What have you bought/upgraded today.

[EWG]

Huge purchase: red handlebar tape and blue handlebar tape. Amazon cut rate stuff for my commuter singlespeed.

Ok, need help. See photo below. Blue tape is trash. Need to remove and replace. Want to use a red and blue combo. How should I do it? Need ideas. One side red the other blue, top blue bottom red, braided, striped etc. What’s your vote?

[Dantheman]

Clearly, you need a blue/red/yellow tri-braid.

[teledad]

Braided: https://www.serfas.com/serfas-bar-tape-challenge/
Or Harlequin: http://www.wastedlife.org/bike/harlequin/index.html

[sethschmautz]

Whoa. That looks a lot like a GT TT bike that I ride for a while - even the carbon fork and the aero cut out seat tube. Is that 650c or 700c?

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[EWG]

Whoa. That looks a lot like a GT TT bike that I ride for a while - even the carbon fork and the aero cut out seat tube. Is that 650c or 700c?

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700c. It’s a Santa Cruz Roadster. There’s a cool as shit thing they did - maybe only for a few years: it has replaceable dropouts. The ones I have on there in the photo are regular horizontal, but I have another set that are vertical for fixie. Cool idea.

However, the internal seat post clamp sucks. It’s always slipping just a little. Annoying.

[rideit]

Loctite green (sleeve) compound, perhaps?

[GeorgiaSnow]

Zero Friction says not to bother with trying to cool the wax before pulling the chain; that any additional wax that stays in the chain by doing that is getting squeezed out as soon as the load is applied to the chain.

And yes, they do say that wax doesn’t adhere as well to KMC chains, so longevity isn’t as good as with other brands.

I’ve been using molten speed wax since July on the mtn bike and road bike because of that data. So far, pretty amazing. My mtb is currently filthy but the drivetrain is still performing great. Maybe 150 miles since the last wax? And not getting grease on yourself all the time is a nice bonus.


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[climberevan]

A hot melt Silca was good for ~70 miles on Kokopelli sandy dust before it needed a changing. (I carried 2 hot waxed chains and a small bottle of Synergetic as a "just in case".) .

Wow. Carrying 2 spare whole chains and changing them on the trail rather than carrying a 2oz bottle of lube and reapplying it every 40 miles or so must be the highest expression of dedication to chain waxing ever seen. Chapeau, sir.

The 12s XT chain on my Ripley has 3000 miles of dry riding using de-aerosolized NoToil moto lube and it still hasn't hit .5%. I guess I'm losing 2 or 3 watts but I'm ok with that.

Chain lube discussions are the locusts of Sprockets. They just keep coming back on a regular schedule.

[EWG]

Loctite green (sleeve) compound, perhaps?

Huh. Why didn’t I think of that? Might be worth a shot.

[J. Barron DeJong]

Wow. Carrying 2 spare whole chains and changing them on the trail rather than carrying a 2oz bottle of lube and reapplying it every 40 miles or so must be the highest expression of dedication to chain waxing ever seen. Chapeau, sir.

The 12s XT chain on my Ripley has 3000 miles of dry riding using de-aerosolized NoToil moto lube and it still hasn't hit .5%. I guess I'm losing 2 or 3 watts but I'm ok with that.

Chain lube discussions are the locusts of Sprockets. They just keep coming back on a regular schedule.

Hadn’t heard of No Toil before. SDS says it’s vegetable oil and fatty alcohol, so basically margarine?

Anyway, yes I’m aware that lube discussions pop up on a regular basis (and that’s been happening long before TGR came along).

The big news to me was that there’s finally structured wear testing being done, so we can now have an actual fact based discussion rather than one based on opinion, or varying experiences based off of different use conditions.

It’s pretty shocking to see the huge range of wear results, especially since testing has been pretty much limited to lubes that have a pretty good reputation and would have many users who would swear by their performance.

Also, there have been some new lubes introduced within the past year or two that are significantly outperforming what was previously available (Silca Drip, UFO Drip, Tru Tungsten All Weather, Absolute Black Graphen) so it’s not purely rehashing a previous discussion, there really are advances being made, and proper testing to compare performance.

Regarding watt savings, the lowest friction lubes - with some small variation between lubes - are also the ones that show the least wear. Basically because the extra power being absorbed by the less efficient lubes is being used to wear away metal.

[climberevan]

Hadn’t heard of No Toil before. SDS says it’s vegetable oil and fatty alcohol, so basically margarine?


.

That MSDS is likely the filter oil, which is what NoToil is known for (i have used it on dirt bike air filters for 15 years). I'm using their chain lube, but I transfer it to a regular drip bottle bc the spray can just make a huge mess on the bicycle chain. It ends up as a semi-wet kind of lube that stays on for 50 miles of Tahoe dust and only gets a little dirty.


You're right that there have been real advancements and data in the chain lube world of late, but I'm still not sufficiently dedicated to saving literally 2-4 watts or making my chain last 20% longer to remove it from the bicycle every 2-3 rides, deep clean it, and then wax it again.

[J. Barron DeJong]

That MSDS is likely the filter oil, which is what NoToil is known for (i have used it on dirt bike air filters for 15 years). I'm using their chain lube, but I transfer it to a regular drip bottle bc the spray can just make a huge mess on the bicycle chain. It ends up as a semi-wet kind of lube that stays on for 50 miles of Tahoe dust and only gets a little dirty.


You're right that there have been real advancements and data in the chain lube world of late, but I'm still not sufficiently dedicated to saving literally 2-4 watts or making my chain last 20% longer to remove it from the bicycle every 2-3 rides, deep clean it, and then wax it again.

It’s carrier, vegetable oil, and hydrogenated oil (fatty alcohol). I’m joking with the margarine thing, I’m sure this is a bit more sophisticated than that. Also, in some of the early friction testing olive oil performed quite well, beating the majority of dedicated lubes - but that was just short term friction testing in a clean environment, didn’t look at longevity or how quickly it would pick up contamination.

The lubes I mentioned above are all next generation drip lubes, so no need for the removing the chain rigamarole. That’s really where the biggest innovation has happened recently, and they appear to be a significant improvement over Squirt and Smoove. And significant here means much more than a 10-20% increase in drivetrain life.

[rideit]

Huh. Why didn’t I think of that? Might be worth a shot.

Most of my Klein Adroit (‘90\91?) was held together with loctite green. Bb spindle, fork/bearings, etc. it mostly worked! I had loctite and huffy stickers on it for fun.

[XXX-er]

Huh. Why didn’t I think of that? Might be worth a shot.

I would try some carbon paste, it grips and stops squeaks

On the advice of a train mechanic who used the green to hold in sleeves & bearings on locomotives I used the green on a creaking square taper spindle / race facecrank arms, it stopped the creaking but it was like epoxying the crank arms on, some serious holding power, I had to use a lever extension on the park puller to get them off and i was pretty worried about breaking something

using it on a frame/ seat post makes me nervous

[rideit]

Agreed, it would be a bitch to remove, but I was able to no problem on the Klein. It wouldn’t move, though. Agreed that carbon paste *might* be worth trying first. But that stuff is very hard to clean up, too.

[Dee Hubbs]

using it on a frame/ seat post makes me nervous

On a commuter fixie/clown bike, that will never have the seat height ever adjusted. Go ahead and bond it solid.

[scrublover]

Try a bit of climbing chalk on the seatpost.

[Dantheman]

Kiddo's new whip, 2019 Rocky Altitude Alloy 70 XS. $2500, which in this market feels like a steal. Should break even or close to it when I sell his Clash. He doesn't even know yet. He's not quite big enough for it yet so we're keeping it a secret and going to drop it at Xmas.

[Andeh]

Awesome. Great looking bike. He must be super stoked.

[VTskibum]

That’s sick Dan!


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[EWG]

On a commuter fixie/clown bike, that will never have the seat height ever adjusted. Go ahead and bond it solid.

I'm offended that you just called it a clown bike. The fact that it makes me a clown isn't offensive as we all know I'm a clown. It's just that the bike is nicer than that.

Good ideas here, thanks. Will report back. It loses about an inch every 8 hours of commuting.

[Boissal]

Sick bike DTM, lucky kid!!

Based on comments in the tire thread I got myself a set of Spesh Butcher and Eliminator, both 29 x 2.3 grid trail, one in T9 and one in T7. First ride will be on wet roots in France, will make for an interesting change of pace after 6 months of UT dust...
Couldn't stomach the cost of Maxxis anymore and was a bit disappointed that the DHF barely made it 500 miles before getting all squirrely when braking hard. Not even going to mention the Dissector which feels like worn semi-slick at this point. I'd consider it again if I could find a dual compound DD version but that seems unlikely.

[cydwhit]

Mud season parts purchasing has commenced: Bought a STFU bike chain thing, because IDK if it's the Microshift, or this frame, but I've never had so much chain slap in my life. We'll see if it helps.
Also snagged some of the Miles Racing brake pads, because why not?

I'd love to hear what you think about the new Patrol. I'm fantasizing about the inevitable carbon version.

It's fun. It's really, really fun. It climbs better than I thought it would, and allows me to get weirder going downhill than I ever have. For my (pretty shoddy and slow) riding style, it's a real hoot.

[gretch6364]

Awesome. Great looking bike. He must be super stoked.

He doesn't know yet...so I am guessing he is not. But probably will be soon! Lucky kid.

As for the theme of this thread....just ordered an X01 B-bolt to replace the stock one on my new GX der.

[jamal]

Took off the xc tires



Vittorias were pretty toast after the spring/summer and I already had the dhf so I went and put that on plus an aggressor today.