Nuts - 20 miles

I happen to reach down and wiggle my rear wheel side to side this morning and noticed a few millimeters of lateral play. Damn; loose cones I thought. Actually, there are no “cones” in my Mavic Cosmos wheel set. Instead, theses pieces are called “fork support nuts”. Even when discussing the rear hubs. This makes sense though; since these nuts only hold sealed cartridge bearings in place and do not affect rolling resistance. They serve as more of a drop-out mating surface or... FORK SUPPORT. Traditionally, cones were used to hold ball bearings in place within a hub by sandwiching them between the inside hub flanges and the cones themselves. Each cone would be tightened inboard on either side of the axle until a firm, yet friction-free relationship is attained. Once this is established, thin serrated jamb-nuts are used to lock them in place. At any rate, I removed the cassette from the hub and noticed that my fork support nut on the drive side had loosened and migrated about 8 mm outboard. Yikes! I cleaned the hub, dropped some lube in to the visible cartridge bearing and then snugged it up using 13mm & 17mm cone wrenches. No more wiggle; only smooth operation. I snapped a few photos during the process, just for shits & giggles. More for giggles I suppose.

At 1:00 I headed out for a road ride. Threatening clouds made me run back inside and grab my arm warmers and rear fender. Rear fenders; great equipment for rainy rides. They help to mitigate the dreaded wet ass. Riding in the rain is one thing, but riding with a constant stream of chilly road muck spraying up your butt and back is another thing entirely. I was glad I used the fender today because two miles from home, the black sky cracked loose and dropped big fat rain down on me. Luckily I had nearly completed my 20 mile loop and only spent 10 or 15 minutes getting drenched. Tip o' the day: Ziploc bags are great protection for your phone on rainy rides.

Not so fixed gear

Friday at last and I feel great after another week or riding to work. I have an ideal seven mile commute. Not too short, not too long: juuuust riiiight. (that's what she said?)

With the onset of cooler temperatures I am really excited for fall to come. I enjoy commuting during the fall and winter much more than during the summer. I like the warrior aspect of it. I'm out there in the elements, completely comfortable, pedaling around the city.

I did have a mechanical issue this week. The lockring came loose on my fixed gear causing the gear (16T cog) to become not so fixed. It was a quick five minute fix to remove the wheel and honk down on the lockring, but it definitely scared the sh!t out of me. Aside from that I haven't had a mechanical issue in almost a year. Sweet. I must say, this is the first time I have used the Pedro's multi-tool for anything other than removing my wheels to fix flats. Worked great.

Relating to Yehuda Moon comics

Been following Yehuda Moon for a while now and can definitely relate the piece above. I got a call yesterday from the bike shop saying that my new Lefty (Lefty Speed Carbon XLR) has arrived and they offered me my choice of stem-steerer technology. Apparently the older style System Integration (SI) stem-steerer has quite a long lead time, whereas the new One Piece Integration (OPI) stem is the latest design, lighter, and readily available. I chose the newer OPI unit. Though, their "one piece integration" actually consists of two pieces. We'll see... I just want my damn frame and fork back so I can build it up and ride once again.

Above Left: SI Stem-steerer (Old design) Above Right: OPI Stem Steerer (New design)

Update on the Lefty situation

I stopped into the shop on the way home and spoke to the owner. He was like "we're gonna' make this right for you but here's the thing: There's no special tool to get the stem steerer out of the frame. Something's wrong with it. It should just slide right out. My mechanic just got back from a Cannondale training class and he knows what he's doing."

To which I replied: "Well, here's the thing; there IS a tool called the Ernie (and I pulled the tech manual that I downloaded from Cannondale's website from my back pocket) and its used for installing and removing Lefties. It keeps the stem-steerer straight so that you don't damage it, the bearings or the frame." He just said: "oh really? Can I keep this manual?"

My thoughts on this are:
A) He tried to bullshit me and can't be trusted.
B) He did absolutely no research of his own.
C) His mechanic never went to any training class or he lied about that.
D) I want to pour salt water down his seat tube.

He said that he will definitely pay for a new fork, stem-steerer and headset but cautioned me that he may not be able to get the exact fork (2010 Speed Carbon w/DLR - 110mm of travel). I just said, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I def want the same or equivalent.

I do not feel that great about today's face to face interaction with the owner at all. But I will keep you guys posted. In the mean time I am limited to my only other mountain bike which is my rigid singlespeed. I love it but I miss my Flash!

I could really use a Lefty

I recently mentioned that while out in Colorado I noticed my Lefty making a clunking noise/feeling and the lock-out was not working. When I stopped to assess the situation I found oil had seeped out of the bottom of the Lefty (all over my disk and caliper!).

I plan on mailing this up to Mendon Cyclesmith for repair but first I need to remove it from the frame. I know that there is a special Cannondale tool called the "Ernie" which is used for lefty installation & removal and I don't have one so I called my local bike shop (LBS) to see if they could remove it for me. They assured me that they could. I told them that it has an System Integration (SI) stem/steerer combo and asked if they were sure they had the tools to properly remove it. They said "yeah, sure our mechanics have the tools". Sweet! So after work I through the frame and fork over my shoulder and rode the fixie down to the shop.

They took it off my hands and immediately started unscrewing the clamps and wiggling the steerer/stem loose. I watched them to see how this special tool is used and what it looks like, but I didn't see any tool... Instead, I see one guy holding my frame upside-down while another guy uses a mallet to smack the shit out of my stem. They were trying to force the stem/steerer out of the head tube! I knew this wasn't right, but thought, well, maybe it just needs a tap or two...

Ten minutes later they're still whacking the shit out of my stem/steerer. Then they come to me and say: "We can't get the steerer out; we're going to have to destroy it to get it out.". I'm like "Woah woah woah!" I go look at what they've done and they had beaten the hell out of everything! The stem has a massive half-dollar size dent on the underside from all the hammering and the threads at the bottom of the steerer are destroyed from them trying to push it up and out of the head tube with some sort of pipe they had.

I was furious! I said: "you know there's a special tool for this right?" To which they replied "Special tool?".

I was so shaking mad... could barely speak. I was ready to punch someone/something! But, I kept my cool and didn't even curse, though I was so tempted to scream "WTF?!".

Surveying the damage here's what I saw:

1) The top clamp is badly twisted. They said: "Oh we'll straighten that out for you". Bullshit; you're replacing that. I'm not riding a fatigued clamp. What really sucks abou this is that the upper clamp is actually part of the upper carbon leg! So, they're going to have to get the whole upper piece from Cannondale.

2) The steerer/stem combo is toast. It's dented in many places and the treads are destroyed at the bottom of it.

They told me they will pay for everything but I will NEVER go back to this shop. I did not hear one apology or admittance of any wrong-doing. The owner was not in yesterday. But I did call him today to tell him what had happened. He rushed me off the phone saying that he'd pay for any damaged parts. I'll be paying him a visit after work today. All I want is for them to get my Lefty off and order the replacement parts no charge. When the parts come in, I'm sending them up to Mendon Cyclesmith and will charge the LBS for all costs.

The bike shop will remain nameless for now. Depending on how they handle this situation I may or may not flame them on Yelp, this blog, and mtbr.com.

Can you believe this crap?

Chris King

Chris King components amaze me. I installed a CK 1" threadless headset in my Bianchi Pista back in 2005. I think in 2006 I overhauled it, though it didn't need it. Today I decided it was time, although it felt smooth as butter. Upon removing the top cap from the upper stack I simply marveled in disbelief... it was immaculate... there was still red lithium grease from the overhaul I performed three years ago. Wow. There wasn't a spec of debris to be found. The inside of my steerer tube was filthy of course, but the headset was impeccably clean! I'll be installing a CK headset on my singlespeed first chance I get.

Holy Rusty BB Batman!

Wow. So today (day 2 of being sick at home) I made a guide for replacing bottom bracket cartridges. I like the way it came out. Have a look for yourself.

I've been meaning to replace the BB in my fixed gear for a really long time now. I knew it was going to be rusty; I've heard the sound of rusty debris jingling around inside of the frame each time I took the bike down from its hook.

This is how much rust was actually in there: (what's in my hand was only a fraction of it all)

Funny (but not) right? But, perhaps more worthy of snickering is my "inovative" solution to removing cranks by using the wrong tool. My splined drive cranks require the crank extractor tool with the larger sized head than the standard one used for square tapered cranks. Without this tool there's nothing for the extractor to push against. I decided to drop a couple of dimes down inside the crank arm and let the crank extractor push against them... it worked! (like a charm I might add) Only cost me $.20 per crank arm!

Lubricate or die

Following up the headset overhaul guide I made yesterday, today, I made a guide for lubing your bike. It covers about 70% of the bike; I still need to cover hubs & bottom bracket. Take a look.

I really enjoyed making the guides. I'm going to continue making them. I don't kno why I didn't make them sooner. Stay tuned...

New Pedals

Picked up a new pair of pedals for my mountainbike. I'm a HUGE fan of Crank Brothers pedals. I've used their Candy pedals on my mountain, cyclocross and fixed bikes. Hell, I even have them on my road bike right now. I've always wanted to try a pair of Egg Beaters, so I picked up a pair for my singlespeed. I'll let you know how they work after this weekend's ride at Blue Mountain!