one monkey typing

New pads in the rear. Last set went on at 19562 back in late 2009, so these lasted 8099 miles and close to 3 years (wow, my annual mileage is down). This is more miles than I've gotten out of them in the past, but I have been using the front brakes more heavily recently.

The rim is getting a noticeable groove worn in it by the brakes, due to the amount of grit that I pick up while riding gravel roads. I've been trying to avoid the gravel both on the bike and in the car lately, it's clearly bad for both; rocks hitting the underside of the car clearly lead to premature rusting from the looks of the bottom of the van. Anyway I should probably start looking for deals on a new rim, I'll have to lace up one probably next year if not sooner.

Odometer: 27661

The rear left brakes on the Fusion have been chewing up pads. 3 pair in 60K miles, one pretty badly done in in only 6K miles. Last time I determined that something must have hit the pad bracket and made the pads bind, creating the equivalent of a stuck caliper (I replaced the caliper and it made no difference. Since the bracket is cast iron, I don't want to just start whacking on it, so I ground down the slide tab on the pads a little. Apparently not enough though, the pads went down to the metal in only about 10K miles. The other side is still on the original pads, and there's still life left in them.

So today both sides got new pads, the left side got enough ground off the pad guide tabs so that they glide smoothly (about the same as the other side, maybe a little easier), and also a new rotor since rotors are cheap and the original had pads go down to the metal on it twice. It still looks recoverable by turning, so I'll hang on to it if I ever need another.

I also washed the bike, relubed the chain (lots easier with the repair stand), and found that the power cable for the light system was frayed AGAIN. This time before putting on a new cable I'm putting on an experimental super-duty strain relief made from a couple inches of split vinyl hose wrapped around the tail of the connector and the wire and filled with epoxy. We'll see how that lasts. I also ordered another 3 cables from DealExtreme, they're $3 each there so if I have to just keep replacing them every 4 or 5 months I guess I can live with it.

Looks like the brake pads on the bike are probably good for another 1000 miles.

For some odd reason, I've seen a LOT of people I know in cars driving past me and giving friendly beeps. I'm having to refill the air horn canister weekly now. I did actually use it last week as intended, a car in Dexter was backing out of a parking spot right into my path, and I was doing about 25 (the speed limit there) at the time.

Odometer: bike 23829, car 58475

New chain, tested just at 1.0 on the wear gauge. Using old master link, new one put in the tool pouch.

Odometer: 19437

The old one went on at 17330, so I got about 2100 miles out of it. Usually I get 1800 miles, but I did try to clean this chain a little more often, and it was summer so there was usually less crud getting on the thing. We'll see how it fares winter, both because of more crud and because I'll probably be less inclined to clean the chain when it's 10*F out.

Also new brake pads on the front (disc). I put on a set of aftermarket pads at 14460, so I've already gotten 5000 miles out of them. The original Avid pads lasted only 2520 miles. Given that the aftermarket pads perform as well and cost 1/3 as much, clearly I'll be going with them in the future.

Just keeping a record:
I put a new set of brake pads on the front disc at 14460 miles. New rear rim pads at 15020.

The original front pads were Avids that came with the calipers, and they went on at 11940 miles, so I got 2520 miles out of them, and 11 months.

The replacements are cheap asian knockoffs I got on eBay for $6 instead of the $18 for genuine Avid pads. So far they work fine; they sound the same, they brake the same. We'll see if they last the same. They'll have pretty much identical conditions to put up with since they're going on close to the same time of year and will be in use over winter.

My bike is pretty cheap, I only paid $300 for it. It's OK but even the guys at the store said "those wheels don't have 10,000 miles in them." The rear wheel didn't even have 2,000 in it; I rebuilt it a couple of years ago and it's been solid since then. The front wheel is now at 12,000 miles, and since the front wheel supplies most of the braking power, it's starting to show its age.

The front wheel is still as-shipped. It'd be fine except the rim is about the cheapest thing they could find, single-walled, thin aluminum, and the bike has rim brakes. Combine that with the gravel and mud that I ride through often enough, and the sand that gets on the brake pads turn them into grinding pads. The rims are about halfway worn through.

I'm using high-end brake pads (Koolstops, though I switched to Nashbar replacable pad brakes and they work about as well as koolstops). Even so, the braking is not really good when there's ice, and is a little weird when it's wet (tends to slip for a couple of seconds then get grabby for a couple of seconds before settling down. Also the rim is getting critically thin, and at 80 PSI, the rim could just blow out at some point and that would be...bad.

Anyway, I finally did what I'd been thinking about for about 2 years; ordered up a new hub/rim/spokes, and a disc brake setup for the front. Luckily the forks already have the mounts to support the caliper. I got the new 2008 Avid BB7 brake system, which is mechanical rather than hydraulic. From what I understand, mechanicals are really pretty good these days, and it's one less thing for me to have to learn about. Hydraulics work great except if they get a drop of water in the system in the winter, they can fail. Also they were pretty cheap; the caliper and rotor was only about $60, and I could use the brake lever I have already with just a new cable.

I bought a rim that can be used for rim brakes too if the disc thing doesn't work out.

So sometime in the next couple of weeks I need to sit down in front of the TV like I did a couple of years ago and build myself a new wheel. The warm weather isn't fooling me; it's just trying to catch us even more offguard when that early snowstorm comes. Although, pretty soon it'll be too late for an "early" snowstorm.