Gear

With typhoons battering western Japan and on-and-off rain in Tokyo, today was a good day for some maintenance. I had a few things I wanted to accomplish today:

• Seal the weeping sidewalls
• Replace the squeaky brake pads
• Wash my dirty bike

Those darn weeping sidewalls

Ever since I finally succeeded in converting Kuroko to tubeless, she’s been plagued by weeping sidewalls. I pump the tires up to 50-60psi, and within a few hours they’re at 20 or lower. This morning the tires felt firm enough to roll Kuroko up from the basement garage to the elevator on 1F, but when I got the pump on there wasn’t even enough pressure to move the needle.

With the wheels off the bike, I shook and swirled them around a bit to listen for the sloshing of liquid sealant inside. Once I confirmed there was plenty of sealant, I pumped each tire up to 50psi. Immediately I heard leaking from pinholes in the sidewalls. By holding the wheels flat and swirling them from side to side, I was able to slosh the sealant over the pinholes and the hissing immediately stopped. Beads of fresh sealant appeared where it was filling up the pinholes.

As I’ve got Dionysus now for commuting (if there are any non-rainy days this week), the earliest I’ll be riding Kuroko is next weekend. So I’ll keep her on the balcony this week and try to repeat the inflate-and-swirl procedure at least once a day to try to finally put an end to the weeping.

I should have been doing this during the three weeks of August that I didn’t ride at all …

Those darn howling discs

The brakes have been a lot quieter since my unintentional ride in the rain, but there’s still been the occasional squeal. Although the brake pads had plenty of wear left in them, I decided to switch (back) to resin (organic) pads, which are much less prone to squealing.

I’ve changed the pads on a couple of occasions before, first when I returned home from Lejog, so I know the routine. It’s quite easy to remove the retaining pin and push out the old pads.

There was some odd wear on the lower corners of the outboard rear pad. After a couple of minutes of thought I realized it was probably caused by me not being careful enough to line up the disc when I’m putting the wheel back in place. I’ll have to take more care in future. (I’m usually concentrating on the opposite side, getting the chain on the cogs and getting the derailleur out of the way.)

It took just a few more seconds to insert the new pads, and then I spent a couple of minutes adjusting the brakes. On the stand, they’re silent. It will be a few days at least before I can get the pads bedded in and then we’ll see about the noise situation.

Clean up your act

I know some people like to wash their bicycles after every ride, but that’s just a bit mendokusai for me. I last washed Kuroko on Aug. 1, following the Tsukuba-Kasumigaura Ring-Ring Road ride (on which occasion I also added latex sealant to the tires). And then on the very next day, I rode through some puddles on my way to Disneyland.

Kuroko sat like that in the basement parking for three weeks and then I rode her as is to Yokohama and back last weekend. But today, with the bicycle already up in the Workshop in the Sky, I didn’t have any excuse. In fact, the pressure washer was already filled up with water. So I got out the spray cleanser and brushes and went to work.

I think I did a bit better job than usual this time. Pretty pleased with the results. I also scrubbed the saddlebag, which mostly protects my back from the mud flung up by the rear wheel.

I actually forgot one important step until I started writing this blog: cleaning and oiling the chain. I got out on the balcony after lunch and took care of that.

Not perfect yet

There are still a couple of things to take care of. The issue with the front shifter is back, and with a vengeance. This would have been another great project for last month when I basically wasn’t cycling (but I was extremely busy). And there’s a tear in the handlebar tape which isn’t really a problem at all, but I’ll probably redo the tape when I get around to fixing the front shifter.

Bonus handyman content

Several months ago, Nana dropped one of the cooking pots and dented it. The pot was still perfectly usable, except that the lid no longer fit.

I’ve been meaning to get to it for some time. So today after I’d finished with Kuroko, I wrapped a cloth around the mallet and gave the pot a few good whacks. It actually bends far more easily than I’d expected, and in the end, after testing the fit against the lid, I ended up giving it a couple of taps in the opposite direction.

The result is pleasing: the lid is a good fit once again. In fact, when I showed the pot to Nana she didn’t realize what I’d done until I put the lid on it and showed her how it fit.

(I know — I need to clean up that lid a lot better!)

We splashed through a few muddy puddles during the Tsukuba-Kasumigaura Ring-Ring Road ride, so Kuroko was in desperate need of a bath. I also wanted to get more sealant into the tires to stop the slow seeping of air.

Just four days after filling the tires up to 45psi, they were down to less than 20. In fact, as I discovered in Itako, they would lose that much in just five or six hours.

I’d got a hypo for the sealant with a valve that is supposed to let me add the sealant without removing the tire valve. But I couldn’t get it to work out, and the result was a bit of a mess (as can be seen). So I removed the valve from the hypo and the valve from the tire, and things were pretty straightforward after that. I tried to give each tire about 90ml, but when I poured the sealant into the top of the hypo it just flowed right through into the tire. So anyway, I added a lot more to each tire.

I wanted to get a picture of using the hypo to add the sealant through the valve, but — have I mentioned this yet? — the process is a bit messy. Besides, despite my considerable achievements over the years, I still have only two hands.

After reinflating the tires to 60psi, I immediately heard the hissing of air escaping. After spinning the tires around for a few seconds, the hissing stopped and beads of white latex appeared where the tires were seated on the rims.

After a bit more spinning, I noticed small beads of latex seeping through the sidewalls, sealing up the tiny holes there. I’d heard these tires were known for the weeping sidewalls, so it’s good to see the sealant doing the job here.

Splish splash

With the tires sorted, it was time to do something about the grime. Before breaking out the cleanser and brushes, though, I decided to record some of the mud for posterity.

After a few minutes with the cleanser, brushes and sprayer, the bike was looking a lot better (if not quite perfect).

I got a new chain cleaner because the clasp on the previous one wasn’t holding together any more. This Park Tool beauty works a lot better, with a lot less spitting of the degreaser.

Finally, I didn’t forget to clean my shoes!

During a recent bit of maintenance, I rearranged the bidons on Kuroko, moving one from the seat tube to under the drop tube in order to free up some space in the main triangle. As I noted at the time, the bidon under the drop tube is subject to having a lot more mud and grit splashed into the mouth, and I would be looking for solutions to the problem.

One of the challenges in fitting Kuroko for water bottles is that her frame is quite small. Not only is the main triangle a tight fit, but there’s very little clearance between the front wheel and the drop tube, even with the new, slightly narrower tires. In fact, at low speeds in tight corners, I have to be careful that my toes don’t bump into the front tire.

Rogues’ gallery

In my quest to find bidons with covered mouths — but without increasing the height — I soon came across the CamelBak Dirt series. They looked ideal: bottles in the same size as what I’ve got on Kuroko, but with covered mouths. I checked the capacity carefully to make sure of the match: 21 oz. Amazon had them in stock in black (dark grey), and so I soon had a matched pair winging its way to my house.

As the picture makes clear, though, the new bottles are significantly taller than the current ones. What I overlooked in my eagerness is the fact the Dirt series are insulated. Normally, this is a good thing. Kuroko’s non-insulated, dark grey bottles quickly heat up on sunny days to the point the water is not refreshing; in fact it’s warmer than body temperature! Unfortunately, as the picture clearly shows, the insulated bottles must be larger on the outside to achieve the same capacity (and CamelBak does not offer a smaller capacity).

Taking a deep breath

There was nothing for it but to try the fit. And, as expected (once I saw the larger bottle size), there’s just not enough room under the drop tube — much as I like the look.

So how about putting one of the new lids, with the covered mouth, onto the current bottle? That works just fine. Running with mismatched bottles, on the other hand — sacrilege!

This would also imply drinking from the lower bottle first, at least on hot, sunny days, before the water warms up. The insulated bottle above should remain cool for a couple of hours longer at least.

Choices

And so now I’m faced with a number of choices:

• Ignore the derision of the Velominati and continue with mismatched bidons.
• Swap the lid for the other bidon as well and have matched, non-insulated bidons with protected mouths.
• Move the spare bidon to the fork (plenty of mounting points, but resulting in asymmetry — unless I mount a third bidon … ) or a handlebar mount.
• Move the tire pump to another location, thus freeing up space in the main triangle for two insulated, “Dirt” series bidons.

I’m sure other options will occur to me as I allow this thought to fester …

When I was just 6km from home last week after having ridden more than 100km, my chain derailled on a shift up to the larger chainring. It was easy enough to get the chain back on, but then it was skipping gears on the back for the rest of the ride home.

Subsequent inspection showed a bent link in the chain, which is why the gears kept slipping. I’ve got less than 1,500km on this chain, having replaced it at the end of January, but I decided to go for a new one (not least because it would be too short after I removed the offending link).

With my pro chain tool, it just took a moment yesterday to drive out a rivet and break the chain. I selected a point that was a couple of links to one side of the twisted link. With the chain off the bike, I moved a couple of links to the other side of the twist and popped out another rivet. That left me with a short section of useless chain (maybe OK for decoration) and a much longer section that is fine as a spare.

Bath time!

With the chain off I decided to give Kuroko a washing up before proceeding. I’ve had the power sprayer and bike cleaner for some months but haven’t used them yet. (At least not for the bike — I used the sprayer to wash the screens on the balcony windows.) The sprayer puts out a nice, gentle fan of water that’s perfect for this. In just a few minutes I had Kuroko gleaming.

Back to the chain

With the bike newly clean, I gloved up and measured the chain for fit, taking off a few links to get just the right size. I threaded it through the derailleurs and used the chain tool to insert the connecting rivet. After snapping off the connecting rivet’s pilot, I gave the cranks a few spins. All perfect, and that was the end of bicycle maintenance for the day.

Follow through

Today I spent some time adjusting the front and rear derailleurs, as well as the rear brake. The shifting is very smooth now (on the workstand, anyway) and I’ve made sure the chain won’t come off again.

I wanted to try one more thing before finishing for the day. Kuroko’s main triangle is small, and it’s very crowded with two water bottles and a tire pump. I moved one of the bottles to the underside of the downtube, and shifted the other bottle a bit lower in the triangle. It looks like a close fit between the front tire and the lower bottle — and it is — but there’s enough of a gap there’s no danger of hitting.

For those wondering about drinking out of a bottle that’s going to be spattered in mud and road grime, there are a couple of solutions. One is to cover the lower bottle’s nipple with something — a finger cut off from a rubber glove, for example. A second option is not to drink from this bottle, but to use it to refill the main bottle when that’s been emptied. I was also thinking of getting a bottle with a full cover for the nipple, but it doesn’t look like there’s enough room for that.

Gasping for air

While I was preparing Kuroko for that last picture, I noticed the front tire had almost no air left in it. (It’s not noticeable when the bike is on the workstand.) This isn’t a real surprise as I’ve only ridden Kuroko once since finally converting the tires to tubeless, so the latex hasn’t had a good chance to work its way into all the leaking areas. The tire beads were still sealed to the rim, so it was no problem pumping the tire up full again. I took the wheel off after that and gave it some swirling to get the latex distributed all around again inside the tire. Then I pumped up the rear tire again, although it was already holding quite a bit more air.

If the front goes down just as far in another week, I’ll add some more latex. But in the meantime I’ll try to find a day without rain when I can go for another ride.

I purchased Kuroko with the goal of having a bike that wasn’t necessarily the fastest performer, but that would be comfortable for many hours in the saddle, day after day. In particular I had Lejog in mind, anticipating I’d be on the road for 13 or 14 straight days with at most one rest day.

Kuroko was a part of what was at the time an emerging trend: gravel bikes. While in my callow youth I sought out the narrowest possible tires (23mm), run at high pressure for efficiency and damn the comfort, Kuroko was equipped with the opposite: 48mm tires, run at 50psi at most and preferrably lower. When I researched this new trend, I was assured that the wider tires were both more efficient (although I’m sceptical about this) and more comfortable, and that the larger volume would reduce or eliminate the dreaded pinch flat (when the wheel strikes an abrupt edge, pinching the tube against the rim and causing a flat), which in fact Fearless Leader Joe experienced on Day 2 of Lejog.

These new tires also featured a new technology. They were tubeless, or at least tubeless-ready (meaning they could be set up as tubeless if one so desired). Instead of a tube, the tires are mounted directly on the rim, and a small measure of liquid latex is added (usually 60-120ml). The latex will gather around any leak or small puncture and harden, creating a seal.

I was excited about this new technology, and when I ordered the bicycle I requested that it be set up as tubeless. A day or two after I placed the order, though, I got a call from a rather direct-speaking Japanese (he was a mechanic and not a salesperson). He spent 10 minutes or so telling me what an inconvenience a tubeless tire was going to be for me, running through the full list of shortcomings of the new technology. While he didn’t right out say he wouldn’t set the bike up that way (he was Japanese, after all), the message was clear. And so Kuroko was delivered with standard bicycle innertubes inside her tubeless-ready tires. (I’ve since learned that particular shop is “allergic to tubeless” — they won’t even sell accessories related to tubeless tires such as rim tape and latex.)

And that’s how she rode through the breadth of England during our Lejog ride. I suffered two flats along the way and either swapped out the tube or patched it on the spot. (I’d brought along a spare tire — they’re foldable — but it wasn’t required.) By all indications, both punctures would have been no problem with a tubeless tire: pull out the offending nail and let the latex do its work.

Renewed inspiration

I’d had it in mind since then to convert Kuroko to tubeless. I’d done quite a bit of bicycle mechanical work in the meantime, so this should be a walk in the park. I had a number of excellent videos to follow as well, and they all made it seem quite easy.

I bought the latex and the rim tape, as well as a tire pump with a compression chamber to allow me to inflate the tire in a single big burst. Thus equipped, I gave it a go and … no go. The tire wouldn’t seal to the rim. I tried it again. And again. And again and … I didn’t keep count but I’m sure on that first go I tried more than 20 times before giving up.

In the meantime, I’d been busy rehabilitating Ol’ Paint. And when that project finally came to fruition and I put the newly rechristened Dionysus on the scale, she came in at a very surprising 9kg! This was all serendipity, as I hadn’t specifically been working to make a lightweight bike. The wheels I’d built up, though, while not being tubeless, were quite light without being particularly expensive.

I contrasted that 9kg weight with the measurement I’d made when preparing Kuroko for Lejog: a hefty 13kg. Granted, at the time Kuroko had been decked out with a rear rack, pump, a generator hub on front, etc. I decided to strip Kuroko down to the essentials — no lights, no bags, no pump — to make a fair comparison. The result was 11.2kg (as you can see above).

I think we can do better than that!

I had no doubt that most of the weight difference was in the wheels (although Dionysus is a 1x, and so has some advantage in terms of fewer parts, such as lacking a front derailleur and having only one chainring). So I set out to get the lightest possible tires without sacrificing on the comfort or performance. (Kuroko’s existing tires were very comfortable and very smooth-rolling.) I quickly hit upon René Herse’s Babyshoe Pass tires: 42mm wide and quite a bit lighter (and rather more expensive) than the WTB Horizon tires I’d been using. I placed my order and watched for the delivery with salivary glands fully activated.

When the new tires arrived the first thing I did was to get them on the scale to compare with the WTB Horizon. I also weighed an innertube as this wouldn’t be included with the new tire. So I was looking at a weight savings of 390g per wheel? Perhaps not quite, as the tubeless tire requires a separate valve as well as somewhere around 100g of liquid latex. But that could still add up to a half kilogram of weight savings for the two tires.

There must be some sort of trick

With the new tires in hand, I took advantage of a visit by the Halfakid to attempt the installation. After all, I needed someone to pump up the tires. And again. And again … We tried several times, and used both of Calvin Jones’s recommended techniques, but we were no closer to having our beautiful tubeless tires installed. I was starting to think that all those videos I’d seen where the tires pop into place with no effort — particularly the dream builds where they just use a standard hand pump — were mocking me.

39th time is a charm

Today I was “working from home” and had nice weather, as well as a ride in prospect for tomorrow, so I decided to give it another go. I spent some time with the preparation: I removed the tire and tube, as well as the rim tape, and then cleaned the rim with brake cleaner, making sure to get any residual latex from previous attempts out of the bead area where the new tire would seal. Then I put the wheel on the truing stand for a quick check. In the case of the front wheel, no truing was required. For the rear, though, I’d replaced all the drive-side spokes following the big chain disaster of Stafford, and at the time I didn’t have a truing stand so I just trued the wheel up in the bike frame. As a result I found that while it was fairly round, it was off-center by more than 1mm. It took less than 10 minutes to sort that out, though.

With the wheels clean and true, I installed new rim tape, this time using 21mm tape from DT Swiss. (I’ve tried tape in the past from several makers and in several widths.) I spent a few minutes working out any bubbles and making sure the tape was down smooth and firm.

And then it was time for the newest attempt. I knew the routine by now: tire levers, latex, valve core tool, tire pump. I prepared a dish of soapy water and spent some time cleaning all the old latex from the previous attempts with this tire (at least on the bead area).

With the tire on the rim and the valve core removed — and lots of soapy water around the bead area for lubrication and to spot any leaks — I charged up the compression chamber to 120psi. I connected the pump head to the valve and held my breath as I released the pressure. And … succeess! In just seconds I was rewarded with a couple of resounding pop! pop! noises as the tire bead seated on the rim.

I didn’t let my excitement stop me from immediately removing the pump (which let all the air out), pouring in some latex through the coreless valve, and then screwing tight the valve core. That done, and after rolling the wheel around in my hands to spread the latex throughout the inner surface, I pumped the tire up again, this time to 50psi. The tire quickly inflated and held the pressure.

With the tire inflated, I inspected the bead all the way around on both sides to make sure it was even and fully seated. It was. I noticed some hardened latex on the tread that was left over from my previous attempts, but I let it be. It won’t hurt anything and it will probably wear away with the first couple of weeks of riding.

Right after that I put the wheel on the scale: For the total wheel (tire, brake disc, etc.) the weight had dropped more than 230g. I was pleased as can be.

I’d love to say that the rear tire also went on at the first go, but it wasn’t to be. For the first few tries, the air just whooshed into the tire and then out around the bead, pretty much all the way around the time. I was treated to the sight of soap bubbles forming around the bead with each go. I’d do my best to work the tire into the rim, add more soapy water and try again. And listen as the air hissed out each time.

Finally after six or eight tries, I was ready to give up for the day. I pumped the compression chamber up to 120psi, put the pump head on the valve, and opened the tap. And listened … the tire was puffing up, and I wasn’t hearing all the air escaping. But there was no pop! I was just thinking it was another failure and was about to shut off the flow when, as the pressure dropped past the 40psi mark, there it was: pop! and then pop! Not as loud or sharp as for the front wheel, but enough. In my excitement to get the valve core in and inflate the tire again, I nearly forget to add the latex. But I got it done, and when that was done and I inserted the valve core, the tire was holding air. I’d done it, at long last.

The shocking result

I was so pleased I’d finally accomplished the conversion that I nearly forgot the comparison with Dionysus. In the end, Kuroko’s front wheel is just 120g heavier than Dionysus’s much slimmer (28mm) one (1,410g vs 1,289), while Kuroko’s rear wheel is actually 5% lighter (1,890g vs 1,992g)! It’s a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison, though, as Kuroko’s wheels include the brake disc (which Dionysus lacks), while Dionysus’s wheels include the innertube. Finally, Dionysus’s much larger rear sprockets (maximum of 42T vs 34T) contribute to the weight there.

So what did I do differently this time?

I sure wish I knew. It would give me a confidence I still don’t have that I’d be able to remount a tire on the go if the need arose. Some combination of the care I took in cleaning the rim, renewing the rim tape and using soapy water all the way around seems to have done the trick. Meanwhile I learned that the second technique in Calvin Jones’s tutorial — removing the valve core and seating the tire on the rim before adding the latex — makes a lot less mess.

Done?

That’s not quite the end of the story. With tubeless tires I have to remove the old latex once or twice a year and add new. (I’ve used up a 500ml bottle to reach this point, so I ordered a new one. And Amazon reminded me I’d bought the first one in July 2019. So it’s taken me nearly a year to accomplish this.)

In addition to that, apparently this brand of tire is infamous for leaking a bit during the first two weeks or so of use. The sidewalls are so thin that they seep air until the latex has a chance to seal them up completely. So I need to check the tire pressure before each ride, and make sure I carry my pump with me at all times.