Category: cycling

CrankBrothers Shoe Shields

Published January 18, 2010

After hearing about CrankBrothers Shoe Shields from my friend Erik I decided to give them a try. There is a fair bit of wear on my shoes (photo) from the Eggbeater pedals that I use and these thin metal plates should head this off and keep the shoes functional for even longer. Priced at $10.99/pair (at the local ACF) it wasn’t worth trying to make my own, as I don’t have a ready source of stainless steel nor an easy way to make similar cuts.

When the replacement pedals (Eggbeater SLs – photo) for my failed Eggbeater MXRs arrived today I decided that while fitting them to the bike I’d also replace the cleats and fit the Shoe Shields. While new pedals and cleats will normally feel a bit nicer, the addition of the Shoe Shields and their smoothing out the bottom of the shoe to better-than-new condition made clipping and unclipping during a test ride feel wonderful. While I imagine they’ll stand up to wear, it’ll be interesting to see just how long they last.

If you’d like to see more photos of them, including the packaging, install directions, thickness, and detail of the materials used, check out my CrankBrothers Shoe Shields album.

Leave a Comment

Ride Until Failure

Published January 17, 2010

Today I met up with Rob and some friends of his at the intersection of 22 Mile and Shelby, heading out for ride intended to go to Metro Beach and back. As the weather was forecasted to be a partly cloudy 38°F surprise in the middle of January we figured it’d be a good day for a long ride. We proceeded to ride at a decent clip up to Nick and Marty’s place in Mt. Clemens, stopped to fit chemical toe warmers, picked up Nick, Marty, Jon, and Bob, then continued on to Metro Beach. One guy who was with us since Shelby Township dropped off here, as he lived in Mt. Clemens and had brought his single speed set up at 32:18 and the sustained ~16 MPH ride out almost wore out his legs.

By the time we got to gazebo at Metro Beach (the end of the path) I realized that I hadn’t eaten enough this morning and I’d run out of glycogen. Despite having food (gels and good granola) available. this coupled with a bit of wearyness from yesterday’s trip to Ray’s had me questioning if I’d be able to make it all the way back home, including the last four miles before my house which are very rough, frozen sidewalks. Since Bob had parked at Nick and Marty’s he offered to drive me back to my place, which was a really wonderful favor, as making it all the way back home would have otherwise proved quite complicated. I guess the partial avocado (it was kinda rotted), bowl of oatmeal, cup of coffee, and pretzel bread / cheddar sandwich that I had for breakfast wasn’t quite enough calories for this ride.

All said, the total distance for today’s ride was 42.18 miles, averaging 13.3 MPH (peak 24 MPH) over 3:09:28 of moving time. With yesterday’s 15.7 miles, that puts this weekend up along a somewhat exceptional summer weekend. My legs are only slightly sore and I didn’t collapse, so I guess I’m doing all right.

Leave a Comment

Ray’s MTB

Published January 17, 2010

I just got home from a trip down to Ray’s MTB in Cleveland, a really nice bike facility built into some old factories. We spent most of our time riding the the XC course, with stops in both the beginner and intermediate rooms, staying away from (but watching) the expert things, including some of the stuff that appears to be straight out of video games.

The trip worked out well, as I drove down Friday after work and split a room with Erik and Kristi. Lots of good food was had, and the weather was just about as nice as one could hope for in late January. Being above freezing put Ray’s building itself somewhere perfectly comfortable in shorts and light gloves/shirts.

At one point I let my front wheel slide while coming down a ramp and fell, but it only scuffed up my knee. The only other real problems were caused by other people, most notably kids on BMX/street bikes who can’t ride up hills but insist on riding the XC course. If they planned right it wouldn’t be a problem, but instead they’d stop part-way up hills, walk to the top, and stop. With the course being almost completely plywood it made stopping very difficult and restarting almost impossible. Then there were the collections of people who’d stop on any available mid-course platform, backing things up terribly…

That all said, this is definitely a place I’d like to visit again. Despite the few irritations riding there was a whole bunch of fun and quite a nice way to do some technical riding in the middle of winter. If you’d like to know more about it, head over to the Ray’s MTB website and check out the videos, maps, and things like that. There’s also a bunch of videos from there on YouTube. This video in particular shows a lot of the XC trail, even though it’s last year’s layout, which I’m told did not have nearly the number of lines (different route options) available now.

A few photos were taken today, but of those most ended up being crap. Here’s the few passable ones, including the one up top of the beginner room looking down from the place where one rides up a steep ramp into the ceiling/rafters:

· Erik’s bike, Kristi’s bike, and my bike in the hotel room when we went to Ray’s MTB in Cleveland.
· 24oz can of Colt 45 in my bike, in the hotel room. Works every time.
· Looking down from the ceiling in the beginner room of Ray’s MTB.

Leave a Comment

Broken Specialized Water Bottle Cage

Published January 14, 2010

Last night while looking over my hard tail bike I noticed that the Specialized water bottle cage on the bike, purchased roughly two years ago, has broken. While the weld was cracked it didn’t completely let go until I gave it a gentle squeeze, splitting it open, as can be seen here and here.

It’s a good thing that the King Cage bottle cages arrived Tuesday, as I was able to drop one of those on the bike. While silver, which doesn’t match the bike very well, it should work well and not break. Finding the crack at home is also much better than having it come apart while riding, as this tends to cause water bottles to fall and be lost.

Leave a Comment

Pretty, Pretty Metal

Published January 12, 2010

With today’s arrival of a Thomson X4 stem the handle bar on my new bike is now secured properly with a really wonderful looking stem. Well-machined parts are really beautiful. The stem also feels to be the right length and the black stem cap looks really good. And it’s made in the US! (Here’s a photo of the stem itself, just sitting on the workbench.)

The order that I’d placed with King Cage for some friends and I also arrived today (photo). In this order is a Iris cage, which is of a slightly different design than the standard water bottle cage. I’d purchased it for use with the previously mentioned Klean Kanteen, but it appears that the side loops don’t reach up to the shoulder of the bottle, so it’s only held in with friction (photo). I hope this isn’t a problem, but if it is I can always fall back on using a normal-ish bottle, which the Iris does hold quite securely around the indentation (photo). Or, worst case, I’ve got a spare regular King Cage-brand cage.

Now to wait for the pedals (should have shipped Monday) and the bike should be complete. I’ve also ordered a rather unique handlebar (Ragley Carnegie’s Bar) to try, but I’m not sure if I’ll fit that prior to the first single track ride this spring or not.

Leave a Comment

Snow Storm Ride

Published January 7, 2010

Wanting to get some exercise and ride a bit I set out on my bike at about 8:30pm. While originally intending to ride around the neighborhood and just see how well the Nokian Hakka WXC300 tires perform in real snow, I found they worked well and instead headed towards River Bends. Taking the usual routes I logged 11.39 miles over 1:17:39, for an average of 8.8 MPH. That’s slow, but considering the super-studded tires and riding through 3″ of powder over packed snow and ice, I don’t think it’s too bad. (In case you don’t know we’re actually in the middle of a snow storm; one which is potent enough that riding a bike is almost easier than driving.)

The tires work out really well, and their large knobs do a very good job of sticking in snow. When riding on somewhat-packed residential roads they felt a bit squirrly, but that’s to be expected as there wasn’t much for them to bite into, but it was too deep for the studs to be of any use. While on the paths/sidewalks and on the trails where the surface was snow/ice they were outstanding and I’m really glad I purchased them. While they are of obvious limited utility being for one particular season, it would be much more difficult to ride now without them.

One of the other interesting events of the night was getting made fun of. It’s been a while since I was last shouted at by people in cars, but maybe the snow brings out odd people. While riding along, just as I was crossing some train tracks on the path, someone in a black Chevy Avalanche driving slowly past yelled something out the window. Later on when heading back home it passed again, the driver honked at me. Further on still while waiting for a it passed another time, slowing so the passenger could yell “nice light, yo yo”. This whole time I was 20′ – 30′ from the road, on an adjoining path.

I get made fun of in the strangest places. Flipped off from the road which I’m 40′ above on a pedestrian bridge… Yelled at from people below me on a highway while I’m in a bridge… People are strange.

Anyway, here’s some photos from tonight. Any cloudy bits (such as seen above) are condensed breath and sweat from my arms hanging in the air, as it wasn’t windy enough to carry it away:

· My Specialized hard tail, in River Bends, while riding in the middle of a snow storm which had already dropped 2-3″.
· After a bit of riding I stopped in the park pavilion to eat a gel. Riding in 3″ of snow is hard work.
· My bike after getting home snowing snow packed into the rims and other bits.
· Rear triangle showing snow packed into the cassette, chainrings, etc.
· Another view of the rear triangle, this time from a higher angle. Lots of snow is packed into the bike. Note how clean the tires from riding in snow.
· Detail of the bottom bracket / front derailleur area showing packed snow.
· The fork, front wheel, and brakes showing how much snow is packed into this end of the bike.

Leave a Comment

Defective FSA OS-190 Stem

Published January 5, 2010

While working on my new bike I realized that a slightly shorter stem would be good, so I ordered an FSA OS-190 from Price Point. When the box of parts arrived it had been opened (photo), but as the thread locking compound on the screws was unmarred and there were no marks on the stem it appeared to be brand new. Unfortunately, after installing it I found a small crack in the stem cap, right near one of the bolts. Here is a photo of the stem on my new bike, with an arrow pointing to the cracked area.

Having torqued the stem bolts (cap and steerer) to FSA’s published 78 inch-pounds (FSA’s Stem and Post Torque Specs – PDF) I don’t believe this was caused by me during installation. This is also a particularly inopportune place to have a crack, as it could easily lead to stem/bar failure, which would likely result in a pretty bad crash. Even though it was relatively cheap and looks good on the bike when I request to return the item to Price Point I’m tempted to get a different stem, as I don’t want to risk there having been a bad batch.

Currently I’m thinking of a Thomson Elite X4, but now I have to decide on 0° or 10° rise. The aforementioned FSA is 6°, so 10° shouldn’t be too different…

UPDATE: Thinking about it, I wonder if follwing the FSA directions, which I followed, to “[l]ightly grease the bolt threads and under bolt heads” caused the problem. It’s my understanding that greased fasteners, particularly under the heads, are easy to inadvertently over torque, even with a wrench. This is because the fastener slips along much more than normal, and doesn’t provide the resistance that the torque wrench measures.

3 Comments

Sunday Morning Winter Ride at 10°F (-12°C)

Published January 3, 2010

Starting a bit after 11am a group of us headed out for some biking at Stony Creek. With temperatures bounding between single and double digits Fahrenheit it was definitely a cold day. With a double-layer of sweat pants and BDU pants, boots and toe warmers, thermal layer, fleece, and jacket I was almost a bit over-warm, but some armpit venting and selective undoing of layers made things rather nice. We ended up riding one course of the single track, visiting The Pines, The Snake, and The Roller Coaster before heading back to the car. This was a rather slow ride, with my middle of the pack average somewhere around 8.6 MPH.

Wanting to wear boots I also fitted my bike with platform pedals, which turned out to be an interesting experience. Since these pedals have a bunch of sharp pins to ensure good traction my foot had no float, meaning that whatever position my foot contacted the pedal in was the position I had to pedal in, unless I was able to lift up my foot and replace it. This doesn’t sound like a problem, but compared to a normal clipless setup where one can pivot a foot at will, it’s a bit uncomfortable. There were also times where I’d inadvertently come off of the pedal, not due to slipping but forgetting that I had to provide continuous, but ever so slight downward pressure while on the upstroke of the pedal. Thus, I’m really not sure I like platforms for riding single track. At one point I had to duck around a tree that I almost hit, and the familar motions that I’d make with my foot to move the bike sideways a bit didn’t work and I ended up clipping the tree.

All said, it was a very nice ride. Having studded tires I had no problem staying upright on icy patches, even if I did have to walk a couple glazed switchbacks in The Snake. With the frequent riding of others and the snow being as cold as it was, everything was packed into nicely gritty flat areas, as seen above.

Here’s a couple of the photos that I took today:

· Standing in the bathroom at the Stony Creek mountain bike trailhead getting ready for a cold winter ride.
· Regrouping at the end of The Pines.
· Heading towards The Snake on a cold single-digit Sunday morning.
· Bob’s icy mustache in the field after The Roller Coaster at Stony Creek on single-digit early-January ride.

Leave a Comment

Debadged Klean Kanteen

Published January 2, 2010

My sister got me a an 18oz. plain stainless steel Klean Kanteen Classic for Christmas, along with a Sport Cap 2.0. This will eventually be fit to my new bike with a stainless steel King Cage Iris for holding drinkable things (water, HEED, juice, etc) while biking. Being made of stainless steel the cage won’t leave any marks (save for scratches which can be polished out as needed) on the bottle, and it should look nice for years. It’ll also be easy to scrub out, should any unexpected funk develop.

Not being fond of having too many logos on things I removed the Klean Kanteen branding from the bottle with a No. 96 Scotch Brite pad, whose grit perfectly matched the existing finish of the bottle. A solid rubbing over the logos and a quick wash with a bit of soap and water later and the bottle is now nice and plain, ready to match the logo-free bottle cage.

I’ve been using the bottle and sport cap to drink from while writing this post and it’s really quite nice to drink from. With a silicone check valve on the top to let in air while drinking liquid flows quite quickly. The use of this check valve means that its not completely leakproof, but it should be sufficient for bike riding when the bottle is generally kept upright in a cage.

Leave a Comment

Acquired in Trade: WTB Laser V

Published December 30, 2009

Through a very timely trade with someone on the MMBA Forum I was able to swap my ill-fitting WTB Rocket V for this new and (very? overly?) shiny WTB Laser V. I’d already ordered a Laser V to try out, but unless this one’s appearance ends up being beyond reproach, I think I’ll be returning it. As can be seen here the chrome and yellow bits aren’t too terrible when taken in context with the yellow bits on the computer and the various silver things on the bar.

Being cloth the cover of this one is also a bit rougher than I’m accustomed to, but that should be okay for now. If it’s not there’s always plenty of other options. At least this one will only cost the $7 or so to ship back the unwanted saddle when it arrives.

3 Comments