It's Friday and a time to STOP what you're doing

It's Friday finally and that makes it a perfect day to STOP working and go home. It's also a good day to take a look back at some things that happened recently.

 

A cyclist killed a woman in Manhattan a few days ago and I feel like the whole East Coast talks about it. Or at least New England. Meanwhile, nearly 3000 people die on U.S. roads every month (!) and no one gives the shit. That's like a 9/11 attack on U.S. soil every month. But we don't care because those are "accidents", which would indicate that they just... oops... happened and drivers were not at fault. Which doesn't make it news anymore, unlike a single cyclists training for Tour de Central Park and riding his two-wheeler way too fast. Clearly, it would be better for all of us if this kind of pathetic media reporting STOPPED right now. Just because it's Friday. And because death by bicycle is an exemption, while death by car seems to be the rule, so why don't we focus on what really matters, shall we?

 

On top of that we are now getting a bunch of local politicians speaking on the topic, even if they have no idea what they are talking about. Typical. So now you can hear that cyclists often disobey the speed limit by "moving sometimes at 40 miles an hour". Makes me wonder where I can buy a bike that goes that fast. I can only accelerate my (t)rusty Schwinn to about 15mph at best. But if you happen to ride your bike at 40mph, please STOP. No, wait. If you're a politician and like to talk about things that you have no idea about, such as riding a bicycle in the city, even though the last time you rode one was when you were 5, STOP! It's Friday after all...

 

Enough of this nonsense. It's weekend and a time to finally clean up my car even though I haven't used it in weeks. I hope I remember how it looks like. The weather has been perfect this month so I didn't find a single excuse not to bike to work. My Toyota must feel a bit abandoned now.

 

Anyway, the fall officially arrived. The best time to take a bike ride is now.

Brakes compared - TRP CX9 and Tektro CR720

I went for a short 2-hour bike ride after work yesterday. Unfortunately, days are definitely getting shorter so 2 hours is max. I can ride for before it gets pitch black. I moved along Concord River from Billerica border to Concord, stopping by at the Greenough Pond.

There is a trail along the southern bank of the pond connecting with Maple St. That was supposed to be a nice shortcut, at least according to the map. What map didn't tell me was that the trail looked like this:

I have seen a lot of crazy trails in the woods around Boston but this one beats them all. No matter what bike you bring with you, good luck riding there. I wouldn't want to try it even on a fat bike. I ended up carrying my bike for more than a mile.

But I was supposed to write a bit about brakes. For the last 2 years, I have been using Tektro CR720 cantilever brakes on my Poprad. They were a big improvement over Avid Shorty 4 cantis that came with the bike. CR720s actually are able to stop this bike, something I couldn't say about Avids. These Tektro cantilevers are very nice brakes, especially when you consider that you can get them for $48. For a full set! A single brake pair weighs 144g (with hangers). In my opinion, CR720s provide sufficient stopping power for the money. Available in silver or black.

 

So why did I even consider replacing them in the first place? Two reasons, I could say. First, they are very wide, which isn't really an issue as long as you don't kick them with your shoe when mounting/dismounting or if they don't interfere with your panniers. The second reason is typical for all cantilever systems - they are really tricky to set up properly. Once you realize that you have to account for the right toe-in, pad angle, distance from rim, hanger cable angle, etc. you may just not want to deal with them at all. This is why I looked for something a bit different.

Tektro CR720 cantilever brakes:
+ cheap ($24 each)
+ quite powerful
- wide
- tricky to set up (typical for all cantis)

After searching through available options, I decided to bite the bullet and get what's supposedly one of the best brakes out there - TRP CX9. These are made by essentially the same company but are positioned in a different performance bracket. Maybe that's why they cost $144 for a full set. Oh, and of course, these are not cantilevers. Being mini v-brakes, they are much easier to install and set up. In fact, I didn't have to do much set up at all. Just align the pads a bit and they are good to go. A single brake weighs 146g (without adjustable noodles) so there isn't any weight savings in brakes, should you be concerned. But once you add the weight of cable hangers (back and front) you should be able to drop the weight of your bike just a little bit.

 

TRP CX9s are designed to work with road brake levers and they do indeed work very well. However, they have to be set up much, much closer to the rims than cantilever brakes. This is normally not an issue, as long as your wheels are perfectly true. Also, make sure your wheels are build well and strong so they don't deflect under load or you will hear constant pad rubbing. This is the main issue with mini v-brakes and probably the main reason why we don't see them on cyclocross bikes. I don't race in cyclocross so I'm perfectly happy with the new setup. The only other issue that I found with CX9s is very minor - edge finish. Edges of the brake arms are pretty sharp and should definitely be rounded a bit in machining. They just don't have a nice feel.

On the positive note, performance of CX9s is top notch. They are super powerful and locking the wheel has never been this effortless before, even with the stock pads. Speaking about pads - they have replaceable shoes that you can simply slide out and slip new ones in. No need to remove the entire pads from the brakes.

Also, CX9s have 90mm long arms (hence the name), which leaves plenty of space for fenders.

As a final note, the tiny M3 arm tension screws at each brake boss require 3mm hex key, which means that I quickly replaced them with standard slotted screwdriver screws. This way I don't need to bother with even carrying a 3mm hex around as I don't have such screws anywhere else on my bicycle.

 

TRP CX9 mini v-brakes:
+ super powerful
+ easy to adjust
+ adjustable noodles
+ plenty of space for a fender
- requires pads being placed very close to rims
- sharp edges of brake arms
- a bit pricy

Three most important hidden components of your bike

We would probably all agree that the most important components of your bike are either the frame or wheels. Some may also argue that even more important is the saddle and handlebars, which define your riding comfort. But what about those hidden parts that you normally don't see, and which are absolutely critical for your bicycle to function properly? Here are the 3 most important invisible components of your bike:

 

Cables

Cables are hidden inside housings (sometimes not completely) and you normally don't pay attention to them as long as they operate your brakes and derailleurs. But keeping cables clean and damage-free is critical if you don't want to suddenly end up brakeless on the long downhill ending at the busy street. Or if you don't want to lose your gears, which happened to me once when the shifter cable for my 3-speed hub broke unexpectedly, forcing me to limp slowly (in the 1st gear) to the nearest bike store to seek a replacement.

Check the cables periodically to make sure they don't have any individual wires broken. That's how the bigger problems start. It's also a good idea to oil cables inside the housings a little. If you ride a lot in wet conditions (rain, mud) you should seriously consider upgrading to Teflon-coated cables and housings with insulated ferrules). Jagwire and Gore make good ones. But even if you generally avoid rain, it may be worth choosing insulated housings for your cables (or at least lubricate them periodically), should you ride a lot in winter. Frozen cables can be a serious problem.

 

Bearings

If you don't remember hubs with cup-and-cone bearings that required two wrenches to carefully adjust each bearing cone, you're still a kid. Fortunately, these old-fashioned hubs are pretty much gone today (unless you still ride an oldie from the 80's). We have sealed industrial bearings in all modern hubs, bottom brackets and headsets right now and these require much less wrenching than old cones but still some care. Good quality hubs will last many years unless you spend many miles in muck and mud. It is still a good idea to check on the wear of the bearings once a while and lubricate them when necessary. Should you feel any play in your headset, cranks or hubs, it's definitely time to check on bearings condition.

 

Air

Ok, air is not really a bicycle component but without it you definitely wouldn't go too far. From all the parts on your bike this is the one you literally can't see but it may be the most important one. For decades, it used to be quite simple. Mountain bikers and cyclo-cross racers would go for the lowest air pressure their tires can handle without risking a pinch flat. Road cyclists would go for the highest pressure their tires can handle without risking a blow out. Now that we are smarter and we have more tire options than ever, it isn't that simple anymore.

The current trend to move towards wider tires changes things quite a bit. Less air pressure would mean more traction and a more comfortable ride, provided that tires on your bikes are not made of a rock-hard rubber. For mountain bikers the biggest change would happen once they try a fat bike or put tires at least 3.0" wide on their 29ers. Running these at high pressure is a mistake.

 

Road cyclists should still keep the pressure high in their 23-25mm tires but once you start riding with 32-38mm tires on your road bike (provided it has enough clearance to fit them) forget about inflating them to whatever maximum pressure manufacturer specified. I currently ride at only 30/35 psi (front/rear) in my 35mm wide tires and I'm very happy with this setup.

 

Unless you ride on a perfectly smooth velodrome, small bumps are better damped by a low pressure, wider tire (that simply deflects and rolls over debris) instead of a high pressure, skinny one (that must jump over each small rock).

The summer is over - finally!

We had a few obscenely hot and humid days recently, which made me double-check the calendar to verify that it's September indeed. It felt more like middle of July to be honest.

But it is September finally, which must worry all kids as they go back to school and most parents when they sit in traffic following yellow buses every morning. I, on the other hand, am not worried at all. I'm excited for the cooler autumn weather to come and traffic doesn't apply to me that much. Another advantage of biking to work every day - September 1st is just another day in the calendar.

I took a break in writing here for some time, as I was enjoying a short vacation with my family. My brother who I haven't seen in 3 years, visited me last month, so it was a good time to finally finish building my Frankenbike. This way we both could move around by bikes. The new/old bike is really a nice machine. I realized that some of its components are 20 years old but they show very little wear and in general the whole thing feels and looks new.

I also decided to bite the bullet and invest a bit in my Poprad. I gave it a complete set of sealed cables and housing (Jagwire) and a new set of brakes - TRP CX9. They definitely deserve a proper review but so far my first impressions are very positive. CX9s are very easy to install and adjust and are extremely powerful compared to my old cantilevers. The only, slight, disadvantage is that it's close to impossible to adjust them for a very short lever travel as that would require keeping the pads super close to rims. In other words, STI brake levers require a longer pull in order to apply full braking power but it isn't really an issue at all.

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Lots of other things happened this summer. A mother from South Carolina got locked up in a jail because she let her 9-year old daughter to play in the playground unsupervised. Apparently, in USA 9-year-olds are babies who can't be left alone for longer than 30 seconds. Yes, we do live our lives in fear.

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Not too long time ago I wrote about the cyclists' perception of stop signs along the Minuteman Bikeway. Because so many drivers yield to bikers and pedestrians in road crossings (A good thing!), cyclists got used to it and now hardly ever stop at stop signs along this popular shared bike path. It may not be a bad thing, as long as they at least slow down and look both ways. By not completely stopping, they may actually be saving waiting drivers some time (And we all know drivers love to save precious seconds of their commutes). But can you be in trouble if you in fact obey the law to the letter? Apparently, yes! Motorists hate us if we run red lights, but when we stop at them, they punch us in the face.

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The problem with the Minuteman Bikeway is obviously much broader than just the stop signs. There are number of "Lance Armstrong wannabes" on Minuteman who think it's a race track. Now that the town of Lexington completed a new paving on their section of the Minuteman and our local Armstrongs and Cipollinis don't have to ride on a bumpy surface anymore, I'm sure we will see more of them.

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And at the end of today's post, a friendly reminder - if you need to kill someone, just roll him/her over with your car. In America, this can be your perfect crime. The chances you will be prosecuted for such "accident" are negligible. You're welcome!