I'm still waiting for my criterium skills to translate to knee corner carving on the 950 but it hasn't happened yet
Got out for a short ride after the doctors visit. 27 miles down and back on the river trail. 1:43, and change. There was a pretty good headwind on the way out, but that meant a nice tailwind to push me home. 20 mph was not too tough, though I was riding along a river on a paved trail in about 78 degree weather. Very nice day out.
My crit and track racing skills have taught me that I don't want to drag a knee on an open road. There's too many things that can go wrong quickly. M
I'm starting to not like your pictures, no snow, no gray skies filled with rain, green on the trees.... Full knobs ona 950 aren't the greatest for practicing either
Wait a month or two, I'll be back to the PNWet and gray and dampish. Sans bike. Oh, and Knobbies work just fine on the street. Think, real loose set up though. Remember what the "King" said, "as long as you have throttle and road, you're safe", or words to that affect.
Partly sunny and a high of 46F in the forecast today. I went skiing last night and finally cleaned the bike off from my last CX race back in November. Bicycle season starts for me as soon as I'm done at work.
Very Cool indeed. I really liked the white on black, but couldn't make the image smaller so I nuked it from my quote.
Knobs are all I have been running. I did break down and buy a spare set of wheels to run true DS tires but rarely have the time or the will to swap them unless it's going to be a long road ride. The MT21 does a way better job than I expected on the pavement Ricardo, tell Aaron, cool images
I need to wash off my CF bike and am sort of wondering what are the suggested tools? I use plain old Tide(C) for my motorcycle and old steel bikes. I have no idea what these new fangled bikes tolerate. Everything I've read says roughly, "... Wash in warm soapy water...". No mention of what soap? Dish soap is mild but real sudsy. Hence the low suds laundry detergent. I use kerosene on the chain, chain rings and cluster, and derailleurs. Then re-lube what needs lubing. The chain gets tri-flow out of a bottle one drop per link, then I wipe it down. If I can lube the derailleurs I do that using tri-flow or campy grease, depending on how things are put together. Chain rings and cluster go dry. Here is some basic stuff I found: Basic CF Stuff Issues? Comments? Thanks,
I've always used one of the common, automotive "car wash" soaps (currently using Blue Pearl from Wal-Mart). They don't strip wax, are not acidic, and spot less than more harsh alternatives. Suds are good, to help carry away the grit and grime. I use Honda Polish, afterward.
I hope those roads dry out a bit for the Rag. I don't know when my bike season is going to start. I need to compose a letter to Skogen informing him that I am bailing on the Almanzo. Again.
Nah, passing a leather-clad steel fixie is expected from a carbon bike. Pass me on a penny-farthing, though - I'll grow out muttonchops and wear a top hat.
I avoid water like the plague on my bikes - unless caught in the rain... I prefer to let the mud dry completely, till the bike looks like it's been powder coated on - and use a medium soft HQ paint brush to dust the dirt off, it works great. you can punch the bristles into just about everything and it pops the dirt off. After that a dry washing (no water) with a typical spray cleaner like windex, or automotive spray wash for the frame, rims, all the shiny parts. A chain cleaning device for the chain using the biodegradable chain citrus cleaners or like. and use that on any greasy parts (kerosene breaks down finishes and plastics/rubbers etc) derailleurs, cables. Then a dry lube on the chain, and sometimes on cables, etc. Tri flow is also good for this but i wouldn't use that on a chain. The dry lubes stay on the chain better, and repel dirt/sand much better that the lightweight stuff. If you really care about the bike's finish after that you can use a spray on wax - an old trick at LBS was to use pledge!
We use water to wash every bike we tune at my shop in Bogota to the point we even build a "Wash Station" with warm and cold water hoses and also a sprinklers system to "Pre-Wash" the really dirty bikes. We never Ever found a problem, I do need to point out the bikes where taken apart to bare bones (All the bikes got "Full teardowns" every time) a few minutes later so no corrosion issues where ever encounter. I have use the same "wet" system since forever and never had a problem, including all my FatChance's and other prone to rust steel wonders I learn About the Lemon Pledge trick working at the "fanciest" and most Hype-up (what a joke that was) shop in san Francisco call City Cycle (in the marina district), When I was doing most of the $250 overhauls (A task my EX-Cafe de Colombia mechanics use to perform in Colombia for $13dollars and to make it even more painful using Campagnolo grease) in any case City cycle did not even have a proper work room or anything habitable for that matter, except a 6,2feet high Dungeon with no ventilation, so the only way to clean the bikes was to use lemon Pledge. As a side note, I did get in trouble a few times with pledge when the "Posser" stickers (from the death ride or something) got erase by the chemicals so be careful
I just blast 'em with water. I've been using Gore cables for so long...they need no maintenance at all and last for years (or decades). In fact the only part of my bikes that gets any attention is the chain...I do just enough to keep it from squeaking or rusting.
