[jabberwocky]

Its a pain, but honestly things could have been a lot worse. I’ve personally never had a steel frame bike make it past 6k miles or so (broken 3 of the damn things). As far issues go, a minor piece like that breaking off is pretty minor.

As for the BB, if you ride in crappy weather, those are gonna wear out. Especially cheap ones.

[jabberwocky]

@Powerful Pete 101515 wrote:

Ok guys, so how about a recommendations for a helmet mounted light?

I’d recommend leaving the helmet lights for off road riding and just putting what you need on your bars.

[jabberwocky]

Welding on a new rack eyelet to a steel frame is probably about the simplest frame repair there is, but I agree that you may as well let Nashbar take care of you.

[jabberwocky]

Easiest road route:

W&OD to Wiehle. Head towards Baron Cameron. Its a 4 lane road, but generally lightly trafficked and reasonably bike friendly. The light before Baron Cameron is North Shore Drive, turn right. It Ts on Ring Road, turn right. Loop around and make a right on Hunt Club Rd (watch for it, because its easy to miss), which takes you to the top of Lake Fairfax Drive. Turn right, and it takes you right into the park.

Off road route:

http://i.imgur.com/D7LNTEp.jpg

W&OD to Michael Faraday Ct (Ice Rink). Enter the trail in the corner. Follow the doubletrack down the hill, ignoring the side trails. After crossing the creek at the bottom, stay left, which will dump you at the bottom of the campground gravel roads. Follow those out to the main sports field road, take that around towards the main entrance of the park. The race in years past has been under the dam near the main entrance buildings.

[jabberwocky]

I hated people drafting off me when I used to commute on the W&OD (especially after being rear ended a few times), but I didn’t brake check. I’d just stop pedaling until they passed and then resume. It was only really annoying when they would pass and then slow down to below what I was riding before they started drafting me, forcing me to repass, after which they immediately latched back on to my wheel… In those cases I’d become somewhat erratic (rapid acceleration/brake/etc) to try and convince them to get away from me.

[jabberwocky]

If it was skipping in the drivetrain it would be very noticeable as such. Such slipping is never smooth. If it felt smooth and noiseless, my first bet is the tire slipped (happens, especially if you get out of the saddle and lean forward, unweighting the rear wheel somewhat). I’ve had it happen on oily or wet patches on occasion.

[jabberwocky]

Magcishine USA does seem to have replacement batteries for sale:

http://www.magicshineusa.com/products/batteries

[jabberwocky]

I think any of the generic chinese light batteries would work ok. Almost all bike lights are designed to run off 2 cell li-ion packs (li-ion batteries are generally 3.6-4.2 volts per cell depending on charge level). 4 and 6 cell packs just have additional cells wired in parallel to get additional capacity (wiring two packs in series adds their voltage but keeps capacity the same, wiring them in parallel keeps voltage the same but adds capacity). So its mainly finding a pack that has the right connector.

Its not something you want to mess up though. Improperly charging or discharging a li-ion pack can be… spectacular, in a fiery way.

[jabberwocky]

I personally run my Endura cycling shell when it gets cool as a wind blocking layer. I find that if I’m sweating excessively inside its because I layered too many insulation layers underneath. FWIW, I run the jacket with just a basic short sleeve base layer down to 40-45 degrees or so, and add a lightweight long sleeve base layer down to 20 degrees or so. I’m cold for the first 5-10 minutes until my body warms up and then I’m comfy.

[jabberwocky]

Morning commute was nice and relaxing, until my boss pulled up next to me and offered to drag race up the final climb to work. I beat him to the top but I think he let me win.

[jabberwocky]

Regarding the gates belt drive, I have one friend who was an early adopter. He had numerous tracking and belt-breakage issues, and eventually Gates upgraded him to to the newer center tracking one, which solved the tracking problems but he still broke several belts. There is a picture somewhere on FB of him using a broken belt as a tow strap so a friend could get him back to the lot. He really wanted to like it, but finally switched back to chains.

I also did a ride with someone recently who was taking their brand new belt drive SS out for a ride. The belt snapped less than a mile from the lot.

I just don’t know that they are really up to MTB abuse, especially on a singlespeed. They seem to do fine for commuting though.

[jabberwocky]

I know a few people who have tried belt-driven SS mountainbikes. I don’t think any of them ended up keeping the belt drive. They all had issues (mostly snapping belts) and converted back to chains.

[jabberwocky]

I commute in all weather on my carbon road bike. I’m religious about cleaning the drivetrain, but other than that it just gets dirty. The nice thing about a high end carbon bike is that its mostly materials that don’t care about water (composites, aluminum and titanium).

Chain is the one thing that you gotta watch. Rain kicks up all kind of crap, so the water washes away lube and dirt and grime get all over the chain. Will destroy a drivetrain fast if you don’t clean it.

[jabberwocky]

Framesaver is the popular commercial product. I used to use clear krylon from Home Depot. Worked ok. I solved the issue by breaking all my steel frames and switching to carbon.

[jabberwocky]

@Orestes Munn 99833 wrote:

Bearing “sealing” is a relative thing and no axle seal is watertight, but using a good waterproof grease can make a difference.

A good grease can definitely help a lot, but well designed bearing seals help a lot too. I think a lot of road components go for seals that don’t seal as well because they are focused on low drag. MTB components tend to be designed for rougher treatment. I love my Chris King hubs on the road bike, just because they require almost no maintenance. Since I built that bike I’ve had to service the headset bearings several times and have replaced the BB once, and have never touched the hubs and they are fine. You pay for that though.

Cheap bearings (like the headset ones on the road bike) I try and use heavy marine grease when I service them the first time. It helps, but it does eventually get contaminated and washed out.

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