5:05 riding time and 5:58 all up. And it tipped me over 1000 miles for the year so far.
Temperature >20°C for the duration with the "feels like" temperature from the nearby weather station being more like >25.
Only had to inspect one hedge and didn't actually run out of water till nearly home but think I should have drunk more and run out of/topped up my water but I seem to have got away with it. I didn drink two full pints (UK pints!) of water in the first few minutes of being home.
I'm still feeling pretty good, I've definitely felt worse after rides of that duration. I think taking up running and the extra cycling I've been doing during lockdown have got me the fittest I've been in a few years.
Got out just as the sun set for two hours in the lanes. Decided to ride tonight as I've been intending a night ride since about April and when I checked yesterday I realised it would be a full moon so :thumbsup:
Of course once I got out of the streetlights and hedgerowed lanes I found that the moon was only just over the horizon and then it promptly disappeared behind a cloud :facepalm:
But I have a dynamo and decent lights so I trundled off up to Herstmonceux church where I discovered my jelly beans were in the other bag that's in the spare room so I just stuck my long top on and headed home again. Didn't bother with the leg warmers as they weren't really necessary and a bit fiddly to put on - I'd have been fine without the top too but as I had it...
I saw a few bats flitting about and discovered some funny little microclimates depending on where the bits of hedge were and where the road dipped and climbed and how close the drainage channels were to the road. Went from pockets of warm air to cool and back again.
Lovely stuff, did 23 miles in a couple hours but I'm glad I wasn't out any longer - I'd forgotten just how much extra concentration riding in the dark can need on smaller lanes.
Confirmed, the local bike supply is crap. I haven't called every shop, but from what I can find, there's literally one gravel bike I know is in stock, and it's at a store that isn't allowing test rides. So assuming they think it fits my needs, I probably want to try and order the Salsa Journeyman and rely on a 7 day return policy if it ends up not working out. The alternative, maybe if it's back-ordered for months on end might be the Co-op Cycles Adv 3.1, but, it's got bar end shifters. It seems like it might be worth trying to avoid those if I plan on doing a fair bit of city riding where I'll be shifting gears quite often?
Got out just as the sun set for two hours in the lanes. Decided to ride tonight as I've been intending a night ride since about April and when I checked yesterday I realised it would be a full moon so :thumbsup:
Of course once I got out of the streetlights and hedgerowed lanes I found that the moon was only just over the horizon and then it promptly disappeared behind a cloud :facepalm:
But I have a dynamo and decent lights so I trundled off up to Herstmonceux church where I discovered my jelly beans were in the other bag that's in the spare room so I just stuck my long top on and headed home again. Didn't bother with the leg warmers as they weren't really necessary and a bit fiddly to put on - I'd have been fine without the top too but as I had it...
I saw a few bats flitting about and discovered some funny little microclimates depending on where the bits of hedge were and where the road dipped and climbed and how close the drainage channels were to the road. Went from pockets of warm air to cool and back again.
Lovely stuff, did 23 miles in a couple hours but I'm glad I wasn't out any longer - I'd forgotten just how much extra concentration riding in the dark can need on smaller lanes.
yeah night riding makes me too tense to do it for recreation, even with a decent headlight - creatures darting across your path, sudden speeding drivers, unseen potholes, they suck all the fun out.
Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
Yeah I'm a big baby about it, too. Maybe if I get some prescription exercise glasses it would help? I dunno though.
Here's my new ride! I lucked out (like I mentioned before) and found a bike shop in Singapore that is an authorized All-City dealer. I think the brand is small enough that maybe it's just not as popular with new riders locally? Or maybe it's a price point to brand recognition thing? Regardless, they were able to get me the exact bike I wanted in about a month. Saddle is a Selle Anatomica X2 - so far I am real happy with it although my love of tinkering means I adjusted it slightly Sunday and now I think it's less perfectly situated. I also swapped the pulleys and chain and bar plugs for funsies and now I gotta decide what part to make a project next.
Possibly I'll just do some work on my Surly - redo the brakes, chain and cassette over there instead.
"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 dunno, the right sort of night on the right roads and it can be lovely. I just need to get used to it again - and pick a better route, the lanes I was on were a bit narrow and potholey. But the seafront route along to Bexhill and beyond would have been fine - especially once the full moon came out again.
Traversing the length of Wales (twice) back in 2013 was an amazing ride. But the long night section on that trip was an open road in decent condition and I didn't need to be fast (though I was maybe a bit too slow) just had to get into a rhythm and knock out the miles. Your world just condenses down to the bubble of light and the swish of the tyres on the tarmac.
The best best best time to ride in a lot of ways for me is through the dawn. It gets light ever so gradually and the world is black and white and shades of grey and then, all of a sudden, and you never see the transisiton, colour comes into the world.
Damn I wanna go out and ride some more now but I'm working. Booooo.
That's a point, I haven't put the bike away yet, I just stuck it in the kitchen when I got in. Best go do that.
Not really happy with the bike I bought last year. In hindsight I'm apparently a push over and the store was probably more interested in selling what they had on the floor than giving good advice I have probably maybe definitely a frame that's at least a size too large.
So now I think I at least have to get a new lower and shorter stem to make it more comfortable.
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Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
I also swapped the pulleys and chain and bar plugs for funsies and now I gotta decide what part to make a project next.
I have added these pedals to my basket on Amazon a couple of times but can't quite justify it yet.
Also, if you want to get expensive, some of the high end SRAM rear cassettes look like this:
It's currently running Shimano 105's so the SRAM cassettes will sadly not work unless I swap the whole mess, BUT DON'T THINK I'M UNAWARE THAT THESE CASSETTES EXIST
I AM VERY AWARE
Haha
I think I'll swap the pulley cage for pure aesthetics next, and maybe even if I feel spicy get some oil slick screws to replace the existing matte black screws (I really wanted oil slick Chicago screws for my saddle but apparently these don't exist ugh why). I'll do the hubs and headset maybe and MAYBE someday a custom wheelset depending on how long we go without being able to leave the country (basically my travel budget is going directly to cycling right now).
I also have some holographic bar tape from Supacaz waiting in the wings but it's a waste of bar tape to swap it just to look shinier I reckon...
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 got out before lunch today, and it's a hot one 30C "feels like" 33C (86/92F) and did a loop up and round Beachy Head/Birling Gap. Haven't done that particular loop since April when I did it once at the beginning and once at the end managing 12.4 & 12.3mph respectively.
Well I got round the 18.5 miles today with an average speed of 14.1!
And I'm currently looking at routes for a long ride at the weekend to bag some more VeloViewer squares.
And then I need to drag the bike out from under the stairs again as I just remembered that something was creaking on the slow steep bits of today's ride and I don't think it was my knees!
Haha none of the local bike shops can fit a service in until mid-September . Guess Im doing a partial tear down myself because these brakes really need a good once over.
I still booked it in for five weeks from now, that way professionals can fix whatever I fuck up.
Hot hot hot. I was definitely dehydrated when I got in. About half an hour after getting in at 5pm it was still "feels like" 33C/92F! And I set off at 11am and rode through from then so it was certainly much hotter around midday/1pm. Mad dogs and Englishmen eh?
Lovely day out though, finished strong albeit slowing a bit towards the end. I didn't have the proper struggling for the last bit which sometimes occurs. I did eat later than planned but obviously not too late.
Riding past the end of my road at 90k I was very tempted to call that plenty but I looped the block a couple times to push me over 100.
Rocky Mountain Blizzard 10, on clearance as it's "last year's model" because the 2021 models are coming out any day now. Tires are 4.8", which is pretty wide:
but the frame has just about enough space (pedals will at some point be the rainbow ones I posted earlier, for now they're some beat-up old Odyssey Twisted pedals I took off the unicycle for the short term):
It is a _lot_ of fun to ride -- here's a loop on some local paths/singletrack (which has got pretty overgrown in spots by now so I'm glad I know where they are), along some rocky beaches by the river, through some more narrow riverside trails, and you get to see me take two tries to make it up a slope because I'm out of practise and forgot where to put my weight:
There's nothing there you couldn't do on a non-fatbike, I think (maybe the rockier bits of beach would be a bit of a pain) but it is very nice just being able to point my way at terrain, pedal, and as long as my legs have enough oomph I can get through it without worrying about the details.
Downside: it is a silly bike. Riding on roads is not a lot of fun, but isn't all that bad either; I'm running about 6-8 psi which is a bit bouncy but not as slow as I'd thought it would be on flat stuff, and it only takes five minutes from home to the start of that video anyway so it's not a big deal. I don't think I'd choose it for popping out for a quick errand or anything, though, but I _am_ looking forwards to using it for the bike ride to work when winter gets here and it's snowy. (assuming I'm not still WFH at that point, I guess).
Haha none of the local bike shops can fit a service in until mid-September . Guess Im doing a partial tear down myself because these brakes really need a good once over.
I still booked it in for five weeks from now, that way professionals can fix whatever I fuck up.
oh well great my brake pads absolutely needed replacing so I made a special trip out this morning on foot to pick some up (since re-installing the wheels just for a 5km ride sounded like a pain). Aaand ... there's something slightly off about my rear calliper, and the new brakes won't let the back disc rotor spin even with 100% of everything fully retracted.
I think there's a slight asymmetry in the rotor placement, looks like it's sitting much closer to the inner pad than the outer, but even at minimum cable tension and maximum adjuster spacing I've got full contact on at least one side.
So ... I replaced one of the rear brake pads, used the least worn of my old pads on the other side (they're all about 2mm down from full, so that does work but it's dumb), and am wondering if hand sanding the other new pad to take a millimetre off is a bad idea. It probably is.
What model brakes are they @tynic? I know the Avid BB5s on mine need the caliper position itself adjusting when replacing pads. The BB5s have one fixed and one moving pad unlike some where both pads move.
The process is like this. It may be that your brakes need something similar.
That or your rotor is warped/out of true but that would probably have been apparent before now.
Fwiw I find that if my brakes are set for a decent feel at the lever then when I spin the wheel on the workstand it's impossible to avoid a scooch scooch sound but it doesn't actually stop the wheel turning especially when actually on the road rather than on the stand.
I'd have to go look about brands, its dual move but I can try that procedure and see if it recenters the caliper.
It's not just a scooch though, the wheel literally won't rotate freely. I had to get a different brand of pad cause of what was available locally and I wonder a bit if these are abnormally thick... Anyway I'll try the recentering!
It might work so it's worth a shot. I imagine there's a similar process for dual moving pads that I've not come across so once you know which brakes you have...
I'd be careful about using worn pads. I've heard from one person I know about that pads that are nominally worn (I think they start in his case at 2.4mm and are 'worn' with still >1mm pad material left), well he kept using them as that's plenty of material right? Yeah it turns out once they get to that point the whole pad of friction material can just lift off the backing plate in one go!!
I hate to state the possible obvious - but when you say minimum cable tension do you mean by adjusting the barrel adjusters only or outright releasing the cable clamp and retensioning?
It might work so it's worth a shot. I imagine there's a similar process for dual moving pads that I've not come across so once you know which brakes you have...
I'd be careful about using worn pads. I've heard from one person I know about that pads that are nominally worn (I think they start in his case at 2.4mm and are 'worn' with still >1mm pad material left), well he kept using them as that's plenty of material right? Yeah it turns out once they get to that point the whole pad of friction material can just lift off the backing plate in one go!!
I hate to state the possible obvious - but when you say minimum cable tension do you mean by adjusting the barrel adjusters only or outright releasing the cable clamp and retensioning?
Just barrel adjusters - I hate reclamping the cable on my own, I always feel like I need three hands somehow. So that’s kind of my last resort. I figured if it came to that, I’m checking it in for a professional once over in a few weeks anyway so they can deal with it.
Good to know about the pads - on the one hand these look like they’ve still got a decent amount of material left, but on the other, two of them have started to crumble slightly at the edges and I can’t remember when they last got replaced, there’s a non zero chance I’ve put 20,000 km on them. And I am a paranoid braker on steep hills, so they’ve probably had it tougher than most. I’ll have a go at centering the pads and see if that fixes things (the rotor is straight at least, that’s the first thing I checked).
Stem swaps are easy. There's loads of good articles/tutorials out there.
Getting the pre-load on the bearing set correct is something I have seen people mess up a few times. I tighten the cap until any axial play is completely gone and then tighten another 5 degrees or so of rotation. Mind the torque specs for the stem bolts, you can crush carbon bars and steer tubes if you over-torque those fasteners.
Depends on if you have to remove the handlebars or not -- some of the stems I have just loosen up and you have to slide the handlebar out, in which case you'll have to remove all the levers and stuff from that side, which might be fiddly because grips can be annoying to remove. If the current (and new) stem just have the whole front part removable then it should be a lot easier.
(edit: looks like pretty much every stem available nowadays has the whole front removable so this most likely isn't an issue for you)
I guess the only other thing is how much change you're making, and if the new bars are further away than the old ones, is there enough slack in the cables to let you move things further out?
djmitchella on
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valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
edited August 2020
It's been a while since I rode a bike last. About 27 years ago. I had a mountain bike that I loved, and I've tried to sit on a bike recently and noticed I had trouble because the handlebars were in so much closer than my muscle memory remembers. As in my gands were closer together and I had a hsrd time balancing. Is that normal now?
I'd like to try to get a bike, but I'm leery of wearing a helmet all the time (I know that's bad, just not used to it.) And the handlebar thing bothers me.
It's been a while since I rode a bike last. About 27 years ago. I had a mountain bike that I loved, and I've tried to sit on a bike recently and noticed I had trouble because the handlebars were in so much closer than my muscle memory remembers. As in my gands were closer together and I had a hsrd time balancing. Is that normal now?
I'd like to try to get a bike, but I'm leery of wearing a helmet all the time (I know that's bad, just not used to it.) And the handlebar thing bothers me.
As someone who was in a similar spot recently, other than the bike sounding like it may not fit you anymore (as doodmann said), part of it is just practice. Took me about thirty minutes of riding around to get back to mostly feeling confident in what I was doing again.
Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
It can also just be frame geometry! Sometimes a bike's geometry just means it doesn't feel right to you. Reach can be tricky to figure out how to calculate if it isn't in the specs but it makes a big difference.
In other news I love my new bike and this Selle Anatomica saddle is the beeeeeees knees for booty comfort
The funny adjustment has been that the Surly Trucker - shockingly - reallllly kinda drives like a truck in comparison to the All-City, so I'm having to adjust to a really lively ride. Not a complaint, just amusing when I rubberneck to check on my ride buddies and the bike's like WHAT'S THAT? WANNA U-TURN?
My other bike excitement has been that a friend brought over her Cannondale road bike so we could take a whack at servicing the bottom bracket and it turns out neither of us - despite having enough upper arm strength to be a triathlete (her) and do various handstands/kick-ups/inversions in yoga (me) - could exert enough force to release the left crank arm of her FSA Gossamer crankset. WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE SELF-EXTRACTING AND EASY TO SERVICE. WRONG. So instead we just drank a beer and gave my dog a bunch of attention, which is good too I guess but less satisfying...
"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 bought this guy. I just rode it for about 10 minutes and it's definitely weird, because it's not only my first ever drop bar bike, but also because of the bar-end shifters. The narrower drop bars makes it more wobbly when standing for a climb, but that definitely feels manageable. For the bar end shifters, reaching down to them isn't even the initial problem, it's that it takes more force than I anticipated, so I can't really use my pinkies, I basically need three fingers to adjust the rear derailleur. Weirdly, the left shifter feels like it might be set up as a friction shifter(not sure if the terminology is right), there's no clicking, as opposed to the right one which has much more discreet clicks for each gear.
Question, right off the bat it was delivered to me with a small scratch on the right crank. It's annoying, but I'm not sure it's worth complaining about. I can take a shortcut and use nail polish on it, right? Or spring for auto-paint? It's matt black so getting a match shouldn't be hard.
Off the bat, I'm glad I got this less racey bike than the diverge, because it's already livelier than my flat bar hybrid, so yeah, maybe baby steps for twitchiness for me.
Also, jfc, my one car garage is so full, with four adult bikes, and three kid's bikes. I've gotta hit purchase on a bike wall rack soon.
Had my bike serviced, should've given it a better look when I got it back. Just now realized that the guy at the shop put a big fat glob of chain fat onto the front sprocket. It's a belt drive.
It's been a while since I rode a bike last. About 27 years ago. I had a mountain bike that I loved, and I've tried to sit on a bike recently and noticed I had trouble because the handlebars were in so much closer than my muscle memory remembers. As in my gands were closer together and I had a hsrd time balancing. Is that normal now?
I'd like to try to get a bike, but I'm leery of wearing a helmet all the time (I know that's bad, just not used to it.) And the handlebar thing bothers me.
On helmets, as a person who biked in the southern US, I get not wanting to wear one but please do. If you can spend the extra money, there is a WORLD of difference between even a basic bike store helmet and whatever Bell is selling at walmart. They both meet the crash specs, but the one at walmart will be huge and not vent well because they get there with thick cheap foam and few vents (and good on em, cheap safety is better than nothing). Whereas if you can spend a bit more suddenly you get materials and engineering and design! Not only do they PROBABLY look cooler but they'll be able to keep you cooler too.
I know at least one person that got irreparable brain damage because they didn't wear a helmet on their town bike when they got a front flat and went head to curb right quick. So if you're into that sort of thing, go for it.
Helmets are light and comfy these days.
I would say crashing your bike and hitting your head always results in brain damage. Even a mild concussion can have symptoms that last for weeks or months. Speed + pavement is a lot for the brain to handle.
In the ER I see two types of crashes. Homeless dudes going low speed who got hit by a car at low speed, not wearing a helmet, usually pretty messed up i.e. altered level of consciousness. Road bikers going fast wearing a helmet, also pretty messed up though mostly non-brain injury stuff. Everyone else is dead on scene.
for sure. Don't be the dude who spends the rest of his life watching cartoons in your parent's spare room with the mental capacity of a 5 year old because you were too cool for a helmet.
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One buddy had heat stroke kick in right at the very end (fortunately after finishing) and it did not look fun
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
Temperature >20°C for the duration with the "feels like" temperature from the nearby weather station being more like >25.
Only had to inspect one hedge and didn't actually run out of water till nearly home but think I should have drunk more and run out of/topped up my water but I seem to have got away with it. I didn drink two full pints (UK pints!) of water in the first few minutes of being home.
I'm still feeling pretty good, I've definitely felt worse after rides of that duration. I think taking up running and the extra cycling I've been doing during lockdown have got me the fittest I've been in a few years.
Is this...is this what fitness feels like?
Of course once I got out of the streetlights and hedgerowed lanes I found that the moon was only just over the horizon and then it promptly disappeared behind a cloud :facepalm:
But I have a dynamo and decent lights so I trundled off up to Herstmonceux church where I discovered my jelly beans were in the other bag that's in the spare room so I just stuck my long top on and headed home again. Didn't bother with the leg warmers as they weren't really necessary and a bit fiddly to put on - I'd have been fine without the top too but as I had it...
I saw a few bats flitting about and discovered some funny little microclimates depending on where the bits of hedge were and where the road dipped and climbed and how close the drainage channels were to the road. Went from pockets of warm air to cool and back again.
Lovely stuff, did 23 miles in a couple hours but I'm glad I wasn't out any longer - I'd forgotten just how much extra concentration riding in the dark can need on smaller lanes.
yeah night riding makes me too tense to do it for recreation, even with a decent headlight - creatures darting across your path, sudden speeding drivers, unseen potholes, they suck all the fun out.
Here's my new ride! I lucked out (like I mentioned before) and found a bike shop in Singapore that is an authorized All-City dealer. I think the brand is small enough that maybe it's just not as popular with new riders locally? Or maybe it's a price point to brand recognition thing? Regardless, they were able to get me the exact bike I wanted in about a month. Saddle is a Selle Anatomica X2 - so far I am real happy with it although my love of tinkering means I adjusted it slightly Sunday and now I think it's less perfectly situated. I also swapped the pulleys and chain and bar plugs for funsies and now I gotta decide what part to make a project next.
Possibly I'll just do some work on my Surly - redo the brakes, chain and cassette over there instead.
"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
Traversing the length of Wales (twice) back in 2013 was an amazing ride. But the long night section on that trip was an open road in decent condition and I didn't need to be fast (though I was maybe a bit too slow) just had to get into a rhythm and knock out the miles. Your world just condenses down to the bubble of light and the swish of the tyres on the tarmac.
The best best best time to ride in a lot of ways for me is through the dawn. It gets light ever so gradually and the world is black and white and shades of grey and then, all of a sudden, and you never see the transisiton, colour comes into the world.
Damn I wanna go out and ride some more now but I'm working. Booooo.
That's a point, I haven't put the bike away yet, I just stuck it in the kitchen when I got in. Best go do that.
I have added these pedals to my basket on Amazon a couple of times but can't quite justify it yet.
Also, if you want to get expensive, some of the high end SRAM rear cassettes look like this:
So now I think I at least have to get a new lower and shorter stem to make it more comfortable.
It's currently running Shimano 105's so the SRAM cassettes will sadly not work unless I swap the whole mess, BUT DON'T THINK I'M UNAWARE THAT THESE CASSETTES EXIST
I AM VERY AWARE
Haha
I think I'll swap the pulley cage for pure aesthetics next, and maybe even if I feel spicy get some oil slick screws to replace the existing matte black screws (I really wanted oil slick Chicago screws for my saddle but apparently these don't exist ugh why). I'll do the hubs and headset maybe and MAYBE someday a custom wheelset depending on how long we go without being able to leave the country (basically my travel budget is going directly to cycling right now).
I also have some holographic bar tape from Supacaz waiting in the wings but it's a waste of bar tape to swap it just to look shinier I reckon...
"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 got out before lunch today, and it's a hot one 30C "feels like" 33C (86/92F) and did a loop up and round Beachy Head/Birling Gap. Haven't done that particular loop since April when I did it once at the beginning and once at the end managing 12.4 & 12.3mph respectively.
Well I got round the 18.5 miles today with an average speed of 14.1!
And I'm currently looking at routes for a long ride at the weekend to bag some more VeloViewer squares.
And then I need to drag the bike out from under the stairs again as I just remembered that something was creaking on the slow steep bits of today's ride and I don't think it was my knees!
I still booked it in for five weeks from now, that way professionals can fix whatever I fuck up.
Hot hot hot. I was definitely dehydrated when I got in. About half an hour after getting in at 5pm it was still "feels like" 33C/92F! And I set off at 11am and rode through from then so it was certainly much hotter around midday/1pm. Mad dogs and Englishmen eh?
Lovely day out though, finished strong albeit slowing a bit towards the end. I didn't have the proper struggling for the last bit which sometimes occurs. I did eat later than planned but obviously not too late.
Riding past the end of my road at 90k I was very tempted to call that plenty but I looped the block a couple times to push me over 100.
Rocky Mountain Blizzard 10, on clearance as it's "last year's model" because the 2021 models are coming out any day now. Tires are 4.8", which is pretty wide:
but the frame has just about enough space (pedals will at some point be the rainbow ones I posted earlier, for now they're some beat-up old Odyssey Twisted pedals I took off the unicycle for the short term):
It is a _lot_ of fun to ride -- here's a loop on some local paths/singletrack (which has got pretty overgrown in spots by now so I'm glad I know where they are), along some rocky beaches by the river, through some more narrow riverside trails, and you get to see me take two tries to make it up a slope because I'm out of practise and forgot where to put my weight:
There's nothing there you couldn't do on a non-fatbike, I think (maybe the rockier bits of beach would be a bit of a pain) but it is very nice just being able to point my way at terrain, pedal, and as long as my legs have enough oomph I can get through it without worrying about the details.
Downside: it is a silly bike. Riding on roads is not a lot of fun, but isn't all that bad either; I'm running about 6-8 psi which is a bit bouncy but not as slow as I'd thought it would be on flat stuff, and it only takes five minutes from home to the start of that video anyway so it's not a big deal. I don't think I'd choose it for popping out for a quick errand or anything, though, but I _am_ looking forwards to using it for the bike ride to work when winter gets here and it's snowy. (assuming I'm not still WFH at that point, I guess).
oh well great my brake pads absolutely needed replacing so I made a special trip out this morning on foot to pick some up (since re-installing the wheels just for a 5km ride sounded like a pain). Aaand ... there's something slightly off about my rear calliper, and the new brakes won't let the back disc rotor spin even with 100% of everything fully retracted.
I think there's a slight asymmetry in the rotor placement, looks like it's sitting much closer to the inner pad than the outer, but even at minimum cable tension and maximum adjuster spacing I've got full contact on at least one side.
So ... I replaced one of the rear brake pads, used the least worn of my old pads on the other side (they're all about 2mm down from full, so that does work but it's dumb), and am wondering if hand sanding the other new pad to take a millimetre off is a bad idea. It probably is.
The process is like this. It may be that your brakes need something similar.
That or your rotor is warped/out of true but that would probably have been apparent before now.
Fwiw I find that if my brakes are set for a decent feel at the lever then when I spin the wheel on the workstand it's impossible to avoid a scooch scooch sound but it doesn't actually stop the wheel turning especially when actually on the road rather than on the stand.
And @djmitchella that bike looks awesome. Gimme!
It's not just a scooch though, the wheel literally won't rotate freely. I had to get a different brand of pad cause of what was available locally and I wonder a bit if these are abnormally thick... Anyway I'll try the recentering!
I'd be careful about using worn pads. I've heard from one person I know about that pads that are nominally worn (I think they start in his case at 2.4mm and are 'worn' with still >1mm pad material left), well he kept using them as that's plenty of material right? Yeah it turns out once they get to that point the whole pad of friction material can just lift off the backing plate in one go!!
I hate to state the possible obvious - but when you say minimum cable tension do you mean by adjusting the barrel adjusters only or outright releasing the cable clamp and retensioning?
Just barrel adjusters - I hate reclamping the cable on my own, I always feel like I need three hands somehow. So that’s kind of my last resort. I figured if it came to that, I’m checking it in for a professional once over in a few weeks anyway so they can deal with it.
Good to know about the pads - on the one hand these look like they’ve still got a decent amount of material left, but on the other, two of them have started to crumble slightly at the edges and I can’t remember when they last got replaced, there’s a non zero chance I’ve put 20,000 km on them. And I am a paranoid braker on steep hills, so they’ve probably had it tougher than most. I’ll have a go at centering the pads and see if that fixes things (the rotor is straight at least, that’s the first thing I checked).
Getting the pre-load on the bearing set correct is something I have seen people mess up a few times. I tighten the cap until any axial play is completely gone and then tighten another 5 degrees or so of rotation. Mind the torque specs for the stem bolts, you can crush carbon bars and steer tubes if you over-torque those fasteners.
(edit: looks like pretty much every stem available nowadays has the whole front removable so this most likely isn't an issue for you)
I guess the only other thing is how much change you're making, and if the new bars are further away than the old ones, is there enough slack in the cables to let you move things further out?
I'd like to try to get a bike, but I'm leery of wearing a helmet all the time (I know that's bad, just not used to it.) And the handlebar thing bothers me.
As someone who was in a similar spot recently, other than the bike sounding like it may not fit you anymore (as doodmann said), part of it is just practice. Took me about thirty minutes of riding around to get back to mostly feeling confident in what I was doing again.
In other news I love my new bike and this Selle Anatomica saddle is the beeeeeees knees for booty comfort
The funny adjustment has been that the Surly Trucker - shockingly - reallllly kinda drives like a truck in comparison to the All-City, so I'm having to adjust to a really lively ride. Not a complaint, just amusing when I rubberneck to check on my ride buddies and the bike's like WHAT'S THAT? WANNA U-TURN?
My other bike excitement has been that a friend brought over her Cannondale road bike so we could take a whack at servicing the bottom bracket and it turns out neither of us - despite having enough upper arm strength to be a triathlete (her) and do various handstands/kick-ups/inversions in yoga (me) - could exert enough force to release the left crank arm of her FSA Gossamer crankset. WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE SELF-EXTRACTING AND EASY TO SERVICE. WRONG. So instead we just drank a beer and gave my dog a bunch of attention, which is good too I guess but less satisfying...
"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 bought this guy. I just rode it for about 10 minutes and it's definitely weird, because it's not only my first ever drop bar bike, but also because of the bar-end shifters. The narrower drop bars makes it more wobbly when standing for a climb, but that definitely feels manageable. For the bar end shifters, reaching down to them isn't even the initial problem, it's that it takes more force than I anticipated, so I can't really use my pinkies, I basically need three fingers to adjust the rear derailleur. Weirdly, the left shifter feels like it might be set up as a friction shifter(not sure if the terminology is right), there's no clicking, as opposed to the right one which has much more discreet clicks for each gear.
Question, right off the bat it was delivered to me with a small scratch on the right crank. It's annoying, but I'm not sure it's worth complaining about. I can take a shortcut and use nail polish on it, right? Or spring for auto-paint? It's matt black so getting a match shouldn't be hard.
Off the bat, I'm glad I got this less racey bike than the diverge, because it's already livelier than my flat bar hybrid, so yeah, maybe baby steps for twitchiness for me.
Also, jfc, my one car garage is so full, with four adult bikes, and three kid's bikes. I've gotta hit purchase on a bike wall rack soon.
On helmets, as a person who biked in the southern US, I get not wanting to wear one but please do. If you can spend the extra money, there is a WORLD of difference between even a basic bike store helmet and whatever Bell is selling at walmart. They both meet the crash specs, but the one at walmart will be huge and not vent well because they get there with thick cheap foam and few vents (and good on em, cheap safety is better than nothing). Whereas if you can spend a bit more suddenly you get materials and engineering and design! Not only do they PROBABLY look cooler but they'll be able to keep you cooler too.
Helmets are light and comfy these days.
Don't be the guy that got side swiped on one of the roads up here and cracked their skull open on a curb... potentially getting some brain damage.
Is all of that worth some mild discomfort and $150?
Hell, if you spend a little bit more the helmets are really comfortable and light as a feather (and they look sick as fuck):
https://www.foxracing.com/rampage-comp-reno-helmet/26576.html?dwvar_26576_color=179&dwvar_26576_size=M&cgid=mtb-mens-helmets-rampage
https://www.foxracing.com/rampage-comp-reno-helmet/23178.html?dwvar_23178_color=465&dwvar_23178_size=M&cgid=mtb-mens-helmets-rampage
In the ER I see two types of crashes. Homeless dudes going low speed who got hit by a car at low speed, not wearing a helmet, usually pretty messed up i.e. altered level of consciousness. Road bikers going fast wearing a helmet, also pretty messed up though mostly non-brain injury stuff. Everyone else is dead on scene.
but there's brain damage and then there's brain damage