[Harry Meatmotor]

@kcb203 84582 wrote:

I love group rides, but don’t appreciate huge groups. The 5 Boro Bike Tour was the biggest cluster**** I’ve ever seen. Tens of thousands of riders of all skill levels, with fast riders starting in back and slow riders at the front. I only did it once but saw two crashes that probably required serious medical attention. And I’m done with the Freshbikes ride after dealing with wahoos who don’t know how to ride in a pack. I occasionally go to Hains Point for the lunchtime ride, and 98% of those people know what they’re doing even though they’re going 30+. But I’ve heard about crashes there as well.

The Freshbikes ride was a topic of discussion last sunday on my weekend ride – I fear it’s days are numbered as it’s currently run, imho. They’re either going to have to limit rider #’s or start splitting groups and run multiple routes. I’ve only been on it once and that was enough asshattery for me. The same goes for a LOT of people i ride with – very few of my riding friends think it’s a safe ride at all.

this is more of an aside (and i can’t find the original research cause i’m lazy…), but some naturalistic driving studies showed the ratio of close calls to accidents per trip was something like 25 to 1. of course, i’m halfway pulling this shit out of my ass, but during a ride like the 5 Boro or Freshbikes, I’d expect similar numbers – then multiply out for 300 riders and you’re looking at a bumped shoulders or crossing wheels with somebody for most of the ride. That’s not fun – that’s more like a Cat 5 race, but nobody podiums.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@ShawnoftheDread 84445 wrote:

Now I can’t wait until my bike breaks!

now you’ve just jinxed it. you’re going to have two flat tires when you try to ride home tonight and your pumps gonna be broken and your spare tube will have a hole and your patch kit will have dried up glue and your CO2 cartridge head will leak out the CO2 before you get it on the valve or you’ll blow the tire off the rim inflating it.

or you’ll never have a mechanical again for the rest of your cycling career.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@KLizotte 84272 wrote:

Newbie question: what is the difference between a) overhauling, b) repacking and c) simple cleaning of BB bearings? I presume (a) entails new bearings, (b) entails popping out and cleaning in solvent then regreasing, and (c) is a simple wipe down. But I may be very, very wrong….

I think my BB was simply cleaned by the LBS mechanic and now it is super quiet – no more creaks! Perhaps the moral of the story is to start simple and work up from there.

depending on the BB system, OSBB, PF30, BB30, BB86 / PF86 or whatever, they all kinda work the same. There’s a pair of large sealed cartridge bearings that are held into the frame through an interference fit. Some systems have differing amounts of interference (the amount of force needed to press the bearings into the shell varies). The cranks have an integrated spindle that passes through plastic bushings that contact the inner race of the cartridge bearings. cleaning the spindle, the interface between the spindle and the non-drive crank arm, and the plastic bushings then applying some decent grease to all the bearing surfaces and re-installing everything is usually enough to quiet most systems. Sometimes there are thrust washers that can get chewed up and need to be replaced before a BB will quiet down, too. Sometimes you’ll need to press the bearings out of the shell and clean the shell to get things to quiet down. Sometimes the crank spindle will get worn and never sit flush within the bushings, or the bushings between the bearing inner race and crank spindle will become worn or even crack – there’s no way to fix either of these situations without replacing parts. Also, good quality grease goes a long way in today’s modern BB systems. I’m partial to high quality automotive grease like Mobil One full synthetic or Redline CV Joint grease.

now, overhauling is a bit different than just cleaning all the load bearing surfaces. Truly overhauling a sealed cartridge bearing system is generally not needed unless the grease inside the bearings is dirty. if there’s a grumbly/rumbly noise coming from the BB when you spin the crank arms, you probably need to overhaul or replace the bearings. and in that case, replacing the bearings is simpler than cleaning and repacking them. In fact, to pull the seals on a cartridge bearing typically ruins the seal (unless you’re really careful), so unless the bearings are designed to be overhauled, i.e. like Chris King bearings, then it’s smarter to just replace them.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@Dickie 84197 wrote:

Certainly, I will probably be dealing with it in the next week… I’ll PM you with a head’s up.

I’ll just add here that there’s a difference between overhauling the BB bearings and cleaning the BB/crank interface. 9 times out of 10, all a PF30 or BB30 system needs is some cleaning.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@bikenurse 84141 wrote:

Flooding in the usual place by the rail bridge construction — detour via Alt route 1 and Decatur street
[IMG]https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/v/t1.0-9/10255729_649284471804940_7062488966006657215_n.jpg?oh=d121857fc76abcff6c1c20aa0248926d&oe=53DEA7C9&__gda__=1405092346_bb44db27dd29049357d45daa7ac148c6[/IMG]

WTF are those folks doing?

“OH HAI, LETS GO PLAY IN NASTYFUNKWATER! KTHANKS BYE!”

[Harry Meatmotor]

@KLizotte 84147 wrote:

… which may or may not be fixed via a Loctite application.

I’d be very cautious using Loctite to solve the problem – just using any old thread locking compound isn’t exactly going to do what it’s supposed to do. Loctite has a whole boat load of different formulations for different applications (i.e. locking bolt threads is a different animal than securing an interference fit between a steel bearing and an aluminum BB shell). Also, there are some compounds that are specified for interference fit (or press fit) that require heat to remove – I’d definitely shy away from those. Also, most shops are only going to have one or two thread locking compounds on hand, Loctite Red & Blue, neither of which are actually supposed to be used for interference fit parts.

Do know that both crank/BB manufacturers and frame manufacturers tend to look at tech service bulletin/warrantee type noisy BB problems from the perspective of only trying to make the noise go away, serviceability be damned. So they’ll recommend to shops to just glue the f-ing stuff together… and when it comes time to replace the bearings, well, whaddya know, they’re stuck in the frame for good! Time for a new bike!

[Harry Meatmotor]

@KLizotte 84087 wrote:

Am I doing more damage by riding it for the next month?

Probably not. If its something really bad, it won’t be temperature dependent, imho. Also, there’s two creaks that the venerated SB doesn’t attribute to pedaling force creaks that I’ve found on more than one occasion:

loose/dry QR skewers (clean then apply a light amount of grease to the dropouts, then add a couple drops of light oil to the cam of the QR and make sure the QRs are nice and tight)

loose rear derailleur hanger (this one drove me nuts on a customer’s bike once – I was absolutely positive a creak was coming from the pedal spindle/pedal insert in the drive side crank arm – even swapped cranks & pedals and the creak went away… for a week. noticed the shifting wasn’t staying in adjustment between the customer’s visits and finally noticed the rDer hanger bolts were a little bit loose – tightened up, no more creak for good.)

[Harry Meatmotor]

@baiskeli 84065 wrote:

Wearing glasses on a cloudy day, let alone in heavy rain, is ELITE. If they are prescription glasses, then having special prescription bike glasses is also ELITE.

rule #36, thank you.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@consularrider 84015 wrote:

Is that sticker like a bandage to cover the dent and add structural integrity?

sticker = +5rwhp

[Harry Meatmotor]

@vvill 83958 wrote:

I’ve really had trouble getting behind 11 speed, perhaps because my bikes are all 9/10 speed (or 7 speed on my old MTB). I think the next wheelset or whatever I get will be 11 speed compatible though just for future proofing, even though I have no intention of upgrading anything else. None of the Shimano cranksets/rings I have will be compatible with the new 4 bolt chainrings either.

I think you’ll find that a lot of hub manufacturers realized that the difference between 9/10 spd and 11 spd compatibility amounts to merely machining away 1.85mm of the cassette body splines and including a matching 1.85mm spacer. That work wasn’t much to entertain, and therefore maintaining 9/10/11 spd compatibility will be pretty simple. of course, i’m leaving campy out of the discussion…

[Harry Meatmotor]

@hozn 82772 wrote:

The polished-silver Archetypes really are beautiful … The ano black ones look great too, but the surface wears off with breaking and many think it looks “not great”. I love them on my (disc-brake) commuter. There’s also the grey/green “hard ano” version that apparently has less of an issue with brake wear. But I would go polished on a bike that is as much about form as function.

You should be able to build a sub-1600g Archetype wheelset pretty affordably.

The Mavic wheels are heavy! But 30mm deep looks nice. (But if you want deep rims, why not just Kinlin XC279 rims — if you want wide — or XR300?) Also, these look like traditionally narrow rims? I would go with wide rims — better tire profile with narrow tires, support bigger tires better, etc. — why not!

Maybe also consider Pacenti SL23 rims? Lighter than Archetypes. Folks love ’em.

I can vouch for the Pacenti’s – almost as nice as HED Belgiums/Ardennes (just a little less durable anodization by the looks of it) and depending on where you get them, they’re about half the price of the HEDs. The brake track on the Pacentis are very well machined and they’re surprisingly light, about 440 grams. Lace the Pacenti’s up to a decent set of hubs, i.e., Novatecs, and you’re probably looking at a ~1500 gram wheelset for way less than a grand (full retail plus labor).

As far as the H+Son hard anodize – I’ve burned through mine on my TB14s in about 800 (commuting) miles. I’d say there’s little functional difference between the black ano and the hard ano.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@ebubar 83960 wrote:

I don’t know if this is ELITE or just insane…

it’s a little hard to tell, but it looks like he’s got his glasses on OVER the helmet straps, so I’d say gotta be ELITE.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@hozn 83896 wrote:

Sweet! Look forward to the build pics. Is that a bike for racing? I was really tempted to do the Force22 on my build, but I somewhat stupidly built my wheels with a 10-speed only hub — to save $30 (on $800-worth of wheel parts …). So I did 10-speed Force. I figure 10-speed still has a few more years before it is obsolete, though I assume 105 going to 11 is the tolling of that bell. (When dealing with disc-brake hubs, though, there’s still a prevalence of 10-speed stuff since MTB is a little slower to add a cog.)

No racing for me. I tell myself that if i were to start racing, it’d be more like work (i’d actually have to “train” which means no more beer drinking, my commute would be considered “junk miles” and I’d have some wattage gizmo, which means my wife would have to put up with me strava-bragging). But i do like to hang on with the Cat 3 & 4 guys I occasionally ride with. I wanted to build a different flavor than my Pistola. Stiff, light, and fast. Luckily the November Rails have 11spd hub bodies, too, and the cost difference between Force and Force22 is minimal. Specialized is out of stock on the murdered out frames, hopefully back in stock mid-summer.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@paulg 83670 wrote:

I think I know what you are trying to do. Before inserting axle into hub you lock the cone and the locking nut on to the axle on the drive side, then put in the new wheel bearings into grease in the freehub to stop them falling out, you can then insert the axle from the freehub side to sit the cone against the bearings. Now you thread the cone and locking nut to the axle that protrudes on the NON drive side (after putting in new bearings in grease) and do all you axle adjustments on the NON drive side where you should be able to access, with cone wrenches, both the cone and locking nut.

This article is great for cone adjustments.

http://sheldonbrown.com/cone-adjustment.html

Hope that helps.

This is exactly right – another reason to only touch the non-drive side lock nut and cone is so you don’t affect the drive-side outer lock nut to drive-side hub flange spacing. If you add or take away spacing from this side of the axle, you’re shifting will be off as you’ve effectively moved the hubshell either towards or away from the dropout in the frame. Also, the metal dust cover is, in fact, removable, but you’ll likely need a blind bearing pull to remove it without damaging it. Another tool that’s indispensable when working on cup and cone hubs is a decent axle vise. Hozan makes a nice axle vise but the Park Heavy Duty axle vise works just about as well.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@dkel 83828 wrote:

I want to hear about it! My Straggler covet is pretty close to a “spouse-approved pending purchase.”

the new high-speed steed: 54cm Spec. Allez Smartweld with some Force22 hung on it. I’ll be repurposing the November Rails for this bike. The Salsa Pistola will keep the HED Belgiums laced to King hubs for good.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5413[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]5414[/ATTACH]

[Author]

Posts