Brooks on Roadie

 A few days ago I did what I was meaning to do for a long time now. I took the Brooks out of the LHT and put it in the Red Roadie frame. I took it out along with the seat post so that it was a quick change. I never knew road cycling in Calcutta would become so smooth and comfortable. I am waiting for either Guria or Gublai to come. I want to buy another Brooks. There is no question about the comfort factor.

Initially I was a little concerned about the saddle's suitability because of the change in sitting posture. On the LHT my position is a lot more upright. Here on the roadie I am a lot more inclined forward. I thought the saddle would have been used to my upright position and whether it can handle the other posture equally well.

I realised, after the change, that my reservations were completely unfounded. It is just as comfortable. I will not change my saddle unless I was selling the bike. Period. 

I know there are people who hate the Brooks experience. I think I love it. The gentle flex that it has is a feeling unparalleled in anything else. Of course I have not used the famous saddles that are known for their comfort. But I am quite happy and don't need to look any further any more.

First Fall of 2021

Two nights ago I had the first fall of 2021. Hopefully this is the last. It was a minor fall and there was neither any major bruise nor cut. Just a small pin head sized cut between the fingers on the left hand and a bit of pain on the left hip. I got up almost instantly without help and rode back home after a 12 km normal ride - albeit a bit slower than usual - and a short visit to a friend's house.

I had turned left from Acropolis mall, as I was coming from Ruby and found half of the road was blocked by pedestrians walking gingerly. I went to the other side of the road to overtake them. After crossing them I cut back left. Here at the last moment I realised there was a road divider. I tried to cross it vertically but it was a round and smooth plastic divider. In an instant I was down. I was on the Red Roadie.

 

The fall happened at 1:6:40 in the lane opposite Acropolis Mall

I fell on my side. None of the attached things fell off the bike. The lights were still on. A few young boys came to help me up on my feet. I thanked and told them I was absolutely fine. Jumped on the bike and pedalled off to Shilbhadra's house.

Initially there was pain on the knuckle, elbow and the hip. All on the left hand side. The knuckle turned out to be a minor cut under the gloves. The elbow pain was gone soon. The hip pain was more pronounced. But I could ride back home. Yesterday, Sunday I was at home the whole day. But that is my usual routine on a Sunday. The pain subsided a bit. I don't think there is any fracture. These are muscle pains. I had two paracetamols, 1000 mg each. I did some IT band stretches. 

Tonight I propose to go out again. Possibly with the LHT.

I think recovering from this type of pain is all about fitness. If you are fit you suffer less. I see footballers falling and getting hurt in collisions all the time. But they recover so quickly. They would limp for a while and then go all out again. Except fracture and muscle pulls footballers hardly nurse an injury for long. 

I intend to do a lot of stretches tonight, of the glutes and hamstrings, before going out.

Tuesday, 5th January: I did go out for a ride on my Musafir last night. It was slower than usual but the effort was perhaps more. The wider Schwalbe tyres are really slow. There was no pain while riding. Before the ride I did some stretches and Padmasana and Bajrasana. Didn't feel any pain.

Cycling Gloves

Cycling gloves are an important part of my cycling gear. My palms sweat a lot and therefore I need them. I had bought a new pair off ebay when my Red Roadie was new. It was branded Pearl Izumi Elite but it was obviously fake. Despite being fakes I wore them for more than 3000 km. They had worn out on the left hand. I should have chucked them out of my closet long ago but for the want of something better I had to carry on with them.

Last night I bought an XL pair from Rito's Stay Tuned. Rito is yet to tell me the price but it should be around Rs 800. I had never heard this name before. Rockbros. I wore them for yesterday's 35 km ride. They were comfortable. Nothing fancy but it's okay. It worked fine. I have said good riddance to the fake Pearl Izumis. I have real Pearl Izumi bibs that my nephew brought over from America. They are excellent.  

North Wave is another brand that used to be easily available in India. But they are out of stock until fresh imports from Taiwan arrive. Rockbros are Chinese. I wonder how they sneaked into India. Right now all Chinese products are unofficially banned from entry into the country.

I have to see how long the Rockbros last. I have made it default for my cycling activities. I expect 5k out of them. Let me see if they last that long.

Removing & Installing The Cassette

A thoroughly cleaned cassette is a thing of beauty

Today I accomplished another first. I removed and re-installed the rear cassette. I had just completed 2,000 Km on the Red Roadie and thought it was reason enough to remove the cassette and give it a thorough cleaning. I had thought of removing the chain also but realised that this chain is not removable (unless you want to break a link and put a quick link in its place). So off I went with the cassette. 

I used my newly acquired lockring removal tool and the chain whip. I had had to wait for these for months to arrive. Funny though it may sound, there is no Indian manufacturer for such simple bicycle tools. While the lockring removal tool is from Taiwan, I have no clue where the chain ring originated.

I just followed the steps shown in the various youtube videos and taking it off was not such a pain. I cleaned it with kerosene, detergent and finally a clean piece of rag. The cassette looked shiny bright and new. This was the first time it got removed from the bike. 

While removing I had zip tied the sprockets so that I have no problem reinstalling them. The first six sprockets were fused together. Then there was a thin hard rubber spacer followed by three more sprockets. 

While reinstalling, I placed them back in the correct order one by one. Finally I put some grease inside and then installed the locknut. This, I realised was a little tricky. It did not sit properly and after tightening it when I tried to give it a deep tight the lock ring would just rotate and come loose. I took off the things and once again followed the steps one by one. Finally I placed the lock nut very carefully and hand-tightened it at first. This time things fell in place and I gave it a good tight. The recommended torque is 40 Nm. But I do not have a torque wrench. So just went by instinct. 

I cleaned the chain thoroughly. I am yet to ride the bike. Will report after the first ride. Perhaps tomorrow.

The cassette removed and the tools for removal

A Major Goof Up

It's late night. Almost 12 mid night. I came back from Mukulda's place and checked what was bugging my mind since the afternoon. The wheel was moving backward when I pedalled backward. This was odd. I took the wheel off. Reinstalled. Nothing changed. Tried two three times. No result. I checked the cassette it was fixed. It was not moving freely in one direction, as it is supposed to. It was fixed in both the directions. No wonder the chain was making the wheel move in both the directions. It had become a fixie actually.

I took off the cassette once again with all the tools engaged properly. Removed the first plastic disc. I think they call it the dork dish. Professionals remove it the first thing after getting their new bike. I did not and wanted to reinstall it. I have a feeling something was wrong there. Probably the disc was somehow stuck somewhere. I don't know. Reinstalled the cassette without the plastic disc. I discovered some fine metal shavings under the locknut. I think the cassette's insides got shaved a bit when I first tried to instal it. I put some grease on the thread of the locknut and placed the nut very carefully and it sat correctly after several failed attempts. It is not an easy thing to do. Newbies must be careful of this. None of the youtube videos forewarn the newbies about this.  

Now the bike is moving as it should. It's not a fixie any more. If I back pedal only the chain moves. Not the wheel. 

I had checked the chain in the afternoon. It is close to being .75 loose. I will go and collect a new chain and change it once it reaches 1. Perhaps in another 500 kms or so. But no harm keeping the chain in stock. Components are difficult to source in Calcutta.

December 29, 2020

Last night I went out for the first ride after the clean up. It was a super smooth ride of 35 kms. I am so happy that I cleaned up so thoroughly. Initially I was a little tentative. After all this was the first time I did it and if anything was fitted wrongly it could end in a disaster. But nothing happened and the bike rolled smooth as silk. I had forgotten to wipe the excess lube off the chain. That cannot be helped now. I am more than certain that if I could give the chain a thorough clean up, the ride would be even smoother. 

I also bought a new 9-speed chain and a pair of gloves from Rito last night. Will write about them separately.

My next project will be to clean the chain and cassette of the LHT. Its chain has a quick link. I have ordered for a repair stand which might come next month. Will do it then, I guess.

The Hanger

Recently our junior friend Rejick Mukherjee went for a cycling trip to Ayodhya hills. There, during the climb, the hanger of his derailleur broke down. He managed by cutting the chain short and making it a single gear cycle. This catastrophe triggered a lot of discussion on our whatsapp group. Someone mentioned "this is the reason why I always carry a spare hanger". 

Truth be told. Before this I had no idea about what a hanger was. Had heard the term but never bothered to find out. Now after the incident and the discussion I realised it's an important thing to know because it seemed like a common accident to happen and can potentially bring a tour to an abrupt end. 

First step was to research what on earth exactly a derailleur hanger was. I realised it is a hook like thing that is attached to the frame from where the derailleur hangs. Now where is my hanger and what does it look like? Research revealed that steel frames come with integrated derailleur hangers. They are not replaceable. I felt reassured. But I wanted to get to the bottom of it and actually see my hanger or where it should be.

Inverted view of my LHT hanger 

After the Badu trip (read about it here) I took out the wheels to clean them and this was an opportunity to inspect my hanger. Turns out it is indeed integrated into the frame. It is not really part of the frame but a separate thing, black in colour, that is sort of fused into the frame. It doesn't look like it can quite break. It could bend which would require getting it straightened out (though for that I might need to find out an expert ironsmith) but it is highly unlikely to happen. If, God forbid, it breaks that would not be the only part of the bike that would break. Lot of other things would also break, I am sure. It will have to be a tremendous impact. If I survive and can ride again I will certainly need a new bike then :-)

Next step is to check the hanger of my Red Roadie. The red Merida. It's a road bike. 

Cycling Stats

I want to keep a record of cycling stats so that I can see them later. This I am doing because I just realised that I have lost my odometer recording on the Edge 130. I had set the totals under history to zero on the first day of October. I think this also reset the odo at 0 because the two are showing exactly the same distance. I didn't think this would happen. I always thought the odo reading couldn't be reset unless you did a hard reset of the whole unit. But anyway. Here goes my record keeping. I started using the Edge 130 from the last week of June. For this calculation I have taken the June reading as only what I have recorded on the Edge. Not the full month's real figure (which is less than 30 km before the Edge came).

I am using this page from Garmin Connect to note down the numbers

June 2020 - 162.63 km

July 2020 - 345.10 km

August 2020 - 323.99 km (Century to Canning)

September 2020 - 268.39 km

October 2020 - 457 km (Century to Badu) 

November 2020 - 403 km (was affected due to a week's absence due to trip to Sunderban. Also failed to do any century ride. Otherwise daily average was good) 

December 2020 - 378.46 Km (December is always bad due to various evening type festivals. I had hoped to make it 400 in the last day but even that didn't happen. Felt very lazy) 

Fresh beginning to 2021

Cycling Stats for 2021 

January - 

Wheel Building

I have finally taken the first tentative step towards building my own wheel. I have been wanting to have a separate wheel for my training rides on the Elite trainer. None is available in the used market. So I thought might as well build one of my own. I had initially thought of making it a very cheap one. Then I realised the cheap ones run the risk of going wrong during the build process. So decided to make a moderately good one. Use it as my main riding wheel and convert the current wheel into my training wheel. 

Last night (Friday, 16th October 2020) I brought home the rim and the hub from Rito's Stay Tuned. The rim is an Alexrims DH 19 in size 700c. For more technical details click here. I have the same brand of rim in my LHT that came as OE. They are Taiwan made and of reasonably good quality. It's a 32 holed rim. According to the site its ERD is 599.8 mm. Rito says according to his measurement also it is the same. So I trust it must be correct.

The RS 400 Hub

I also bought a hub from Rito to go with the rim. It's an RH 400 Shimano hub. Now this hub created some confusion. When I opened the box, there was a skewer and a manual on the side. The manual had this boldly written right in the beginning. For rims with disc brakes. Now my bike has rim brakes. Rito knows it very well. In fact my rim is also for rim brakes only. 

After some discussion with Rito and some online gyan from the wheel building group, I realised I had the right hub. The main thing to see is what is the OLD of the hub. Over lock-nut dimension. For road bikes it is usually 130 mm and it indeed has 130 mm OLD. It is written very clearly on the packet. Therefore it is a rim brake compatible hub. I wonder why Shimano writes this wrong information on their hub. 

The other technical details mentioned on the hub's packet are as follows. That it's a 32 hole hub and its skewer length is 168. I had even checked the skewer by inserting into the old hub. It fitted just fine. That means the two hubs are of the same size. 

Incidentally this is meant for 11 and 10 speed cassettes. Rito has given me a spacer and says that will make it compatible with 9 speed cassette. 

Next comes the difficult task of calculating the spoke lengths. I guess I will need two different sizes for the drive side and non-drive side. I have to first buy a vernier calliper. 

I intend to follow this link to lace up the wheel. The instructions are very clear and step by step, easy to understand. 

The components for making a wheel

November 28, Saturday, 2020

The wheel building project was in limbo for some time. I needed to calculate the various dimensions of the hub and the wheel etc to arrive at a spoke length. In this period I bought a Vernier calliper and tried various sites to find the precise measurements. Finally last evening I went to Rito's house who calculated the measurements and here they are. 

Effective Rim Diameter - 599.8 mm

Axle Width - 130 mm

Left Flange Diameter - 44 mm

Lock nut to Flange (LHS) - 31 mm

Flange to Center (LHS) - 34 mm

Flange to Center (RHS) - 14 mm 

Lock Nut to Flange (RHS) - 50 mm

Right Flange Diameter - 45 mm

I put all this data in the website mentioned above and the result came my LHS spokes should be 293 and RHS spoke should be 291.2. I have informed Rito about it. Let me see what size of spokes he gets. I think he was talking about 291 and go for long nipples. I think best would be 291 and 292 if available.

I must mention a few things about the calculations. The site did not accept more than 3 digits so I could not write 599.8 for effective rim diameter. I wrote 600. I don't think .2 mm will make a huge difference in calculations. 

The site, apart from the dimensions, also needs to know other details like whether it is a front wheel or back, lacing pattern etc. It's my rear wheel with 3 cross lacing pattern. 

Monday, December 8, 2020

I did it. Yahoo. I laced my first wheel. What a joy. What pure orgasmic pleasure. I had to struggle a lot. After some 7/8 failed attempts I finally got it all right. Each failed attempt meant taking off all the nipples and spokes and starting from zero all over again. I even had a minor cut on my thigh from the rough end of a spoke.

After all the calculations I had finally ended up with 290 mm sized spokes. Sapim to be sure. Rito was confident that that size would be fine and I certainly don't need different sized spokes on the two sides. On Friday night I started my project. I sat in front of the computer to refer to the youtube video. The video that I was using (link given above) wasn't working for me. Finally I found this video (click here) which was really helpful. Even here I was getting something wrong every time. But that was not the gentleman's fault really. 

In the penultimate attempt I got the first three steps all right but on the fourth stage after getting 2 spokes to go in I found it well nigh impossible to get the spokes to reach the holes. They were falling hopelessly short. I cursed myself for getting 3 mm shorter spokes.

Finally before giving up I wrote to Rito informing him about the problem. He said get the spokes loose. They are too tight. I took off all the spokes once again. This time I would turn the nipples only one turn or two. Now some of the nipples were coming off on their own, being wound just a bit. 

But with this strategy the nipples all fitted nicely and my wheel was made. Or at least the first step in wheel building was completed. 

First set of 8 spokes laced from drive side

Second set of 8 spokes from non-drive side

Lacing is complete

Third stage of lacing. 24 spokes in

The next step will be to go to Rito's and dish it and true it on a proper stand. Buying all the tools for just one wheel doesn't make sense at all. And there is no demand for this sort of work in Calcutta.