R
Rick Onanian
Guest
I thought all you icky-weather riders were nuts.
I was wrong!
I rode today. Many of you will call this mild, not unpleasant weather. This was pushing it for me;
the worst I've ever ridden before was warm, light rain.
I must say: It was GREAT!
43 degrees f. Snow and slush everywhere. Road covered in deep salt-water puddles and sections of
slush. I've been itching to ride, and *****ing about the weather.
:Summary: With all the problems [listed below], it's amazing how much fun I had, how much I enjoyed
the ride, and how much I now like the bike. Weather be damned! Terribly beat beater be damned! Wet
ankles be damned! I can ride, damn it!
I may even do it again in worse weather than this.
:The ride: Probably 10 miles. Probably an hour. I didn't keep track. I don't know how fast I went,
and I didn't care. I was riding, numbers and weather be damned! Woohoo!
I saw one person with a snowblower attachment on his lawn tractor throwing the slush off his
driveway. I saw a few shoveling.
On the way home, a guy with a snowplow blew past me. Other drivers gave me more room and less speed.
:The clothes: Long johns. Bike shorts. Noisy, water-resistant pants with yellow reflective ankle
things to keep the baggy pants from getting in the chainrings. Two layers thick of wicking shirts.
Noisy, water-resistant jacket. Thin, lightly insulated winter gloves with that same noisy, water-
resistant material outside (what is that stuff, anyway?). Thin fleecey balaclava, bought Thursday;
great even in the wind, and sufficient for probably another 5 or 10 degrees down. My mountain biking
SPD boots.
Okay, I just checked that material: The jacket is nylon. The pants are polyester. How do they make
it crunchy and noisy and hard and nearly abrasive, and importantly, water-resistant? Different weave
than the normal soft, quiet versions?
Attention Rhode Islanders and anybody with a The Sports Authority store around: Balaclavas on sale
cheap at The Sports Authority. $7 for the thin one, thicker ones for something like $10 and $15;
they're marked two or three times their actual price. Find them in the snowboarding department.
:The bike: I spent a half-hour un-seizing some of the seized parts of a beater: an ancient Windsor
"International" (I think) that I've been considering making into a fixie, whose very nice stem
shifters I would then use on another bike that needs them.
I have decided that, as terrible as the condition is, I like this bike. The front derailer is sprung
backwards, so when I push both shifters all the way in the same direction, I get the highest or
lowest combination I can get -- except that the derailer adjustment screws were seized and I
couldn't adjust them well. No top gear in the rear -- good, because the rear tire was NG, the road
was wet, and I wasn't used to the cold wind. The front doesn't shift into the big ring very well, or
very often. That backwards front derailer is cool; if only I could adjust it -- I snapped both
screws on it. I'll get them out another day.
Oh yes, the rear tire. Very rotted, didn't seem prudent to add too much air. It lost air pretty
quickly anyway. When I finally decided to turn around and head home, I figured I pump it up a bit;
that's when my pump broke, and let out what was left in the tire while it was at it. Luckily, I had
a CO2 inflater in my backpack, and it was mostly downhill going home, so I put the contents of a 16g
cartridge in it and rode it home.
The freewheel was not freewheeling. I thought maybe I could test the theory of a fixed gear being
sure to break a derailer-style tensioner. However, the WD-40 that I sprayed liberally into the
freewheel must have found it's target shortly after I left the driveway.
The rear wheel had at least one centimeter of lateral run-out. When I hurriedly attempted to true
it, with it's seized nipples, I broke two spokes, both on the side that exacerbated the problem. I
ended up with two spokes gone, the same lateral run-out, and now I think a flat spot on the rim. It
was a little bumpy, once per revolution...
As a result, I left the rear brake nearly useless for being so open. I did replace the missing pad,
though; even so, it wasn't useful on the road.
The front end was squirrely; it kept wanting to turn back and forth a few degrees; I think it's the
headset, and also the cause of: I found out that it was pulling left. Either the frame or fork is
bent, or the headset is beat. The headset feels a bit notchy, especially if I turn it left.
The handlebars had this terrible, completely unpadded thin cloth tape on them. It didn't cover
the non-aero brake levers, nor did they have rubber hoods; I still found them a reasonable place
to hold on.
The saddle was a bit hard, but more importantly, was not tightly attached, and tilted
forward/backward whenever I shifted my weight. It'll probably be not-so-bad if I secure it and raise
it an inch.
Once the lube worked it's way in, the rear derailer and chain worked surprisingly nicely.
I put my favorite cheapo SPD pedals on. Gotta have the pedals!
I put two extra-cheap clamp-on fenders, bought for $5/each at Building #19 (a semi-local deep-
discount liquidation chain). I was surprised how well they worked. I clamped one on the seatpost, as
they're intended to do, and even way higher than the tire, it did it's job well enough. I clamped
the other one on the head tube, between the downtube and top tube, and was shocked to find it did
the job too, again with the tire far away.
I didn't bother testing the QR levers before I left, and luckily, never needed to find out if
they're any good.
I was wrong!
I rode today. Many of you will call this mild, not unpleasant weather. This was pushing it for me;
the worst I've ever ridden before was warm, light rain.
I must say: It was GREAT!
43 degrees f. Snow and slush everywhere. Road covered in deep salt-water puddles and sections of
slush. I've been itching to ride, and *****ing about the weather.
:Summary: With all the problems [listed below], it's amazing how much fun I had, how much I enjoyed
the ride, and how much I now like the bike. Weather be damned! Terribly beat beater be damned! Wet
ankles be damned! I can ride, damn it!
I may even do it again in worse weather than this.
:The ride: Probably 10 miles. Probably an hour. I didn't keep track. I don't know how fast I went,
and I didn't care. I was riding, numbers and weather be damned! Woohoo!
I saw one person with a snowblower attachment on his lawn tractor throwing the slush off his
driveway. I saw a few shoveling.
On the way home, a guy with a snowplow blew past me. Other drivers gave me more room and less speed.
:The clothes: Long johns. Bike shorts. Noisy, water-resistant pants with yellow reflective ankle
things to keep the baggy pants from getting in the chainrings. Two layers thick of wicking shirts.
Noisy, water-resistant jacket. Thin, lightly insulated winter gloves with that same noisy, water-
resistant material outside (what is that stuff, anyway?). Thin fleecey balaclava, bought Thursday;
great even in the wind, and sufficient for probably another 5 or 10 degrees down. My mountain biking
SPD boots.
Okay, I just checked that material: The jacket is nylon. The pants are polyester. How do they make
it crunchy and noisy and hard and nearly abrasive, and importantly, water-resistant? Different weave
than the normal soft, quiet versions?
Attention Rhode Islanders and anybody with a The Sports Authority store around: Balaclavas on sale
cheap at The Sports Authority. $7 for the thin one, thicker ones for something like $10 and $15;
they're marked two or three times their actual price. Find them in the snowboarding department.
:The bike: I spent a half-hour un-seizing some of the seized parts of a beater: an ancient Windsor
"International" (I think) that I've been considering making into a fixie, whose very nice stem
shifters I would then use on another bike that needs them.
I have decided that, as terrible as the condition is, I like this bike. The front derailer is sprung
backwards, so when I push both shifters all the way in the same direction, I get the highest or
lowest combination I can get -- except that the derailer adjustment screws were seized and I
couldn't adjust them well. No top gear in the rear -- good, because the rear tire was NG, the road
was wet, and I wasn't used to the cold wind. The front doesn't shift into the big ring very well, or
very often. That backwards front derailer is cool; if only I could adjust it -- I snapped both
screws on it. I'll get them out another day.
Oh yes, the rear tire. Very rotted, didn't seem prudent to add too much air. It lost air pretty
quickly anyway. When I finally decided to turn around and head home, I figured I pump it up a bit;
that's when my pump broke, and let out what was left in the tire while it was at it. Luckily, I had
a CO2 inflater in my backpack, and it was mostly downhill going home, so I put the contents of a 16g
cartridge in it and rode it home.
The freewheel was not freewheeling. I thought maybe I could test the theory of a fixed gear being
sure to break a derailer-style tensioner. However, the WD-40 that I sprayed liberally into the
freewheel must have found it's target shortly after I left the driveway.
The rear wheel had at least one centimeter of lateral run-out. When I hurriedly attempted to true
it, with it's seized nipples, I broke two spokes, both on the side that exacerbated the problem. I
ended up with two spokes gone, the same lateral run-out, and now I think a flat spot on the rim. It
was a little bumpy, once per revolution...
As a result, I left the rear brake nearly useless for being so open. I did replace the missing pad,
though; even so, it wasn't useful on the road.
The front end was squirrely; it kept wanting to turn back and forth a few degrees; I think it's the
headset, and also the cause of: I found out that it was pulling left. Either the frame or fork is
bent, or the headset is beat. The headset feels a bit notchy, especially if I turn it left.
The handlebars had this terrible, completely unpadded thin cloth tape on them. It didn't cover
the non-aero brake levers, nor did they have rubber hoods; I still found them a reasonable place
to hold on.
The saddle was a bit hard, but more importantly, was not tightly attached, and tilted
forward/backward whenever I shifted my weight. It'll probably be not-so-bad if I secure it and raise
it an inch.
Once the lube worked it's way in, the rear derailer and chain worked surprisingly nicely.
I put my favorite cheapo SPD pedals on. Gotta have the pedals!
I put two extra-cheap clamp-on fenders, bought for $5/each at Building #19 (a semi-local deep-
discount liquidation chain). I was surprised how well they worked. I clamped one on the seatpost, as
they're intended to do, and even way higher than the tire, it did it's job well enough. I clamped
the other one on the head tube, between the downtube and top tube, and was shocked to find it did
the job too, again with the tire far away.
I didn't bother testing the QR levers before I left, and luckily, never needed to find out if
they're any good.
