nath from nottingham

Several times I've pondered that the frame was made for 26" wheels, and for some reason never even considered the obvious fact that the geometry will be wrong. I feel quite daft now! (my excuse is that I'm into motorbikes and it's perfectly normal to change wheel sizes, along with a variety of other mods that would change the geometry). I'd thought the steering felt a little wrong (in regards to rake/trail). From that photo could you advise me if the forks are also intended for a 26" wheel? There's no apparent markings on them to identify them. There's about 2-3" of gap above the tyre. I'd guessed they're probably made for 24" wheels? I'd never heard or thought of butchering a link to get an odd number, and it's not possible to take a pair out. I've already ordered a new tensioner so I'll stick that on and see how I go. If I can keep up the motivation to go out and practise, I guess I'll end up having to buy another frame then. This is always what happens to me with motorbikes as well, I buy a lemon then end up spending enough money on it so I could have just bought a good bike in the first place!

I will order a sprung twin-cog jobby then. It's frustrating that this type of tensioner should work for other people but not for me. There is a little bit of runout on the crank/bb which obviously wouldn't help, but not enough to explain how slack the chain ends up after half an hour on the bike. Photos of the bike and offending chain setup. I need to do something with the front brake because it's not effective at all, hopefully it just needs bleeding because there's no sign of any oil contamination of the pads. Need to source a cassette for the Revell hub and gain a few teeth on the sprocket, I believe it is interchangable with Odysee. The tyres on it are probably totally inappropriate as well. I got it over a month back, but the cold weather has not been encouraging me to get out a lot. I've just been riding round the corner from where I live where there's a cul-de-sac, working on balance and hopping the wheels sideways. I was limited to getting something in London because I don't drive.

Hi, I have a bit of a mish-mash bike which I bought off eBay (and am maybe now slightly regretting). I'm not really sure the guy I bought it off (who put it together) really had a clue. The chain tensioner I believe is a 'Gusset bachelor'. A single roller on an arm which attaches to the axel and derailleur hanger. The problem is the chain very quickly goes slack (within 10 minutes of being on the bike). It seems the (detachable aluminium) derailleur hanger is bending. I don't know much about bicycles but it seems getting a new derailleur hanger might be harder than I thought because they're frame specific? And also that nobody seems to make them from steel, and they're quite expensive for a little piece of cast aluminium. The frame is a Team Saracen mad. Should I just replace the tensioner with a twin-cog sprung one, like available at tartybikes for about £30? I don't understand why the arangement with the gusset tensioner is so bad, surely other people would have had this problem with this style of tensioner? The only thing I can think of that might be contributing to the problem is that I have a very small rear cog, an 11t single piece cassette driver which seems to be intended for bmx use, and the tensioner is holding the chain a long way off the cog like at a 45deg angle. A bicycle shop I went into with the cassette driver said I'd have no problem finding a replacement cassette which takes removable cogs, but nowhere online seems to have one.