Finally getting up to building a set of wheels for a project that I’ve been working on for a few months.
How excitement.
First set of nine. Flip it over.
Second set of nine. Feed some spokes through.
Third set of nine. Cross some and do them up
Fourth set of… eight?
What the?!
Where’s my last spoke!!?!
*phones the shop*
What? Won’t get another spoke until Tuesday!??!?!
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…
In amongst all of my late-Autumn-Spring cleaning, I’ve discovered that I actually have a bit of a project backlog. Things to tinker with or fix, which I’ve never really finished – half complete bikes, wheel giblets and all sorts of other little things.
So I’ve decided that as part of this late-Autumn-Spring clean, I’m also going to clear this backlog of projects and reclaim a bit of garage space.
On top of that, I’ve decided that I’m going to try and do it with a budget of $0. That means that if I need to buy any parts for any of the projects, I’ll be doing it out of the money I get from sellings other bits.
This could take a while…
Finally managed to fix that annoying little creaking sound on my road bike and confirmed it on the commute today.
As it turns out, it was the seat post, which was completely bone dry and grease free.
How did that happen? I’m sure I greased it when I put it in.
Anyway, a good layer of grease later, a clean of the collar and clamp and we’re good to go.
Of course, it rained on the commute today, which no doubt means that I’ll have a host of new creaks to deal with by the end of the day.
The other morning, as usual, I woke to the annoyingly insistent sound of my bedside alarm clock. I reached over to turn off the alarm and in the process knocked two chain tensioners off my bedside table, to the floor, which landed on a pile of bike magazines.
It made me realise something…
My precious…
I’ll admit it…
I’m a hoarder.
Being a bit of a DIYer, I have over the years, collected a decent collection of left over bike bits. This collection includes stems, handlebars, chainrings, bottle cages, rear racks and bolts. Don’t ask me why I have left over bolts. I try not to think too hard about that fact while I’m rattling down a rocky singletrack.
These bike bits somehow manage to spread themselves out to all rooms of my small two bedroom unit. This can be handy because it means I’ve always got something to play with while I watch TV or eat dinner. Of course, the flip-side of this is when I need to explain to my friends why there are black grease stains in the kitchen… or worse, the toilet.
(To people I’ve built wheels for : don’t worry, I didn’t build them while doing a number two)
Grand sale! Grand sale!
So I’ve decided that it’s time to clear the books, get rid of some parts and finish off all of the projects that I’ve left half completed.
So keep your eyes peeled – specials coming for wurple.net readers.
Gah!
I thought that I’d nailed it.
I was so sure that last night’s clean had taken care of all those annoying noises.
Yet… one managed to slip past.
If anything, I reckon it sounds louder than before. Although I think that might be because it is the last remaining noise that it stands out so much.
Bah!!!
There comes a time in the life of every bike, when things start to get a little bit tired. Countless hours of spinning away silently give way to an annoying cacophony of creaks and clicks. Usually, it will happen some time during a very long ride.
And so it was for my road bike.
Saturday saw me return to the road for one of my standard rides. A 110km ride that takes me past my brother’s place, to the usual turnaround point at Mordialloc, followed by the whole thing in reverse. A good solid ride, which mixes the rolling hills of the East, a bit of city riding and the fast flats of Beach Road.
Unfortunately, Saturday was raining. Water being the way that it is, it helps to transport grit and grease from the road, on to your bike, then into those bits of the bike where you really don’t want it.
Not even halfway through my ride, the little creaks and clicks started. First it was just one small creaking that I traced to my left pedal. Then a few clicks from somewhere around the front derailleur. By the time I hit the 80km mark, my bike sounded like some hard rubbish special which has never seen a bottle of chain lube. Very annoying when you know there are still 30km to go.
So tonight, I set to work cleaning my bike. Basically taking everything off, regreasing and putting it back on. Follow that with a good clean of the drivetrain and… bliss.
Silence.
Just the hum of tyres against the road.
Lovely.
Of all of my bikes, the one bike I really haven’t upgraded much is the road bike. Honestly, I can’t understand how much technology can go in to a road bike. It’s light and has wheels, which you move with some pedals.
So you know, I’ve got the usual decent stuff on there, a decent set of mid-range wheels, nice pedals and upgraded brakes to match the rest of the gruppo. That’s the sum total of my upgrades.
For the last couple of years, I’ve felt perfectly happy with this bike. It’s fast and comfortable. It strikes the right balance for my purposes between keeping up with the pack and riding all day.
Why upgrade?
It works…
Well this morning I realised something as I ascended the last major climb of our weekly loop to claim the KOM. I was actually cranking the bike hard enough to lose my cadence reading.
Yikes!
Talk about frame flex! I mean, it’s not like I care about my cadence when I’m riding at full up-chuck pace up the hill, but heck, I wonder how much power I’m losing through flex!
Honestly I can’t afford a new frame, but gee this gets me thinking…
Following a double lap of around 52km around the local hills on Saturday, I was feeling a bit too tired to hit Lysterfield on the MTB. Since I couldn’t cycle, I figured that I might as well do something bike related around the house.
I’ve been using the Delta Botticelli for some time now. It’s not too bad a system, especially for the price I paid. Sufficiently stable. Keeps the bikes off each other. The problem is that you either need to put the darn thing in the middle of the room to be able to access all of the bikes easily. Alternatively, if you put it near a wall, put the two bikes with the skinniest handlebars or that you ride the least, against the wall.
I chose to go for the second option. Not too bad, but still, not an ideal situation.
Oh… and the other major failing of this system for my purposes is that I have five bikes.
Anyway, I made myself busy on Sunday afternoon with some hooks, wood, bolts and a power drill to end up with this.
For those who are interested in doing something similar, I used a horizontal spacing of 30cm between each mount. Don’t ask me how that spacing works when my widest handlebars are 68cm, because it just does. I’ve also offset each of the mounts to reduce the amount of seat/handlebar overlap. If I did it again, I’d get a wider piece of wood so that I could get more offset, but this seems to work fine. For the mount, I used a 35mm deep piece of outdoor pine mounted to the wall with four Dynabolts (rated at 70kg each).
Pretty pleased with this actually because it actually makes my tiny garage look more spacious. It’s also allowed me to hang all of my five bikes and given me visitor parking or *cough*roomtogrow*cough.
I’m testing out a set of Crank Brothers shoe shields at the moment. These things are designed to go under your cleats to protect the soles from the wings of the egg beater pedal from digging into your shoes.
After one ~30km ride with my MTB shoes on my Quattro Ti road pedals, all goes well. I can feel a difference in the stack height, but it’s not enough to bother me. Things also seem to feel somewhat stiffer. Or that could just be in my head.
Anyway, one 30km ride later, I turned my shoes over and realised that the poor marketing guys had failed with this product design…
Errr… maybe that wasn’t the best place to put the logo.
What brand are they again?
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