A few rides ago I noticed a strange problem with my front brake. At low and high speeds they were fine but at medium speeds, the pads were grabbing the discs causing the fork legs to judder back and forth disconcertingly when braking. I was pretty sure it wasn't contamination because I bought a spray bottle of IPA from ebay and clean the discs after every couple of rides. A quick Google found several references to an ebay seller called bikefridge who sells all sorts of pads at around £22 for 4 pairs. Considering Avid pads are about £15 a pair, I thought I'd give them a try.
I decided on the kevlar pads which sounded like a good all-round option and fitted two sets to the bike. I've done about 100 miles on these pads so far and I'm very impressed. They have a very similar feel to the Avid pads but absolutely no signs of the weird grabbing problem the Avids had.
At about £5.50 a pair, I'm very pleased with them so far.
First of all, chains don't 'stretch' at all, they wear. As the internal parts of the chain wear with use they cause each link to effectively loosen. If you add all this extra movement of the links together, the chain effectively becomes longer. This is bad because when a chain is new, the pitch between each link matches the pitch of the teeth on the chain rings and rear cogs and the pedalling load is spread evenly along all the teeth.
When the chain elongates, the chain is only effectively pulled by one tooth on the chain ring and only pulls on one tooth on the cassette. Because the ratio between the chain ring and rear cog varies depending on which gear combination you're in, this causes random teeth to wear out more than other teeth. The upshot is, you end up with dangerous chain slip that even a new chain won't fix.
It is widely said that the most wear you want to allow before replacing a chain is about 0.75%. The traditional way of measuring this used to be measuring the distance between 12 adjacent links with a ruler and bin the chain if it exceeded 12 1/16". Nowadays however it's far easier to buy a chain tool like the Park one shown in the pic and check your chain regularly.
I tend to get around 1,000 miles out of a SRAM PC971 the use of which I'd describe as road based but covered in mud occasionally but I've read of roadies who say they get 3 to 4,000 miles out of a chain.
I guess it all depends on the brand of chain, the preferred lube regime and the usage in the end!
I tried dry lubes at Uni years ago when they first appeared but I never really got on with them. Yes they were clean but they only seemed to last 15 or 20 miles before all the lube had flaked off. Since then I've been a devoted wet lube user resigned to the fact I'm always going to have black oily chains that needs a good deep clean every two or three rides. I've heard a few good things about this lube on the net so I decided I had to try a bottle.
'The
performance of a wet-style lubricant and the cleanliness of a dry-style lubricant' it says on their website. Sounds heavenly but is it actually any good? When I fitted the new SRAM chain to the Whyte, I degreased and dried it and then slathered it in EPIC RIDE (beware, this stuff is like water and drips and flies everywhere). The first couple of rides were smooth and quiet and amazingly, my chain wasn't turning black! The other great thing about it is that you don't have to clean the chain before reapplication, I've re-lubed a couple of times now and chain is still clean, it's picks up the odd bit of muck and grit but nothing like as much as a wet lube does.
I'm doing a 35 miler tomorrow with James which should take the Whyte up to 160 miles so I'll probably clean the chain properly afterwards but 160 miles between deep cleans is a lot better that the 40-50 miles I used to get with wet lubes. Overall, very impressed although it'll be interesting to see what mileage I get out of this chain.
May 2nd: Did a slightly extended local 18 to start May off with 18.0 miles.
May 4th: Did an absolutely cracking ride with James today. Again, it's one I found on cycle routes; we were supposed to do it Friday except for the fact that we don't seem to be able to organise a piss-up in a brewery sometimes...
Aside from a few hairy sections of A road, this is one of the most scenic rides we've done yet and is definitely in my top three along with a Southport ride we did last summer and the Dunnockshaw ride provided by Alix's dad that we did at the end of March. It's also the longest ride we've done at 34.9 miles!
May 7th: It was wet and windy after work today but I forced myself out to do the local. The first 8 or 9 miles were extremely wet and windy before it calmed down a bit. It was hard work but I managed to get my average up to 15 mph which I was pleased with and it's another 17.9 for the month.
May 11th: Did an absolute brute of a ride with with James today. It was my fault actually as I'd drawn the route in map my ride last night, oops... We started in Burnley because James travelled to the Wirral last weekend which is a long way and I should have known it would be brutal because it was near Burnley (Burnley is by far the most 3 dimensional area in England, in my head at least.) The first half of the brutishness was the weather, it was a mix of light to heavy rain and absolutely howling winds, with us for the first dozen or so miles but then in our faces, but at least it was scenic:
The second half was the climbing: 3,700+ feet in total! It seemed like every corner and every bend had a climb waiting. Still, there were some decent down bits which compensated slightly I suppose. Here's the map; don't copy it because we did sort of go through a large sheep field and get sort of told off by the lady farmer so it needs editing.
One hot bath later and all clothes in the wash to remove the sheep shit and that's 33.3 more for the month.
May 15th: I was pretty knackered after work today but wanted to get at least one midweek ride in this week so I did my original go-to route, the old coach road for 14.8.
May 17th: Did an absolute corker with James in the sun today, again from Cycle Routes. It started in Poulton-le-Fylde, headed a few miles into the countryside followed by a big loop 'round and back again.
It's a very rural ride, even the A roads were quiet and free from chaotic roundabouts. A fantastic ride and another 32.8 in the bag for May.
May 22nd: Off work today and tomorrow for a long weekend and I really couldn't be arsed going out on the bike so I dragged myself out and did the old coach road for 14.7.
May 25th: No weekend run with James this weekend because I pulled a muscle in my leg yesterday moving a stonkingly heavy desk and James has other plans for today. I'm still suffering from can't-be-arsed-itus so I dragged myself out and did the old coach road again for another 14.7. Here's a pic:
This shows the first few hundred yards which are relatively smooth. It gets progressively worse over the next 3 1/2 miles.
May 28th: Feeling vaguely chipper after work tonight so did the old coach road but came back via the huge hill my dentist lives at the top of for 16.4. Only 2.5 to go for May!
May 30th: Felt quite good tonight so I did the old coach road with the same add-on as Wednesday (I am christening this route 'Alec's hill' as my dentist, Alec, lives at the top of it) for 16.3 to end May on 213.8.
As supplied, my new bike was fitted with a 180mm rotor on the front and a 160mm on the rear. I know down-hillers and free-riders will laugh at me but I find the front brake too powerful for my mainly road-based type of riding. Also, and call me picky if you will, I thought the adaptor the 180mm required on the fork was a bit ugly and the mismatched rotor sizes looked a bit odd on a cross-country bike.
Finding an Avid HS1 rotor on ebay was a pretty easy job so when it arrived, I had a crack at fitting it. It looked like a simple job until I hit that "Arse!" moment and realised I'd need shorter bolts... A quick trawl of the 'net was surprisingly hopeless in terms of finding which parts I would need. I found an Avid bolt kit at a local bike shop and after a long trip there and back, the fitting kit was useless! A search on ebay for Avid bolts found no steel ones but a guy selling kits of four titanium bolts described as 'm6 x 29mm for Avid brakes'. In a flash of inspiration, I took a bolt out of my rear brake and mic'd it - 29mm! I ordered a set and they were perfect!
The brakes aren't run in yet obviously but a few spins up and down the road suggest they're going to be great, lots of control without the power of the 180mm rotor. Oh, and I think it looks better too and we all know titanium makes your bike faster!
Now I have my new bike, I need to store the Dave Yates upstairs. This is fine but it lead me to wonder about securing the bike? I don't want to use wall anchors as my house would probably fall down if anyone tried to pull them out. The chain I used to lock the Dave Yates to it's wall hangers is an Abus Granit so I figured If I could lock it to something immovable it ought to be pretty safe. A bit of lateral thinking and a quick look on ebay lead to a long drive yesterday to pick up a 56lb weight.
I hate to call myself a genius but I reckon it should be pretty hard to nick a bike that's chained to a four stone weight with a chain that can withstand four foot bolt cutters!
Well, it had to happen eventually... I was originally looking at a Charge Cooker 3 or 4 but no one had one in stock to try and I ain't buying a bike I haven't tested! I knew Whyte had a reputation for being pretty epic and a colleague at work has a Whyte hybrid which is pretty sweet so when I saw this Whyte 19 steel at £700 off, I booked a test ride.
Because my bike is classic early nineties and this one is 2012, they felt radically different - the wide riser bars felt especially strange but I'm sure I'll get used to it. The brakes are going to be a real novelty, proper power and no worrying about the rims wearing out which has been a real concern on my Dave Yates. The suspension is also a novelty, 120mm of travel instead of one inch on a good day so I'm looking forward to plusher rides in the future and given the parlous state of Britain's roads this is going to be SUCH a luxury.
The frame itself is Reynolds 631 with a Shimano STX groupset, Hope hubs, Avid Elixir 5 brakes and a Fox 32 F120 RL Evolution fork. I'm going to ditch the Shimano chain and fit a Sram 1071 and switch out the tyres for my Travel Contacts (of course!) but overall I'm extremely pleased so far!
Quick update, here it is with the Conti's on:
160 miles later: I've put the Charge saddle and chunky Clark grips on, found the optimal pressure and damping settings for the fork, got the seat height nailed and set the stem height and trimmed the steerer.
On yesterday's 35 mile ride, the bike actually felt like it was 'mine', not just a new bike so here's to many more miles on it!
