Roadie Rapper vs. Fixie Hipster

Funny stuff. Love the part where he laments about having an aluminum frame.

Weekend wrap-up

Nothing much to report here. Work had me on a short leash but I did get some saddle time in, or since I was SS riding mostly, out of the saddle time.

In fact, Friday night I accepted the veritable gauntlet throwdown by Ed the Tall to ride a local hill climb on the SS. It has a bit of a warm-up and then climbs steadily and steeply into a park/woodland area. It hurts on a geary, so the SS seemed foolish there. Perfect challenge, actually, for a quicky after work ride. It actually was not that bad, 35 minutes of so to the top. Fish tacos soon followed.

I have been thinking about what wheels for the SS make the most sense. I have been dabbling with the thought of running a freewheel type hub like a Paul's combined with a White Industries freewheel. It is not really that much cheaper since the freewheel is knocking on $100.00. that kind of eats up the initial cost savings on the hub over, say a Hope SS cassette hub. Still, I do like the wider hub flange spacing on the pure SS hubs. Very nice.

It works out to be around 131 grams heavier for the Paul/Whites combo though. Ugh. Over a 1/4 pound of added weight. More work to change gear ratios, harder to remove freewheel, etc. Well, I think there is room for improvement in the SS hub world. Why stick with a thread-on freewheel? Give me a decent weight hub with a cassette body that accepts a splined cog and allows for maybe 3 cogs width of chainline adjustment. Something like this, but with higher quality (sealing), lighter weight and lots of options for axles...bolt on, QR, thru axle like a 10mm set-up.

Meanwhile, I weighed a few front wheels I have on the three bikes: The Hope/Flow/Race Kings tubeless on the Lev, the DT Swiss 7.1TK/DT Swiss Onyx/Mtn King w/tubes on the Jabber, and the Giant branded setup on the Giant XTC test bike and a Kenda Karma 2.2 with tubes. All of them had the QRs installed in the wheels and 160mm rotors

The results:

4lbs 11 oz for the Jabber's wheel

4lbs 15oz for the Giant's wheel

4lbs even for the Lev's set-up.

Wow. Amazing difference. No wonder the Lev feels so nice when I am climbing. I never thought that it would be such a difference. I figured half that maybe. It explains a bit to me on why the Giant feels a bit lazy when climbing. I really want to upgrade the SS wheels now!

Next up was the brake howl/turkey gobble on the rear brake on the Giant. There is an amazing thread on the MTBR Brake forum about the Avid rear brake noise here. I am waiting for some replacement parts from Avid to see if I can break the Juicy 3 in properly, but meanwhile the silly fishing weight has shut up the turkey for now. How funny. See post #429 for my pics of the 'cure'.

The new Serfas pads on the Shimano brakes on the Lev were the next to get my attention. I have been less than thrilled about the amount of braking force the pads are giving me, but worse than that, the rear brake was squealing nicely. I noticed that the pad looked to be catching the rotor vanes (actually, I think the rear rotor is wearing thin) so I spaced the caliper up with a washer. No noise so far. I really could use a bigger rotor in front with the mediocre performance of the pads. They are quiet for a sintered pad, but the Shimano versions offered a lot more bite.

Now, if I can get the pulsing demon out of my BB7 brakes on the Jabberwocky, I will be much happier, but I have plans for that too.

An open love letter to SRAM

To whom it may concern: I love you, dear SRAM persons, for doggedly sticking to the Grip Shift as a viable (well, who are we kidding...it is not just viable, it is superior) alternative to flippy lever shifting. Push pull, pull pull, shove nudge, lift lever, love lever....whatever lever.

The twist rocks.

I remember the first models. They were less than stellar performers as I recall. They earned the nickname, "Grip S**t". You may remember that too. And the full width grip was a deal breaker ...too hard to hang on to the grips and not shift by mistake when things got rough. But when things got rough for you guys, you dug in and refined and improved. The half length grip in 8 speed that I used for years is still sitting in my parts box and still works as well as the day it was made if I wanted to dig it out and go all 8 speed retro. For now, I will keep my X9 rear stuff.

But I digress. I have been efficiently twisting through the gears for so long, my thumbs have lost the ability to flip a lever. I don't regret this at all and time spent on a recent bike with under the bar lever shifting brought that back to mind.

Multiple gear shifts? Sure. Dump the entire cassette in one wrist roll? OK. Trim the front der? Sure. Where do you want it? Simple, elegant, reliable, light weight, and a thumb in the eye to all the critics who scoffed 'back in the day'.

Please make this stuff forever. But if not, let me know so I can buy a spare set and ride till I die, twisting all the way.

Hugs and warm wishes,

grannygear

Mountain, thy name is Misery.

There is a hill climb in town that has my name on it. No, not like the Hollywood sign type of name on it. This one is written in sweat and tears. Think blood in the sand, perhaps. Something needs to be done about this.

It is a very popular access into the tail end of the San Gabriels and consists of a 4 mile-ish climb up a fireroad. From here you can continue climbing for hours (or days for that matter) or drop down such notable trails as Viper or Los Pinetos. It is a consistent grade for the most part, never too ridiculously steep, but enough to be a real workout. The last few times I have been up its switchbacked ascent, it has felt very difficult. In fact, I feel like I have been going backwards as what used to be a mix of middle and small ring has degraded into mostly small ring climbing. Huh!

The last two times, including this weekend, I was on the Giant XTC 29er 1. It is a very decent climbing bike, but the saddle sucks (for me), the shortish and rear-set cockpit places me a bit back from the cranks and the 175mm crankarms are great for spinny-ness, but not for torque. In any case, I was all slow...again. So it has me a bit bugged. Am I just getting slower? It has been hot and humid the last two times, but before that, it has been cold and I still suffered and crept along.

I finally tuned up the Lev post-Utah, new brake pads, etc, so I need to take it to the hill and see how a proper (for me) riding position, lighter wheels, and gearing/crank arms I am used to will treat me. This really is mostly a middle ring climb and I need to make it so. If I do not get the results I need, then this is eye opening. It means I need to step up the type of training I am doing. I work close to this dastardly hillclimb, this mocking slope of dirt and chapparal, and this Fall/Winter I may have to make it my mission in life to beat the whoopee out of it. If I bring my bike in at least one day a week, I can get that ride done in 90 minutes or less. We shall see.

Mountain, misery though you may be, watch out. I have you in my sights.