Scwhalbe Marathon Plus Tour

Yesterday the two Schwalbe tyres arrived in office and I installed them right away last night itself, replacing the stock Continental tyres. My odo on the Catseye Velo reads 653 km. Let me see how long they last. 

I was very disappointed with the packaging by BOTS (though technically it was packed and couriered by Ozone Ventures of Pune but BOTS is responsible). The tyres were packed in a figure of eight with plastic strips and cello tape. No cardboard box was used. I was shocked to find the wire beading had lost its shape in one place. Tried to adjust it a bit by hand by pressing it. Didn't improve things much. I installed it on the front wheel. I spoke to Rana about this and he said that's fine. Once you instal it doesn't really matter. I hope he is correct.

The new tyre sat on the rim rather easily without much trouble. However, due to my carelessness I had pinched the tube and it burst when I pumped it up to 50 psi. 

When I took the wheel off to change the tube (I had a spare Schwalbe tube in my saddle bag) I noticed a little bit of thread had come off the edge of the tyre. The wire is not exposed but it might get exposed if it is rubbed more. Malcom thinks it is because of the tube burst but at the same time he thinks it must be an old tyre that was perhaps sitting in storage for a long time. Otherwise a tube burst shouldn't normally injure the edge of the tyre.

Anyway, I ignored it and installed it once again. The folded bead part does not show any more. I am just hoping that nothing happens to the tyre during my trip. 

The rear tyre got installed without much fuss.

This morning I had meant to go out to test ride the tyres but couldn't wake up on time. Went out in the evening for a short spin around Peep Inn - Menoka and Southern Avenue. About five kilometers. The tyres are rolling rather well. Perhaps because they are new. I also reduced the seat height just by a centimeter or so. It feels much better now. 

The treads look really nice. I hope they serve me well. 

But frankly if I was buying these tyres off a brick and mortar store I wouldn't buy them. One of the tyres even had mud marks on the side wall. I don't think they are used tyres. They are just old and took a very long time to be sold.

Accessories and component retailing in India is just about taking off. It is yet to mature. Expensive and famous brands are now available in India but they don't sell fast and hence gather dust in warehouses of distributors. My new Surly was four years old. The SKS mudguards were also obviously very old. 

Also these retailers try to spend the least on packaging the larger items that they sell. This is very unfortunate.

27th March 2019
This morning I went for a 10 km ride. My usual course. Peep Inn, Menoka, Gol Park, Guru Saday, La Marts, Exide, Hazra, Rashbehari, Home. The bike rolled like a dream. It's smooth as silk. Is it because of the new tyres? Don't know. They are supposed to be heavy and slow. At least that's what all reviewers say across the touring world. I loved them though and didn't feel either the weight or the slowness. The weather also perhaps plays a role. A very pleasant morning it was. At 1.75 the width of course is more.




I am beginning to wonder if the wheel needs just a bit of truing. I am checking out truing techniques. Not sure I want to try it out before the trip.

March 29, 2019

Looking at the burst front tube which came as OE from the company I realised it's size 1.25 to 1.5. Therefore it is not adequate for my new 1.75 tyres. Have to replace it right away. I will go for a ride tomorrow but now I am a bit scared. What happens if you put a tube that is one size narrower? I don't know. But this OE tube is definitely narrow, compared to the Schwalbe tubes bought from Giant store.

Bicycle Preparation For The Darjeeling Ride

My bike preparation is now more or less ready for the Darjeeling ride. Here is a list of things I added to the bike or got specifically for the bike or upgraded.

A. Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour tyres - 26x1.75 (both front and rear)
B. Kool Stop V-Type Holder Dual Rubber brake pads - front and rear
C. B-twin bottle cages black - 3
D. B-twin rear rack
E. SKS fenders

A Few Decathlon Purchases

Today I made a few purchases from the Decathlon shop.

Two bungee cords (100 cm) - Rs 399

A bottle cage - Rs 199

A medium size microfibre towel - Rs 199

A raincover for the backpacks (20 to 35 litres) - Rs 399

Other than this there was another plastic carabiner for keys at home for Rs 99 and a compass cum thermometer cum whistle for Mampu for Rs 299.

March 28, 2019

Bought two Schwalbe tubes for the LHT from Giant store in Bentinck Street. This makes me ready for the Darjeeling trip. After the blow out of the OE tube during installation of the Marathon tyres, I had consumed my first spare and ran out of any spare tube. Made amends today. These cost me Rs 400 each. Now, I will have to keep them in the front handlebar bag.

Brake Pad Upgrade And How To

Just finished a mini upgrade of sorts for the brakes. I changed my OE Tektro brake pads with a pair of Kool Stops bought from BOTS Bangalore for Rs 2500 (two pairs). I don't know what the model is called precisely but it has V-type Holder written rather prominently on the packaging. I was advised this particular model by the BOTS team's Gautam.

The first thing that you notice about these pads is that they are quite large.  Much larger than the Tektros. This is supposed to be an advantage as it gives you more surface contact. Next, of course, is the dual colour. The black part of the brake is supposed to be more effective in dry weather while the salmon side is for wet conditions. We shall see how effective that is in real life in a few weeks from now. But the online reviews of these brake pads is very very good. Also, they are made in America, if that makes any difference. 

I am happy to inform that I did the installation or swap myself. I had watched a few videos some umpteen number of times. Incidentally there aren't too many of them on youtube. But finally realised that a basic swap is no rocket science. Anyone with a size 5 Allen key and a pinch of common sense can do it. I also chose to do it on the Friday night itself so that I could do a proper road test of my skill on Saturday and could seek Someswar's help over the weekend if things went out of control.

I first changed the front two brakes. Getting the pad to go behind the fork was a little tricky. They are seriously long and were fouling against the forks. But it can be overcome quite easily. Was reasonably satisfied with its stopping power inside the room and thought the pads were touching the rim more or less simultaneously and are equidistant from it. These are the two basic checks one needs to do after installation. Now it was time to test it out on the road. I went out despite the road being a little wet from the evening norwester. The excitement of the situation got the better of me. I had two things to test here. A. My mechanic skill. B. The stopping power of the new brakes.

I think I passed both the tests. On the road I engaged only the front brake a few times without engaging the rear brakes (so that I could understand the new brakes' stopping power). Of course, being only the front brake I didn't apply full force on them. But I think the stopping power is very adequate and much improved over the stock Tektros. It didn't squeal much. Will have to check this out more carefully tomorrow when I go for a full road test. 

Back home I mustered enough courage to now swap the pads on the rear wheel as well. It didn't take too long either. And from the room test it seemed they are working fine. Both are equidistant and are engaging on the rim simultaneously. I didn't go out for a road test to check both of them working together. That is being kept aside for tomorrow morning's ride. 

I have kept the Tektros nicely packed and marked. I intend to take them for the Darjeeling trip. It may not be entirely impossible to fry the brakes on the descent. I clubbed them together for rear and front wheels. I also put a thread between the spacers/washers exactly as they were separated on either side of the brake pad clamp (I am hoping that's the word). This is to counter my forgetfulness about such details.

Overall I am very satisfied with today's performance of mine as a mechanic. Actually it is important to know these basic roadside fixes if one aspires to be a serious tourer in future. I will now write a detailed how to. Although there are a couple of videos on the internet, they leave a lot of unanswered issues that you discover when you actually go to instal the pads. I shall address them in my how to.

How To Change A Cantilever Threaded Post Brake Pad

If you are reading this it is good to inform you that there are various types of brake systems in cycles. I am describing what I have. A rim brake (as opposed to disc brakes). And to be more specific a cantilever brake with threaded post (there is another type called smooth post).

The brake pad has three parts. A threaded post with a hex nut and several spacers, a metallic holder and a rubber shoe. The rubber shoes are generally changeable. That is, if the rubber shoe gets damaged or thinned out due to repeated friction then you can just change the rubber.

First you disengage the brake. After that I took off the existing Tektro brake pad. For this I used a long Allen key size 5 (on street side I may not have that long Allen key and must make do with the  smaller multitool). In fact that's all the tool you need. While taking off one has to be careful about all the spacers and washers attached to the post. They will come off the post as soon as you take off the nut. Depending on the brand, these spacers will vary in number. The Tektro had more number of spacers than the Kool Stop. Now these spacers will be on either side of the clamp to which the brake pad is attached. You should note how the spacers are arranged on the existing system and from there get an idea as to how to arrange them in your particular cycle.

After you decide how many spacers should be on which side, you take the correct pad for the particular side of the cycle (these are marked Left or Right and the direction is also shown with an arrow) and engage the threaded post to the clamp and tighten the bolt. That's all that is there to it. But ...........

There are quite a few buts. First you have to ensure that the rubber sits only on the rim. Particularly the top edge of the rubber should be in line with the top edge of the rim where it touches the tyre. The pad should not touch the tyre. What I did is, I did not tighten the nut all the way. I left about one rotation and adjusted the pad properly first ensuring it was parallel to the rim and then did the final tightening. I also used a rubber band at the back of the pad to ensure proper shoeing (so that the brakes don't squeal). While tightening the bolt one has to hold the pad tight with the other hand otherwise it will also move a little up or down forcing you to rearrange its precise position.

That's all there is to changing the brake pad. I am not sure if this makes sense to any newbie. I wrote it down so that I myself can refer to it next time when I need to change it.

Review After First Road Test

Today is Saturday. I had changed the pads last night. Missed the morning session but went out later during the day for a short test ride of about 3/4 kilometers. Went up the Lake Gardens flyover and came back. The brakes are working fine. Is there any improvement? Initially I thought so. But perhaps got used to it after a few stops. On very hard stops at high speeds there was some squealing. But that might be a new brake issue rather than shoeing in. I did not do any particular cleaning or rubbing of the new rubber before installation. And frankly I don't mind that very little squealing. But if it is a fault of fitment I will want to correct it. A mechanic should always strive for perfection. 

Pedal Installation

Bicycle pedals are a little quirky things. At least the type of pedals I have on my bikes. It is prudent to write down how to instal and take them off. It's an important thing to know if you want to go bicycle touring. Because before you pack a bike in a bag the first thing you do is take the pedal off. And when you reassemble the bike this is the second thing to do (after fixing the handle, that is.)

If you want to cut the crap and just learn how to install or take off the pedal check these two videos I made. It's very simple and can be done with a sliding wrench, as I do. To install a pedal click here . To uninstall or take off a pedal click here . A tip to remember. If you sit facing the bike on both sides then you have to turn the wrench in exactly the same direction. You need not read the rest of the write up here. Just one other thing. Always use grease when you install a pedal. Makes the job of taking it off later much easier. 

The Detailed Story

The two pedals come with L and R written on them. L goes to the left (non-drive side) and R goes to the right (drive side). Obviously. You will need a wrench that is the right size for it. There are specialised pedal wrenches available in the market. But the job can be done using any adjustable wrench that is not too fat. I use this type of adjustable wrench (picture to the right). Typically such wrenches are used by plumbers. I have used it to undo a lot of plumbing stuff in the toilet or hand wash basin. It's a multi-utility kind of tool. It makes sense to carry such a wrench on a tour because it can have other utilities too. If pushed it can even work as a basic pair of pliers also. However, the particular one I have is perhaps an overkill in terms of size. But it does its job very well. There are other smaller models too, which might be better suited for cycle touring. Anyway, off with the instructions of how to instal the pedal. 

The end of the pedal has a bolt like thing with thread on it that goes inside the crank (see image on left). I think its proper technical name is spindle. The initial impulse of a novice would be to hold the thread against the hole and turn the pedal by hand. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. I wish it was. The pedal moves around its axis freely. That is, if the pedal turns on its own axis, the axis itself or the spindle or the bolt does not move at all. So, just turning the pedal won't make it go inside the crank arm.

It has a head with two flat surfaces on opposite sides that you hold with the wrench. In the picture you can see L is written on one of the flat surfaces (the other flat side is hidden below). You hold this flat surface with the wrench and then hold the bolt against the hole in the crank arm where it will go. 

Next you rotate the pedal backward, holding the wrench steady. Don't let the wrench turn with the pedal. The pedal slowly goes in and sits inside the crank arm.

Taking it off is exactly the opposite. That's quite a no brainer, isn't it? You hold the same head kind of thing with the wrench and pedal forward (keep the rear wheel lifted or set the cycle on a trainer/repair stand to do this). You can start off by unlocking the initial stubborn part. For this try turning the head clockwise (without moving the pedal forward). This is a little counter intuitive but that's how it is. 

The first time you install a new pedal make sure you grease up the bolt end. 

Remember this one line - After you hold the spanner  and looking at the pedal - left pedals come off if you turn them clockwise and right pedal comes off if you turn them anti-clockwise.

One universal rule - if you are looking at the pedal, all pedals left or right, tighten to the front. And they all loosen to the back. I am not using the term clockwise or counter clockwise because that's confusing. Confusing because we look at a pedal from two different sides.

All this might sound a bit confusing but there is no rocket science involved. Just sit down with a spanner and the pedals. Any person of average intelligence can work it out. If I can do it, you can do it too.

There are some pedals - usually the more expensive ones like the steel MKS pedals above left - that can be installed using a 6 mm Allen key as well. You will need a long Allen key for that. Of course the one in your multi-tool can also do the job during a tour. But the longer ones make the job easier. To do this you need to reach the pedal from the opposite side.

The pedals on the right are more humble and need a wrench to be installed or taken off.

I use the Allen key for the final tightening of my MKS. Because operating it from the other side through the bottle cages and all is a little messy.

In Simpler Terms (because I myself forget these things after a day)

Take off the left pedal - Sit in front of the pedal. Hold the wrench on the spindle. Turn clockwise, that is towards the rear wheel. It comes off.

Take off the right pedal - Sit in front of the pedal. Hold the wrench on the spindle. Turn anti-clockwise, that is towards the rear wheel. It comes off.