Investing In My Commuter...

These past couple weeks I've made a push to revive my commuter. As many of you know I've been riding my bike to work this past month. I justified the expense of the project because of the money I was able to save from not purchasing gas for my car.

I'm glad to say this past weekend I finished the rejuvenation of my Surly 1x1. The most exciting part of the project was building the new wheels. This will be the first set of wheels I've hand built for my bike.

During this rejuvenation project I made a lot of little changes and I did it on a budget, which I'll try to post about later, but today I just wanted to highlight what I'll be riding to work on in the morning.

Work I did on my Surly 1x1:
1. New Brake Levers
2. Converted my brakes from cantilever to side-pull
3. New egg beater pedals so I can wear the same shoes on both my commuter and XC bike
4. New chain and single speed freewheel
5. Hand built front wheel. XTR hub on Mavic XC 717 rim
6. Hand built rear wheel. Surly hub on Mavic XC 717 rim

A fine looking rear wheel. Not that I'm bias because
I built it, or anything...

Surly (New Hub) on a Mavic XC 717 rim. You don't buy
a Surly hub to save weight. It is heavy, but it is durable.
Plus, it looks great on a Surly 1x1 frame...

An equally fine looking front wheel.


Shimano XTR hub, Mavic XC 717 rim.

Moment of Happiness...

Do you know what the best moment is when building a new bicycle wheel?

It is the very moment when all four variables of the wheel (radial, lateral, tension, and dish) are calibrated and you realize the wheel is ready to ride.

Picking My Hub, Spokes, and Rim.

So what parts do you need when building a wheel? The answer seems simple, right? You need a hub, a rim with the same number of holes as the hub, and spokes. How hard is that? Well, I later found that when actually making the purchase it wasn't that easy...

The Goal:
To build my first durable, but light weight, cross country bicycle wheel.

The Challenge:
Trying to build a wheel that balances my biggest concerns and likely the concerns of most people building their own wheel:

1) Durability
2) Weight
3) Price Point

The Hub:
The hub is likely where the biggest balance of the three points needs to happen. There are hubs on the market that are extremely light weight, such as American Classic, but their durability is a bit questionable (according to reviews I've read). Another option is to go with a high end hub like Chris King. I've heard great things about the durability of this hub, but their price will hit the checkbook hard. The other option is to go with the middle of the road such as a Shimano XT, which is a pretty durable hub that you can afford, but you pay for it in the weight.

There was one more variable I had to keep in mind. This is my first wheel build. I didn't want to buy a cheap hub that I wouldn't train or race on, but I didn't want to break the bank buying a hub knowing that I'm still learning how to build wheels.

So ultimately I ended up purchasing the Shimano XT hub with large flange. From experience I know this to be a durable hub that is cheap. I'd later use some of the money I saved on this hub to purchase a better rim, which will offset some of the weight concern.

The Spokes:
Spokes come in an array of lengths, sizes, and colors. Plus, you can get bladed, double butted, triple butted, or straight gauge. Going strictly from what I've read in books and online I decided the only types I'd be interested in are the double butted or the straight gauge.

A straight gauge is thought to help eliminate spoke twist while building your wheel. For those who don't know what spoke twist is; I plan to write something about it soon. Although straight gauge spokes are said to help eliminate spoke twist, they tend to be a bit more difficult when it comes to tensioning the wheel. This is based of what I've heard and read and I'm not speaking from experience on this topic.

Given my knowledge base I opted for a double butted spoke. A double butted spoke starts wide at the hub, gets thin in the middle, and then gets wide again at the rim. Double butted spokes do come with different buttes with the main difference being weight. Basically the difference is where the butte starts on the spoke. The more light weight spokes accomplish this by having a shorter butte. The weight difference is nominal when compared to the price difference and I opted for the larger buttes on my double butted spokes.

The Rim:
I'm still a bit old school when it comes to wheels and I'm still riding tubes even though the market trend is to ride tubeless. I had taken a hit to the weight when I opted to build to a Shimano XT hub. However, I saved a bundle of money which I was prepared to spend on a nicer, light weight rim. I wanted something that would have eyelets, which produce a nominal weight addition, but make it easier for beginner wheel builders like me to set the spokes angles, while offering a bit stronger spoke hole.

I selected the Mavic XC 717 DISC rim. This is a light weight rim weighing in at 395 grams and is said to be a great sturdy rim for amateur racers and cross country riders a like. The price is a bit higher than I wanted to spend, but I've been riding Mavic rims for years and know them to be strong, durable rims, which ultimately pay for themselves over time.

The Conclusion:
I've picked the parts I needed to build my bicycle wheel. In all the price was below what I would have paid for a pre-built wheel, the durability should allow for years of riding, and the weight should come in at a healthy 830 grams. This isn't the lightest wheel on the market, but it isn't a tank either.

The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt

I've been wrenching on bikes as long as I've been riding and the only part that I never touched was the bicycle wheel.

The bicycle wheel is a truly magnificent piece of equipment that happens to be a black hole of mystery for me and many others cyclists. This mystery seems to be getting more and more mysterious as the trend is to buy pre-built wheels, which are strong and often times cheaper. The down side is you are confined to the trends of the market with pre-built wheels and don't get the satisfaction, pride, and personalization that building your own wheels give you.

Determined to shed light on the black hole of wheel building mystery I decided to learn how to build my own wheel, even if it cost me twice as much as a pre-built wheel. To do this I turned to the web to find a good (highly recommended) book. All reviews pointed me to a book called The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt.

I spent a week reading this book before starting my quest for parts. Just reading this book shed a ton of light on the subject. It is amazing how misunderstood the bicycle wheel really is. In his book, Jobst Brandt, does a great job of debunking a lot of the bicycle wheel lore. He does this by clearly explaining the Theory of the Spoked Wheel with words and picture diagrams. After explaining the wheel he then goes into detail on how to build and repair bicycle wheels, which was clear enough to actually guide me through building my first wheel. Later in the book he gives examples of equations to prove his wheel theory.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in building their first wheel. This is becoming a big interest of mine and you can expect a lot of posts about this in the future.

One of these things is not like the other...

Can you guess which one of the pedals in the picture is not like the other?

hmmmmmm....

Yeah, you got it! the one on the far right has all four wings and the other three pedals only have 3 wings.

No, I'm not trying to save weight by removing one of the wings on each of my pedals. Though, I'm sure this is giving some of my riding friends a good idea on how to save a few more grams...

Fact of the matter is these pedals have fallen apart with only a few months of riding and racing. Last year I ended up buying three new pairs of Egg Beaters to get through the season, making these the biggest equipment disappointment of 2007.

The strange thing is that I'm still a big fan of the CrankBrothers Egg Beaters. I love the design, I love the weight and for these reason I'm going to continue riding the pedals even though I had such a bad run of luck with them in 2007.

Besides, I've heard pretty good things about their customer service. Since I purchased these pedals within the last six month I called CrankBrothers. They said they would fix or replace the pedals so I'm please with their customer service, so far.

Although it sucks that I went through so many pair of pedals in 2007 it is good to know that I'll have a couple extra pair to fall back on 2008 if the need arise.

Finally Using The Feedback Scale

I've had a Feedback scale sitting in my office for the last year. To be honest, I never found a need for it. I'm not a weight weenie. I'm not the type that will spend a bunch of money to save a gram. I figure, I'm a guy of over 200 lbs; who am I to put judgment upon my bicycle and try to cut weight from it when I could stand to loose 15 lbs...

These last couple weeks I've been putting a lot of time into my basement to get a spot set up to work on my bikes. I now have an area to work on my bikes and hanging from my ceiling is the Feedback scale that had been sitting in my office for so long.

The first thing I weighed was my mountain bike wheel set. I nearly shit myself when I saw how heavy my wheels are. That started the landslide and soon I was weighing everything... including the amount of mud I scraped of my single speed bike.

This thing is addictive and thankfully I'm thus far keeping my senses about me. I have no doubt that bike weight will become a more conscious part of my maintenance, but the focus is still on losing the weight on me before becoming too obsessed with what the bike scale says about my bike.

Bicycle Tire Down-Cycling

This past racing season I rode on three different sets of tires. Each had a primary use during the season and each served their use well.

Those three sets have been sitting in a heap on my basement floor since I removed them from my wheels. They are not bad tired, but are not tires I feel comfortable racing on.

Yesterday, I got the bug to get rid of stuff that I no longer needed. The tires, which have been collecting dust in my basement, were on the top of my list.

As I picked up each tire I felt a bit of guilt throwing them away. They still had some good life in them. I tried to reason through it knowing I would never use them on my racing bike again, but I then remembered I have other bikes that could probably use them.

I never think of my other bikes when it comes to maintenance because I ride them so seldom. Besides, it is expensive enough to keep one bike in top shape; never mind three. I looked at the tread on my Surly and Specialized and noticed the amount of tread left on them would make them comparable to racing slicks. Since I had the spare tread laying around I decided to down-cycle my tires.

So began the great tire swap in my basement.

I have three mountain bikes. I have a DEAN, which is my racing bike. I have a Surly single speed and a Specialized Stump Jumper that is really old. The amount of riding time each one receives follows the same order they are listed above.

In the heap were three sets of tires that still had life. I had some commuter treads, which I put on my racing bike. I opted to do that because my road bike is currently out of commission and I plan on putting a lot of road miles on the DEAN this winter/spring. When the racing season comes I plan on buying a new set of racing treads. In the meantime, the commuters will work out well.

The Surly gets limited use, but I need a meaty set of tires for it since it is a full blooded trail bike. I have no desire to ride this bike on the road or bike path. I enjoy it for what it is and I believe this bike should live on the trail. One of the sets was bought specifically for the 24 hours of Moab. I bought a meaty tread design knowing the 24 hour course was going to be sandy. A single race later and they now look great on my single speed.

The old Specialized Stump Jumper got the set of tires I used for the Winter Park series. They got a lot of use, but they still had some good tread left and with the amount of riding the Specialized sees the tread will last a long time.

So now I still have a heap of tires in my basement, but these tires have seen their day. I still feel guilty throwing the tires in the trash; It seems so environmentally unfriendly. However, these tires have been worn to the belt and there is no bike I would down-cycle these tires to.

This new heap of old tires will be going in the trash unless someone wants to save me some guilt and knows of a place where you can recycle bicycle tires.

Shining the SIDI

There is no denying that I am rough on my equipment. I ride it hard and put it away wet. The problem is that I'm not made of money so I'm not able to replace stuff as quickly as I wear it out. For this reason most of my equipment is in a fragile state of being nearly broken, but still usable.

Take my shoes for instance. I've been riding these shoes for nearly three years and have gone through four pair of pedals and the same number of cleats, but I've given these fine shoes zero attention since I purchased them.

Matter of fact, the buckle on my left shoe has been broken since mid summer. meaning I rode half of the Winter Park Series and the 24 Hours of Moab in shoes that still worked, but barely.

This evening I was pretty bored and I opted to give my shoes the attention they deserve. I got online and ordered a set of new buckles and straps. Those will be shipping shortly, but in the meantime I opted to give the old leather a nice polish.

I gotta say, once the new buckles and straps are put on the shoe it will be hard to tell that I've had these shoes for 3 years. I wish all my equipment was so easy to maintain...

Two old shoes, a can of polish, and an evening with nothing better to do.

A little elbow grease and these are already looking better.

I think I'm going to have to make this a habit.. A few more shines and I'll be styling! Look for me on the trail. I'll be the guy with the shiny shoes hauling ass down the mountain...

Tire Confusion

Riddle me this, Batman.

what weighs only 4.4 lbs, feels like a ton, rides like a cadilac, and is able to make a 200+ pound man stand in a bike shop looking like idiot?

If you said the new Continental Traffic tires that I put on my mountain bike yesterday, you would be correct!

So let me explain a bit. The evening before last was spent at the local bike shop. I needed a new set of tires and was going to get a pair of slicks for my mountain bike. I've been riding a lot of roads lately and I'm sick of having to replace the tire due to worn tread. So, I walked into my local shop and right away a friendly sales person came to me and asked "How can I help you?" I simply said that I'm looking for tires and tubes and elaborated on my situation. He quickly took me to the back and pointed out the tubes that were on sale and a set of semi-slicks that were also on sale. The story could of finished there and everything would have been just fine, but I had to see what other tires I could choose from.

I started to browse the tire section and I came across a continental brand tire called Traffic. It is designed for on and off road. Basically, there is a lot of tread, really close together, which allows a smooth roll on the pavement and a bit of traction off road. The trade off is that these tires weighed a frigg'n ton at 800+ grams.

The semi-slicks that the salesman offered weighed in at a much slimmer 400 grams and they were about 5 bucks cheaper. Sounds like a no brainer, right? Not so.

For about 15 min. I went into a trance in the middle of the bike store. Trying to figure out the physics of rotating weight... And I don't know squat about physics!

As I stood there with the semi-slick in one hand and the Continentals in the other I had an internal battle going on. Cheaper and lighter vs. more expensive, heavier, but going to last a long time.

What to do? What to do?

Several times the salesman snapped his fingers in front of my eyes, obviously concerned that I was going to suddenly collapse. Several times he asked if there was anything he could help with. There wasn't, so I continued to stand there in confusion.

So you may be wondering what I decided to do.

Well, the more expensive tire that weighs more ended up being my choice. I came to the conclustion that these tires are for training and I shouldn't be concerned with the extra weight (4.4 lbs tubes + tires). If anything, it will make me appreciate my racing tires that much more. Plus, This tread is going to last a long time and I have no concerns about riding this tread on the road.

Finally, it gave me a great goal. I plan to put so many miles on these tires that I'll wear the tread down and with it the weight to sub 400 grams.

Wish me luck!