Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
That's what my better half uses. I stick with the TAC-2 because if it's good enough for industrial grain conveyors, it's good enough for the ~12 watts my legs can put out...
Well I bit the bullet and bought the Specialized Como, hopefully it doesn't disappoint me. I do have a question about the hydraulic disc brakes and taking off the wheels, as the setup is new to me. There's no quick release, so when I had to put the wheel back on today to get it out of the car, it seemed easy enough, with the little guides on the prongs easing the fork onto the wheel, pulling up a little on the bike's weight to ease in the through axle, and tightening it. However, I saw daylight between the disc and only one brake pad. Is that fine? I'm told that at least for cars, that's normal as the disc isn't perfectly machined and there's lateral runout causing a little wobble between the pads, but I don't know if that applies here. I managed to have visibility on both sides, after getting the axel in and somewhat tightened, and then pulling/pushing on the tire a little bit before fully tightening, but that sure would be quite a lot of fuss, especially on a really heavy bike, if I needed perfect spacing each time.
The tricky part is if the brake lever accidentally gets squeezed while there's no wheel in place, then the pads can go all the way to touching each other and it's fiddly to get them apart. (not impossible, just use a screwdriver and some care, but it's a pain if it happens). Usual fix is to put a folded-over business card (or equivalent) in there, or you can get official spacers if you want to be fancy.
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
Well I bit the bullet and bought the Specialized Como, hopefully it doesn't disappoint me. I do have a question about the hydraulic disc brakes and taking off the wheels, as the setup is new to me. There's no quick release, so when I had to put the wheel back on today to get it out of the car, it seemed easy enough, with the little guides on the prongs easing the fork onto the wheel, pulling up a little on the bike's weight to ease in the through axle, and tightening it. However, I saw daylight between the disc and only one brake pad. Is that fine? I'm told that at least for cars, that's normal as the disc isn't perfectly machined and there's lateral runout causing a little wobble between the pads, but I don't know if that applies here. I managed to have visibility on both sides, after getting the axel in and somewhat tightened, and then pulling/pushing on the tire a little bit before fully tightening, but that sure would be quite a lot of fuss, especially on a really heavy bike, if I needed perfect spacing each time.
Bicycle calipers are all double-sided, that is they are solid-mounted with pistons on both sides, not on sliding pins with pistons on one side only like many car calipers. As long as the rotor is between the pads and not hitting anything else, the pads will self-align and center themselves after a squeeze or two of the brake lever.
Had a 50 mile ride today and I'm so tired I wanna die.
It's the most i've done in a couple years. I've been thinking about doing a century and wanted to push myself a bit and I can't imagine doing what I did today twice in a row.
After the natural self aligning, will I see spacing between the pads, or is that not really an important check? The bike shop did give me and official spacer, so I'm good there for taking the wheel off, but I'm not sure what else I need yo be checking in general to be safe. Perhaps not much this soon, it sounds like.
PSN: Kurahoshi1
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
The pads will move away from the disc a fraction of an inch, yes. Spin the wheel and listen for friction between the disc and pads - ideally there'd be none, but sometimes there can be just a little bit - this usually goes away after a short ride.
So I hate hate hate my MOST Ocelot seat that came on my Pinarello. I don't like the relief channel and I don't like the stupid way it stupidly angles up in the stupid front. So I bought a custom Fizik Antares R3 Large (cuz I'm a fat boy) in a matching gloss white and red paint scheme.
Stupid Ocelot
EDIT: My custom Fizik arrived yesterday! That's less than a week from order to arrival and it shipped from Italy!
So we get stiff once in a while. So we have a little fun. What’s wrong with that? This is a free country, isn’t it? I can take my panda any place I want to. And if I wanna buy it a drink, that’s my business.
My threshold for cycling these days is "below -10c is too cold, I'll take the bus", and we had a pretty cold February/start of March. But now it's getting warm! So I rode in and it was nice to be back in the saddle again.
Got to the bike cage by work, and it looks a bit icy in there -- it's at the bottom of a carpark and the way water flows through it can be a bit annoying at times:
Yup, over where I usually lock my bike up, there's definitely some ice:
oh
hang on
I leave my bike lock locked to a rack in the bike cage, because I don't want to carry it around with me all the time and I have a place to lock things up at home
Well I did 25 miles home from work on my new (to me) folding bike in Saturday. And it wasn't too bad.
Luckily I had the wind behind me for the most part because the legs into the wind were a bit tough as the geometry of the bike results in a very upright posture.
I just wish it folded a tiny bit smaller because then I could hide it under my desk at work. Maybe I should make my desk a bit taller.
Nice. You got a folding bike for storage, rather than public transit? I've coveted them, but not found a sufficiently compelling reason for the cost since I bike the whole way and have good bike parking.
PSN: Kurahoshi1
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
Hm
Got a funny click on the down-stroke on my right pedal on my commuter bike suddenly, which is mildly annoying since I just did a full clean of it the other week
Any suggestions other than taking it apart and lubricating it for funsies?
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
So I'm not sure whether I have an untrue wheel, and if I do how worried to be. I've probably ridden my new bike all of 15 times, so it's frustrating if it is off. It's my first time dealing with a through axle, and disc brakes, so I'm wondering how much it might be that I'm putting the wheel on wrong, but I can't figure out how I would be. I'm getting the disc generally aligned between the calipers, the frame is set on the wheels, I put the axle in and I tighten it. I can visibly see some wobble, and also hear the wheel just slightly brush the fenders, and on a previous ride(before some wheel adjusting, no fender noise) I thought I was hearing some disc brake rubbing without engaging the levers.
I would just take the bike into the shop right away to get it checked, but for various frustrating reasons I don't have a car that can take it, since I need a tow hitch installed and a more sturdy rack, so I'm wondering how much I might be able to try to reseat the wheel properly. Is this a bad idea without knowing much about bike maintenance?
PSN: Kurahoshi1
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
edited March 2019
I mean worst case scenario you end up watching a bunch of YouTube videos to help you reseat it once you take it off.
I remove my wheels all the time for travel/maintenance and yes, sometimes that means my friends who have just rented bikes have to wait and stare while I tighten/adjust/spin to listen for possible rubbing on the brake disc for a while before we ride, but it's a good skill to have (dismantling and troubleshooting your own bike, I mean) and the only way to get the skill is to try. In my opinion. Seriously though, YouTube has videos for all this stuff now, it's great. REI's channel especially is a godsend.
E: also I fixed my pedal click, just needed to complain about it and remove/reattach the pedal apparently
Lost Salient on
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
I messed with it a little more, and I'm not sure I'll be able to fix it, or that it's even really out of true. Should I expect exactly perfect spinning, or is some small wheel wobble normal? Both tires are wobbling slightly, and this is a new bike and I haven't hit anything big. I think the culprit on the front wheel is more likely to be a slightly bent fender.
1) Am I unwise to ride the bike a few times(~20-30 miles) with a slight contact with the fender on each revolution?
2) On the back wheel, as I spin it, and see that small wobble, I can see daylight on both sides of the disc between the calipers, and I can't seem to see any on the front wheel as it spins. I don't currently hear any brake rubbing, but is this a bad visual cue of misalignment of the calipers?
3) I have a bike trailer, and a new thru axle in place to attach the hitch. Perhaps the manual was being ultra cautious, but it warns against keeping that thru axle in for normal riding. Is it a big deal to leave it in most of the time? It only protudes about 2 inches.
It kind of sounds like the wheel isn't seated in the frame properly, but if you have a through-axle that really shouldn't be a problem.
Some visual wobble on a tire can be fairly common mostly from manufacturing variance, however the rim itself should be rock solid. Hold a plastic pen or something else soft against the frame or fork with the tip just off the rim surface to serve as a reference when you rotate the wheel. Any deviation more than .5mm and I'd be asking the shop to true the wheels. A radial deviation in the wheel is a bad sign, usually those are really hard to fix, but a lateral deviation can usually be fixed fairly easily.
I wouldn't ride the bike if there is any contact between the fender and the tire. It's possible you need to loosen the attachment of the fender to adjust it so there is no interference with the tire. Some fenders can be tweaked a bit if they have a metal core, but usually that isn't necessary on a fender that has had no collisions. If you need to ride the bike somewhere I'd completely remove the fender if you can't get it running without rubbing.
If the disc rotor is rubbing or wobbling that will need to be fixed, wobbling rotors generally have to be replaced, flattening them can be impossible.
If you can't hear or feel the rotor rubbing though it should be fine.
Thanks, sounds like I should just hold off until I can take the bike in. It's frustrating, but everything with the possible exception of the fit of the fender should be under warranty.
Bashed whilst parked or did that happen when riding along/as the result of an off. At first glance it looked like the bars were bent but I think it's just the shifter getting twisted round.
The rubbery cover over the shifter should fold back and there will be an adjuster (can't remember if screwdriver or allen head) that lets you adjust the band holding the shifter to the bars.
Bashed whilst parked or did that happen when riding along/as the result of an off. At first glance it looked like the bars were bent but I think it's just the shifter getting twisted round.
The rubbery cover over the shifter should fold back and there will be an adjuster (can't remember if screwdriver or allen head) that lets you adjust the band holding the shifter to the bars.
Think it happened when the gale force wind boston was suffering this morning wrapped my bike around a pole. Pretty sure it's just the shifter, I'm mostly just impressed that it managed to hit something hard enough to shove it that far round.
Eesh, I did something similar to a rental moped/scooter* a few weeks ago. Except that it was my own damn fault and not the wind. Hopefully it's not too bad to fix.
*: I'm saying moped but a lot of people would call them scooters. These days I want to avoid confusion with the stand-up scooters plaguing many cities. These are the sit-down kind a lot of people buy.
I kinda want to do new tape on my drops but I've never done it before and I'm moderately concerned it'll look fuckawful
Ah, don't worry about it; I redid my bars a couple of years ago and didn't quite get it right -- they still ride just fine, even though they look like this:
I feel like I need to vent, again, I'm just being grumpy. Commuting by bike is turning out to be so much more frustrating than I had imagined, and in particular its frustrating that it seems like you have to approach it with a hobbyist's level of detail, rather than just using it as a standard form of transportation, because of course things are built around cars and not bikes.
I bought the e-bike to help accomodate that issue, letting me commute in my work clothes easily, so it's a big heavy bike, with some strange frame geometry, and has fenders. Oh, I have a wheel alignment and/or fender true issue, let me go buy and install a hitch on my car because it's too heavy for a strap-on rack. Let me then get a frame hanging rack because so many platform racks hug the tires which would harm fenders. I do this, get the bike to the bike shop to fix the issues. Then, because it's an angled downtube leading the front tire to hang down low, and because a huge fire just a couple of blocks from the bike shop frazzles me, I take a different exit from the parking lot, hit the front tire, causing it to spin 180 days , break my velcro straps loose, and re-bend the fender(and hopefully not the wheel as well) which I just minutes ago had fixed.
Now as I shop for a better rack, I find myself hitting wall after wall, as racks either can't handle the weight of the bike, will interfere with fenders, or are only supported on 2 inch hitches and I was dumb and got a 1.25 inch hitch. There's such cornucopia of bike types and accessories, which is great in a way, but maddening when trying to pair them all together.
Maybe I was a bit too enthusiastic at the shop and/or the advice in the shop wasn't all that great, but I might have to go back and see if I can try a smaller frame size.
Gah, this stresses me out. I hate buying expensive things in person. I'm either overhasty or not make a decision at all.
And if I had bought a bike online it would be in my right to sen it back, but because I bought it in an actual shop I have to hope for goodwill on the part of the shop.
Maybe I was a bit too enthusiastic at the shop and/or the advice in the shop wasn't all that great, but I might have to go back and see if I can try a smaller frame size.
Gah, this stresses me out. I hate buying expensive things in person. I'm either overhasty or not make a decision at all.
And if I had bought a bike online it would be in my right to sen it back, but because I bought it in an actual shop I have to hope for goodwill on the part of the shop.
Usually your LBS is in a better place to send things back to the manufacturer. When I bought mine they actually ordered a Medium-Large and a Medium frame (for a £1000+ bike) and had them both ready when I went to pick it up with the identical build that I'd specced out (pedals, fenders, etc). They let me ride both around until I decided on the one I preferred and just parted the other one out, boxed it back up and set it aside to go back to the manufacturer when the next shipment was due. I'm sure they'll want you to be happy with your purchase because if it's not right you'll end up in a lot of pain
The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
I just called, and while he daid he thinks it was the right size, I caan come in to try a another size, so we'll see how that goes.
Right now it's a size 60 frame and I'm 1.77m with .83m leg, which of course I only thought of to check for after the visit to the shop.
So far I only ever bought 1 bike myself, a cheap one 10 years ago and the rest were all hand downs and such, so maybe I'm just freaking out abit over the cost of this one.
I just called, and while he daid he thinks it was the right size, I caan come in to try a another size, so we'll see how that goes.
Right now it's a size 60 frame and I'm 1.77m with .83m leg, which of course I only thought of to check for after the visit to the shop.
So far I only ever bought 1 bike myself, a cheap one 10 years ago and the rest were all hand downs and such, so maybe I'm just freaking out abit over the cost of this one.
They can also swap around stems/cranks for more comfort as well.
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DepressperadoI just wanted to see you laughingin the pizza rainRegistered Userregular
edited June 2019
what fortuitous thread timing!
I found my old like, teenager BMX bike with pegs and shit, in the basement
I pulled it out and the tires were good, albeit flat. so I pumped them up and rode around a little
until my smoker's lungs were like "lmao, exercise, dude, really?" and I had to stop and lay down in the grass until I could breathe again
in a cemetery, appropriately enough.
edit: I did get some good hops in, and I remember how to do a wheelie (it was so scary)
Can bicycles be stored outside? Since I have a house and don't yet have a garage I'd really like to finally get one.
Absolutely. Try to keep them out of direct sunlight and dry to minimise the effect the weather will have on them, but yeah they're fine outside.
Oh boy rip that idea then. We had something like 28 days of May with rain, and June so far is looking to be the same. I also live in one of the snowiest places.
I wonder if I can get a storage shed that will fit a bike.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
Posts
Bicycle calipers are all double-sided, that is they are solid-mounted with pistons on both sides, not on sliding pins with pistons on one side only like many car calipers. As long as the rotor is between the pads and not hitting anything else, the pads will self-align and center themselves after a squeeze or two of the brake lever.
It's the most i've done in a couple years. I've been thinking about doing a century and wanted to push myself a bit and I can't imagine doing what I did today twice in a row.
Stupid Ocelot
EDIT: My custom Fizik arrived yesterday! That's less than a week from order to arrival and it shipped from Italy!
Got to the bike cage by work, and it looks a bit icy in there -- it's at the bottom of a carpark and the way water flows through it can be a bit annoying at times:
Yup, over where I usually lock my bike up, there's definitely some ice:
oh
hang on
I leave my bike lock locked to a rack in the bike cage, because I don't want to carry it around with me all the time and I have a place to lock things up at home
I wonder what happened to it
hmmmmmmm
Luckily I had the wind behind me for the most part because the legs into the wind were a bit tough as the geometry of the bike results in a very upright posture.
I just wish it folded a tiny bit smaller because then I could hide it under my desk at work. Maybe I should make my desk a bit taller.
Got a funny click on the down-stroke on my right pedal on my commuter bike suddenly, which is mildly annoying since I just did a full clean of it the other week
Any suggestions other than taking it apart and lubricating it for funsies?
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
it's stayed warm, and after 10 days of melting, like a mammoth from the arctic, it emerges! (still working, too)
I would just take the bike into the shop right away to get it checked, but for various frustrating reasons I don't have a car that can take it, since I need a tow hitch installed and a more sturdy rack, so I'm wondering how much I might be able to try to reseat the wheel properly. Is this a bad idea without knowing much about bike maintenance?
I remove my wheels all the time for travel/maintenance and yes, sometimes that means my friends who have just rented bikes have to wait and stare while I tighten/adjust/spin to listen for possible rubbing on the brake disc for a while before we ride, but it's a good skill to have (dismantling and troubleshooting your own bike, I mean) and the only way to get the skill is to try. In my opinion. Seriously though, YouTube has videos for all this stuff now, it's great. REI's channel especially is a godsend.
E: also I fixed my pedal click, just needed to complain about it and remove/reattach the pedal apparently
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
1) Am I unwise to ride the bike a few times(~20-30 miles) with a slight contact with the fender on each revolution?
2) On the back wheel, as I spin it, and see that small wobble, I can see daylight on both sides of the disc between the calipers, and I can't seem to see any on the front wheel as it spins. I don't currently hear any brake rubbing, but is this a bad visual cue of misalignment of the calipers?
3) I have a bike trailer, and a new thru axle in place to attach the hitch. Perhaps the manual was being ultra cautious, but it warns against keeping that thru axle in for normal riding. Is it a big deal to leave it in most of the time? It only protudes about 2 inches.
Some visual wobble on a tire can be fairly common mostly from manufacturing variance, however the rim itself should be rock solid. Hold a plastic pen or something else soft against the frame or fork with the tip just off the rim surface to serve as a reference when you rotate the wheel. Any deviation more than .5mm and I'd be asking the shop to true the wheels. A radial deviation in the wheel is a bad sign, usually those are really hard to fix, but a lateral deviation can usually be fixed fairly easily.
I wouldn't ride the bike if there is any contact between the fender and the tire. It's possible you need to loosen the attachment of the fender to adjust it so there is no interference with the tire. Some fenders can be tweaked a bit if they have a metal core, but usually that isn't necessary on a fender that has had no collisions. If you need to ride the bike somewhere I'd completely remove the fender if you can't get it running without rubbing.
If the disc rotor is rubbing or wobbling that will need to be fixed, wobbling rotors generally have to be replaced, flattening them can be impossible.
If you can't hear or feel the rotor rubbing though it should be fine.
Hmmmmmmmm.
@rhylith @ASimPerson
The rubbery cover over the shifter should fold back and there will be an adjuster (can't remember if screwdriver or allen head) that lets you adjust the band holding the shifter to the bars.
https://si.shimano.com/pdfs/dm/DM-ST0002-05-ENG.pdf
Think it happened when the gale force wind boston was suffering this morning wrapped my bike around a pole. Pretty sure it's just the shifter, I'm mostly just impressed that it managed to hit something hard enough to shove it that far round.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
You can do it!
Ah, don't worry about it; I redid my bars a couple of years ago and didn't quite get it right -- they still ride just fine, even though they look like this:
I bought the e-bike to help accomodate that issue, letting me commute in my work clothes easily, so it's a big heavy bike, with some strange frame geometry, and has fenders. Oh, I have a wheel alignment and/or fender true issue, let me go buy and install a hitch on my car because it's too heavy for a strap-on rack. Let me then get a frame hanging rack because so many platform racks hug the tires which would harm fenders. I do this, get the bike to the bike shop to fix the issues. Then, because it's an angled downtube leading the front tire to hang down low, and because a huge fire just a couple of blocks from the bike shop frazzles me, I take a different exit from the parking lot, hit the front tire, causing it to spin 180 days , break my velcro straps loose, and re-bend the fender(and hopefully not the wheel as well) which I just minutes ago had fixed.
Now as I shop for a better rack, I find myself hitting wall after wall, as racks either can't handle the weight of the bike, will interfere with fenders, or are only supported on 2 inch hitches and I was dumb and got a 1.25 inch hitch. There's such cornucopia of bike types and accessories, which is great in a way, but maddening when trying to pair them all together.
Bike manufacturers and bike shops can feel like adversaries rather than allies when it comes to commuting and it's frustrating.
Gah, this stresses me out. I hate buying expensive things in person. I'm either overhasty or not make a decision at all.
And if I had bought a bike online it would be in my right to sen it back, but because I bought it in an actual shop I have to hope for goodwill on the part of the shop.
Usually your LBS is in a better place to send things back to the manufacturer. When I bought mine they actually ordered a Medium-Large and a Medium frame (for a £1000+ bike) and had them both ready when I went to pick it up with the identical build that I'd specced out (pedals, fenders, etc). They let me ride both around until I decided on the one I preferred and just parted the other one out, boxed it back up and set it aside to go back to the manufacturer when the next shipment was due. I'm sure they'll want you to be happy with your purchase because if it's not right you'll end up in a lot of pain
Right now it's a size 60 frame and I'm 1.77m with .83m leg, which of course I only thought of to check for after the visit to the shop.
So far I only ever bought 1 bike myself, a cheap one 10 years ago and the rest were all hand downs and such, so maybe I'm just freaking out abit over the cost of this one.
They can also swap around stems/cranks for more comfort as well.
I found my old like, teenager BMX bike with pegs and shit, in the basement
I pulled it out and the tires were good, albeit flat. so I pumped them up and rode around a little
until my smoker's lungs were like "lmao, exercise, dude, really?" and I had to stop and lay down in the grass until I could breathe again
in a cemetery, appropriately enough.
edit: I did get some good hops in, and I remember how to do a wheelie (it was so scary)
Absolutely. Try to keep them out of direct sunlight and dry to minimise the effect the weather will have on them, but yeah they're fine outside.
Oh boy rip that idea then. We had something like 28 days of May with rain, and June so far is looking to be the same. I also live in one of the snowiest places.
I wonder if I can get a storage shed that will fit a bike.