Snow???

[johnridley]

Oh, dammit, do I need to put the studs on the bike already? I've made it to late November the last few years. It says snow at 6AM tomorrow morning. I should already be at work by then, but we'll see what it looks like when I get up. I may be changing tires. The afternoon doesn't look bad, but it looks like studs before too long.

I had a flat when I went to ride home this evening. I didn't get the rim tape down properly; the fancy Velox tape is barely adhesive at all, so I had to almost hold it in place while putting the tube in, and I didn't hold it quite well enough, it slipped sideways, and I got a puncture in the tube from one of the spokes protruding in. I used 290mm spokes, turns out I could have used 287s or so; most of them stick in a couple of mm but still below the tape.

I was going to buy Pedro's rim tape but they were out.

Anyway, I had put a presta tube in there and had planned on buying a 21/64 drill bit on the way home to drill for schraeder valve (the car tire standard). Didn't make it that far though, and I didn't have a spare tube with a presta valve. So I borrowed a car to run to the bike shop and buy another presta valved tube. They were closed. So I called for a bail-out from jennlk, bought the drill bit and headed back to work to wait for the ride.

The wheel now has a schraeder tube in it and all is well again. The disc brake is niiice.

Comments

[madtechie2718.livejournal.com]

Disc brakes: I've been thinking of those too - any signs of slip or juddering in the rain?

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I haven't had them in any amount of rain to speak of yet. It's raining/snowing on and off today so I may get the chance, but it doesn't look like any thunderstorms today so a full review will probably take a while.

FYI I only put the disc in the front, the rear is still rims, but the rear brake is almost useless on a bike anyway so I'll just leave it as is.

I expect them to be pretty good. I used Avid BB7 mechanicals, which are highly regarded by offroad types who ride in mud and wet all the time. One reviewer said that the pads wear quickly when wet. I don't understand that, but from what this guy was saying, his usage basically involves descending mountains with the brakes on all the way down, so I expect to get more than the 2 hours he gets out of a set of pads.

The thing I note most about them is that there's a lot of modulation range in the grip. With rim brakes, there's pressure but not much travel difference between when the brakes start to apply and when they're locked up. With the discs, they start to apply with about 1/4" of travel, and the grip moves as it tightens up, finally locking up with very little travel left.

[bwittig.livejournal.com]

Brief flurries 60-80 miles N of you.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

The flurries this morning were definitely snow, but not what some people would call SNOW. No accumulation. No staying power. Of course, I'm trapped in the basement, so I don't know what's happened in the last 5.5 hours...