Day 48...Its Electric

Yep, you guessed it, Im going to put those pics up from earlier today of the Colnago CLX w/Ultegra Di2.  The customer came in for his fit and rolled out one happy man.  Saw a little more spring in his step on the way out than when he came in.  So very happy for him.




 Before that however, we had a visit from Karen of PedalDancer.com.  She was super fun to chat with and is completely supporting her love of cycling, and the blogging about it, through her "real jobs".  Again, awesome to see the dedication she has for cycling.  Check out her blog/website and look for a post on the shop soon...hopefully!  Thanks Karen!

I also got to build up a sweet wheelset for a customer...yes I realize im simply telling you about my day and nothing of any profound meaning.  Mavic Reflex Tubular rims, Chris King CX hubs, Sapim Laser spokes in a 2 cross front and 3 cross rear pattern.  They came together very nicely.  If I can, Ill take a couple pics of them tomorrow and get them up here.

So, as long as Im on a "theme" kick for the week...that being the "lame" b-log posts...Ill leave you with those 3 lil tidbits of info.  Hopefully something a bit more "meaty" comes to the b-log in the very near future.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

...boots out.

Day 19...Wheels Anyone?

Today was so nice!  The weather rocked, mid 60's last I checked here in Denver.  Took the boys to the park down the street and watched them do laps on the slides.  It was awesome!  During the day I tended to a couple wheel sets from a client who's going to be selling them.  Pics are posted below, and Ill share the ad when he gets it out.  Easton EA70 tubulars.  1 pair sans tires, but with cassette(Shimano 12-27 Ultegra 10spd), and a 2nd pair w/Challenge CX tires, and same cassette.

Tonight was #bikeschool over on Twitter.  Ive really gotten into it.  1 hour a week, Thursdays at 9pm EST, 7pm MST.  Click the link above and itll take you to the explanation of what #bikeschool is.  I must recommend.

Tomorrow its back to the shop and the "Bikes and Beer" Open House Kirk is throwing.  Its BYOB and the shop is providing food stuffs.  I just hope the drive home doesnt take as long as it did on Wednesday!

boots out...

dont give yourself blisters, use a hairdryer and hot that glue up!

Here they are, ready for sale

the aforementioned cassettes

1 w/tires, 1 sans tires

Tech Hint: Many Wheels? One Bike? Let's Do This...

One issue Ive seen come through the doors of shops Ive worked in over the years has to do with 1 bike and multiple wheels.  This is especially prominent during cyclocross season since most people cant afford 2 fully decked out bikes, but can, and do, over time accumulate different sets of wheels.  

Most people think they can just switch wheels out without any problems.  What they find in reality is that wheels are just as different as frames.  Even if they're keeping with road wheels at a 130mm spacing, or mtb wheels at 135mm spacing.  With cross I've had people just get new wheels and expect them to work.  Here are some things you need to keep in mind about wheels.

• Rims are different widths.  Especially the new carbon tubular wheels.  They are getting very very wide.
• Hub spacing is different from the inside measuring area.  In other words, yes, the drop out width is going to match 130mm in order to fit in the frame.  However the flange distance, body, freehub spacing are all different for every manufacturer.  

Now the easy way to "fix" this "problem" is to run the same hubs on all your wheels and to run the same rims, cassettes and chains.  That way you stay with the same spacing that a single manufacturer uses.  

Some companies space their freehub bodies wide, so the limit screws/adjustments are further out than if the spacing was closer to the "center point" of the hub body. This requires that you make adjustments every time you swap wheels out...supposedly.

Rims are the same way.  Many aluminum rims tend to be a bit narrower than carbon rims(either tubular or clincher).  However some companies, such as HED, is making their aluminum rims wider now in response, as well as the fact that it give a more sturdy surface for braking.  Cantilever brakes tend to fit this wider profile a bit easier than road caliper brakes.  My feeling, hope is, that in the near future road calipers will allow for easier spacing of wider rims.

Having 1 rig can make using multiple wheels a bit tricky, but NOT impossible 

Getting all these to work on the Jamis was a piece of cake

Keep a mental note of how this hub is sitting in the frame, you'll see a BIG difference with Matt's new wheel

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His new wheels/hubs, the spacing was much narrower

after swapping out his old pads to some carbon/alloy friendly ones, brake adjustments had to be made 

What you want to do to dial in your braking when using multiple rims is to measure the rims' widths.  Then you want to dial all of your barrel adjusters down to "zero", or the starting point.  Put the widest rim/wheel in the frame and set the brakes to that rim width and pull.  After you're done with that, it "should" be as easy as just dialing in the barrel adjusters on the narrower rims so the brakes will pull the same.  

Make sure you re check your brake pad/brake track heights.  Some rims have a bit more variance in the high/low setting of the pads.  If you have a rim that has a narrow brake track, then I try to split the difference as best as possible.  Just make sure you remember which rims were narrow and which one was wide, so you don't get flustered in the middle of a wheel change with undoing and refastening the cables.  

The next part is to check the shifting/high/low limit screw adjustments.  Now, let me stop you here.  As a mechanic, if you DO NOT know, or understand high/low limit screws and how to set them...DON'T!  Ive seen it too many times in a shop where someone thought they "knew what I was doing" by setting them, and in the end me, as the mechanic, is the bad guy when I tell them they set them wrong and that's why they ripped their RD off into the frame/wheel and now new parts are in need.  So, if you don't know how to dial them in, take them to your trusted LBS/mechanic(or if you're in Denver, call me, I'm a free agent), and have him/her get it set for you.

IF you do know how to set them, and play with cable tension, then my next step is to measure all the wheels in the frame, with the chain shifted to the outer most cog.  This will show you distance inside the dropouts and which hubs are wider/narrower than others.  

If you look at the pic above of Matt's older wheels in the frame, the spacing is wide.  Now, if you look at the  pic below, with his new wheel/hub in the frame, the spacing is much narrower.  This can lead to a couple issues.  Which hubs do I set first?  Will I throw a chain either to the inside or the outside of the cassette hence damaging either the frame or the wheel?

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First thing to do is undo the cable fixing bolt on the RD so the cable hangs freely and you can manually move it with your hands up and down the cassette while pedaling the bike in the stand.  I personally like to start with the widest of the hubs in the frame.  I set the limits to that cassette first, pedaling and manually "shifting" the RD up and down with some amount of force to make sure it wont ride off the inside of the cassette or the outside.  Setting the limits with a bit more room than normal on the largest cog at this point allows me to compensate(hopefully) for the narrower spaced hubs on the other wheels.  

 

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Once the manual adjustments have been made, and Ive checked all the wheels in the frame separately and without the RD cable fixed to the Derailleur itself, I go back to the "First" wheel, the wider one.  Fix the cable in the RD bolt, and get ready to check shifting while using the shifters now, and not my hand.  At this point I adjust the shifting as I would any other wheel set up, by making sure the FD/chain alignment is right and that it wont jump off while shifting from either big ring to small ring, or vice versa.  

After the first wheel is adjusted, its time to adjust and check the other wheels.  If you're lucky, and you made the correct adjustments with the limit screws in the previous steps, it should just be a matter of some slight cable tension adjustment to dial in the other wheels.  If you run into any shifting problems, then stop what you're doing, and go to your LBS/mechanic and have them go over it.  Take ALL of your wheels in you're using.  It doesnt help the mechanic to guess which ones are wider and which ones are narrower.

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In the end, its all about patience, and I realize there are other methods to achieve the same outcome.  This is the method I use, and hopefully have explained in some sort of coherent manner so that you actually understood what I meant above.  If anyone out there is in the Denver area, and wants to help me get some video shot for this type of stuff, I'm all ears!  I just cant handle a video camera and do the adjustments at the same time, and Im not one for the Go-Pro head-cam set up.  Thats doesnt do justice.  

So, hope you got something out of this post, and I managed to do some good.  Boots out!

Those Wheels I Was Telling You About...

As promised to one of my Google+ peeps, I took pics of the Edge wheels w/custom painted DT Swiss hubs via Vanilla Cycles.  The Andre Dugast "Flying Doctors" are new for @denvercx and the irony of the whole situation is that he plays a Dr in real life!  All thats left is some Caffelatex for some added security.

nice set of carbon and rubber

i think thatll do

awesome touches from Vanilla Cycles

yum

fast tread, and perfect for our Colorado courses

Primus SS Whip

This was a nice little project that just got finished...minus the bar wrap(owner's choice of course).  Primus Mootry SS conversion.  Fresh glue job on the tires, new bars and stem.  Have fun Peder!

Tubies Made Easy...Gluing

As promised, here's the next step in the gluing process after cleaning and stretching(still to come, dont worry).  I would refer to my Disclaimer from the previous post in regards to this.  This is the way I do it, so please again, feel free to add/subtract/multiply how and what you do.  

First thing I do when its time to glue is place the wheel in the truing stand, or other appropriate device.  If you are using a truing stand with adjustable sites, apply just enough pressure to the rim to keep it from moving.  Theres no real reason to do this except it keeps the wheel from moving on me and makes my life easier.

Align the valve hole as a "starting" point for the glue application.  This obviously serves as a reference point for anything wheel oriented, truing, building, tire/tube installation and gluing.

Now its time to get out your brush and glue.  I realize not everyone uses a brush.  Ive gone through a few evolutions in figuring out what works best.  Ive seen different brushes used, fingers(in glove or plastic bag) and various other items.  My reasons for choosing these brushes are that the bristle width is pretty spot on for most rims out there today, and with a little trimming(which i do) I can get the brush to pull and lay the glue in just such a way that works great.  Also, you can reuse these things over and over.  Just take a small cup and put enough paint thinner in to cover the bristles and leave over night.  After some rinsing the next day, its all ready to go again, and again and again.  Then there's cost...THEYRE CHEAP!  A buck or buck and change per brush, so youre not going too break the bank on something thats gonna get used alot.

As for applying the glue to the rim, again different strokes for different folks.  Im not a fan of putting the glue on the rim THEN spreading it around.  I put just enough glue on the brush to spread the distance between valve/spoke holes on the rim.  This comes from gluing over and over and playing with the amount of glue.  Paint the glue on in nice smooth even strokes.  "No Clumps" is the key here.  It uses less glue and also allows the layers to "mate" as you get into the 2nd and Final coat.

Try not to get too clumpy at the spokes holes.  Its super messy, wastes glue and makes for extra cleaning when replacing tires, or truing internal nipples.  Also, DONT be afraid of going all the way to the edge of the rim/tire interface part of the surface.  You want to utilize the entire surface of the rim as there's nothing worse than a tire slowly working itself off the rim then suddenly failing on a tight turn.  If you go over the edge of the rim with glue, just take your finger, or rag, and wipe off the excess immediately.

Once the rim is done, give it a spin.  It probably doesnt really do anything overall but in my mind it helps start the tacking process....just sayin

Now to the tires.  As stated in the previous post(link above on "Disclaimer"), I like to inflate the tire enough so that when laid on a flat surface the base tape is facing up.  Again, start at the valve, that whole point of reference thing.  I take the tube of glue and gently press it until the glue starts flow, and then lay the end of the tube on the tire and let the capillary action continue to pull glue out.  I lay just enough down so that "the run" doesnt happen too fast before I get to it with the brush.  I use short strokes and use the edges of the brush to get the edges of the base tape.  Ive seen too many tires come in where the glue wasnt distributed over the entire surface.  That can lead to the obvious "roll" of a tire which in turn can lead to a bad situation for everyone.

Nice even coating is what youre looking for.

One last point on the tire is to not be shy around the valve stem as well.  This is the one place you dont want and movement as it can lead to tearing of the valve stem from the casing.  Apply the same amount of glue there are you did on the rest of the tire.  

When everything is done, hang the tire on the same hook as the wheel.  I place the valve stem at the top since theres less base tape to have issues with if some air comes out over night and is easily re-glued.  If you only have 1 set of tires/wheels to deal with then it doesnt matter where you hang everything.  This is a good practice if you have multiple tires/wheels and you have to keep track of what tires go on certain wheels.

That concludes this portion of "Tubies Made Easy".  Its looking like Ill be able to do the removing/cleaning/stretching part in the next day or so.  Final Coat and Pulling on will come in a couple days as well.

Thanks for coming by....Boots

Tubies Made Easy...hopefully: Materials/Layout

I'm going to take couple of entries to go over how Ive done my tubular cleaning, stretching and gluing.  Partly comes from me going to the cross race at Xilinx last weekend and see some riders I've done work for, and them asking me what I do to it, and if I could do a few more.  So, I figured Id take a couple posts to make it a bit easier to do than Ive seen some people do it. 

DISCLAIMER: This is how I was taught to do tubies, and how other talented wrenches I've worked with have done it.  There ARE NUMEROUS ways to glue tubies and the opinions stated here are of this blog and its owner.  Feel free to take, or leave, anything you wish.  This will go over a "best case" scenario which means you have 3-4 days to do this.

This post will go over the materials I use for cleaning, stretching and gluing a wheel.  The cleaning aspect will be done when I have a used rim that needs a new tire.  Unfortunately the customer brought me a pair of new ZIPP 303's he's putting old tires on, so the stripping of old glue and removal of tire will have to wait till another time.

Now, onto the items I use for the whole deal:

• Paint Thinner(not acetone)
• Acid Brush(es)
• Plastic tire lever, or something you can use to work the base tape away from the rim without ripping, or tearing anything...NO METAL
• Glue/Mastik: I prefer Vittoria Mastik, Continental Standard Glue(the "carbon" only stuff I think has a bad consistency)
• Rags(for cleaning)
• Extra wheel/rim for stretching a new tire
• Truing Stand, or something that can be used as such
• Pump
• Broomstick, or something that resembles a broomstick
• Water bottle...one you will never use again
• Hairdryer
• Gloves for cleaning, Nitrile Mechanics gloves are what i use

If you have a new tire and rim Id recommend stretching the tire for at least 24hrs in advance to when you need to start the glue job.  As for the "time frame", I've been asked about for gluing, this is what Ive come to use as my rule of thumb(for perfect conditions meaning in a shop, or you have a few days to do the job)...Carbon rims = 3 days to glue, 1 to set...Alloy rims = 2 days to glue, 1 to set.  Carbon is much for porous than alloy, so when the first coat is applied to the rim, alot of it gets "sucked" up by the rim itself.  Conversely an alloy rim isn't porous at all hence the lack of need for extra glue.  In an ideal world, you would let the glue sit up for about 24hrs between coats.  If you're in a hurry, I try to let the glue get tacky enough that I cant make runs in it by pressing on it with my finger.  Please at least give yourself 24hrs from the time the tire is mounted until the time you intend to race or ride it.  Ive seen it work out with less time, but in general I recommend 24hrs. 

Tomorrow Ill go over how I apply the glue and why I use only glue and NOT tape as some people do.  As for the question of is it ok to reuse an old tubular, the answer is yes...as long as the casing and base tape are in tact and the glue is not too terribly chunky and the chunks that are there can be removed without doing any damage to the tire.  Some customers I have don't have tons of wheel sets laying around, and have me remove and reuse tires for road and cross season.  

Standard Paint Thinner you can buy at any Home Depot, the Acid Brush you can get at a modeling store and glue from your local LBS

to keep the wheel from spinning in the stand, i gently apply pressure with the truing  gauge

This is a new rim.  Depending on the manufacturer some need very little to no buffing with an emory cloth to get the surface slightly rough for the application of glue.

The tire is inflated just enough so that when it sits on a table or this case a bench, that the basetape faces up.  

There aren't too many big chunks on these tires, as I used a hairdryer to heat the glue up to get them off the rim.

Thanks for coming by and letting me ramble...

CX Love

Getting a bike ready for cross is no small task at times, especially when you get into something and find that things havent been done, or they are just plain ole dirty.  After going through my boy, Matt Klick of Frites-en-Mayo, bike, he should be all ready to roll this weekend!  All new Jagwire cables and housing, new bar tape, and a fresh coat of grease in all the right places.

Have fun Matt!

After a good bath, his steed rested peacefully in the stable overnight

cleaning and grease are a must for Cross season

this was the lower bearing in his headset...sad sight and much better now!

after cleaning, its all ready for a fresh thin layer of grease...those "creaks" you hear in your headset, check to make sure its all greased. most shops dont double check it from the factory

clean, inflated wheels make the world go round...literally!

even though they will more than likely fall off, its the little touches that make prepping a bike super fun and rewarding

fizik bar tape is not my favorite, but ive managed to become friendly enough with it so it lets me wrap it nicely

Everything on this frame is toptube run

nice new cable/housing set works pretty good actually, and im not a fan of Teflon coated cable...Jagwire Race Cable/Housing set

I removed the water bottle bolts and replaced with bits of electrical tape...no sticking into the ribs when carrying now!

not the best photo, but heres the finished product

that fizik bar tape, a love/hate relationship

Avid Ultimate Canti's are the choice for Matt

Representin local team love here!