19 search results for "vaya"

Road Tubeless Sealing Issue: Narrow Tape

Published April 14, 2015

I had to throw out six ounces of fresh Stan’s, but at least I identified the most-likely cause of my road tubeless issues: the rim tape. For some new wheels that I’m building for the Vaya, 1/2″ tensilized polypropylene strapping tape (McMaster-Carr part number 7637a31), which seems to be the same as Stan’s NoTubes 12mm tape, was chosen for sealing the rim. This width covers the spoke holes, but after being pumped up to 70 PSI it seems to have leaked as the tape stretched.

The photo above shows where the tape slightly puckered and allowed air (and sealant) out when under high pressure.

The proposed solution for this issue is a double-layer of tape, partially off set side to side, to both make the area over the spoke holes thicker and have more tape stuck to the inner wall of the rim (photo). I would have used a wider tape, but the next size up is 21mm, and this doesn’t sit nicely in the U channel in the center of the rim (cross section).

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Kurt Kinetic Road Machine + Pro Flywheel

Published February 11, 2015

Earlier today I purchased a used (but nearly new) Kurt Kinetic Road Machine and Pro Flywheel from someone local for cash plus a set of nearly-new tires that I didn’t need. I’d been interested in trying out a trainer with a heavier flywheel than the Cycleops Fluid 2 that I’ve used for the last few years as I suspected it’d smooth out my pedal stroke and make for a more outdoors-y feel. I’ve had problems getting my heart rate to the same levels on the trainer as when riding outdoors, and I suspected it was from the higher drag, constant hill climbing feeling that I was getting with the Fluid 2.

For my first ride tonight I did TrainerRoad’s 8 Minute Test (without the Pro Flywheel) and thus far I’m very happy. There is a much longer coast/spin down time with this trainer vs. the Fluid 2 resulting in less of a climbing-stairs feeling and something more like riding into a strong headwind. This I’m fine with. The result of the power test put me at a 304W FTP^†, and during the test I was able to reliably get my HR to roughly my maximum, somewhere in the mid 170 BPM range. The last time I did a test (back in October) I was barely able to hit the 160s.

On my first try with the large flywheel — after removing it to wipe everything down — I noticed that there’s a bit of vibration when I’d get it to higher RPMs. I imagine it just needs a little aligning, but if I continue to have issues hopefully Kurt will help sort things out. The larger flywheel provided an even more intertia, and it almost felt like riding down a gentle grade with a steady headwind when using it. Serious effort was required to get it started, but once it was going it seemed to smooth things out even more.

I’ll try it out on some longer sustained-effort rides in the near future and perhaps even do another power test with it, just to see what happens. I really hate power tests, though…

† TrainerRoad claims that it’s Virtual Power is roughly 3% off from a power meter when used with a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine. It’d be nifty if this is the case, as I wouldn’t mind having a 300W FTP… That’d put me at roughly 3.79 watts per kilogram.

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Bike Stuff for Sale

Published December 3, 2014

Shuffling around bike parts and upgrading things have left me with some spare parts that I’d like to sell. Prices and photos are listed below, and I’ll consider reasonable offers. I live in Shelby Township, MI and work in Warren, MI and will be glad to meet anywhere in this general area to handle a sale. Contact me at c0nsumer@nuxx.net if you are interested.

Stan’s NoTubes Arch EX / Shimano XT Wheelset – $350: These are the stock wheels from my Salsa El Mariachi Ti, replaced only when I built up some carbon fiber wheels. Front is a 15mm TA and rear is QR, centerlock rotors. Very solid build and the freehub was recently replaced. Comes set up tubeless with Racing Ralph (2.25″) and Small Block Eight (2.1″) tires. The tires are well used, but still have some life in them, so I figured I’d include them.

SRAM Rival 2×10 Gravel Road / CX / Touring Drivetrain Kit – $600: All new parts purchased for a gravel road bike build that fell through. This would also be a great touring setup, CX setup, etc. All that’s missing is brakes and a frame to put it on. This is an outstanding value build kit, all-Rival solid stuff that works well. Items included are all SRAM Rival level: 31.8mm front derailleur, short cage rear derailleur, front derailleur shim (1-1/4″ seat tube to 1-1/8″ clamp), DoubleTap shifters (retail box, with full cables and housing), crankset (172.5mm arms, 50-34 chainrings), bottom bracket, PG-1050 cassette (12-28), PC-1051 chain.

SRAM Apex 170mm Crank Arms – $20: Very mildly used set of solid cranks. I removed these from my Salsa Vaya to go to 172.5mm cranks and have no need for them. I’ve got a set of new 50-34 rings, new chainring bolts, and new bottom bracket for it that I’ll throw in for another $45 ($65 total) if you want to make this a complete crankset. Want to try out different length cranks? Need a cheap but solid set of cranks? This is a good way to go.

Serfas Seca FPS Road Tires – $Free / Beer: 28c Serfas Seca FPS wire bead road tires. Cheaper tires that came on a used bike I bought, but plenty of life left in them. I prefer wider tires and have plenty already, so I don’t want these… Got a use for them? They are yours… I’ll trade for beer, a good story, etc.

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172.5mm Cranks and a Third Bottle Cage

Published March 25, 2014

This evening I fitted the Salsa Vaya with some eBay-special 172.5mm cranks. These are the same model (Apex) as came on the bike, but 2.5mm longer, which I hope will make me more comfortable on the bike. I also fitted a third bottle cage, which I hope to use this weekend. I’ve been invited to a century ride on Hines Drive, a popular road riding location on the west side of Detroit. If all goes as I hope — which includes weather cooperating — I intend to use this bike to do a wholly self supported road century on Sunday.

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Another Elegant Cadence Sensor Magnet Option

Published January 24, 2014

I’m apparently on a quest to find ideal neodymium magnets for triggering the cadence side of ANT+ speed/cadence sensors such as the Garmin GSC-10 and Wahoo Cycling Speed/Cadence Sensor. I’d previously tried wide/thin (10mm wide, various thickness) magnets such as the one seen here on the Salsa El Mariachi Ti which sit on the end of the pedal spindle. This works well on the El Mariachi Ti where the crank boot supports it from the side, but on bare cranks it’s not difficult to knock the magnet off. My friend Jeremy has lost at least one magnet this way.

A few days ago I received some 8mm x 10mm (diameter x height) neodymium magnet cylinders via eBay and these seem like an even better solution. On Crank Brothers pedals with 8mm hex sockets in the end of the spindle, these magnets slide snugly into the 8mm hole, with a bit over 2mm poking out. This works great for triggering the reed switch inside the cadence sensor, and unlike other magnets which simply stuck to the end of the spindle, roughly 75% of the magnet is inside of the pedal so it won’t be possible to knock this one off.

Removing the magnet as needed is pretty easy, too. Because there is no flat surface at the bottom of the hex socket the magnet is relatively easy to remove. It can easily be pulled out with another magnet, by sticking a flat piece of steel to the top, or grasped firmly (say, with pliers or some strong finger tips) and slid out. While getting to this fastener outside of a shop isn’t usually needed, it’s good to have the option.

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Forthcoming Motorless City Bicycle Equipment Thoughts

Published December 14, 2013

Chris from Motorless City Bicycle Company and I have been emailing back and forth about the specifics of the frame that he’s building for me; the unexpected prize from the drawing just before the Detroit Invitational Cyclocross race. This is likely going to end up as a basic 2×10 gravel road bike, and thus I need to start thinking about component selections. While I’ve got some fairly shiny, well-equipped bikes, I tend to prefer equipment that falls on the side of robust and cost effective.

Here’s my working list of how I’ll kit out the bike. Italics are have/already purchased/will be provided:

Frame/Fork: Motorless City Bicycle Company custom frame, for obvious reasons. RAL 2004 / Pure Orange. SM-CS50 adapters on downtube shifter bosses.

Headset: Cane Creek 40, or maybe a 100 if I pull it off of the Vaya.

Crankset: SRAM Rival, 172.5mm, 50/34, QBP CK4435

Bottom Bracket: SRAM Rival (comes with crankset)

Wheels: XT or Formula hubs, Velocity A23, DT Swiss Competition 2.0-1.8-2.0 butted spokes, 32 spoke, 3-cross, all black, brass or alloy nipples (or DT Swiss X370 / X470 wheelset originally from the Titus Racer X 29er).

Tires: Bruce Gordon Rock ‘n Road 700 x 43c (Alternate: Clement X’Plor USH since I already have them.)

Handlebar: Salsa Cowbell 2, 42cm

Stem: Custom Motorless City Stem, Matte Black (RAL 9005 / Jet Black). Measurements TBD. (Alternate: Thomson, 110mm, rise based on head tube and stylistic desires. 0 Degree X4 matches Vaya TT angle. Black.)

Seatpost: Thomson, non-setback, based on bike fit/frame requirements. Likely 27.2mm x 330mm or maybe 250mm. (Alternate: Salsa Pro Moto 2?) Black.

Seatpost Collar: Salsa? Thomson? DKG? Dimension? Something plain? Chris says he’ll provide something. 30.0mm. Black.

Saddle: Specialized Avatar Comp Gel (143mm)

Bar Tape: Generic black gel cork, whatever I find/have. Lizard Skins recommended by Ryan, maybe Specialized Roubaix?

Shifters/Brake Levers: SRAM Rival (Carbon Levers)

Front Derailleur: SRAM Rival, 31.8 clamp, to be shimmed w/ Wheels Manufacturing Delrin Front Derailleur Shim.

Rear Derailleur: SRAM Rival, Short Cage

Cassette: SRAM PG-1050, 12-28

Chain: SRAM PC-1051

Pedals: Crank Brothers Candy 3 (Black)

Brakes: TRP HY/RD, 160mm front, 160mm or 140mm rear. (Likely 160mm.)

Bottle Cages: King Cage Kargo Cage and Stainless Steel Cage (from Vaya)

Other Accessories: Planet Bike Superflash Stealth, UHMW Tape for Cable Rub, Scotch 2228 for Chain Slap, Timbuk2 Bike Seat Pack, Topeak Road Master Blaster Frame Pump, Niner YAWYD, Garmin Edge 510 w/ GSC-10.

(Updated 2014-Jan-08.)

(Notes from Apto fit: “Ended up moving the saddle forward about 5mm and seatpost up about 5mm. It was suggested that I consider moving my left cleat back a few mm to compensate for a slightly longer leg. I’ll probably go to a 2cm narrower bar, and got some great pointers for positioning the controls. I’ll likely go to a 172.5 crank, and I got numbers for it all that I can use on the custom bike.”)

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Avid BB7 Road w/ Black Knobs

Published December 2, 2013

Yesterday’s first ride (Strava) on the Salsa Vaya exposed the problem with BB5s that I was most afraid of: weird noises. Because of the loose pad design, whenever I’d hit a small bump a very audible bell-like “ting” sound could be heard as a pad would rattle against a rotor. Braking briefly would remedy this for a short while, but after not long it’d be back again. The brakes themselves performed much better than I expected, and were a really welcome feel when riding on a drop bar bike, but the noise began to bother me after a while.

I was even able to demonstrate this sound for my friend Roger by picking up the front end of the bike and dropping it gently, where it made the sound over and over again.

Thus it’s a really good thing that last Friday I’d won eBay auction 360797543167, for a set of dark grey Avid BB7 road disc brake calipers with black knobs for $76.85 shipped. This is a OE color not shown on the Avid website and clearly a bike take-off (photo as shipped), as they were missing one set of bolts/washers and didn’t include rotors. The auction claimed like-new, and save for a couple small nicks on the calipers everything is in great shape, and the pads look like new.

As expected setting them up with the existing rotors was extremely simple, and I’m ready to take them out for a ride. I really prefer this darker / monochrome look, as the lighter silver and red knobs doesn’t go well with anything else on the bike. I’d even stuck with the original black bolts to keep the colors as dark as possible. I’m glad I was able to find this set of calipers on eBay, because I believe they are otherwise unavailable in this color scheme.

A couple times while stopping last night I inadvertently locked up the rear wheel, skidding briefly. This makes me understand why many road bikes have 140mm rear rotors, as there really isn’t much stopping power needed on the back of a road bike. I won’t be switching to 140mm rotors, though, as the Vaya frame is post mount and thus can only take 160mm or larger rotors. I’m sure this won’t be a problem, and may even be a benefit if I do some longer / hillier rides, as I tend to drag my rear brake when I’m trying to keep my speed in check.

(Switching to the BB7 brakes even saved eight grams! The BB5s are 172g per caliper w/pads, and the BB7s are 168g w/pads. I’m sure that’ll make a tremendous difference!)

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2013 Detroit Invitational Cyclocross

Published November 30, 2013

Today was my first time attending the CX Czar‘s outstanding Detroit Invitational Cyclocross race. This properly casual race at Detroit’s Dorais Park (aerial image) takes place at the intersection of Mound and Outer Drive, just south of Eight Mile at the site of the historic Dorais Velodrome. This was one of the constantly hard non-endurance races that I’ve done, and very likely the most enjoyable. With a course that snaked around the lumpy and rutted fields of the park, near a burned out house, past some dumped jetskis, along the cracked concrete velodrome, through a tight spiral of death on a hill side, and featured a dumped light pole crossing as a barrier and a double-barrier rundown, it was hard. But awesome.

One nifty twist to this race is that, not long before the end of each lap, one can choose to consume a shot of tequila and take a shortcut, or ride a rough/hard section that adds on quite a bit of distance. I’d estimate that 4 or 5 passes through the shortcut would make up an entire lap, but balanced with the tequila… it’d be a hard, strategic choice. It’s a great twist, and perfect for the race. In retrospect I probably should have taken the shortcut more often, as I only went for it on my last two laps (out of six). I fell once or twice (gently) while trying to turn corners, stayed upright on the rough sections, and had a lot of fun.

The most surprising part of today was what I ended up winning. Just before the race started, as I took my place at the start, close to the end of the pack, the raffle was called out. I could barely hear the number, but pulled mine out and thought it might have matched. I asked for it to be called again and yes, it was mine. I wasn’t sure what I’d won, but it was soon apparent that it was something nifty: a new, custom bike from Motorless City Bicycle Co..

I was really surprised, and somewhere there are a couple photos of me with a rather ridiculous smile on my face. I’m still a bit in shock about it, but I’m really excited about how it’ll end up. Chris from Motorless City was there and informed me it’ll be a drop bar, rigid steel disc frame intended for fatter tires, which sounds a whole lot like what I’m going for with the Vaya. He’s also got a thing going with TRP and wants to fit it with their shiny new HY/RD hybrid disc brakes. I have a feeling the Vaya will find a new home once this is available…

Tomorrow I need to email Chris with my basic geometry likes and such, but I’m a bit too spent from today’s great race (and beer) to put those thoughts together now. That sounds like a nice project for a slow Sunday. I’ve already got thoughts swirling around… I’m excited about this.

Wrap this all up with a great time hanging out at Kuhnhenn with a bunch of Velvet Elvis folks and other people from the race and it’s been a darned fine day.

(Here is the Garmin data from the race displayed by Strava. Here are three photos of me from the race; the first taken by Bob Bruce and the other two by Marty Shue: 1, 2, 3.)

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Road Bike Disc Brakes, Oh My!

Published November 23, 2013

My dislike of the Avid BB5 design is already prompting me to look for different disc brakes for the Salsa Vaya 2. While I’ve only briefly ridden it, the typical BB5 problem is already rearing its head: the pads on these brakes are separated by a single spring in the middle of the pad. When sitting retracted the pad will pivot around this spring, resulting in one side or the other falling against the rotor and rubbing. See the results for avid bb5 pad at Google Image Search to see how it looks.

This can be briefly reconciled by squeezing the brakes and letting them retract, but its so common that simply moving the bike around the house will make the problem happen. The vibration of actually riding makes it happen pretty frequently. Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes (and Shimanos, and I presume others) don’t have this problem because they use a box shaped spring that holds the pads apart from the ends. It’s quite an irritation without a good solution and something which coupled with the smaller size pads bothers me enough to do something about.

That leaves the question of what to get. There are a number of mechanical disc brake options out there, but most of them are variants (usually weight reductions) on these four, with my personal pros/cons of each:

Avid BB7 Road:

+ Known quantity, very familiar with the mountain version of this brake.

+ Same pads as the Mukluk.

+ Can easily be found on eBay, sometimes as just calipers. I have two new compatible rotors already.

– Some reviews claim they aren’t as nice as the mountain version.

– Except for some OE versions the silver color doesn’t quite match the Vaya unless a high end version is selected.

TRP Spyre:

+ Uses Shimano pads which are easy to get, but not the same as the Shimano BR-CX77.

+ Actuates both pads at once, unlike most other mechanical designs.

– No experience, not many reviews.

Shimano BR-CX77 (PDF):

+ Shimano stuff tends to be well engineered.

+ Same pads as XT brakes on El Mariachi Ti.

– No experience, difficult to find reviews, but are the replacement for the recalled BR-CX75 and supposedly feel the same.

Hayes CX Expert (CX-5)

+ Spec’d by a few manufactures, including All City on the Macho Man Disc.

– No experience with these; do not known anyone who has them.

At this point I think the best / most cost effective option may be to simply find some BB7 road calipers for a reasonable price and use the rotors that I already have. This’d use up some spare parts, likely cost less, and allow me to use spare pads that I already have…

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