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The Surly Road Cycling Thread


idigTexas

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6 hours ago, statsman said:

Thanks! What should I do with the frame finish. The original decals were fading/flaking 30 years ago. Should I have the whole thing stripped to metal and repainted and re-decaled? If so, by whom? Or does it make sense to just clean it well and add a coat of paint on top?

you can take it as far as your sentimentality wants :D. 

cheapest way is a spray in the garage.  most people take it to local automotive paint place.  if you want proper restoration check your nearest custom bike builder and they can do the paint themselves or refer to business who paint theirs. 

this one is nationally famous: https://joebell.net/Joe-Bell-Price-List.html

i'd be inclined to just do spot touch-up on any rust spots, ride the bike, then if you fall back in love with it, send out for the full paint restoration

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Tell me about flats on a road bike.  As has been mentioned, I have let my tire pressure (700x28) drop into the 80s and it does make for a less jarring ride.  Neither tire seems to be so deformed as to be vulnerable to pinch flats 

Anyway, yesterday, I had to kind of chug it to cross a six lane at a light and on the far side hit a pretty big pothole.  About a 1/4 mile later I noticed weird handling and noise in the rear, sure enough.   Of course, due to the "simplicity" of fixie/ss riding, I wasn't carrying a tube and anyway it has wheel nuts and I guess I need to find a small 15mm wrench.

So, my ride turned into a walk.  I couldn't find anything in the tire, in or out.  The puncture is slightly jagged and looks abraded at about 10 oclock on the tube.  No corresponding snake bite that I could find.  I kind of assume it was that pothole, but could have been anything.

I have had very very few flats on the road over years of riding and  am kind of unfamiliar with the "modes," unlike MTB, where I am now tubeless.

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1 minute ago, 52-80 said:

did you hear a pop?  could be that innertube got pinched in the bead (invisible to eye) and heat kicked it off.  occured to me once or twice.  its a blowout failure

https://sheldonbrown.com/brandt/blowouts.html

 

No, but like I said, I was kind of flogging it to get across the road and hit the pothole very inadvertently and there was some noise associated with that.

I didn't notice any glass or anything anywhere that I rolled.  Could have been a jagged rock in the pothole.  From the hole in the tube, seems like I could see something in the tire, but haven't found anything.

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13 minutes ago, Orale said:

To TwiceHorn's situation, is there a significant downside to converting a tire to tubeless assuming it can be converted?

Being tubeless on mountain bike, there's no real downside that I can see.  Taping the rim is a little fiddly, but no big deal.  Adding sealant every few months is an annoyance depending on whether you can get the cores out of your presta valves and put it in there, or have to unseat the beads and re-seat them.  

It does add a small amount of weight, I think, compared to tubes.

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Got some pics- I like 52-80’s suggestion to get it riding good (safe) again, before paying for a new paint job. I pulled it out of storage, and took some pics. The paint coat looks solid; it’s just that all the decals are worn off. 
  
I’m leaning to-

Cleaning the frame, polishing the chrome (myself)

Repacking the bearings (someone else)

Replacing the brake lever hood (or brake lever) and brake pads (they’re 35 years old; the rubber goes bad, right?)

What do you think of the chainring teeth? They look worn to me, but what do I know? The freewheel is a steel Suntour freewheel, but if I’m changing the chain and (maybe) chainrings, should I change it, too (35 years old)

Rebuilding the wheels (a pro)

New tape on handlebars

New seat? For looks? Thoughts on choices?

Thanks for all inputs, really appreciated

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new: bar tape, cable, cable housing, brake lever hood; brake pads ABSOLUTELY - if koolstop makes them to fit those shoes then its a great upgrade.

* chainring teeth actually looks very intact, same for freewheel.  if you get a new chain anyway, yeah sure upgrade all 3 -- the important thing is all 3 items match in wear.

* might be good idea to buy a (jeweler) supersonic cleaner, and helps gives all the parts an extra bath after basic degreasing and cleaning

* bottom bracket guide for the rear derailleur cable looks broken off?? might need to check that and possibly braze a guide back in place

* saddles are personal but that looks like a selle italia turbo?  pretty comfy when i had one.  a good match is also a Brooks B17 or swift/swallow

 

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What's going on with that "ventilated" bottom bracket with the bellows looking thing showing through?

And yeah, I can't figure out what's going on with the cable routing under the bottom bracket there.  Doesn't look like anything else was ever there.

I love the idea of keeping the original components if they can be rendered functional.

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9 hours ago, 52-80 said:

bb shell cutout is to evacuate water from the frame so it doesnt rust

white bellows is just a simple plastic sleeve to prevent dirt and etc getting to the bearings. shimano usually has a flat cylindral one even for modern day threaded BBs

Aha.  Steel is real.

I've spent more time looking at modern bottom bracket bearing sets than old square taper things, never seen that bellows deal.

Here's a question for the real vintage fehgs.  Should he try to polish the cranks and other things up or leave them patinated?  And if polish, were they anodized or otherwise coated or just bare?

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  • 5 months later...

How did that fixer upper ever turn out? That looks sweet!

 

I pulled my bike out for the first time this year over the weekend. It looked nice, but I really have been bad about getting on it. Glad to finally get off my duff and on my bike.

I need to pull my bottom bracket apart (likely this weekend) to give it some TLC. It was grinding badly on my first ride out, it could be the chain, but I figure the BB would not hurt to pull apart and grease up again.

 

On the chain - have any of you guys tried waxed chains yet? I saw @G650 has, but wanted to know if anyone else had done it had thoughts? I might give the chain a change over if the BB cleanup doesn't do the trick.

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Anyone else do the College Station MS 150 this past weekend?  It was my 15th Houston MS 150.  Between the heat, the crappy roads for most of the route, my age, and not being real serious about training, it was definitely not the easiest ride.  But I can now say I rode my bike on Kyle Field, which is something I never thought I would say.

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On 5/3/2022 at 1:51 PM, ScottS said:

Anyone else do the College Station MS 150 this past weekend?  It was my 15th Houston MS 150.  Between the heat, the crappy roads for most of the route, my age, and not being real serious about training, it was definitely not the easiest ride.  But I can now say I rode my bike on Kyle Field, which is something I never thought I would say.

I have some friends that did it. Sounded like a blast.

I was supposed to do it back in 2008 or so, but my buddy got married the weekend of the ride and I couldn't do it and had to sell my spot.

I'm doing the MS150 Cape Cod this year for the 3rd time. I ride with one of the breweries here (Jack's Abby), awesome ride. 

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So new upgrade about to go on my bike - swapping out my bottom bracket. After pulling mine apart last weekend, I realized that I just wasn't happy with the dual sleeve solution.

<bike geek time>

So when I did my whole bike swap out a few years back, I discovered I had a PF30 press fit bottom bracket. I looked up the stock component that my bike has on the Fuji archives and put on the same part - a Praxis Works BB30/PF30 Shimano bottom bracket. The problem is that while it fits a BB30 by default, the solve the PF30 fit (bigger bore) with a plastic sleeve. More parts = more things that can move = more places for noise.

I did some research, the new solution a "single" piece PF30 bottom bracket ("single" because you put in a piece from each side). I'm going with a CeramicSpeed PF30 Shimano BB with coated bearings (that just really means more expensive). No stupid plastic sleeve to make up for fit. I also hear that it's supposed to be a lot smoother. We will see.

Also decided to get a real bearing press for this job. Last go around I used a cheap "press" I got off Amazon, basically 2 plates and a bolt. This new one has alignment spacers to keep it from moving and pressing the bearings on straight. I didn't have problems before (I was careful), but when you drop some coin on real parts, I figure why risk it?

</bike geek time>

I will probably put that on tomorrow night as I plan on going out for a ride this weekend. I will give a review later. 

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23 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

So new upgrade about to go on my bike - swapping out my bottom bracket. After pulling mine apart last weekend, I realized that I just wasn't happy with the dual sleeve solution.

<bike geek time>

So when I did my whole bike swap out a few years back, I discovered I had a PF30 press fit bottom bracket. I looked up the stock component that my bike has on the Fuji archives and put on the same part - a Praxis Works BB30/PF30 Shimano bottom bracket. The problem is that while it fits a BB30 by default, the solve the PF30 fit (bigger bore) with a plastic sleeve. More parts = more things that can move = more places for noise.

I did some research, the new solution a "single" piece PF30 bottom bracket ("single" because you put in a piece from each side). I'm going with a CeramicSpeed PF30 Shimano BB with coated bearings (that just really means more expensive). No stupid plastic sleeve to make up for fit. I also hear that it's supposed to be a lot smoother. We will see.

Also decided to get a real bearing press for this job. Last go around I used a cheap "press" I got off Amazon, basically 2 plates and a bolt. This new one has alignment spacers to keep it from moving and pressing the bearings on straight. I didn't have problems before (I was careful), but when you drop some coin on real parts, I figure why risk it?

</bike geek time>

I will probably put that on tomorrow night as I plan on going out for a ride this weekend. I will give a review later. 

I assume road bike mfrs are going away from press fit bottom brackets as are mtb makers?  It doesn't seem like they'd be as problematic as they seem to be, but there it is.

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2 hours ago, 52-80 said:

i am convinced press fit bottom brackets was a conspiracy by the bike industry to sell you more servicing tools

I wasn't really paying attention to bikes at the time, but I assume they got "popular" because of carbon frames?

It really doesn't seem like they would be problematic, but I guess once you have to use some kind of portable press (as opposed to jigging up the frame and using a big factory press) errors and fuckups abound.

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2 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I wasn't really paying attention to bikes at the time, but I assume they got "popular" because of carbon frames?

It really doesn't seem like they would be problematic, but I guess once you have to use some kind of portable press (as opposed to jigging up the frame and using a big factory press) errors and fuckups abound.

due to carbon, but specifically the laziness around construction of carbon frames, and the pointless marketing chase for weight savings.

they couldn't bother to bond in a metal sleeve, or couldn't engineer a good bonding solution, so they left it out and claims the frame is lighter.

they should expect in the moulding and curing process there would be some warpage of the bb. its not just a matter of the dimensions on one side, but the angle has to match exactly to the other side as well.  no such problem when you simply chase threads from a tube.  guess if they make that area extra thick, they could ream it out properly. 

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Yeah, I was reading a lot of stuff about it. There are a ton of claims of weight savings and the like - not sure how much that really maters (for average Freds like us). But in the end there seems to be a divergence going on, where we will end up?

The basic thought is that press fit actually isn't that bad IF you keep your bottom bracket serviced/cleaned. Where threaded takes a lot of that out of the equation. Threaded is coming back for SOME applications. How that will play in the market?

And the bigger thing is that for most people, it really won't matter. I mean, until this project of mine, I have NEVER touched a bottom bracket. I certainly am the only non-mechanic that does/has that I know. So how often is this even going to be something that matters? Most people will never have to service their BB themselves, so they will leave it to a mechanic. 

 

But yeah, if you touch these things, @52-80 is right - you're just going to be buying a ton of tools.

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8 hours ago, 52-80 said:

they should expect in the moulding and curing process there would be some warpage of the bb. its not just a matter of the dimensions on one side, but the angle has to match exactly to the other side as well.  no such problem when you simply chase threads from a tube.  guess if they make that area extra thick, they could ream it out properly. 

 

This is actually the gist of it. PF BB can work fine, but it's very sensitive to manufacturing and design standard. Beyond just static alignment, the nature of BB flex makes a difference too. It can be totally fine as long as it's engineered to take all this into account. The PF BB on my BMC is rock solid, because BMC did a good job. But plenty of other designs didn't. It's kind of a crap shoot if you aren't careful.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/3/2022 at 12:51 PM, ScottS said:

Anyone else do the College Station MS 150 this past weekend?  It was my 15th Houston MS 150.  Between the heat, the crappy roads for most of the route, my age, and not being real serious about training, it was definitely not the easiest ride.  But I can now say I rode my bike on Kyle Field, which is something I never thought I would say.

I did it also.  Also my 15th time, though not in a row.  My first was in 1991.  I wasn't all that impressed with the finish in Collie Station.  I'm glad I wasn't riding with a group the last mile or so with all the 90 deg turns.

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Had another flat on the ss today, dammit.  It was weird, I rolled over a crack in the asphalt that looked like it was filled with one of those sort of "tar turds."  When I rolled it, though, the tar turd apparently was a piece of wood.  It wasn't dramatic other than making a crunchy kind of noise.  But somehow I knew that it had punctured the tire, and, sure enough  . . . .  Weirdly, it was about the same spot as the last flat when I started walking, about 3/4 mile from home.

This time, I could see the tear in the tire, so it looks like a splinter or jagged part of the wood got it.

I had kind of a bitch of a time getting the tire off and on, though.  I'm usually pretty proficient at getting tires on and off without tools and my tire levers got stolen with my mtb a couple months ago.   I had to give up and get some more levers and still had a bitch of a time getting the tire back on.  Dammit.  Hands are kind of sore and slightly cut from trying to roll that fucker off the rim.  I don't remember it being that hard last time, but I had levers.

Also, my old levers were some really flimsy and thin levers that were light and really useful, but you had to be careful with them.  My recollection is that they came with some Slime patches.  Well, I found some more Slime stuff at Academy with patches (needed those too), but the levers were fatter and heavier.  Stronger, but not as useful for me.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Gat damn I hate wrestling with road tires (700x28).  There's nothing to fucking grab onto to roll them on and off rims.

Anyway, at some point after my last flat, my tire quit seating right.  It was around the valve and it appeared to me that the tube had a rather extra large gusset or whatever the reinforcement around the valve stem is called and it was keeping the bead from seating properly.  So, I deflated and unseated the fucker and decided to change the tube out (when I bought replacement tubes, I got something like 700x23-30 tubes that are larger in deflated diameter than the OEM tubes).

Anyway, I had patched the smaller OEM tube and put it back in and wrestled that fucking wire bead piece of shit back on the rim.  Inflated it, still not seating right, but this time not by the valve.  The tube is not, as far as I can tell, pinched, but it does seem to be getting under the bead and pushing it up.  So I tried deflating again, partially inflating and bouncing the tire around.  Fucking hell, now it's bulging at the valve.

Is my tire fucked?  Am I fucked?  What the fuck, it's too fucking hot for this shit.  The tire is some kind of cheap asian POS.  Would a new tire help?  Any recos for cheap decent road tires?  I'm seeing Schwalbe Lugano and Goodyear Eagle Sport as possibilities.

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3 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Gat damn I hate wrestling with road tires (700x28).  There's nothing to fucking grab onto to roll them on and off rims.

Anyway, at some point after my last flat, my tire quit seating right.  It was around the valve and it appeared to me that the tube had a rather extra large gusset or whatever the reinforcement around the valve stem is called and it was keeping the bead from seating properly.  So, I deflated and unseated the fucker and decided to change the tube out (when I bought replacement tubes, I got something like 700x23-30 tubes that are larger in deflated diameter than the OEM tubes).

Anyway, I had patched the smaller OEM tube and put it back in and wrestled that fucking wire bead piece of shit back on the rim.  Inflated it, still not seating right, but this time not by the valve.  The tube is not, as far as I can tell, pinched, but it does seem to be getting under the bead and pushing it up.  So I tried deflating again, partially inflating and bouncing the tire around.  Fucking hell, now it's bulging at the valve.

Is my tire fucked?  Am I fucked?  What the fuck, it's too fucking hot for this shit.  The tire is some kind of cheap asian POS.  Would a new tire help?  Any recos for cheap decent road tires?  I'm seeing Schwalbe Lugano and Goodyear Eagle Sport as possibilities.

Well, follow up to this.  After cooling off and doing something else, I went back to it and did another deflation cycle and squeezed the tire around the rim and wiggled the valve and then pumped it up to 80 psi.  And the problem seems to be gone, but the sidewall/rim interface looks slightly odd in the area of the valve, but no bulge or only a very very slight one in the tread/OD.  So I will ride and postpone any decision on a new tire for a while.

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Stupidity:

Riding the MS Cape Cod Getaway with minimal training.

The story was that my training ended a month early due to getting sick from a cold about a month ago that just lingered. It turned into a sinus infection that lasted the last two weeks. I hadn't been on my bike is almost a month an my last real training ride was a week before that.

The results .... predictable.

I was starting to really feel it on day 1 at the ~60 mile mark. I was already hurting, but that was the point that I could tell my legs were getting close to giving out. Fortunately there was another rest stop at mile 68 (not sure why, but I wasn't complaining) and I finished out day 1.

Day 2 my legs melted down between rest stop 2 and 3 which is a 20 mile stretch, I just couldn't recover at that point, even though it was the lunch stop. It also didn't help that my ass was also starting to feel it because it wasn't used to that much time in the saddle. So around 44 miles I threw in the towel and jumpped on the bus. First time I have ever SAG'd out of an event.

All things considered, pulling 120 miles out of my ass was not a bad effort. I am finally seeing my legs no longer having miles in them "just because". I need to really work on that. I need to ride more.

So time to start putting more miles on the bike. I just have been to lazy (and using the first kid being under 3 as an excuse) to ride more. That has to stop.

 

After my legs and ass recover.

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On 6/21/2022 at 7:35 PM, TwiceHorn said:

Well, follow up to this.  After cooling off and doing something else, I went back to it and did another deflation cycle and squeezed the tire around the rim and wiggled the valve and then pumped it up to 80 psi.  And the problem seems to be gone, but the sidewall/rim interface looks slightly odd in the area of the valve, but no bulge or only a very very slight one in the tread/OD.  So I will ride and postpone any decision on a new tire for a while.

I'm currently riding Continental 28's, these I think:  https://www.biketiresdirect.com/product/continental-gatorskin-black-edition-700c-road-tire?fltr=&sg=500#:~:text=Continental Gatorskin Black Edition 700c Road Tire

Good tires.  No issues so far.

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On 6/28/2022 at 8:23 AM, CycleTex87 said:

Thanks.  Those are probably a bit spendy for my bike.  It's a "swingset steel" fixie/singlespeed, it was cheap but the components are surprisingly not horrible.  Doesn't feel like it deserves the kind of tires you put on a $1000+++ bike.  Maybe the puncture protection is worth it. 

Doesn't seem like there's much between the $50+ pretty good tires for any bike and the $20 no-name Asian things like are on it.

Also, whatever was causing that lump, the last deflation/inflation cycle made it mostly go away (maybe entirely), then it sat for a week and I couldn't see anything at all.  Seems ok now.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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  • 2 weeks later...
4 hours ago, jw4381 said:

Glitch in the matrix. 
 

35 mph is believable on that particular stretch. 

Still furk.  That's a steep descent.  It's funny, I think MTB speed has made me more afraid of road bike speed than I used to be.

Someone on TOS posted a video of just going down singletrack on a grassy hill, even appeared steep on the gopro so you know it was, but apparently chunk-free, tooling along pretty quick and just blammo, he ate it, bigtime bro.

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44 minutes ago, Fuck Tim Beck said:

Damn. Just 10.2 MPH faster and you would have seen some serious shit. 

The few times I've hit 60 on a roadbike I was pretty sure my ass was getting ready to become a flux capacitor.

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I went ass over tea kettle on a paved trail yesterday.  About 16 MPH.  Just getting to the turn around point, and I hit some nasty ruts, while I was simultaneously stretching out over my handle bars.  All my weight was over the bars, and I just went over, clipped in, and smoked the pavement.  Helmet cracked in 4 spots, and I have a bruised rib on my left side.  Only bike damage was a busted spoke.  Kind of a freak deal that could have been a lot worse.

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1 hour ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I went ass over tea kettle on a paved trail yesterday.  About 16 MPH.  Just getting to the turn around point, and I hit some nasty ruts, while I was simultaneously stretching out over my handle bars.  All my weight was over the bars, and I just went over, clipped in, and smoked the pavement.  Helmet cracked in 4 spots, and I have a bruised rib on my left side.  Only bike damage was a busted spoke.  Kind of a freak deal that could have been a lot worse.

Yeah, trail riding you become more conscious of what things in the "road" can do, even when you have a suspension and fat tires and slack geo.  Take all that away on a road bike and add in some speed and probably worse brakes and it can be a frightening proposition.

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33 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Yeah, trail riding you become more conscious of what things in the "road" can do, even when you have a suspension and fat tires and slack geo.  Take all that away on a road bike and add in some speed and probably worse brakes and it can be a frightening proposition.

What I realized is that being unclipped when I dump my mountain bike propels my body away from the bike and leads to a softer landing.  Going down with the ship leads to a harder impact.

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On 7/17/2022 at 1:51 PM, G650 said:

The few times I've hit 60 on a roadbike I was pretty sure my ass was getting ready to become a flux capacitor.

I hit 35+ going downhill on Parmer after 1431. The problem was the wind was helping and I knew coming back up those hills was death. Usually 10-12 mph coming back

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The few times I've hit 60 on a roadbike I was pretty sure my ass was getting ready to become a flux capacitor.
I have been riding since I was 4. BMX. Half pipes. 1/4 pipes. Road racing. Mtn biking. I've crashed and I've got the scars. I've been 45 mph hundreds of times and it was fun but just on the edge of terryfying. I get ill at the thought of going 50 let alone 60
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