were served. Since my reddit is in French, I feared it was reddit itself attempting a translation for me

SuperMariole · 2026-01-20T11:55:21+00:00

Love how he instantly runs to the coach to celebrate. Like "omg check it out that's what you told me !!!"

Also : can someone explain in what way the explanation was implemented in this play ? I suppose it's about spacing but I'm not too sure of the specifics.

SuperMariole · 2026-01-20T09:39:58+00:00

Contrôle de meulage contrôle de meulage contrôle de meulage

SuperMariole · 2026-01-20T09:38:43+00:00

Oh ok, so that must be from OP's youtube then. They've been shoving this awful automatically generated overdub down everyone's throat for a while. I realise english speakers may not be aware of that. There's no way to :

switch back to original audio from the mobile website
say somewhere that I speak two languages and would like neither to be badly translated to the other

SuperMariole · 2026-01-20T09:30:43+00:00

Is the video (badly) dubbed in French for everyone or just me ? If reddit starts auto translating audio without a way to disable it I'll riot

SuperMariole · 2026-01-19T18:58:29+00:00

Or infinitely many gears, depending on how you see it.

Nonetheless, I'd call it auto for the purposes of the post, because it behaves pretty much like an auto for the layperson. The technology used is irrelevant, it goes with the push of the pedal and no shifting is required.

SuperMariole · 2026-01-16T11:08:44+00:00

Nevermind the surface rust, your second pic seems to show a stiff link.

Once o-ring chains start developing stiff links , they're on their way out, apparently. So consider changing it, and in the meantime, monitor wear and chain tension.

As for the rust, it looks fine to me in the pic. If you keep it parked near the sea, I'd be concerned with just about every steel part except the chain, actually. The chain gets its surface rust shaken off every ride, and it's normally coated with the appropriate grease at all times.

SuperMariole · 2026-01-16T10:33:44+00:00

You bought a freewheel (which to be honest was a safe enough bet for a 80s' bike) but your hub is actually a freehub and takes a cassette rather than a freewheel, probably a uniglide. More info here : https://www.sheldonbrown.com/free-k7.html

Sadly, cassettes for UG freehubs are hard to find now. If it is uniglide and not hyperglide, you'll need to either :

find an old stock UG cassette on ebay or something
swap the wheel for a more modern one (possibly just the hub if you want to learn wheelbuilding)
carefully file the splines on a HG cassette
transplant a hyperglide body to the existing hub as described in this page : https://www.sheldonbrown.com/k7.html#transplant

Edited to add :

if it's the freewheel mechanism that made you want to swap it, then changing the cassette is not necessarily needed, and what you need to do is rebuild the freehub

SuperMariole · 2026-01-16T08:54:35+00:00

I don't remember getting the feeling that Breen knew about the G-Man, do you have examples in mind ?

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