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Bicycle age

jts

jts

...hate me...
jakonovski said:
Sounds like chain suck, I read about it while researching for my 1x10 conversion. Off the top of my head, could be lack of lube, old chain, slack chain, old chainring or even a sticky freewheel.
Click to expand...
The chain fails to disengage from the bottom teeth of a front chain-ring ; instead the teeth snag the chain and carry it up and around the rear circumference of the ring, winding it back onto itself, and jamming it between the chain-rings and chain-stay.

It occurs most frequently with small chain-rings (granny-rings) of triple-ring MOUNTAIN BIKES, but does also occur with larger rings, and on ROAD BIKES. There are two main forms of chain suck :
1-ring suck : the chain is snagged by teeth on a single ring during normal
pedalling (usually the granny-ring)
2-ring suck : the chain snags on teeth across two rings when changing
gears (usually from the middle ring to the granny)
Click to expand...
That was indeed pretty much what was happening, and a lot of things check out. Reading about it has me a bit worried, but as I said, after taking the chain apart and putting it back on, it didn't happen again and it doesn't seem like it can, due to that metal guard on the chainring (seen on the pic on my previous post). But I don't think I put it back on the granny-ring during my ride so..... :/ I will have to test that later today.

In any case I'll be careful and soon I'll take it for maintenance (clean/lube/check for damage).

edit: just got my chain locking twice mid-ride (although the wheel didn't lock and I could safely stop, and after stopping I could just resume pedalling, as the chain got unstuck by itself). I am definitely not out of the woods yet.
 
M

Marky Mark

Member
My brother has a hybrid which he took in for a servicing and the bike shop told him that "the front fork is cracked. It'll probably be just as cheap to buy a new bike" and said that the "Steer tube is breaking away from the crown". They told him "they couldn't find a suitable replacement, but if I could it would be all sweet".

It's an Apollo something and just wondering if that's something worth fixing? He paid about $700 a few years ago I think but if it can be fixed for cheap what do we need to look for when finding a "suitable replacement"?
 
P

Psychotext

Member
They're basically right. A new bike would be better in pretty much every measurable way, and unless you can find a used fork, buying a replacement would be pretty expensive.
 
jts

jts

...hate me...
jakonovski said:
The chain seems to be hanging a bit in those pics, perhaps it's a link or three too long?
Click to expand...

All right, so I've been getting to the bottom of this.

Here's the thing, the chain can't be too long as it is just as it came from the store and I never had a problem before.

Basically what I think is happening is that the derailleur is somehow too weak to make up for the chain slack created when the bike is on a higher gear (smaller cog).

Illustrating:

So much slack:
oSREN3ql.jpg


When I touch and move the derailleur just a centimetre or less:
mgpA6ttl.jpg


If I shift into a lower gear / larger cog:
gKCq2yvl.jpg


I reckon then that my derailleur is on the fritz? Hopefully I can just adjust it or something.

A fixed gear bike sounds pretty good to me right now.
 
jts

jts

...hate me...
jakonovski said:
There's a spring in there for sure, and probably something to change the tension with.

Maybe something in here will help?

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/tech-tuesday-sram-rear-derailleur-adjustments-2010.html
Click to expand...
Thanks mate.

I've been reading that yes a nice clean/lube/tune should fix these issues with the derailleur, so I'll look into that video and a few more and when I have some time to spare I'll get my hands dirty. Thankfully it's not a critical problem so for a couple of more days the workaround will do fine.
 
L

linkboy

Member
Finally decided the join the "not a dept store bike club"

I got stationed in Korea a couple of months ago and decided to ship my POS Air Force exchange bike over since I can't own a car and will be in the dorms on base (and then they stuck me in a dorm about a mile from where I work).

IMG_20150212_090158.jpg
Click to expand...

Decided I had enough of wearing myself out riding a bike that's a PITA to ride (not to mention the fork was put on backwards and I didn't catch it, which probably made it even harder), I decided to make the switch to a quality bike,

FB_IMG_1423590655030.jpg
Click to expand...

Bought this (Trek Marlin 5) today and it's amazing the difference in quality. I would have to stop multiple times with my other bike just to catch my breath since I was fighting the bike so much. This bike is such a smooth ride and I love it. Won't be taking it off-road much for the moment, but I can't see myself ever going to back to a cheap bike again.
 
J

jakonovski

Member
Snow's melting again and I had an absolutely filthy ride (on asphalt!) with the single speed. My legs are shot but at least I have a bottle of cheap plonk to share with the GF. No work tomorrow either!
 
T

thomaser

Member
Well, at least Brussels and NY have bike lanes. My city is rated "worst city to bike in" every single year in this country. Not a single dedicated bike lane. At best sidewalks shared with pedestrians, but half of them are so narrow that a single person can block it. And in many places there's no sidewalk at all, so cyclists have to go out on the overcrowded, narrow roads. But they're actually planning bike paths now. Might get a kilometer or two before 2020.
 
M

Marky Mark

Member
allegate said:
Saw a comment on reddit earlier where someone carries around one of these safety hammers and uses it against particularly gnarly drivers. Seems like overkill.
Click to expand...
I might need one of these. In the past week I've been nearly hit by a proper truck and a pickup truck, both turning left (Australia, so across the bike lane without indicating or any warning) at the last minute to beat traffic by going down sidestreets.
 
J

Jasup

Member
thomaser said:
Well, at least Brussels and NY have bike lanes. My city is rated "worst city to bike in" every single year in this country. Not a single dedicated bike lane. At best sidewalks shared with pedestrians, but half of them are so narrow that a single person can block it. And in many places there's no sidewalk at all, so cyclists have to go out on the overcrowded, narrow roads. But they're actually planning bike paths now. Might get a kilometer or two before 2020.
Click to expand...

Well yes, at least they have bike lanes. But the point is that at least in Brussels the bicycle infrastructure is so bad the infrastructure itself can make bicycling more dangerous and inconvenient. I could ride there, but I'm a healthy male in my 30's, however I wouldn't let my grandmother (she's 85 and goes everywhere by bike) or children ride there.

Better hope your city does in fact build bike paths and doesn't resort to the "random splotches of paint" -approach the city council can point at when questioned about cycling infrastructure. Mind you, buying few cans of paint is much cheaper than reconstructing roads.
 
H

HTupolev

Member
Jasup said:
That's a beautiful bike HTupolev. I really like the old design.
Click to expand...
Psychotext said:
Retro pretty, I like it.
Click to expand...
:D

I also got myself a Trek X-Caliber 6 to round out my possibilities. Aside from the rather uninspiring default seat (which has been replaced with a somewhat larger and much more comfortable gel saddle), I'm quite liking it. Everything works smoothly, and it just plain feels powerful to ride. Also, these disc brakes are things of beauty.

//==============

Finally got the wake-up call that I've been way too lucky and should stop having stuff delivered directly to my apartment. Damned bicycle
degreaser
thieves. At least it wasn't worth much.
 
J

jakonovski

Member
All right, parts for the 1x10 conversion have been acquired. 32 tooth narrow/wide chainring, bolts, a new chain and some tools. I have to say, they really know how to price this stuff. Over 60 euros for a small piece of aluminium and five bolts.
 
N

NetMapel

Guilty White Male Mods Gave Me This Tag
I really really look forward to a driverless vehicle future. That will make cycling actually much safer as I am always so freaked out by drivers.
 
T

t-ramp

Member
HTupolev said:
:D

I also got myself a Trek X-Caliber 6 to round out my possibilities. Aside from the rather uninspiring default seat (which has been replaced with a somewhat larger and much more comfortable gel saddle), I'm quite liking it. Everything works smoothly, and it just plain feels powerful to ride. Also, these disc brakes are things of beauty.
Click to expand...
Here's mine from last weekend:

75Bhni5.jpg
Click to expand...

It's kind of funny - it cost about the same as my 1.1 road bike, but my initial impression was that the mountain bike offered more bang for my buck somehow. Honestly, though, I can't wait to get back out on the road bike again too, since it's much lighter and quicker. In any case, it's pretty cool to have both.
 
H

HTupolev

Member
t-ramp said:
Here's mine from last weekend:
Click to expand...
Yep, looks like a palate-swapped version of mine.

MmoR440.jpg


(By the way, sorry for all these low-quality photos. I broke the back camera on my phone, so I'm stuck with the selfie-cam, which is sort of hard to use well.)

It's kind of funny - it cost about the same as my 1.1 road bike, but my initial impression was that the mountain bike offered more bang for my buck somehow. Honestly, though, I can't wait to get back out on the road bike again too, since it's much lighter and quicker. In any case, it's pretty cool to have both.
Click to expand...
It seems to be the case that each type of bike feels like the greatest thing ever when you're riding it. The carefree invincibility of the mountain bike feels unbeatable in the moment, but so does absolutely soaring in a road bike.

//====================================

Chain slipped on the Fuji earlier today :/

During an aggressive shift to high gear on the rear derailleur it shot all the way to the frame, getting caught and jamming the pedals. Felt sort of stupid pulling over to correct it. I've noticed that that region of the bike produces a bit more noise than my new MTB, too. I guess there's some calibration I can try to get it as smooth as possible, but if that doesn't fully solve the issue, it might be helpful to replace this chain. Although it still hasn't seen much use, it is cartoonishly old for a bike chain.
 
J

jakonovski

Member
A chain stretch measure is worth its weight in gold. And cheap.

----

I did the 1x10 conversion! Had a rough time getting proper tools. Unnamed local bike store sold me a square taper crank puller instead of ISIS spline, then promptly closed for the weekend before I noticed. Luckily a big ass sports retailer with better opening hours (XXL) had the correct tool. It was a lot of work and most of all a learning experience, but eventually all the parts went together. First ride was just 7km to home, bike runs well and everyday bumps don't drop the chain. Gearing is definitely enough on the high end, got up to 40km/h for a little bit and could've pedaled harder if not for flabby winter tyres. Time will tell on the low end, I sure hope it's enough as it is because it'd be another €100 for a cassette and expander ring upgrade.

This is how the bike looks now:

FuSpcfv.jpg
Click to expand...
 
C

Christoff Yurievich

Member
Funny, my wife did the exact opposite: Used the octolink extractor on a square taper crank. She was annoyed that it "didn't work" and stripped the threads. Luckily it didn't strip too badly and the square crank one still worked when I got home.
 
J

jakonovski

Member
It sucks when the only discernable difference is a tiny knob at the end. It also seems better to make the mistake my way, because the square taper knob is smaller and just does nothing when you try it on ISIS (or Race Face at least).
 
H

HTupolev

Member
jakonovski said:
A chain stretch measure is worth its weight in gold. And cheap.
Click to expand...
Yeah...

//=======================

Whew, did my first half century today. And by "half century" I mean that a friend invited me for a ride, we rode south for a while, grabbed some carne asada + margarita, and rode back... when after getting home I checked the route and discovered that I'd gone 47 miles. -.-

And then took the MTB for a spin to top it off.

//=======================

Something I realized on the ride is that biking has a bizarre impact on your sense of scale. You'd think that it would make the world seem bigger, since it takes more time and work to get places than in a car. But cars sort of abstract the distance into a sense of unpassable-if-not-in-a-car infinity. Biking grounds it.

Like, the place I went today used to sit in my mind as "ugh, that's an inconvenient drive to the middle of nowhere." But now I feel its location at a very real biking distance, and it seems close.

Not sure I'm ready to extend this experiment to on-foot travel, though. D:
 
T

thomaser

Member
HTupolev said:
But cars sort of abstract the distance into a sense of unpassable-if-not-in-a-car infinity. Biking grounds it.
Click to expand...

Haha, so true! I love the fact that there are places I never dreamed of cycling to because they seemed so very far away in my mind. Like this big, nice mountain/forest area that's fun to play around in with my mtb. Used to put my bike on the roof rack and drive there when I wanted to cycle there. But now I can simply ride the bike there instead. Takes 50 minutes, no big deal. Nice warm-up for the trails. My entire region has really opened up and become accessible to me in new ways after I started cycling.
 
J

Jasup

Member
Exactly what you said.

The more I use my bike the more I do with a bike, actually I do a lot more things in general. In a sense I feel like if I drive somewhere to do something it feels like a completely separate thing to do - like something you have to prepare for. Whereas if I use my bike it all feels more spontaneous and immediate. There's a smaller threshold for doing things. It's hard to describe really.
 
T

thomaser

Member
Finally a nice day for some quality riding. Went up one of the main local Strava-climbs for the very first time, was rewarded with a view:

16351906600_08e8d47c9b.jpg

16351692668_b90686eda0.jpg


Wanted to take more, but my fully-charged iphone freaks out every time I take pictures with it in coldish weather, and just shuts down.

Also tried out some new trails on that mountain, built by a nice guy who moved here from China and decided we needed more places to ride on. He's been working on them more or less by himself for a year. Impressive! Way too hardcore for me, though, but there were lots of wheel tracks, so they're well used.
 
T

thomaser

Member
Psychotext said:
Had exactly the same thing in Norway. Was goddamn ridiculous.

Meant we ended up getting lost as we couldn't use it for GPS.
Click to expand...

It went out on me in late November, when I was riding on a more remote mountain, and it got dark, started to snow AND my back wheel somehow fell off all at once. I was alone up there too. That wasn't very fun. Managed to get down again just fine, but having a functioning phone would make those explorations more frequent and enjoyable.

The problem lies with the battery as far as I know - it drains really quickly when it gets cold. I've found that keeping the phone in a thick sock or glove helps keeping it alive a little longer.
 
jts

jts

...hate me...
O boy I thought I was the only one suffering with the iPhone's battery here in the cold of Finland.

I just stopped using Strava after a while of having the battery dying on me daily.

I'm almost thinking about getting one of those battery cases as a stop-gap solution before upgrading to a new phone.
 
J

Jasup

Member
jts said:
O boy I thought I was the only one suffering with the iPhone's battery here in the cold of Finland.

I just stopped using Strava after a while of having the battery dying on me daily.

I'm almost thinking about getting one of those battery cases as a stop-gap solution before upgrading to a new phone.
Click to expand...

Ha, I knew it!
This picture just screamed: "FINLAND"!
jts said:
44PTAIcl.jpg
Click to expand...
Somewhere in west coast I reckon: Vaasa?


Edit: also, it seems my home city, Oulu is considered the "winter cycling capital of the world" or something, which is nice
At least some Canadian bike enthusiasts seem to think so: http://bikelanes.ca/winter-cycling-in-oulu-is-for-everyone/ (somewhat interesting statistics there)
And the EU? http://www.eltis.org/resources/videos/winter-cycling-capital-world
And the Dutch? What's happening here? http://wintercyclingblog.org/2014/10/17/oulu-finland-winter-cycling-capital-of-the-world/
I just thought things could be better.
 
J

Jasup

Member
jts said:
Hehe, Finland west coast you got right mate, but it's a bit more north. Pietarsaari.
Click to expand...

So close, I originally thought it was Kokkola just because my brother lived in a very similar apartment there, but I decided to go with a nearby university town instead.
 
J

Jasup

Member
After some research, I've come to conclusion that my home city's claim to "winter cycling capital of the world" is more or less marketing fluff. The dubious title is there because a) the city's in a sub-arctic region and b) there's a somewhat comfortable modal share for cycling.

I do know that the city council does think of cycling as a bit of a novelty and something not to be bothered about and the populace thinks people cycle because the public transport's just pure shit.

There is a comprehensive "light traffic" (pedestrians and bicycles) network that works in the suburbs and on short distances, but near the city center everything just falls apart because of congestion. I know there are three dedicated cycle paths in the city (maybe under a kilometre in lenght in total and built in the 70's or so, people don't generally know about them) and everything else is shared with pedestrians or with traffic in streets with low traffic. There are no cycle lanes.

On the other hand I've driven maybe 5 times this year, and use my bicycle every day for most of my transport needs. I haven't taken a bus in months. Car or public transport just isn't that convenient.
 
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