Twice Bitten.

I love my XTR Trail (M988) brakes. They are true one-finger brakes. Great power AND modulation. Now... Shimano's hoses... I have no use for. My original hoses leaked. I replaced them with stock Shimano hoses. They leaked too. Same failure mode, as well. I could warranty these through Shimano. But... Since I'd rather ride my bike, than work on my bike, I cut my losses and went a different direction this time.

The failure occurs right here.



The crimp between the banjo fitting and the hose. It isn't a huge catastrophic leak. More of a seep. But it contaminates the pads. Braking power goes away, and they squeal. Left long enough the lever will get low. I didn't let it go on that long this time.

Off with the Shimano hose.



And on with a Goodridge replacement hose. The Goodridge #107 kit is listed as compatible with the older version XTR brakes (M-966/965). Those brakes used two banjo fittings. The Goodridge catalog does not list any kit as compatible with the newer M-985/988 XTR Brakes. But, the kit includes both two banjos and a straght fitting, and it should fit.

The fittings are of excellent quality. I've used Goodridge hoses on race cars before, so that was expected.



These are neat. Miniature Aeroquip fittings! If you've ever built up Aeroquip hoses, installing the hoses is a cinch. If not... it's still a easy. Here is how it goes. Start by trimming back the outer casing, but not the braid.



Use a sharp blade. The casing is tough. Push the outer fitting on, and make sure the ends are clean, square, and fully inserted.



I threaded the male fitting into the master cylinder to hold it. You can do this in a vice, too. But remember, the fitting doesn't swivel, so you'll have to turn the fitting with the hose anyway. The threaded end simply goes into the hose side fitting into the center of the hose. Screw it on until the fitting flows onto the shoulder of the outer fitting, and snug it with a spanner.



Tada! A nice tight fitting.



Next route the hose. Cut it to length. And repeat with a banjo fitting on the caliper end. Now since the kit isn't specifically designed for M-985/988 XTR brakes, you have to re-use the stock thru-bolt in the banjo fitting. Works just fine. Don't forget the O-rings.



You can use an allen wrench or the like to clock the fitting in the correct orientation. Then snug the fittings.



Repeat for the rear brake. Bleed the air out (worst part of the job) and that's it.

Also keep in mind the Goodridge fittings are reusable if for some reason you need to replace hoses. They can be tightened if they leak, unlike the Shimano factory crimps. Leak free. But so were the Shimano at the start! If these also leak... it's me! Hope this helps, because leaky XTR hosese seems common.

This is cool...

Our understanding of how something as (seemingly) simple as a bicycle, is actually quite poor...

Heat's Here

A cold winter. An early spring, that stayed mild longer than usual. Now the heat has arrived with vigor. Five record highs over the last week. Working around it. But wondering what August is going to be like...

Tried a new on-bike snack. Fruit pack, that I think is marketed as baby food? I donno. Saw what looked like a giant Gu packet while grocery shopping. It's just pureed fruit...



Look! No hands! Easy to open one-handed too.



Better than a Gu. The closer to real food the better. I like.

Saddle Improvements

New saddle. I picked it up at a serious discount, with eyes to put it on the still non-existant new mountain-bike. Like a kid with on Christmas morning... I had to give it a whirl. Mounted on the froufrou bike...

I've been on a Specialized Toupe on the rhodie bike for almost five years. Spesh has slightly changed the Toupe. I have an older one and a newer one. It's now flatter than it used to be. What I like about the new saddle is the sway. Just like an old horse. Side-by-side...

I could never get the Toupe adjusted to feel comfortable in the drops and the tops. Either one, but never both. I suspect the flatness had something to with that. To keep from sliding forward I needed the nose up. But that was too much nose up when in the drops. The Romin allows comfort in both positions. The sway keeps the hips in position fore/aft without having to tip the nose up. The range of hip positions is larger. Keeps my back flatter too, as my pelvis tips, rather than rounding my lower back.

How does it work? Great. Good enough that it's staying on the froufrou bike. I'll need to get another for the non-existant new mountain bike. No rush of course!

Lights Partif Deux

Time to mount and test the new lights. I put the Piko on the helmet. Simple affair to attach with velcro through the vent holes. The Piko battery is light enough to helmet mount. Lupine does supply an extended cord with the set, so you can pocket the battery as well. Worth mentioning is that the connectors are excellent. Look to be WeatherPak clones, and are all interchangeable.

It's a clean, self-contained mounting. I weaved the cord into a vent hole and there's nothing loose to snag on branches.

The Betty mounts on the bar. It uses a simple o-ring. Lupine supplies two sizes for regular and over-sized bars. I needed the oversize ring. This required changing out the stock size. Simply loosen the screw on the mount and swap the rings out. My only complaint so far, is that this screw is Torx head (T-15, I think). Though it would be simple to replace this with a more common hex-head.

Just hook the o-ring and you're done. Easy.

The battery case is velcro. Simply hook the flap over the top tube and the lower strap keeps it from sliding around. Very easy.

My impressions... excellent! It took a few minutes to get used to having a light on the helmet. As I'd move my head, I kept thinking someone was behind me. HA! I got used to that pretty quick though. Having the Piko on the helmet provides nice spot and fill for turns and twists. The Betty provides excellent fill light, and projects far ahead. No blind spots with this combo.

There's beaucoup light. On the road, low settings were more than adequate. I was lighting up reflective signs as far ahead as I could reliabily read. I turned up the brightness on the unlit areas. Wow! No problem seeing. It's almost as much light as a car. Brilliant. I'd have zero problem navigating the darkest singletrack at night. Totally confidence inspiring. No pictures because the ones on MTBR [link] do a better job than I could.

Worth the expense? Yes! For night racing I wouldn't want any less light. Don't think I'd need any more, though. For street riding... the light combo is overkill. The Betty on dim is plenty and the Piko on medium both provide over-adequate light for visibility, and for illuminating darkened areas. Riding at night is a lot less nerve-racking. My only regret is waiting so long to take the plunge.

Now my last excuse for not doing an endurance race is gone. HA! All that remains is some battery capacity testing, and I'm ready. Well... ready, gearwise!

Cure to My Light Envy

The sad reality. Being a working stiff means night riding. Early sunsets. Long work days. Night riding is unavoidable. I've been relying on this PlantBike number. It functions flawlessly. It turns on. It turns off. Batteries last quite long.

It is strictly a "be seen" light. The more night riding I do, the more I realize it does not garner much notice by motorists, because it's significantly dimmer than the vehicle headlights a crossing motorist is scanning for. It is easily overlooked where the street scene consists of illuminated signage, and other vehicle traffic.

The lamp fails at illuminating a path into visibility. I've always know this, but didn't realize what 'real' trail lights looked like until last week. A rider pulled behind me on a dark section of bike path armed with an ExposureLights Six-Pack. HOLY MOLY! I could see where I was going. Well mostly. I stuggled because I was riding in my own shadow from his lamp... 30 yards behind me. I felt way safer. And blown away. Need!

The search. There is a huge array of options for bike lights. Everything from DIY, to Chinese imitation lights, to expensive high tech. My criteria were light capacity, form factor, and price. I spent three nights digging around the wasteland known as the internet. The best reviews I found are located [here] and [here]

A few candidates consistantly came up. First candidate was the MagicShine. This appears to be a Chinese knock-off of the Lupine Tesla 5. Several comrades have bought this lamp, and been pleased with the capacity. One calling the naming high power setting "bunny retina burning" level. They are dirt cheap. Around $100. But... Quickly found out why. The batteries and chargers are junk. Numerous reports of batteries being defective caused the primary importer halt sales. Then UL issued a bulletin that the chargers are falsely using the UL symbol. I found few complaints about the actual lamp head. But after looking at options of homebrewing a custom battery and charger... the economy factor is no longer applicable. It seems the major cost of a quality lightset is in the battery and charger. Plus, the only remianing dealer doesn't appear reliable. Shipping times of two weeks to two months have been reported. Although cheap, I'd rather not mess about with the potential headaches.

I looked at the ExposureLights SixPack. It's is a great unit. Obviously bright. It's advantage is wireless form factor, and reasonable price. It's constructed like a flashlight. It's disadvantage is it's wireless form factor. It's too heavy to helmet mount. And quite frankly on singletrack having that mass shaking on a bar mount taking a beating... I'm leery the beam wouldn't be steady, nor the mount to be durable. Perfect solution for a street bike, but I need both.

In the end I bit the bullet and got the Lupine Betty 7 and Piko combo. They weren't cheap lightsets. But I could not find anyone with anything negative to say about them (other than expense). No complaints about batteries, chargers, or overall quality. The form factor is perfect. Bar or helmet mountable. Great chargers, including a car charger. And Lupine have a great history of standing behind product. And they're made in Germany. C'mon the Germans always make great stuff.

I ordered direct from Gretna Bikes. They shipped the next day without delay for the holiday season. I love getting packages!

First the Piko. Comes with lamp, helmet mount, helmet mountable battery, extended cord, and charger. It's 8w LED (16x more powerful than my "be seen" light). Plenty road usage by itself.

The light head is compact and lightweight. Ideal for helmet mounting.

The Betty 7 comes packaged in a nice zippered case. With car charger, wall charger, frame mount battery, helmet mount, extened cord, and lamp. The lamp bar-mounts the integrated base. No mount is required for handlebars.

The Betty is also compact and lightweight. There would be no problem helmet mounting this lamp.

One nice thing about Lupine's chargers. They are interchangeable. Any LiION charger can be used with any LiION battery. Further, the charger included with the Betty also charges NiMH and NiCAD battery packs (including trickle modes). The charge rate is selectable. It works with big and small batteries. Super nice.

This improves the long-term economics on these light sets. In the future I can upgrade batteries and lampheads separately without purchasing more chargers or packaged light sets. It's all plug-and-play. And I can travel carrying only one charger for all my lights: present and future. NICE!

Tomorrow... mount up and test.

Roller Thoughts

I was not prepared for how much I like rollers compared to a stationary trainer. It is actually riding a bike as compared to sitting on a bike. Thus, your entire body is engaged -just like it is on the road. On a trainer your upper body, arms, core, have no function. I always feel like I should be cooking dinner or something. A few thoughts.

Learning to ride rollers is not hard. Once you get the hang of it, it's very natural feeling. Took less than a total of an hour to get IT.

I've learned about my spin quality! Rollers provide instant feedback on your spin. One interesting thing I've found is knee stability. I've never had great knee alignment. I've been fit twice, and each time when pedaling in the fit studio, my knees looked great. But never looked as good on the bike under actual conditions. Saddle height, Q-spacers, wedges, nothing seemed to be able to take all of the knee-knock out. I learned why on rollers.

I've been subconsciously using my knees to balance with. I've been throwing a knee to the side at top of each pedal stroke to compensate balance. It wasn't a positioning problem at all. It was a dynamic balance issue. Why was this not spotted? All of my fittings were done on a stationary trainer.

Related to the above, riding rollers has made me sore in some odd places. My knees weren't supported into alignment by inner thigh muscles at the top of my pedal stroke. They were being pulled outboard by outer hip muscles. Now... my knees are properly supported but the muscles aren't as developed as they should be.

Rollers are a great training tool with benefits beyond getting one out of the weather.

Winter's Coming

I'm determined to keep fitness over the winter this year. Yet, diametrically, I loathe riding the trainer. A possible solution? Rollers.

Unpacked the quality of Kreitler rollers is immediately apparent. The frames are coated with high-quality coatings. The alloy drums are smoothly finished and the bearings are fantastic. Assembly is completely simple...

How good are these rollers? If you spin a drum it will spin for a looong time. Not cheap, but after receiveing them, they are worth it.

Riding. Is not easy, but the learning curve is pretty quick. I'm riding them in a hallway. After about 20min I'm able to balance without holding onto anything. Just like mountain biking, the faster you go, the easier it is. I quickly learned just how much my upper body and knees are used to maintain balance. Rollers enforce quality spin form.

Yes, I rode off the side once. It's a non-event. You don't shoot down the hall. It's just an instant stop and plop. 'Steering' on rollers happens veeery quickly. It will take out any tendency to overcorrect.

I like them. This may be just what I need to get through this winter season.

A Review

Trying something new is always fun. Leaving the zone of known quantities leads to discovery of good and bad. As I alluded in my last post... I'm trying out new tires. I've mounted up Continental Race King 2.2's front and back. I've been using Kenda SmallBlock 8's for almost two years as my all purpose tire. Only going to Kenda Nevagals in rainy or muddy conditions. Why Conti Race Kings?

I desired a more open tread pattern. But I didn't want to go to large lugs.

... they fit this criteria perfectly. As always... smaller lugs = better rollers!I like the small lugs over rocks because they tend not to get bounced around as much. My theory is small lugs drift more predicatably at the cost of the maximum amount of grip. I always tend to more predictable wash over maximum grip. Just my perference, but looking to challange habits.

Here's a side-by-side with the a worn SmallBlock 8 2.1.

... the Conti 2.2 size is about the same as the SB8 2.1. Maybe a bit smaller. They run small. The 2.0 size must be really small, so select it carefully. Larger lugs, but not chunkier. They are about the same "height" as the SB8 lugs. My thought when mounting is they sould be fast rollers.

Mounting, was totally easy. Easiest tubeless tire I've ever mounted. They fit onto my NoTubes Olympic rims with no problems, and the bead poped onto the rim right off the bat with the first blast of air from the compressor. Piece of cake.

I took the tires for a flogging at Pace Bend...

The verdict is *drumroll*... I have a new favorite tire! Keep in mind that I'm comparing NEW Race Kings against OLD SmallBlock 8s.... but my back-to-back comparison found these tire to have more ultimate grip, predictable drifting, and really damped over loose rocks. They hold their lines well over breaks. They didn't balloon and bounce like a basketball in the rock gardens as I was used to. Neat phenomenon. They really shine in breaking power over the SB8s. Enough to force me to readjust my braking points, and nearly pitch-pole me a few times on descents. The RaceKings don't have as much predictability as the SB8s, but it's still quite good.

They are super-fast rollers.

I'd have no problem going back to SB8s when it's time to retire these tires, but for now I'm totally satisfied with what I've got. Pretty much a toss up. Curious to see how these hold up over the long-term....

Good Service from Saris

I forgot to post a thank you to Saris for a quick return on my PowerTap. I received my wheel back last Thursday. Turn around time -including shipping- was only six days after they received it. Assuming the same delivery time as I had getting it up there, the turn around time was one day.

That's a great turnaround, Beat my expectations. I was expecting it to take a week, with another week for shipping. I'm pleased with the timing. Great service. The PowerTap hub is completely rebuilt. That's the only level of service Saris offers for an out-of-warranty hub. It's not cheap at $300. But other than the outer shell, it's all new parts. Nothing is reused. Good thing as I needed a new freehub anyway. At first I was disappointed that the hub crapped out on me. Until une copine pointed out that it died after the rim bending garage episode. I'm thinking it was damaged in the hit, rather than a random failure.

Glad to have it back in action. I've been on the mountain bike, which feels awefully oafish on the street.

Recovery

Recovery is theme for today. Only riding is an active recovery ride. My legs are shred and tomorrow is some a long endurance ride. Some stretching and upper body core work were also in the mix. Along the way I spy this!

A '79 Honda Mini-Trail 70. Remember these from my childhood. Chatted with the owner for a while. Makes me want one to knack around on...

Who Still Shoots With Film?

I did today. I grabbed my old 35mm film camera and shot some stuff for fun. I use a simple compact digital most of the time. It works well, but I miss the selection, control and options an SLR gives.

Look at all that glass! This thing weighs a ton, is fully mechanical (except for the exposure meter), and makes a wonderful *snap* when the shutter is fired. I wish I knew how many photos I've taken with this old friend. There was a time I was shooting several hundered frames a week.

I'd show off some of the photos... but... must wait for them to be developed...

MR2 Headlight Motors

Spilled the bike yesterday on the way home from work. Luckily, I was wearing commuter shorts. That saved me from the road rash. Didn't save me from the bruise and pains on my hip. I'm seriously sore today. Enough to not want to get on the bike, or drive to Ruston. Blah. After beaucoup asprin... I decided fix the headlight motor on the MR2. I pulled off the headlight motor, which was not working at times.

I suspected an electrical problem. And after removing the cover, this was what I saw...

Lotsa corrosion. Some brake cleaner and working over with a scrub pad yielded this...

Still a lot of corrosion. The copper plating is gone at the parking spot. But I though why not try. No go.

Hmm... Here's why folks that work on old cars are packrats. I saved a motor that had a bad bearing on the worm gear. Let's see what's inside. First, I have to get out the power tool to get the stripped screw loose...

After some efforts, a small abrasion, I crack it open and find...

It's pristine! Glad I saved it. Now I simply remove the lift arm, and tap out the gear. Be careful here. When you loosen the arm bolt, hold on to so you don't torque against the plastic gear. Sure way to crack it.

Much better condition here...

I just swapped the gears into the good housing, and put it all back together. The result...

It was a good afternoon on a picture perfect fall day. This job took twice as long as it should have, but I'm moving pretty slow today with the soreness. I did a lot of planning to ensure all my tools were within arms reach today!