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Troubleshooting a Salsa Skewer

Published December 12, 2013

I really, really like riding my Salsa Mukluk, but ever since receiving it I’ve had a problem with the rear skewer loosening while riding. After 1-2 hours of hard riding on semi-rough trails I’ll hear some unexpected rotor rub from the rear, occasionally things will feel sloppy, and upon stopping I’ll find the rear skewer has become loose and sometimes I can manually wobble the wheel in the dropouts. This is a more pronounced version of the problem I’d had with the Salsa skewer on the El Mariachi Ti, and partially due to the lack of 170mm skewers I’ve decided to try solving myself.

Based on suggestions from some engineering-oriented cycling friends I first cleaned the skewer’s cam mechanism and lubricated it with Tri-Flow (a nice PTFE lube), thinking that maybe the problem is a rough action keeping me from being able to appropriately tighten it down. In case it continues to loosen I’ve also marked the quick release skewer nut’s position to determine just how much it is rotating. Before riding I’ll probably also mark the lever. While I believe it’s the nut that is rotating (I hadn’t noticed the lever changing position), I want to rule out both sides of the bike.

If this cleaning and lubrication effort doesn’t eliminate the loosening I’ll probably end up trying a set of Hope skewers and giving them a go as they are the only other well-regarded option for 135mm / 170mm bike hubs. I really wish that Shimano made their high-quality internal cam skewers in these widths, but as they don’t I’m stuck trying to find other solutions…

Update on February 23, 2014: After ~2 months of winter riding, including some rough surfaces, the skewers are now holding tight. It seems like lubing the cams to allow them to be further tightened is what did it.

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House Numbers in reCAPTCHA

Published December 12, 2013

Earlier today when setting up a new Google Group for planning a CRAMBA event I noticed that Google’s reCAPTCHA service has moved from using just scanned book images (info on how this worked) to using house numbers which I suspect are from Google Street View. I imagine that this works well for them because house numbers are inherently human readable and successfully translating them to integers is likely key to their reverse geocoding efforts.

EDIT: Apparently this is old news. Shows how often I use reCAPTCHA… I first noticed it today.

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Mounting Problems: Garmin Edge 510, OS X, and VMware Fusion

Published December 11, 2013

Despite some quirky problems, I’ve been using Garmin Edge devices (first a 500, now a 510) for the last couple of years when cycling in order to track and display various statistics. This has generally worked well, but throughout all of this I’d had one overriding problem which wasn’t serious enough to properly dig into until this past weekend: the unit would not always mount (show up in Finder) when I plugged it into my Mac.

The original problem that I’d had with both the units was that, sometimes, plugging the device into a Mac would result in it not mounting, but unplugging it, waiting a few seconds, and plugging it back in would then work. I was content with this for a while and there was no obvious correlation between when it’d happen and wouldn’t, but a few days ago the Garmin Edge 510 stopped mounting at all. I figured nothing was wrong with the Edge 510 because it would mount perfectly fine on a Windows box, so I began looking at the Mac.

In the end the problem has turned out to be VMware Fusion. While I haven’t proved it, it also seems that the upgrade to Fusion 6.0.2 (from 6.0.1) last week changed the problem from sometimes to always and I could not get the Garmin to mount at all. After some thinking and testing I narrowed it down to only occurring when VMware Fusion was running a virtual machine with a USB controller.

VMware has published knowledge base article 1025256 to help one troubleshoot such issues and find workarounds by including quirks definitions in the VMX files, but none of these recommendations worked for my Edge 510, so I opened a support request (#13413345912). I’ve been emailing back and forth with VMware support and the assigned support person seems to be working on it, so hopefully the information I’ve provided them will lead them to developing a proper fix for it. (If/when I receive a fix I’ll update this post.)

In the mean time I’ll just leave the USB controller disconnected from the VM that I have running most frequently. This allows things to work, and as I rarely use USB passthrough it’s a fair trade.

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The software / hardware versions when replicating the issue are as follows:

Apple iMac: iMac11,3, OS X 10.9 (13A603)

Garmin Edge 510: IC: 1792A-020, FCC ID: IPH-02069, firmware 2.80.

VMware Fusion: 6.0.2 (1398658)

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On-One Floater: Traction for Days

Published December 9, 2013

This evening I left work a little early to squeeze in a ride at River Bends before it got dark, and this ended up being a great evening. Because of a freshly fallen quarter inch of snow and a few days of below-freezing temperatures the ground was a beautiful white, and clearly visible and ridable half an hour after the sun had set. Riding comfortable along the ridge, sun just below the horizon, looking down at the oxbow lakes (ponds, really) along the Clinton River looking at the leafless grey-brown trees and mottled white forest floor was incredibly beautiful. I would love to have what I saw captured in a photo, but it’d be so difficult that I didn’t bother to try.

Besides just getting out for a ride, one other intention for today is to try out the On-One Floater tires (package photo) that arrived last week. I purchased these hoping for something with a similar knobbiness as a Surly Nate, but a bit cheaper. Last year I’d picked up a Big Fat Larry for the front, moving the original Larry to the rear, and while this was a decent setup it left me wanting for more traction in snow. While the Nate would have been my tire of choice for this, at $128.74 (shipped) for a pair of Floaters they are (per tire) less than half the MSRP of a comparable 120 TPI Nate. Roger picked up a pair of the Floaters earlier this year and was happy with being happy for general trail riding, so I figured I’d give them a go.

Last night I set them up with 20 PSI to seat and stretch the tires to shape, then today I rode them at 11 PSI (rear) and 9 PSI, and I’m really happy with them. At 1460g and 1462g each they added a total of 172g (0.38 pounds) to the bike, which is nothing to be concerned with given the radical increase in traction. The center / transition knobs are about 5.1mm tall on the Floater, versus ~3.15mm – 3.5mm on the Larry / Big Fat Larry, and they have a very square-ish shape as opposed to the Larry’s ramped triangle shape. Width came in at ~3.85″, which is a bit shy of the 4.0″ printed on the sidewall, but still a very acceptable width. On the Mukluk’s 82mm Surly Rolling Darryl rims the furthest-out side knobs are parallel with the sidewall, giving the whole setup a great profile and feeling. Here’s two photos showing tread detail: 1 – 2.

Normally with the Larry family tires I’d get a controlled, comfortable bit of slide/drift in corners; something which was very predictable and worked nicely. When on frozen surfaces it’d get a bit weird, and would at times wash out if I pushed a bit too hard. I wasn’t able to make the Floaters behave in the same way, and coupled with the deeper tread I think these will meet my desire for a snow fatbike tire.

Oh, and that monster truck feeling when one first gets a fatbike and rides through rough surfaces with impunity, holding lines that would have been considerably harder on a skinner tire bike? Tonight I had that feeling again while riding the frost heaved Swamp Loop at River Bends. It was rough, bumpy, crunchy, icy, and oh-so-much-fun.

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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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Not paying enough attention to car maintenance…

Published November 29, 2013

 

I was originally going to post a photo of a wear indicator mentioning that, with fitting the new snow tires, I’ll need to get new tires next spring. Then I saw this one tire from the rear of the driver’s side.

With every set of tires that I’ve had on the car (this is the second or third, I think, in ~180,000 miles) I’ve had uneven wear from one wheel. It’s spotty, paneled, and results in a series of flat spots around the inside of the tire. I’d think that rotating the tires more often would help it, but I think I let these tires go a little too long without rotating them. They might not have even been done this year, having gone since the snow tires were removed in the spring.

This wasn’t losing air, but I’m really lucky that I didn’t have a sudden tire failure. I’ll definitely be buying new tires before spring now. (And no, the snow tires don’t have this kind of wear… But I did get an alignment some last year, after buying these tires but before the snow tires got much use.)

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2013 Thanksgiving Morning Ride at Pontiac Lake

Published November 28, 2013

Since 1999 Robert Herimann has been hosting a Thanksgiving morning ride at Pontiac Lake Recreation Area. I’ve wanted to attend for a few years, but the timing has never really worked out for me. This year it did, and I’m really glad that I went. It was my first ride at PLRA both on a fatbike and in the snow.

The drive out to Pontiac Lake became snowy and promised an interesting ride, but having the Mukluk and winter clothes with me (as has been the norm for the past couple of weeks) I was content and ready to go. Almost all of the trail looked like what is seen above with the snow, frozen leaves hiding and lubricating the surface, and icy rocks. The ride was a bit exciting and traction was a challenge at points, but it was still a good time. I had a really fun time and made all of the climbs (including the one after the chute) except for Three Mile Hill, where someone stopped in front of me at a point where there wasn’t room to pass. A bit lower tire pressure might have helped as well (I had 11 PSI rear, 7 PSI front on the Larry / Big Fat Larry combo), but I went with something slightly higher than normal to cut down on the chance of pinch flatting.

About half-way through the ride I switched from motoring along, trying to keep up with others, and just began poking along slowly, looking out at the incredible views. I’ve only ever ridden PLRA when there were leaves on the trees; I didn’t realize just how many beautiful ridges it went along. There are spots where I could have stopped and stood, looking out at the snow drifting down for hours. But, I was having too much fun riding. I’ll have to make another trip here this winter; I really enjoyed it.

A mirror of the traditional group photo can be found here, if you’d like to see it. I count 62 participants, and I’m just to the right of the right-most Handicapped Parking sign, in a yellow Trail’s Edge jacket and black helmet. I’m surprised there weren’t more fatbikes on the ride, only Jay Jones, myself, and a guy I didn’t recognize on a 2012 Mukluk 3. (The announcement post, showing the group photo for each year since 1999 can be seen here. The guy in the photo above is just someone who passed me after I stopped to take the photo. I’m not sure who he is.)

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Hope Pro 2 Evo Fatsno Hubs

Published November 27, 2013

Since I’ve recently bought a bunch of new bike stuff I’ve been trying to hold off on spending for bike stuff, but another great deal happened my way that I couldn’t pass up. After seeing the Stan’s Notubes prototype fatbike rims at Interbike I’ve been wanting to build up a set, which meant that once the rims are available I’d also need another set of fatbike hubs.

A few days ago a brand new set of the highly regarded Hope Pro 2 Evo Fatsno hubs (135mm front w/ rear brake spacing, 170mm rear) popped up on the MMBA Forum for $225, a price that really grabbed my attention. Some email back and forth with the seller, a payment sent, and a few days later they are here. I’m really looking forward to building these up, so hopefully the Stan’s rims are available soon and at a reasonable price. If I end up not building up the wheelset I shouldn’t have a problem selling them for what I paid.

These are really nice hubs, wholly made in England, with an extremely high quality feel. When actuating the freehub by hand I can tell that it will have the telltale Hope sound (read: loud) when riding, something which I’d been a bit irked by in the past on others bikes. I hope it doesn’t bother me, but I guess if it does I can always add grease to dampen it a bit… so long as I don’t screw with winter-time engagement.

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Salsa Vaya 2 (2012): Ready To Go

Published November 26, 2013

After unboxing, some very detailed cleaning which let me get to know the bike thoroughly, fitting accessories, and transferring measurements from the Jamis Nova I’ve got the 2012 Salsa Vaya 2 mentioned previously (full bike photo) ready to go. While on its face this bike seems redundant and that the Nova would have met my needs, I think it’ll be a big improvement over the Nova for a couple reasons:

  1. The Nova with a 570mm ETT is a bit too large for me, evidenced by the 75mm stem needed to get the fit right.
  2. I prefer disc brakes on bicycles, even though the cantilever rim brakes on the Nova work well in most conditions.
  3. The Vaya has much longer head tube requiring far fewer spacers to get a comfortable position. This makes for an overall stronger/nicer setup.
  4. The Vaya comes with a crank that has 170mm arms. I’m not yet sure if this’ll work out for me, but I’m looking forward to trying it on long rides with lots of spinning.

Thus far I’ve only taken it on some short paved and trainer rides, but so it seems to fit well and I’m really looking forward to getting it out on some lengthy dirt road trips. With December and the first snows (and very cold headwinds on dirt roads) upon us I’m not sure this’ll be possible before spring, but I can hope…

In the mean time I spent a couple lazy hours over the past few days putting together my thoughts on the bike, mostly for my purposes a couple years from now. If you’re interested in that info and the full current build details, read on, or if you are interested in photos of this particular Vaya 2 click here…

Continue readingSalsa Vaya 2 (2012): Ready To Go
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