[sam_aye_am]

http://salsacycles.com/components/category/racks/rack-lock

To replace your seat post clamp

OR

http://salsacycles.com/components/category/racks/post-lock

To attach to your seat post but still keep your seat post clamp. Probably more necessary for MTBs that have very short seat tube lengths with long seat posts.

[sam_aye_am]

If you haven’t already, take a look at Sheldon Brown’s lock strategy:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html

If you follow what he suggests as well as what others here have recommended, maybe you’ll feel more secure. I particularly like the suggesting of using as small of a U-lock as possible inside the rear triangle around the wheel. U-locks are defeated most of the time through leverage. The smaller, harder to reach U-lock poses more of a challenge to gain leverage over than a standard size u lock positioned nicely along the top tube or seat tube for a thief to reach with a pry bar. Go the full monty with a cable lock attached to the front wheel and the U-lock and now a would be thief needs specific tools to defeat each lock.

[sam_aye_am]

If nothing is working for you, start looking at alignment issues. Is the caliper ever so slightly out of parallel with the rotor face? Are the pads not seated evenly in the caliper?

If all of the previously mentioned approaches don’t solve your problem or only seem to solve it long term, seriously look into having your caliper mounting surfaces faced. I had a set of Juicy 7’s and then Avid Exlir CR’s that no matter what I did (most of the stuff mentioned previously in this thread in addition to multiple pad/rotor combinations), I couldn’t get more than a couple of rides before I’d get a horrendous donkey squeal sound out of my brakes every time I used them. My last resort was to have the disc brake mounting points of the frame faced. Problem solved. Finally, and after a lot of cash and effort thrown at it.

These days I’m running XTR trails on both mtb’s and BB7 roads on the commuter and road tandem. Every now and then something will contaminate the XTR pads and they will make all kinds of noise and loose all stopping power. I’ve tried everything in the book short of the dishwasher method mentioned, and the stopping power never returns on those. Pad replacement has been the only thing that works for me on the XTRs. My original contamination issue was due to damn near imperceptible leakage at the line fitting into the caliper. Replaced shimano lines and fittings with jagwire and have only contaminated pads twice since….once was because a gel leaked out of my pack and dripped all over the rear caliper. The other time was after a cross country flight (bike disassembled in the box and on the plane) that I still don’t know the root cause of, but I did have to bleed the brakes as well after that flight.

[sam_aye_am]

@jabberwocky 117954 wrote:

For rims, I’d look at the HED Belgiums, Pacenti SL23, Velocity AeroHead or A23. Kinlins (XR270 or XR300) are good budget choices. I put 7k miles on my XR270 rear rim before it needed replacing. The front has about 10k and is still ok.

For hubs, high end would be Chris King R45s or White Industry T11s. Slightly more budget are Hopes. I’d also look at Shimanos hubs if you need to save more. There are probably other good hub recommendations.

Spokes, I’d go with Sapims bladed spokes. Lasers or CX-Rays. DT swiss butted spokes for a more solid economical build.

Alloy nips.

I’d probably go 2 cross 28 or 24 spoke in the rear, and 20 or 24 spoke radial in the front. You’re pretty light. But if you’re commuting loaded you might to err on the side of more spokes.

Or for pre-built, I’d look at these:
http://www.novemberbicycles.com/alloynimbus/

Good deal. I’d take them over any Mavic/whatnot at that price. They use solid, standard components.

While not on my commuter, I basically have what jabs described on my road bike that I built myself. Pacenti SL23 rims, X-ray spokes, R45 hubs. 24 spoke radial lacing up front, 28 spoke 3x drive, 2x non drive side. Little over 2300 miles on the wheelset and all is fine…true as can be and they spin effortlessly. I’m usually 185-195 lbs…so you should be able to easily commute with similarly spec’d wheels. Whatever you do, consider going with at least a 23mm wide rim…assuming your frame and brakes can support. Widens out the tire and allows you to run a lower pressure…and more comfortable ride.

FWIW, I had Hope Pro Evo2 hubs on one of my mtbs while the other one had CK. Noise was nice when riding rosaryville because opposite direction riders usually heard me first. But the amount of crank rotation before engaging the hub compared to the CKs is like driving a cement truck vs a BMW M3.

I’ve been using the same CK hubs on my trail bike (6″ of travel) (different frames and just rebuilt the wheelset) for 8 years of some pretty significant abuse in a 1400g wheel set (26″). I know have CK hubs on 2 mtbs and my road bike. It was too hard to find a disc rear hub at 130mm spacing for the commuter, so I have a white industries rear hub. Engagement is slightly better than the hope hubs and I haven’t touched it in 6k or so miles of commuting year round. But, if I could have found a 130mm disc rear CK hub, that would be 4 bikes with CK.

[sam_aye_am]

@dkel 116383 wrote:

I had similar trouble with my STI a few months ago after only having the bike for a few months. I remember trying to tension the cable, and being unable to pull the thing hard enough to get it to start working. Very frustrating. Anyway, the cable was frayed inside the shifter, causing it to flake out. A new cable returned it to full function. I know you just put new cables in recently, but you may check that they haven’t frayed. Good luck!

Didn’t see your reply before getting into the garage after work…and after having to push start my motorcycle to get home of all things.

Sure enough, the cables some how frayed and pierced the cable end cap. Apparently binding the shifter up. Ordinarily, I’d assume some hack did this. But that hack was apparently me. :confused: I know I used my park tool housing and cable cutters and properly de-burred the ends. It isn’t like this was my first time at cable and housing installation or replacement. Maybe yokozuna (sp?) cables aren’t all that. Maybe I need to suck it up and track down the SRAM equivalent to the GORE Ride On cables I’m using on the mountain bikes. Guess I’ll keep monitoring.

On the plus side…relatively easy fix and there is nothing wrong with my shifter. No runs to the LBS or desperate orders on line. And I get to commute via bike tomorrow.

[sam_aye_am]

You are turning in the correct direction? I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve tried to loosen a pedal or two from a crank arm, only to find out that I am actually tightening. Just for a sanity check, you can look here:

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/pedal-installation-and-removal-pw-3-pw-4-pw-5-hcw-16

When installing, I always put a dab of grease on the threads to prevent future problems.

[sam_aye_am]

Westmorland (south bound from McLean)>WO&D>Custis>MVT>Memorial Bridge>Ohio Drive>Maine Avenue was my route this morning.

Westmorland was packed snow. Perfectly fine on 35C studs. Except for trying to cross Lincoln/Fairfax drive…I tried to punch through a snow berm and lost 6″ off my front fender. Brief stretch of WO&D between Little Falls and Lee Hwy was challenging, but ride-able for the most part. Lost of crunchy foot prints. Jumped on Lee to rejoin Westmorland and pick up WO&D in Falls Church Park off of Van Buren…and the trail was Plowed! Still probably had 1/4″ of packed snow in most spots, but again perfectly fine on skinny studs.

Conditions were fine until TR Island and the wooden bridges. Pedaled most of it, but probably would have been just as quick to walk with less effort. When I got to the west side of memorial bridge, I bush(snow)whacked it up and across GW parkway to take Memorial Bridge sidewalk on the side leaving DC vice plunging though for another hundred yards or so to take the crosswalk across GW parkway. Traffic was light enough that this was low risk. Any further progress east/south on MVT for me would have meant walking the bike.

Memorial Bridge sidewalks were similar to custis trail. Plowed, but with packed snow remaining and still ride-able for what I had. A little detour through the mall to join Ohio Drive where is was mostly wet with bits of slush. I could actually pedal at 14 mph (safely) for the first time today.

NPS/National Mall sidewalks around Jefferson weren’t plowed yet, and that was a real challenge. Though John Deer tractor was just getting to work on it when I rolled through at probably 9am.

[sam_aye_am]

Rode from into DC via Great Falls St, WO&D, Custis, MVT, and 14th St Bridge. I didn’t bike yesterday, so reference is Monday’s conditions while on studs. Less ice overall, but remaining ice was less navigable (or so it naturally seems when riding slicks today vs Monday’s studs).

As noted from consularrider, there is an ice field on the WO&D just west of little falls street. about 10-20 yards in length. Not much avoiding it, but I rode through it on 32C slicks.

Custis was beautiful except for usual trouble spot near the bridge to no where. Still rode this portion.

MVT between IOD and 14th street bridge was navigable for the most part. I did have a slow motion fall on an ice field and then decided to walk 2 more ice fields east. The significant ice was all east/south of the turnoff to cross GW pkwy and take memorial bridge.

Overall, less than a tenth of a percent was tricky and I’m glad I was on slicks. So much nicer to roll vice lumbering around on studs.

[sam_aye_am]

On 35mm studded schwalbe winter marathons, I generally headed south on Westmorland to pick up WO&D to Custis. Mostly uneventful and actually quite pleasant. Saw the Arlington crew clearing off the custis on my way in this morning too.

Trollheim bridge was okay-ish. As long as you could find the ice free paths that were there yesterday. Continued down MVT from there a bit and was able to keep pedaling more than I was yesterday. Until I passed where you turn off to cross GW parkway to take memorial bridge. I gave it a go for a bit and ultimately turned around. Not ride-able at all on skinny tires. Turned around, and went back to take Memorial bridge to Ohio drive and resume my normal route near Jefferson Memorial. Didn’t have to dab a foot even once. Everything was fine and Ohio drive was very pleasantly quiet.

Thanks for someone previously posting on how to get from MVT to Lincoln Memorial. Had I not seen that, I probably would have pushed the bike all the way to the 14th bridge today. Now it also looks like I have little excuse not to bike in tomorrow.

[sam_aye_am]

Check your quick release first. Then see if there is bearing play in the hub as hozn described. Finally check the spokes for obvious tension differences…simply grab pairs of spokes and squeeze together to get a feel.

My 2013 Roubaix came with a crap wheel set. No matter what I did, I had brake rub when I stood up to accelerate up a hill. Built my own wheels with quality stuff and not an issue. Also shaved a full pound off.

[sam_aye_am]

@ShawnoftheDread 103536 wrote:

Forget the bikes. Is that a ’67?

Almost…but because you can’t see the side marker lights in the pictures – it is a ’68. Coupe though.

[sam_aye_am]

As I tend to move around the country quite a bit, investing time and cash like Jabs and Matt have done doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. However, given the opportunity to put roots down I’d love to emulate stuff from both. However, like some on the forum, I have competing interests with the bike. But, the bike has been winning over the last 7 years or so. I’m just unwilling to give up on the other toys just quite yet.

First picture shows bike storage and work area for first two years living here:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]7324[/ATTACH]

Following pictures show the new place. Much nicer in that I can fit two cars, the motorcycle, all of my tools, and still work on bikes. It is tight, and not all bikes fit in the garage as two more are in the basement. Previous place here the VW had to sit out side full time. One day I’ll be geographically stable long enough to feel comfortable buying a place once again and making it really my own….
[ATTACH=CONFIG]7325[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7326[/ATTACH]

[sam_aye_am]

@hozn 101772 wrote:

Isn’t that only lime 2500 miles? The belt didn’t even last as long as a chain?

2745 Miles with ~ 200k of climbing on a 35 lb bike through snow, rain, mud, and lots of dirt. Think this guy averaged 160 miles /day. While not speaking to longevity, he also placed in the top 10 of the 2010 single speed worlds on a belt drive.

From the article : Eds Note: Typically, a Gates Carbon Drive belt will last twice as long as a chain, which proved true through the Tour Divide as other competitors had to do multiple chain replacements.

Gates: Do you think your belt drive was a factor in your victory?

Ollie: Definitely. The big time saving is the lack of lube. Craig would have to stop and lube his chain three or four times per day. Craig also changed his chain twice. It’s a psychological boost as well, knowing that you can keep riding without having to stop.

[sam_aye_am]

Couple of years ago, a guy set a new record for Tour Divide riding a belt drive rohloff. Only changed the belt once.
http://twentynineinches.com/2012/08/03/interview-with-tour-divide-winner-ollie-whalley/

[sam_aye_am]

I’m new to the forum. I’ve heard of it loosely, but never looked until a coworker mentioned a ride. I’ve been in the area for 25 months and expect to only be here another 15 or so and thought not much point in signing up. And honestly, fat tire riding is my preference so I have been on the MORE forum since I moved.

This thread compelled me to go ahead and sign up. Thanks Jabs.

I’m stuck in the Phoenix airport on my way out to CA for work, but plan on contributing more meaningfully to this thread once I’m back home (couple of weeks).

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