What you done t' your bike today

[voodoo_simon]

Went to fit new pads on the gravel* bike today and for the life of me I couldn’t work out why the pads wouldn’t slot into the calliper. Measured them against the old ones and they’re much bigger Local shop had sold me the wrong ones a few months back. poor show happens

[redefined_cycles]

So... Another it of tyre fettling. The Specialised Butcher GRID were heavy and slow. So used some Vegetalex tubeless gunk to get the Rekon+ back on. This was after nearing the end of my tubeless sealant and needing to recycle abit.

Then came the fact that the Specialzied weren't cutting the muck, so the Rekon had to go back on. Sealant reused and some newly added. Had to add a bit of water to that newly added stuff

Today I've decided to sell both the Rekon and the Specialized Butcher GRID and come back to the Mezcal I'd bought new. Might not be grippy but at least it's not heavy. Was out of sealant and after reading the reviews of the Vegetalex (that it's crap) online I wondered whether I'd got my facts mixed up.


But a bit of cross-referencing with the empty bottle in the outhouse and yes, it's definitely the olive stone stuff. Maybe I'm using too much of it!


As you can see, the Mezcal with just 50 miles on it, looks a bit worn on the sidewalls. The negatives of going superlight hey!! But would it seal now as it has 1 or two thorns inside which I've not bothered to patch.

Add to that the fact that I'm out of sealant (actually) so needed to reuse the stuff from the removed Rekon+. Not enough either, so a bit of water added and the rest scraped from sidewalls. Would it 'cut the biscuit' (I know, it's not a saying... but it is now)...


Well, that hole I mentioned with the thorn. It spewed air, but a quick turn to have the sealant sat over it... and all is well (thus far)... Will I buy another Olive Stone based sealant. Yes, defo

[Boab]

Will I buy another Olive Stone based sealant. Yes, defo

I thought it was utter carp, wouldn't seal a brand new WTB Resolute to the rim no matter what I tried. I have most of a bottle sitting in the shed if you want it?

[PaulE]

Fitted some mudguards to my new London Road on Sunday... Turned out that they were a touch too wide for the fork, so fitted the old fork/front wheel/front brake from my previous bike.

All reasonably good, and kept me less soaked for 50+ mies in Sunday evening's downpour. Rattly and clanging thought... Cheapo Halfords aren't great...

Yesterday's job was removing the same guards so I could do some rough gravel riding early this morning without going deaf!

Next job will be getting them perfectly adjusted and then adding glue, epoxy resin, tape and/or fibre reinforcements to the mounting point to try to keep them quiet and stable.

On the plus side, the new front end is about 300g lighter, despite having a bigger and more treaded tyre

[redefined_cycles]

Will I buy another Olive Stone based sealant. Yes, defo

I thought it was utter carp, wouldn't seal a brand new WTB Resolute to the rim no matter what I tried. I have most of a bottle sitting in the shed if you want it?

Yes pls Bob Thanks so much. I did find it sturggled with some road/gravel tires I out on (Panaracer 33c 700) the road bike a year or two ago. But riding patiently and carefully as it filled the holes did the trick. Maybe I'm using highet than the suggested amounts, dunno.

Will report back if ever it starts failing on me fully. PM me to let me know how much you want for it please Bob, ta... If it's cheap enough I shall indeed take

[redefined_cycles]

.
On the plus side, the new front end is about 300g lighter, despite having a bigger and more treaded tyre

Gone wider and less weight, definitely a win there Paul

Bob, maybe its a batch thing. Most of the reviews in Wiggle and CRC said similar to what you and Jon/Lazarus found...

[Lazarus]

Same issue with it and found it failed to seal at rim(Road tyre and stans sealed this slow leak instantly ...it was bubbling as i was riding but would not seal) and I had leaks on every tyre I had it fitted to and when a front MTB lost all air on a descent ingor rid ( about 2 weeks use in my tyres).
Still have my bottle to give to you ( shame as it does not evaporate etc )

[redefined_cycles]

Might be that I've got a really tight interface at the rim/bead. So maybe it does a better job on the actual holes (apprently supposed to only seal smaller holes compares to others). Oh well Alhamdulillah it's working well for me

[Boab]

.
On the plus side, the new front end is about 300g lighter, despite having a bigger and more treaded tyre

Bob, maybe its a batch thing.

Only one way to find out...

[redefined_cycles]

.
On the plus side, the new front end is about 300g lighter, despite having a bigger and more treaded tyre

Bob, maybe its a batch thing.

Only one way to find out...

Oh Dear!

[Boab]

Fitted the new Garbaruk chainring and re-fitted the Garbaruk cassette. Shiny, shiny...


Although my chain is worn enough that I need a new one, plus it's not quite long enough anyway...

[Lazarus]

Garaburuk is expensive but lovely stuff ( cassette on one bike mech cage on another)

Retaped a rim due to an annoying slow puncture hoping its cured it....Time will tell

[Loki]

Made the most of the dodgy weather and swapped the transmission on my Surly to Microshift Advent X and upgrade the brake levers to a set of TRP ones, first time I have been able to spanner in over a year :)

[frogatthefarriers]

Took it apart into large lumps.

I’m off to Spain in September for an “adventure before dementia” ride from Seville to Santiago de Compostela. I agonised for a few weeks about renting a bike there (easy but expensive) or taking my own bike and having to find out how to get it there and back again. Well, out of a sense of loyalty (daft, I know ) to the bike, he's coming. So, how to get him there?

To cut a long story short, I’ve borrowed a proper bike box, (with wheels an’ everything) from a mate at work, but when I got it home I thought,

“It’ll never fit in there”.

But now I’ve had a couple of goes at it, I’m sure it will. I just have to practically disassemble it. Wheels off (obviously), rear mech off, rear disc calliper off (if I don’t the frames an inch too long to fit in), shifter and brake levers off the bars before taking the bars off too.

I just hope I can remember where everything was when I get there…

Oh, and when I tried to take the rear mech off, the hanger snapped so two new hangers are on the way as I write.

Still, as I like to say, it all adds to life’s rich tapestry.

[fatbikephil]

Had a massive tubeless faff.
Bunged a set of WTB byways on the straggler a wee while ago and they put up quite a fight. Even my monster compressor couldn't get them to seat so had to resort to stretching an inner tube over them. Then they kept losing pressure and every time they went flat would unseat. Given how hard it is to break the bead on a WTB ranger, this is quite annoying. Anyway I got there eventually with much shaking and sloshing, only to get a puncture the other day (another rock splinter on the same track that did for the rangers on the Jones) In with a plug but then yesterday I got another one! Bloody hell I don't believe how many punctures I'm getting these days. So I decided to patch the tyres as I feared the plugs would wear away. And could I hell get the tyre back on the bead. Eventually I had to use a tie down strap! On a 40mm tyre! With a 3.5hp compressor that flows 15 cfm!!!

Anddddd relax.

But I have to say, presta valves are useless, rubbish pieces of xxxx. If you unscrew the valve core the adaptor for my normal airline attachment won't screw on so you have to hold it in place as you try to press the airline trigger. Schraeders are massively better but won't fit the skinny rims on the Stragg

Thank god for beer.

[Boab]

But I have to say, presta valves are useless, rubbish pieces of xxxx. If you unscrew the valve core the adaptor for my normal airline attachment won't screw on so you have to hold it in place as you try to press the airline trigger. Schraeders are massively better but won't fit the skinny rims on the Stragg

Want me to send you one of them Schraeder / Presta adapters for exactly that kind of thing...?

Thank god for beer.

True. Except I canny drink as I'm playing Dad taxi until gone eleven... Fridge full of Kernel too.

[thenorthwind]

But I have to say, presta valves are useless, rubbish pieces of xxx

Agreed. I usually take the core out and use an air "duster" attachment with a thin nozzle directly into the body of the valve. Much better flow, and if you're quick, you can pull it out and shove the valve core back in without even losing too much pressure.

[fatbikephil]

Want me to send you one of them Schraeder / Presta adapters for exactly that kind of thing...?

That's what I used but when you unscrew the presta valve core it doesn't really screw on. You need something which screws onto the valve outer......

But I have to say, presta valves are useless, rubbish pieces of xxx

Agreed. I usually take the core out and use an air "duster" attachment with a thin nozzle directly into the body of the valve. Much better flow, and if you're quick, you can pull it out and shove the valve core back in without even losing too much pressure.

Hmm. Could probably lash something like this up

[PaulB2]

I naively though I'd have enough time in my lunch break to get my gravel bike ready for a 4 day predominantly road tour in the Yorkshire Wolds later in the week. Apparently I'd put the bike away without cleaning from its last use so had to give the drivetrain a good scrub and re-lube. I contemplated making another attempt to swap the tyres out for something a bit more road friendly but gave up after fairly quickly due to all the other faffing I have to do. I had to refit the rear mudguard due to rubbing on the rear tyre and then grab various mounts off of other bikes so I could fit side entry bottle holders, a stem computer mount, an extension bar so my light clears the bar bag and a bell. Framebag, seatpack and top tube bag are all fitted so just bar bag to fit but ran out of lunchtime.

All this faff makes me wish I had one set of luggage and gear per bike rather than having to swap everything around all the time.

[PaulB2]

Finished off the bar bag and then had to hunt for a smaller metal tensioner for my bell since I'd run out of bar estate for my bell so it had to go onto the extender bar with the light. Mental note to never throw out old rubber shims because I managed to lose the old ones when moving the extender bar off my MTB and onto the gravel bike and couldn't find anything to replace it with. All ready now though.

Ready for a tour by Paul Bravey, on Flickr

[redefined_cycles]

After much delay, I finally managed to get the second (and hopefully final) hook on for the mtb. Have to angle the tyre a little to wedge it in place but seems to be working so far. No more trying to angle myself in and out of the outhouse around all the stuff!



Now... Just to make some sort of organised tool wall on that side which will cope with the bikes (and hopefully I may have an organised shed for a while!).

[redefined_cycles]

Oh... and in case Bob (Boab) is looking at that bare roadie rim. I've removed the grommets in the spoke holes and cut myself some Tesa tape thin. Gonna attempt another go at making it tubeless and will use the olive sealant (cafelatex). Will report back if it doesn't work!

[Boab]

Oh... and in case Bob (Boab) is looking at that bare roadie rim. I've removed the grommets in the spoke holes and cut myself some Tesa tape thin. Gonna attempt another go at making it tubeless and will use the olive sealant (cafelatex). Will report back if it doesn't work!

That was the first thing I noticed...

[redefined_cycles]

If I can get this to seal then I'm a winner. Always been a pain to seal and is the non tubless carbon laminated Dura Ace rim (of about 2013 model I think so super thin at a 17mm internal).

[ledburner]

Oh... and in case Bob (Boab) is looking at that bare roadie rim. I've removed the grommets in the spoke holes and cut myself some Tesa tape thin. Gonna attempt another go at making it tubeless and will use the olive sealant (cafelatex). Will report back if it doesn't work!

That was the first thing I noticed...

I assumed those were the 'new hyper light ultra transparent tubeless treadless &wall-free' new tyres from Schwalbe. Very light almost weigh nowt! Hang on 6month late or early ....