Category Archives: Bikes

Bikes: Electronic Shifting

Bikes
by Mike Clements

In late 2001 I bought a new road bike, a Fezzari Empire. One of the reasons I bought it at that time is because that was the last year that Shimano offered its best components (Ultegra and Dura Ace) with mechanical shifting. Since then, they are only available with electronic. SRAM has also gone to the “dark side”.

Why don’t I like electronic shifting? Everyone else seems to love it. They say it works perfectly. Perhaps it does (when it’s not failing due to dead batteries) but mechanical shifting works perfectly too. It’s been perfected over decades and it is simpler, cheaper, lower maintenance, more reliable and durable.

My reasons include:

Electronic shifting has batteries that can die on a ride. To be safe, you need to add a spare battery to your ride kit. These batteries also must be charged periodically, and replaced when they wear out.

Mechanical shifting, once adjusted properly, works perfectly for several years and thousands of miles without needing adjustment or maintenance (other than periodic cleaning, which electronic shifting also requires).

Electronic shifting is less durable and reliable. Consider a multi-day stage ride. Electronic shifting requires you to bring extra batteries or find a way to charge them. It’s extra hassle with no corresponding benefit. Lachlan Morton, who won the Tour Divide in 2023, had electronic shifting. The batteries were a hassle during the ride (charging and replacing), and later it failed, forcing him to jerry-rig his derailleur with a spare spoke.

Electronic shifting is also considerably more expensive.

Electronic shifting has no real benefit to justify the expense and hassle. It’s not lighter, nor more efficient, nor faster, and it’s actually less durable and reliable.

Getting philosophical, electronic shifting contradicts the classic purity of what a bicycle should be: a simple, elegant, purely mechanical machine. No batteries, no electronics, no software. The only power source should be the person riding it.

In short, electronic shifting is a complex, expensive, fragile solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

So why do so many riders like it? It’s high tech, more expensive making it more exclusive, and the latest trendy shiny object. Pros use it, which can make sense since their bike only has to last 1 day, they don’t care how much it costs or how long it will last. But for those of us who aren’t GC contenders in the Tour de France, I’m surprised so many cyclists drink the kool-aid and can’t see that the Emperor has no clothes. And bike companies love it because they can charge you 3 times the price for the equipment, lock you into their “ecosystem”, get a new revenue stream selling batteries, and every few years forcefully deprecate old systems forcing people to upgrade.

No thanks, I have mechanical, the shifting is sublime, it’s simple and user-serviceable, and it will last me the next several decades until (God forbid) I’m too old to ride bikes anymore.

Tubeless Tires: MTB Yes, Road No

Bikes
by Mike Clements

MTB: Yes

Tubeless tires are great for mountain bikes. They address the 2 biggest limitations of the tube+tire technology that had been used for more than 50 years: traction and puncture resistance. On MTB trails with tubed tires, you must run high enough pressures to avoid pinch flats. And those pressures are high enough to greatly reduce traction. For example, on typical 26″ x 2.3″ tires you would typically need 50 PSI to avoid flats, which makes the tire almost as hard as the rocks you’re riding over. And that only avoids pinch flats. You would still get flats from thorns or sharp rocks.

With tubeless tires you can run about half the pressures, 25-30 PSI, on those same size tires. This is a vast improvement in traction. And despite these lower pressures, the tires are even more flat resistant than before. It really is the best of both worlds.

Tubeless has its drawbacks. It makes tire mounting messy, more labor intensive, and requires a compressor. It also requires more maintenance, as the fluid must be replaced every few months. And once or twice a year you also need to completely remove the tire from the rim to clean out all the old dried up sealant.

But when mountain biking, the benefits are are well worth these hassles.

Road: No

None of these benefits apply with road bikes. With their skinnier tires, the ideal pressures for rolling resistance, traction and comfort are already high enough that you would run the same pressures whether tubeless or not. On road bikes, pinch flats with tubes are not an issue and flats are much less common.

Yes, tubeless is more puncture resistant. But road riders don’t get punctures nearly as often as MTB riders used to. And when those punctures happen on the road, the tubeless sealant doesn’t handle them as effectively as it does with MTB tires. Several times over the years I’ve stopped to help road riders with tubeless tires fix flats when their sealant just sprayed everywhere making a mess instead of sealing the leak. They didn’t have a spare tube because they thought tubeless tires were “flat-proof”.

On my road bike I use latex inner tubes and Conti GP5000 tires. I ride it at least 5,000 miles per year, usually more. If I switched to tubeless:

  • My wheels would not be any lighter.
  • My wheels would not be any faster.
  • My tire pressures would not change.
  • I would still have to carry a spare inner tube with me.
  • If I did get a flat on a ride, it would be more of a hassle than just swapping an inner tube.
  • I would spend more time (not less) maintaining my tires because I would have to clean out & replace the sealant more often than I get flats today.
  • That maintenance would also take longer and be messier, due to dealing with sealant and a compressor.

In short, road bikes don’t need either of the 2 key benefits that tubeless tires provide, so all it does is create hassle and mess.

How to True a Wheel: 4 Operations

Bikes
by Mike Clements

Introduction

Truing bicycle wheels is based on 4 basic operations that anyone can learn in 10 minutes. From there, it is only a matter of practice to become proficient.

Overview

Here’s the bottom half of a bike wheel viewed from directly ahead looking back, or directly behind looking forward.

Each spoke has a nipple that passes through the rim. The nipple is a nut threaded to the end of the spoke, which can be viewed as a long thin bolt. The nipple has a screw head on the outside of the wheel (under the tire where you can’t see it), and a square head that emerges at the opposite side of the rim inside the wheel. Normally, you adjust the nipple by using a spoke wrench (a kind of square-head socket) from the inside of the rim.

When you tighten the nipple it shortens the spoke, increasing tension. This tension pulls in 2 directions: to the side of the hub where the spoke attaches, and toward the hub reducing the radius of the rim.

When you loosen the nipple the opposite happens.

Spokes and their nipples use a standard right-handed thread. But this is from the perspective of being outside the rim “above” the nipple looking “in” to the wheel. When truing wheels, the usual perspective is the opposite: with your head to the side of the rim looking down at the inside of the rim. Thus when truing wheels, the spoke appears to be a left-hand thread. This is show in the diagram.

Spokes are usually adjusted in pairs. With 2 spokes and each moving tighter or looser, we have 4 situations to describe.

Move Right

This diagram shows how to shift the rim to the right by adjusting adjacent spokes.

Always ensure to loosen one spoke and tighten the other. Turn each spoke nipple the same amount in opposite directions. If you don’t do this, your adjustment will also shift the rim up or down, creating a bump or flat spot.

Of course, if the rim also has a bump or flat spot at the same point you need to shift it right, then you can tighten one side or loosen the other, but not both.

Pro tip: always loosen first, then tighten. This avoids excess tension in the wheel and makes the adjustments easier. And it helps avoid stripping the spoke nipples when they are tight.

Move Left

This diagram is the opposite of move right. The same text applies in reverse. ‘Nuff said!

Move Up

Here we’re talking about when the wheel isn’t round. A flat spot is a section with smaller radius than the rest of the wheel – pressed “in”. A bump is a section with a larger radius than the rest of the wheel, pressed “out”.

Moving up is how to correct a bump. It’s simple: tighten both adjacent spokes. This applies more tension pulling the rim inward against the bump. It doesn’t shift the rim left or right because the tension is equal on both sides.

Move Down

Move down is the 4th and last operation. You guessed it: loosen both adjacent spokes. This reduces the tension, allowing the rim to move outward. You may intuitively grasp that while the other 3 operations apply tension to force the rim in the direction you want, this operation does not. If so, your intuition is correct.

Spokes can only apply force in tension, not in compression (they can pull things together but they can’t push them apart). So “move down” is different from the other 3 operations. It is a passive operation – it reduces tension, freeing the rim to move outward, but it doesn’t apply any force to actually move it there. This leads to another important topic.

Wheel Tension and Stress

Before working on any wheel, and periodically as you make adjustments, you should grab a pair of spokes on opposite sides with each of your hands, squeeze them together tightly so the spokes bend, and release them. Then rotate the wheel and do the same with the next 4 spokes. And again until you go all the way around the wheel. A typical 28 spoke wheel will take 7 squeezes.

As you squeeze a pair spokes on opposite sides, you pull the rim inward at that point which exerts stress all around the wheel. Now this relates to the 4th operation “move down” – after you loosen a pair of spokes, squeezing every other pair around the wheel exerts forces to push the rim outward, and the point where you loosened the spokes is where the rim will “take out the slack” and bulge out just a bit as allowed by the spokes you loosened. Thus, after performing a “move down” operation, you need to tension the wheel in order for the change you made to take effect.

Another way to stress the wheel and equalize spoke tensions is to lay it on its side on a hard floor (take care to protect the axle end cap and rim from being scratched), lean over the wheel with your hands on opposite sides of the rim, and your knees holding the rim nearest your body down on the ground 90* apart from each of your hands. The wheel is touching the floor at the axle (its center) and at the rim under your knees. Now apply your full body weight to your hands as if you were trying to fold the rim in half. You can even gently bounce your full body weight on the rim. Then rotate the rim 45* and do it again, etc. 7 more times all the way around the wheel. Now flip the wheel over and repeat all the way around.

This applies forces to the rim to move it into a shape that matches and equalizes the spoke tensions. If you don’t do this, your spoke adjustments will tend to over-adjust the wheel, then the wheel will have pent-up stress that will redistribute when it is ridden. So after the first ride the wheel will be out of true or round again and need another adjustment.

Adjust – How Much?

No wheel is perfect. When you spin the wheel checking for left-right (trueness) and up-down (roundness), you will always find something. Once you get variations down to a millimeter or so (it doesn’t even have to be that good) they’re essentially perfect since that’s not enough to make any difference through the flexibility of the tire. And as the bike is ridden, stresses are distributed through the rim and spokes, which can shift things a bit. All perfectly normal.

Generally speaking, truing (side to side) spoke nipple adjustments are 1/8 to 1/4 turn on each spoke and rounding (up-down) adjustments are twice as much, or 1/4 to 1/2 turn. Of course, this is just guidance and how much you adjust depends on the wheel.

Adjust – Exactly Where?

Suppose you find a left-right or up-down “burble” in a rim that you will correct with one of the above 4 operations. Exactly which spokes should you adjust? Some burbles are small and span only a couple of spokes. Others might run for 1/4 or 1/2 of the wheel circumference. Remember that the rim has some rigidity of its own, so if a single spoke is too tight or loose, it will affect a section of the rim several spokes long. So don’t adjust spokes all the way along the burble, but only the innermost spokes. For example, if the burble visually spans 6 spokes, don’t adjust all 6, but only the middle 2 to 4.

For simplicity, the above 4 operations were explained in terms of symmetric spoke pairs on opposite sides of the rim. But your adjustments don’t have to span an even number of spokes. For example, consider a left-burble 5 spokes long that you need to pull to the right. You need to adjust the inner 3 spokes of the burble: 1 center spoke on the left, and the 2 spokes next to it (one fore, one aft) on the right. In this case loosen the middle spoke by 1/4 turn and tighten the other 2 spokes by 1/8 turn each. This will keep the rim’s up-down unchanged as you shift it right.

Spoke Tension – How Tight?

Wheels are not, and should not be, perfectly rigid. They are slightly elastic which makes them stronger. Spokes apply forces in tension but not in compression. The weight of the bike & rider is a force applied at the axle pulling down on the spokes at the top half of the wheel. Intuitively, the bike is hanging from the upper spokes. Thus as the wheel rotates, each spoke sees higher tension as it rotates through the top and lower tension as it rotates through the bottom.

Stiffness and strength are related, but not the same thing. When you start out with very low spoke tensions, tightening them increases both stiffness and strength. Spoke tensions too low / loose is obviously bad. We want nice tight spokes.

One of the factors determining the lifetime of a spoke is the difference in tension between max (spoke at top position) and min (spoke at bottom position) as the wheel rotates. The tighter the spokes, the less difference between this max & min. Put differently, looser spokes experience greater changes in tension forces with each wheel rotation, which increases stress on the spoke. Perhaps counter-intuitively, a spoke that is too loose / low tension can fail earlier due to greater tension differences as it rotates around the wheel.

So tighter is better – up to a point. Past that point, getting spokes too tight makes tension so high that it can make the wheel weaker even if it feels stiffer. Spokes that are too tight are likely to stick / freeze in place and strip the nipple when you try to turn it. The high tension can stress crack rims at the spoke holes (especially carbon rims). It can shear off the heads of spoke nipples. And it can make wheels suddenly break under load instead of flexing.

A 5th Operation: Dish

OK so I lied. Or at least I oversimplified. There’s another wheel adjustment operation called “dish”.

Wheels must be centered to the axle. But that doesn’t mean they are centered between the spoke attachment points on the hub, because many hubs are asymmetric. Rear wheels have a cassette on the drive side. Front wheels with a disc brake have the disc on one side. With these hubs, the spokes on one side attach closer to the end of the axle than on the other side.

To the left we depict a typical rear hub with the drive side cassette on the right. As you may guess intuitively, the spokes on the drive side that are close to perpendicular to the hub, have much higher tension. Normally, these drive side spokes are also shorter. When you squeeze the spokes you can feel the difference in tension.

To change the dish of a wheel, loosen or tighten all the spokes on one side by equal amounts. This will shift the entire rim left or right without changing its trueness or roundness. If you loosen one side and tighten the other, do it in that order – loosen first – in order to make it easier and avoid over-tightening the spokes.

Tools & Equipment

A truing stand is nice, but basic wheel adjustments don’t require one. If you do use a truing stand, don’t waste your time with a cheap one; you’re better off doing the work with the wheel mounted in the bike. The Park TS-2 (with variants like TS-2.2) is one of the best, a classic that most bike shops have used for more than 40 years. Also get a high quality spoke wrench because otherwise you’ll strip and destroy the nipples on high tension wheels. Replacing a stripped spoke nipple is a real PITA, better to not strip it in the first place.

Conclusion

Most wheel work involves adjusting true and roundness as wheels get stressed during riding. This is easy to learn. As you gain experience you’ll do it with increasing precision & speed, and develop a feel for proper spoke tensions. Mastering this prepares one for moving on to more advanced tasks like wheel building and more serious repairs.

Spokes (and matching nipples) come in different widths or thicknesses. 14 gauge or 2.0 mm, and 15 gauge or 1.8 mm are the most common. A 14g spoke nipple might seem to fit a 15g spoke. The threads will mesh but they’ll be loose, so don’t let that happen.

Also, nipples can be aluminum or brass. Brass nipples are stronger and essential for carbon rims since aluminum reacts with carbon via redox (reduction-oxidation), gradually corroding the spoke nipples until they break. It might take a few years, but it will happen. There are methods to slow down or mitigate this, but they are just kludges – no matter what you do it’s going to happen eventually and the only way to truly prevent it is to use brass. So I always use brass nipples, period. Not only for carbon rims, but also for tandems and mountain bikes, since you need the strength. Yet this means the only application for aluminum spoke nipples is road bikes with alloy (metal, not carbon) wheels. In this case, what’s the point? You only save a few grams, and if the rim is metal it’s not a lightweight wheel to begin with. Might as well use brass all the time. Aluminum spoke nipples are a weight-weenie marketing exercise to publish wheel weights a few grams lighter, at the expense of durability and longevity.

New MTB Wheels: DT Swiss Hubs + Reynolds Rims

Bikes
by Mike Clements

Introduction

I’ve blogged before about all the problems I’ve had with the Reynolds carbon wheels on my MTB. Summary:

  • In Oct 2020, the rear hub pawls sheared, stranding me in the desert near Moab.
  • In early 2021, the spoke nipples started breaking due to corrosion. Shame on Reynolds for using aluminum spoke nipples with carbon rims. I rebuilt the wheels with brass spoke nipples.
  • In 2021, the front hub developed a bit of slop/play. It wasn’t the bearings, but between the axle end caps and the hub shell, due to slight distortion of the latter.
  • In June 2021, the rear rim carbon delaminated, Reynolds sent me a new rim under warranty and I rebuilt the wheel the day before a big ride.
  • In Sep 2022, the rear axle broke, stranding me in the middle of nowhere on the John Wayne Trail.
  • In Oct 2022, the rear Hub shell was distorted (ruined) due to forces from the pawls. This hub has the pawls in the body and the ratchet on the freehub, the opposite of how it’s normally done.

The root cause of most of the problems is the Reynolds hubs – they just aren’t durable enough to stand the test of years & thousands of miles. Bearings, pawls, etc. are wear items but the hub shell/body should be a lifetime part. Clearly, these are not.

The only solution was to replace the hubs. But with what? After doing my homework I decided on DT Swiss model 350, front and rear.

Front:

  • 28 spokes: DT comp straight-pull, 14-15-14 gauge, length 283/282
  • Straight Pull
  • 100mm dropout distance
  • 15mm through-axle
  • 6-bolt disc
  • Rim: OEM Reynolds AR Carbon, 584, ERD 556mm

Rear

  • 28 spokes: DT comp straight-pull, 14 straight gauge, length 278/277
  • Straight Pull
  • 142mm dropout distance
  • 12mm through-axle
  • 6-bolt disc
  • SRAM XD freehub/driver
  • Rim: Reynolds Blacklabel 287 Carbon, 584, ERD 547mm

Preparation

Straight-pull hubs are less sensitive to spoke length than conventional flanged hubs. A big difference in hub offset radius is a small (often 1mm) difference in spoke length. But, straight-pull hubs can only be laced one way – they take away all the freedom that flanged hubs provide. And straight-pull spokes twist up much worse the J-bend; a spoke grabber is essential. However, every broken spoke I’ve ever had broke at the J-bend. It’s a natural weak spot in the spoke. I’ve never broken a straight-pull spoke. To me, that’s worth the tradeoffs. Most likely, I’d be able to reuse my existing spokes.

Note: the DT Swiss 350 hubs have a different spoke lace pattern from the Reynolds hubs. Both straight-pull, both 28 spoke, symmetric 14 per side. But the spoke outlets alternate differently. More on that later.

After removing the spokes I scrupulously cleaned them with isopropyl alcohol. Then I chased the threads with fresh spoke nipples (DT brass, black), screwing each nipple all the way to the end of the spoke threads, where the end of the spoke sticks out of the back of the nipple by about 2-3 mm. Sometimes the nipple/spoke interface is so tight, this can’t be done by hand and takes a spoke wrench. Then unscrew the nipple and use it only for exactly that spoke.

Before inserting each new spoke into the wheel, I dip the spoke threads in boiled linseed oil. This lubricates the nipple-spoke interface, and after a week or so the linseed oil turns into a gummy paste that acts as a gentle threadlock.

All this adds an extra hour of labor to each wheel build. So why do it? New spoke nipples are tight, all that friction binds up, which often strips the spoke nipple’s square nut section before the nipple is properly tight. When this happens while you’re building the wheel, it’s super annoying. When it happens a year down the road while you’re truing the wheel, it’s a major hassle with tubeless MTB wheels. This extra hour on each wheel makes the build process seamless and efficient, and helps ensure trouble-free maintenance for years to come.

Front Wheel

Out with the old!

In with the new!

The front rim is the OEM, circa 2014 Reynolds AR carbon. It’s symmetric with center-line spoke holes, so the DT Swiss hub’s alternative spoke pattern didn’t matter. Due to the disc brake, the front wheel has a bit of dish and different length spokes on each side.

This was my second time to rebuild this front wheel. Hopefully, the last. After installing it in the bike, there is no more free-play. Problem solved!

Rear Wheel

Out with the old!

In with the new!

The rear wheel made me think thrice before lacing it up. The rim is asymmetric with all spokes offset from the centerline. This means the rim can only go on the wheel one way – you can’t flip it around – the drive side must be the wide side. And, the spoke access holes on the rim outer edge are offset to alternating sides. This makes the wheel stronger, but removing both of these degrees of freedom forces you to lace the wheel in exactly one way – no flexibility.

The problem is, the spoke access holes were on the wrong sides. In more detail: the standard way to build a wheel is to lace the wheel with the hub logo facing the valve stem, and put parallel spokes along the valve stem for easier pump access. The spokes next to the valve stem always go to opposite sides of the hub. Yet this wheel’s offset spoke access holes force those sides – you don’t get to pick. Problem is, the Reynolds and DT Swiss hub have opposite lacing patterns. Because they don’t have a flange, you’re forced to align the spokes a specific way. One of these hubs could not be properly laced to this rim.

On closer inspection, the spoke access holes are offset to the opposite side the spoke should go. Not the same side, as rims of yore did it. Why? Because carbon rims (unlike rims of yore) are deeper. When you insert a spoke screwdriver from outside the rim into the spoke access hole, that hole being offset to the opposite of the side of the hub the spoke attaches to, aligns your screwdriver straight-on with the spoke nipple head.

Because the inside spoke holes are not offset, but all aligned (off rim center, but still aligned), you could lace the wheel either way. But lacing it one way, it’s harder to screw the spoke nipples from outside the rim. Fortunately, that’s the way I built this Reynolds wheel a year and a half ago. I had no choice, the hub and rim design gave me no other option. Apparently, Reynolds changed their offset patterns after my OEM hub was made, and before my warranty replacement rim was made. But for the DT Swiss hub, it lined up as it should.

A newborn rear wheel, still on the stand. So beautiful!

Wrapping Up

My original front rim (AR) has a 23mm inside width, and the warranty replacement (Blacklabel) measures 27mm. I ran out of rim tape for the front, so I had to order another roll. I had only enough 27mm rim tape to wrap the rear once, and I prefer to wrap it twice. So the tires are not yet installed. But I did mount the rims back on the bike. Perfect fit, perfect dish, no bearing play.

One thing I don’t like about this DT Swiss rear hub is it has a lot of drag when coasting. More drag than standard pawls & ratchet. Perhaps that’s a small price to pay for the higher durability and longevity of the unique DT Swiss ratchet mechanism. Maybe it will loosen up as it breaks in. I might also replace the ratchet grease with a heavy oil like chainsaw bar & chain oil. We’ll see…

Conclusion

To their credit, reynolds admitted the reason their hub shell deformed is due to flawed design. Here’s the freehub pawl pocket distortion:

So Reynolds offered a warranty hub replacement, and confirmed that their new hubs use the conventional design of ratchet in the hub shell and pawls in the freehub/driver, which is more durable. But their offer was a joke. Mail your wheel to them, they’ll rebuild the rim onto a new hub, with new spokes, and charge you $200 for parts & labor. Well, it costs about $100 to mail a wheel. So that’s $300 for each wheel, or $600 total. Sure it’s a lot cheaper than a new set of carbon wheels. But you’re not getting a new set of wheels. You’re getting your same old rims back with new hubs.

I asked them if they could simply mail me replacement hubs under warranty and I’ll rebuild the wheels myself, reminding them that when the rim failed they mailed me a naked rim and I rebuilt the wheel myself. They said no.

So I bought a pair of DT Swiss 350 hubs, total cost $425. Plus an extra $10 for new brass spoke nipples, because now I’ll have black rims, black hubs, black spokes, so I wanted black nipples. Because black is cool. It cost me less than Reynold’s “warranty” offer, and I got a better set of hubs that should last a lifetime.

The only discouraging part of the process was during the wheel build. Theoretically, if you start with a rim that is round & true, and equal length spokes (each side may have different lengths, but the lengths of all spokes on each side the same), then each side of a wheel built true and round will have equal spoke tensions all around. Conversely, if a wheel is true and round but the spoke tensions are not equal, then the rim is bent or has pent up stress. This theoretical ideal is usually achieved with new rims. But when rebuilding a rim that has thousands of miles on it, all bets are off. When building these wheels, I noticed that the spoke tensions were not as equal as I would like. I do stress the wheel when building to seat spoke & nipple heads and release/equalize stress. But apparently that wasn’t enough. They’re great wheels, so I hope the spoke tensions equalize as I start riding them again. They usually do.

Post-Build

I put about 70 miles on these wheels since I rebuilt them, 12 of which on rugged (black diamond) MTB trails. They were perfect from the get-go: no pops or clicks from spokes settling, no need for truing or rounding. The front wheel’s hub play is eliminated – steering is precise and the bike feels & sounds solid over the bumps & jumps. On the rear wheel I cleaned both drive ratchets and lubed their outer circumference (where they engage with the hub & freehub) with chainsaw bar & chain oil, which is only a tad thinner than the OEM red grease (which appeared to be #0 or #1 viscosity). Engagement is rock solid and confidence inspiring. When coasting, it’s nearly silent. The bearings are dead silent and butter smooth in feel. Overall, it’s exactly the repair / modification I needed.

A month later the non drive side spokes felt a bit loose, so I tightened all the spokes 1/4 turn. Some of the drive side spokes are reaching their tension limit, any more and the spoke nipples will strip. Spoke tensions are as tight as they can reasonably get.

WRIAD: White Rim in a Day

Bikes, Exercise, Flying, Travel
by Mike Clements

Summary

The White Rim Trail is SW of Moab Utah. It follows the Colorado River SW to its junction with the Green River, then NW up the Green River, making a rough “V” shape, then a mix of dirt & paved roads connect the top of the V. It makes a loop measuring 100 miles, about 8000′ of cumulative climb. The trail ranges from simple dirt/rock, to sand, to rugged steep technical with big rocks. Along the route there is no food, water or services. And mostly no cell/mobile coverage.

Most bicycle tours take 3-4 days to do this trail, supported with 4WD vehicles providing food, water and shelter. It is possible to ride it in a single day, but it’s a big physical effort that also takes some planning. It helps to have a gung-ho friend named Stefan to convince you to ride it with him.

Stefan rode WRIAD solo in Oct 2020, and he and I rode it together in Oct 2022. This describes what it was like and how we prepared for it.

Pics here: http://mclements.net/Moab-202210/

Here’s the GPX track overlaid with Google Earth, which underestimates the mileage and elevation because it over-smooths and simplifies the track. The red flag is our start/end point. The spike in speed around mile 75 is a GPS glitch.

Preparation

I’ve done some big tough MTB rides over the years. La Ruta, Kokopelli’s Trail, OTGG, and others of Stefan’s and my own devising. From a fitness perspective I knew what to expect. It takes several months to a year of serious training to get into the best physical fitness you can. You’re going to be pedaling for 10-12 hours over rugged terrain, miles of tire-sucking sand, and incredibly steep grades (> 25%) that make its 100 miles feel more like a 200 mile road ride.

The best time to ride WRIAD is in spring or fall. This means near the equinox, so you’ll have about 12 hours of daylight.

You need a day-use permit that you can get a day or two in advance, cost about $6. And you need to pay another $15 to enter the national park.

Plan on 11-12 hours total if you stop only once or twice during the ride. That means enough food and water to carry you through. Everyone is different; here’s what worked for me. I had 224 ounces of water: two 100 oz camelback bladders, plus a 24 oz. water bottle. I used all but 12 ounces of it. For food, bring some real food for lunch (sandwich, burrito, etc.) and about 240 cals per hour to eat while you’re riding. Have this food ready to eat while riding because if you stop to eat every hour, you might not finish the ride in daylight.

Have a bike that you trust, proven to stand abuse. A bike mechanical failure that strands you along the trail can keep you there overnight and become a life threatening situation. Make sure the entire drivetrain, axles, etc. are new and fresh. Several sections of the trail are too rugged for a gravel bike. You will need a true mountain bike, hard-tail or full suspension, with knobby or semi-knobby tires at least 2″ or 50mm wide. I used Maxxis Ardent Race, 2.2″ / 57mm and they were great. Anything narrower wouldn’t work, anything wider would make a hard ride even harder.

Clockwise or Counterclockwise?

This is a common question. Both ways are doable. Either way you go, you’ll descend into the canyon then climb back out again. These two points are Shafer on the NE side and Mineral Bottom on the NW side.

Here’s the Shafer grade. Red marker is poised at the top.

Here’s the Mineral Bottom grade. Red marker is half-way up, blue marker is our start/end point.

Also, along the trail in the canyon are 2 big notable climbs, each close to 1000′ with some sections too steep to ride. So no matter which way you go, you’ll have 3 very big climbs, in addition to the constant up and down of the trail.

Climb 1, Murphy Hogback, the up side:

Climb 1, Murphy Hogback, the down side:

Climb 2, Hardscrabble Bottom, the up side:

Climb 2, Hardscrabble Bottom, the down side:

We went clockwise starting from the NW corner of the route: the parking lot and toilet just at the top of the Mineral Bottom Climb. This means starting with a 12 mile dirt/gravel road ride that gradually climbs about 1200′, then turning right onto the paved road that runs into the park. Total distance to the Shafer descent where you enter the canyon trail is about 20 miles. Then you ride another 79 miles along the White Rim Trail, and then climb up Mineral Bottom back to where you started. It’s about 1000′ in 1 mile.

The east half of the ride is easier than the west half. It’s just a bit flatter, less sand, less rugged & technical. So the drawback of the clockwise route is that the toughest riding is in the second half of the ride. However, the Mineral Bottom climb, as tough as it is, isn’t quite as rugged or long as the Shafer climb.

Getting There

I flew from Seattle into Moab in my C-172, Stefan drove from Boulder, and we met at the Moab airport KCNY. We stayed at the Moab Apache Inn. It’s not fancy, but it’s a good place with truly excellent service/management.

Sunrise was at 6:45, so that’s when we started. Temps in early Oct were in the mid-high 50s at the start and got into the 70s during the day. This was fortunate!

The Ride

Our start point was at 4800′ MSL. The way we rode, we started along the dirt/gravel road on a long gradual climb. This was nice because it was cool out and the climbing kept us warm so we didn’t need to bring jackets that we would only doff later and carry all day. At mile 12 we reached the paved road (Hwy 313) which is near the peak elevation of about 6000′. We turned S towards the park. After entering the park, a short distance more put us at the top of the Shafer grade with 20 miles on the odometer.

The Shafer descent is just rugged and steep enough to keep you on your toes. If you slide out and miss a turn it could lead to a fatal fall. It was no problem on my full suspension bike but you would not want a gravel bike or skinny tires. It’s incredibly scenic. A short distance and about 1000′ of descent later, you’re in the canyon on the trail. To call it scenic is a grave understatement. It’s stunning.

Here (red marker) is where we had lunch, around mile 55:

For the next 43 miles or so you ride along the rims of canyons, weaving in and around following the contours. Then you reach one of the big steep climbs at Murphy Hogback Canyon. Some parts of this are too steep to ride. It just goes up and up. The top levels off for less than a mile then you go down an equally steep opposite side.

The next 20 miles or so is a gradual downhill, but don’t let the word “downhill” fool you. It’s got long sections of soft sand which sucks down tires, forcing you to pedal hard at slow speed despite the downhill grade.

At this point I encountered nutrition difficulties. I brought Kind bars to eat throughout the day, because they are low sugar and worked great for me in all-day rides over the years. Yet starting around mile 65 I couldn’t keep them down; as I ate them I got a strong urge to barf them back up, so I had to stop eating them. Fortunately, Stefan had some spare Fritos and I had no problem eating those. I never considered chips to be an ultra-endurance food, but sometimes during adversity we learn new things about ourselves. In hindsight it makes sense: Fritos are simple carbs (but no sugar), plenty of salt, and calorie dense. I don’t think the problem was electrolyte loss because I had Nuun mineral tablets in all my water.

Then you reach the second big climb, Hardscrabble Bottom. It’s every bit as tough as the Murphy Hogback climb, ultra steep with some sections too steep to ride. Ride along the top for about 2 miles or so, rolling up and down varying from decent to rough technical conditions. Then back down the other side takes you to around 4000′ MSL about the level of the Green River.

Now ride along a decent quality trail following the Green river for about 15 miles or so, mostly flat. Then around mile 99 you reach the right turn to go up Mineral Bottom. Only 1 mile to go, but it’s very steep, nearly 1000′ climb.

At the end of the ride I didn’t feel right – eating or drinking would have triggered vomiting. I think it was temporary over-exertion because over the 1st post-ride hour I slowly sipped 12 oz of water and kept it down, and over the next hour I felt fine. An hour later we ate a big dinner in town, no problem.

Conclusion

WRIAD was a bucket-list ride for me. The preparation and execution consumed nearly a year of my life. I got into the best physical condition I’ve ever been, similar to doing La Ruta over 20 years ago. Even so, it was one of the toughest rides I’ve ever done, if not the very toughest. I’m pretty sure I’ll never do it again, but big rides like this come with satisfaction and confidence equal to what you put into them. Thanks Stefan for suggesting this one! It was an epic adventure.

John Wayne / Palouse Trail, Columbia River, Beverly Bridge

Bikes, Exercise
by Mike Clements

For years I’ve thought about riding this trail from Seattle to Idaho. This presents 2 challenges. First, how to cross the Columbia River? The bike/walk bridge south of the I-90 bridge was condemned and closed, and there is no other way to cross the river on foot or bike. Second, it’s over 300 miles which means multiple days of planning, logistics to get back home, and availability of hotels/motels east of Othello is virtually non-existent, and camping would mean carrying a bunch of extra gear.

The WA state Dept. of Transportation solved the first challenge. They rebuilt the Beverly bridge and it re-opened earlier this year. This put the trip entirely into my own hands.

Planning: A Short Route

A short route of only 1-4 days out and back seemed the simplest approach. I planned trip legs from Seattle to Idaho, each day covering 60-80 miles. Since there is no lodging available east of Othello, that would be the eastern-most point for my short route.

Ellensburg to the Columbia River / Beverly bridge along the JWT is about 35 miles. And it’s another 38 miles to Othello. This gives 2 equal distance options:

1-day: Ellensburg to Beverly and back (70 miles). Just cross the river and return.

2-day: Ellensburg to Othello, stay overnight in Othello, then return the next day. 73 miles each day for 146 total.

I opted for the 2-day trip.

This would require overnight parking in Ellensburg. I discovered CWU has a free all-night parking lot at 18th & Alder. For lodging, I recommend the Othello Inn & Suites. Not fancy, but as I was soon to discover, they have very good service. East of Beverly the JWT requires a permit that I got here: https://www.parks.wa.gov/521/Palouse-to-Cascades. It’s free and you’re supposed to carry a hardcopy with you.

Due to unknown trail conditions, I figured on averaging 11 mph which would make 6.5 – 7 hours of cycling. I brought 124 oz. of water with Nuun tablets (all electrolyte, no sugar or calories). This consisted of my 100 oz. Camelbak bladder with a 24 oz. water bottle. For food, I aim for about 240 calories / hour. I had 18 energy bars (Kind bars with only 5 grams of sugar each), which should be enough for both days.

I also had fresh cycling clothes for day 2, street clothes, sandals, toiletries and a charger in my under-seat bag. And in my Camelbak I keep tools for just about everything that can break on the trail: spare tube (even though my bike is tubeless), pump, oil, multi-tool, derailleur hangar, and more.

The Start

It’s about a 2 hour drive from Seattle to Ellensburg along I-90. Upon arriving, I could not park at the CWU lot. It was inaccessible due to a bunch of street closures, due to a labor day weekend parade going through town. I found street parking nearby, which was not posted “no parking”, let along “tow-away”. Ellensburg is a small sparse town and parking is not hard to find.

I rode across town to find the JWT trailhead at the S end of Alder street. After waiting for a long line of parade horses to cross, I started pedaling E along the trail.

The bike, ready to go:

The JWT in Ellensburg is about 1600′ elevation. The first 8 miles or so is pretty flat. Then it starts a gentle, gradual climb to 2600′ about mile 18.

The JWT passed through a few houses and ranches, then got more remote. About 1 hour into the ride is a bridge crossing the freeway:

The trail surface varied between gravel and dirt, mostly hard packed and fast, with a few sections that were softer (sand or loose gravel) and slower, harder effort to overcome the tires sinking into the surface. I recommend having at least 45 mm wide tires, wider is better. My tires are Maxxis Ardent Race 27.5×2.2 or 584-56. They slid and sank a bit, but were manageable. I wouldn’t want anything narrower.

About 1 hour later I stopped for another bite and took a few more photos.

The trail:

The bike:

The rider:

Columbia River / Beverly Bridge

Leaving Ellensburg, the JWT climbs from 1600′ to a peak of 2600′ at about mile 18. From mile 18 to mile 35, where you reach the Columbia River, it gradually descends to about 500′. That’s a 17 mile gradual descent, very fun going East, especially since prevailing winds are from the West, and today was very windy, 20-30 mph. When the trail turned N or S, the wind gusts would exceed my tire traction and start blowing me across the road! But it was mostly a tailwind.

30 minutes later, or about 2.5 hours into the ride, I got my first glimpse of the Beverly bridge in the distance:

Still feeling great!

The bridge closer up, ready to cross:

It’s about 1/2 mile across and the wind just rips down the river, so one is riding in a straight line while leaned over. Looking back after crossing:

Beverly is not much of a town. No motels, no stores. Just a few residents who drive to nearby towns for any services.

My Bike Breaks (again)!

I continued East for another 15 miles. Then, upon reaching mile 50, my pedals suddenly felt like they hit something. I backpedaled a bit then they worked again. I figured a small rock jumped up into the chain and hit the derailleur. But then the derailleur wasn’t shifting right either. I stopped to check it out.

Long story short: the bike’s rear axle snapped in half! It has a through-axle, and the hub axle (12mm inner diameter) snapped in half, while the quick release (12mm outer diameter) that goes through it was still in 1 piece. The derailleur hanger’s end stop was also sheared off, so the derailleur was trying to swing forward. I had a replacement hanger in my bag, but I couldn’t install it because the inner bolt that secures the derailleur to the hanger, which looked like an allen, was actually a torx, which I didn’t have. I was able to jerry-rig it in place with the “b” screw. I was also able to line up the broken halves of the axle and reassemble the wheel with the quick release holding it all together. The wheel spun properly with no play, the freewheel worked, it was rideable. Of course, the broken axle put the quick release shaft under greater stress, and with both the axle & derailleur MacGyvered, I knew it wouldn’t be many miles before one of them broke permanently. At that point I would be walking.

Othello is a real town with some services, but it was 25 miles ahead. Beverly has nothing, but it is only 15 miles back. I opted to go back. That was one of the longest 15 miles I’ve ridden: into a 20-30 mph headwind, on soft dirt/gravel, anticipating the sudden snap of the quick release or derailleur breaking, at which point I would be walking.

Along the way back, I finished the 100 oz of water in the Camelbak and switched to my water bottle. I arrived in Beverly around 2:45pm. At least my phone worked (thank you T-Mobile!). First I rode by the fire dept. but nobody was there. Then I stopped by the residence of some locals and asked them about services. No Uber, no Lyft, nearest taxi service is in Pullman. I called Othello to cancel my room, told them what happened. Due to my circumstances, they waived the cancellation fee. I called my wife in Seattle and she agreed to drive all the way out there to pick me up, as a plan B if I couldn’t wrangle a ride from locals. At the residence, the dad (Reynaldo) who only spoke Spanish gave me some water and his son (Jerry) was talking to me about my bike. It looked like they were just relaxing for the afternoon, not too busy, and he had a small pickup truck, so I asked the dad if I could pay him to drive me to Ellensburg. He said sure, as long as I paid for the gas. I told him thanks, and also I’d pay him $100 too for his trouble. So Reynaldo, Jerry and I drove back to Ellensburg and they dropped me off at my car.

So that’s why I rode only 65 miles instead of 146 this weekend. And got stranded by my bike breaking in yet another new way.

The Aftermath

The route, with elevation profile. The red marker is the peak elevation (2600′).

The broken axle

The sheared derailleur hanger

The new axle that Reynolds shipped me a year or two ago (it came with the pawls I had to replace), which doesn’t fit because it’s made for traditional quick-release not through-axle.

Bikes: Seat Failure?!

Bikes
by Mike Clements

Yesterday I took my old city bike for a ride. It’s my brother’s old Trek 330 from the 1980s that I converted to a single-speed with a 2-speed Sturmey Archer kick-back shift rear hub, and mustache handlebars. It’s a cool old vintage bike that’s fun to ride.

About 14 miles into the ride, just after I turned around to head home, the seat suddenly rotated back as if the bolt were loose. I stopped and got out my tools, ready to tighten it. But it wasn’t loose. One of the seat rails had sheared or snapped off! It’s made of metal! I’m not a big heavy guy so I have no idea how this happened. In over 40 years of riding and working on bikes I’ve never seen a failure like this. Then a couple of miles later the other rail broke.

Pics or it didn’t happen:

The front of the seat rail still fit into the nose of the seat, but it was loose and fell off a few times on the way home, making me stop to go back and pick it up. So for the last 10 or so miles I got a new kind of bike exercise:

  • Slide forward and ride on the front nose of the seat (ouch!)
  • To pedal, legs now push down and back, for a new kind of muscle workout
  • Pinch the seat nose between your butt cheeks while pedaling, to keep it in place

What a weird failure. Of course, I made it home and swapped the seat for an old spare I had in one of my bike parts bins.

New Bike Day!

Bikes, Exercise
by Mike Clements

Summary

I’ve been riding the same road bike for over 20 years. I decided it was finally time to get a new road bike. My research and prior experience led me to pick a Fezzari Empire.

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The Old: Trek 2200

I bought this Trek 2200 back in 2000. Aluminum frame, Shimano 105, Rolf Vector wheels. The reason I’ve been riding it for so long is because it’s such a great bike. Over the years I’ve serviced (cleaned & repacked) every bearing (wheels, headset, bottom bracket), replaced the chain & rear cassette (wore out a couple), and of course gone through several sets of tires & brake pads. I’ve also had to rebuild the wheels due to failed spoke nipples. What’s most surprising about this bike is that everything else is still original: frame (of course), hubs, rims & bearings (serviced but never replaced), front chainrings, shifters/brake levers, even cables!

Early on, I installed a suspension seat post because this Al frame is so rigid you almost need a mouthpiece to ride it <g> This helped quite a bit, though it needs to be disassembled, cleaned and re-greased every year. I also replaced the original 12-25 cassette with an 11-28. Otherwise it’s bone stock. The bike weighs 21.5 lbs. ready to ride pedals and all.

Why?

Why get a new bike, especially if this one is so great?

  • Gearing: the Trek’s original lowest gear was 39-25 or 1.56:1, about 41.2 gear-inches. This always felt a bit high, even when my legs were 20 years younger. The front crank BCD doesn’t allow a smaller front chainring. The rear derailleur can take a max 28, so when the cassette wore out I replaced it with an 11-28, giving a 12% lower first gear, 1.39:1 or 36.7 gear inches. This helped but still I’d prefer a lower 1st gear, which is impossible with this bike. While keeping the same top gear (52-11, or something close to that).
  • Comfort: the Trek is so rigid I installed a suspension seatpost. I’d like a bike that is just as efficient yet naturally more compliant. And the Trek has racing geometry with a steep fork angle and short 38″ wheelbase. This is responsive yet twitchy. I love the handling of our Santana tandem, which is more stable and relaxed. It doesn’t slow us down in the twisty curves.
  • Performance: who doesn’t want higher performance? Better aerodynamics and lighter weight. And better brakes.

What?

Once I articulated the reasons why, I could now start to define what, or derive requirements:

  • Carbon frame: the ultimate for efficiency, compliance, and weight
  • Carbon wheels: enables deeper aero profile without adding weight
  • Disc brakes: necessary for carbon wheels
  • Mechanical shifting: because electronic is an expensive solution in search of a problem that doesn’t exist

Mechanical shifting was hard to get in bikes with carbon frames & wheels. So I had to consider the requirements as guidelines. I found the following bikes that meet most of these requirements.

CompanyModelPriceFrameWheelsGroupset
CanyonEnd CF SLX Disc 8 eTap$6000CarbonCarbon Reynolds AR41SRAM Force eTAP
TrekDomane SLR6$6800700 OCLVAeolus CarbonUltegra Manual
CannondaleSynapse Carbon$4400CarbonFulcrum AlloyUltegra Di2
GiantDefy Adv Pro 2$4550CarbonSLR-2 CarbonUltegra Manual
FezzariEmpire Elite$2900CarbonDT E1800 AlloyUltegra Manual
FezzariElite Race$4300CarbonVision SC40 CarbonSRAM Rival eTAP
FezzariCustom$4100CarbonVision Metron 40 CarbonUltegra Manual

Fezzari had the least expensive bikes, $1500 to $2500 less than comparable alternatives. The closest/best alternative was the Giant. Yet they were backordered for 6+ months and have only a 2 year warranty. Fezzari had a lifetime warranty and estimated delivery at 8-10 weeks. Fezzari didn’t have exactly what I wanted, but I called them and they could do the custom bike described in the last row of the table. Take the “Elite” model with Ultegra manual, and replace the Swiss DT E1800 alloy wheels with Vision Metron carbon (bottom row of the table). A full carbon bike with the same wheels Peter Sagan used in the Tour de France for $4100 is an unbeatable value.

Fezzari Experience

Past

7 years ago I bought a Fezzari mountain bike, their top of the line model called the Timp Peak. Carbon frame, 27.5″ Reynolds carbon wheels, dual suspension (Rock Shox Pike front, Fox CTD rear) with remote, SRAM XX1 groupset, carbon handlebars, hydraulic dropper seatpost. It cost about $6300, where comparable bikes from Trek and Cannondale were around $9k. I rode it on some big rides: Kokopelli’s trail (Bikerpelli), all around Boulder CO, the Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder, and local rides like Tiger Mountain. Over the years it has proven to be a fantastic bike. But nothing is perfect.

When it first arrived, some of the frame’s accessory attachment points had their thread barrels spinning freely inside the frame; they had delaminated. Defective frame, no way to fix it, I sent it back. Fezzari handled it well, paid shipping both ways and did some other minor mods to the bike for me. But it did cause a 5 week delay in getting the bike.

This is a fantastic bike: light (27 lbs. with heavy knobby tires, 25 lbs. with gravel tires), efficient, full suspension, totally rugged and durable. Yet it hasn’t been perfect. Here’s a summary of issues, excluding normal maintenance. Details here:

  • The brake levers (SRAM Guide) developed the “sticky brake lever” problem where the internal pistons expand and get stuck tight inside the lever cylinders. First, I disassembled them and ground them back down to size. But a few months later the problem recurred. Then I replace them with aftermarket metal pistons — problem fixed for good.
  • The rear hub’s internal freehub pawls sheared down and had to be replaced. This stranded me in the middle of the Moab desert. I got the pawl & driver rebuild set from Reynolds and did this.
  • The rear carbon rim delaminated and Reynolds replaced it under warranty. They sent me a replacement rim and I rebuilt the rear wheel. This actually turned out to be an upgrade as the new rim is nicer than the old one.
  • The rear hub shell distorted from the pawl pocket forces when climbing hills. Reynolds would not warranty this defect so I bought set of new DT350 hubs and rebuilt the wheels.

Observe that none of these problems are due to Fezzari. Their frame has been solid and has a lifetime warranty. And the overall setup: geometry, components, etc. all works together well. Over the years I’ve emailed Fezzari a few questions, they always are responsive and helpful. Because of this, I felt confident getting another bike from them.

Present

Pre-Order to Delivery

I placed my Fezzari Empire order on July 20. One difference I noted is that 7 years ago, there was no tax or shipping. This time there was, which added up to about $500. Even so, it was still a good deal so I paid a 20% deposit to reserve a bike when parts became available. I was skeptical of their 8-10 week delivery estimate, due to COVID related supply chain disruption, but it’s faster than any other bike company was offering, and it is refundable.

A month later Fezzari slipped the delivery estimate from mid-late-Sep to late-Sep-early-Oct.

On Oct 11, Fezzari called to say the frame and parts were in stock and they were ready to build my bike. This was 2 weeks after the original delivery date.

A few days later they called to say the Vision Metron 40 wheels did not fit the Ultegra parts for my bike, but they had SC40 wheels that did fit. What’s the difference between Metron 40 and SC 40? They’re mostly the same, both carbon rims with 40mm depth, bladed straight-pull spokes with brass nipples, and disc brakes.

Differences between Metron and SC:

  • Metron 40 wheelset is 30 grams lighter
  • Metron 40 has 3 fewer spokes on the front wheel (21/24 instead of 24/24)
    • Note: this probably accounts for the 30 grams
    • Note: I want that extra spoke more than the 30 gram weight savings
  • Metron 40 has preload adjustable hubs
  • Metron 40 is about $750 more expensive ($1800 vs. $1050)

However, the price Fezzari quoted me was only $200 cheaper. Why? They said the difference is based on the prices they pay, which are different from the retail prices.

Even with the price discrepancy it was still a great value, so I said OK.

On Oct 20, Fezzari said the bike is ready to ship, so I paid the rest of the invoice. They gave me a tracking #. My new bike was on its way!

Delivery and Inspection

After some FedEx delays, the bike arrived on 10/25, 1 day short of 14 weeks since I ordered it. That made it 4 weeks late. I didn’t think that was too bad, considering what’s been happening with supply chains and shipping lately.

I’m an experienced bike mechanic and wheel builder, so you know I checked it out from top to bottom.

Tires

It comes with Maxxis High Road 700×28 tires. They’re decent tires but too wide and heavy for my road bike preferences. But 700×28 is the tire size I use on our tandem, which needed a new set of tires. So I was going to install these new tires on the tandem and replace them with a new set of Continental GP5000 700×25 tires.

As I removed the tires from the Empire I noticed it was set up as tubeless. Fezzari does this optionally for customers who want it. I didn’t want it or ask for it. Tubeless is great for mountain bikes since you can run much lower pressures to get better traction. But it has no benefit on road bikes, where I prefer to run clinchers with latex inner tubes. This is simpler and cleaner with no sealant mess or hassles. I wonder if one reason the wheels were more expensive than expected is because they charged me for a tubeless setup that I never asked for?

Anyway, converting to clinchers with latex tubes was quick and easy, and the new tires were great on the tandem.

Front Wheel

As I reinstalled the front wheel, I heard a quiet rustling sound as it spun. Sounded like there was debris inside the carbon rim. I removed the wheel, tire, tube and rim strip, and tapped the side of the rim with the palm of my hand all around its circumference to locate it. Using needlenose pliers I fished a wad of scotch tape and a small rubber grommet out from inside the rim, through a spoke hole. I reinstalled the tire and wheel, it was dead quiet now, perfect and ready to ride.

Rear Hub

As I removed the rear wheel to replace the tire, I noticed that the through-axle was very loose, not even finger tight. As were the axle nuts. As I turned the axle nuts finger tight, the cassette locked up and would not freewheel! I loosened the nuts and it freewheeled normally. Something was wrong with this hub.

Long story short, the hub was improperly assembled without a critical part. It was missing the spacer that goes on the axle, between the hub bearing and the freehub/driver. This spacer bears the side load of the pressure from the axle nuts and through-axle, keeping the freehub/driver properly positioned. Without it, the pressure from the nuts squashed the driver body’s dust seal lip against the hub. There is no bearing here, as it shouldn’t make contact let alone bear a load.

Aha! I thought, this explains why the axle nuts and through-axle were so loose. Whoever assembled this bike must have noticed that the cassette would not freewheel when the nuts were tight, so instead of troubleshooting the problem, they just loosened everything up until it could spin. This of course is improper and unsafe. It leaves the wheel so loose on the hub that it wobbles, and could damage the wheel, hub, derailleur, and even the frame, possibly locking up the rear cassette and causing a crash.

I contacted Fezzari and explained the problem, with photos. They agreed that was the problem and said they would look for a matching part. Meanwhile I called Vision, who makes the wheel. They confirmed that the wheel should have this spacer and they had some in stock. So I got Vision in touch with Fezzari. The next day I called Vision to follow up. They had not yet mailed the part to me, and their HQ and factory is just a few miles up the road from me, so I drove up there and picked it up in person.

Wheel fixed and ready to ride!

Derailleurs

The front derailleur was mounted too high, with at least 5 mm of gap between its outer edge and the big chainring. Shimano recommends a 1-3 mm gap. The smaller the gap, the better it shifts. I repositioned the derailleur and set its angle, cable tension, stop points, etc. Incidentally, with bikes these days using internal cable routing, there’s no way to easily adjust the cable slack tension, like the threaded barrels that bikes of old had. Shimano took care of that with a clever design, an adjustable pivoting derailleur cable clamp. I noticed that the 2 mm hex adjust screws were all pretty loose, likely to shift during rides, so I applied blue lock-tite.

The rear derailleur was OK but not quite perfect. The outer (smallest cog) stop was a bit too far in, so the chain occasionally jumped trying to get to the next bigger cog. Easy fix, no problem.

Wheels/Rims

After the 1st shake-down ride (about 13 miles including a 16% climb) the wheels settled and weren’t perfectly true. This is normal. I put them on my truing stand and took about 15 minutes to get them perfect. If my experience with the carbon wheels on my MTB is any guide, they’ll go a thousand miles before they need it again.

Inaugural Ride

After all of the above, the bike was ready for a real ride. I rode the Flying Wheels 45 mile route with a couple of friends. This includes cruising on the flats, plenty of steep climbs, and a couple of fast (50 mph) downhills. The bike performed great. Comfortable, fast, nice wide gear ratios, perfect quick shifting, and the brakes are powerful with good modulation. The handling is stable and confident, though more quick and responsive than the term “endurance bike” led me to expect.

The stock seat is high quality but a bit too wide for me personally. I replaced it with the Origin8 Axion from my old road bike. Incidentally, I saved 34 grams doing so (314 vs. 280 grams).

The bike weighs 18.7 lbs. ready to ride with Shimano PD-ES600 pedals. That’s decently light for a full carbon bike with the disc brake Ultegra groupset.

Ride report: this is a fantastic bike and everything I wanted and expected. And it looks clean with full internal cable routing.

Conclusion

The Fezzari Empire is a fantastic bike having great value and one of the best warranties in the business. However, while Fezzari’s customer support is quite good, their quality and safety checks are inconsistent. If the bike has issues, they will take care of you. But it may be up to you to figure that out. So make sure you’re confident doing quality & safety checks when the bike arrives, or you know someone who can.

Bicycle Tires and Efficiency / Rolling Resistance

Bikes, Exercise
by Mike Clements
Introduction

I’ve seen a lot of articles and videos about how “wider tires are faster”. This is incorrect. Yet like many commonly believed falsehoods, it springs from a thread of truth. It’s a misleading interpretation of how tires are tested for rolling resistance.

I’ll describe the testing and the truth of what it really means.

The Testing

This site has excellent info about bicycle tires: https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com

Equal Pressure Testing

In many of the tests, wider tires have lower rolling resistance. However, in these tests they inflate the tires (both wide & skinny) to the same pressure. This is unrealistic and misleading, since nobody actually runs wide and skinny tires at the same pressure.

If you inflate a wide tire to the same operating pressure as a skinny tire:

  • You exceed the wide tire’s maximum pressure, which is unsafe.
  • The wide tire will be much more rigid and uncomfortable to ride, with poor traction.

If you inflate a skinny tire to the same operating pressure as a wide tire:

  • The skinny tire will be soft and sloppy, with poor traction.
  • You will get pinch flats when you hit bumps.

So equal pressure testing is purely a theoretical educational exercise, completely useless for pragmatic purposes.

Equal Comfort Testing

Often, the tests inflate the tires to pressures that give the same yield or squish measured in absolute terms. That is, under the same load, the wide tire and the skinny tire both flatten or squish by the same fixed distance (say, 5 mm). This should make the tires feel the same when riding, hence the name “equal comfort”.

When tested this way, tires of different widths tend to measure the same rolling resistance. That is, all else equal (same brand/make of tire, same load, etc.). So one could say that width doesn’t matter.

However, in order to make the yield distances the same, the skinny tire must be underinflated, and the wide tire overinflated, relative to each other. This is a variation of the same mistake that the equal pressure test makes: inflating the tires to pressures you would not actually use when riding.

So, like the equal pressure test, it is interesting and educational, but impractical.

Proportional Displacement Testing

Another way to test tires is to inflate them so that each tire yields or squishes a distance proportional to its width, under the same load. 15% is a typical value, so a skinny 23 mm tire squishes .15 * 23 = 3.45 mm, while a wide 32 mm tire squishes 4.8 mm.

Not coincidentally, the pressures that give this result are near or equal to each tire’s recommended operating pressures. This makes the test representative of actual real-world conditions. And not surprisingly, this testing shows that skinny tires have less rolling resistance than wide tires (all else equal).

But Wait, There’s More!

So when we inflate tires to the recommended pressures, what exactly are the characteristics that depend on tire width?

Wider tires…

  • Have more comfort
  • Have more traction
  • Have higher weight
  • Have higher rolling resistance

Another factor in rolling resistance is compliance: does the tire absorb uneven road surfaces, or does it transmit it through the wheel & frame? On rough surfaces, more compliance is not only smoother but also faster. So the ideal tire width and pressure depends on the surfaces (trails or roads) that you ride on.

Conclusion

Key take-aways for cyclists:

  • Articles & videos saying wide tires are faster, are incorrect and misleading.
  • However, while wide tires are slower on smooth surfaces, the penalty may be smaller than you think, which could make it worth paying for increased comfort and traction.
  • For maximum speed, choose the skinniest tire that provides the comfort and traction that you need, for the surfaces you ride on.

MTB / Mountain Bike: Fezzari Timp Peak

Bikes, Exercise
by Mike Clements

I’ve been riding bikes of all kinds since the 1980s and done some big rides. But the Fezzari Timp Peak I bought in late 2014 was the first really good mountain bike I owned. I got this bike to ride Kokopelli’s Trail with Bikerpelli in 2015. Great ride! This bike has also proven itself on some of the biggest, hardest rides in the country, like the Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder, 350+ miles and 30,000′ of climbing.

Carbon frame, carbon wheels, SRAM XX1, dual suspension, dropper seat, weighing 25-26 lbs. ready to ride. It’s been a great bike but no bike is perfect and they all require maintenance. Here are some of of the problems I’ve encountered and how I solved them.

Some of these issues are basic recurring maintenance. Others are caused by using aluminum or weak alloys in critical parts instead of appropriate materials like steel or brass.

SRAM Sticky Brakes

The first problem was the dreaded SRAM sticky brakes. The brake lever pistons gradually grow (yes they physically get larger!) and get stuck in the cylinder. In my case it took a few years to happen. Here is my fix. That worked for a year or so, then they got sticky again. At that point instead of sanding down the pistons again, I replaced them with aftermarket metal pistons. These have perfect fit & function, came with the o-rings, and fix the problem permanently.

Since then I’ve overhauled the levers with the complete rebuilt kit. This includes all-new seals and pistons, among other things. It made a big improvement so I’ll be repeating this every 3-5 years.

Frame Suspension Pivot Bushing

After a few years, the frame developed a bit of play. Most of the frame suspension pivots use bearings, which I serviced (cleaned, re-greased). But one of them uses a bushing, and that’s where the play developed. Over time the bushing wears and needs replacing. I contacted Fezzari and they told me:

The bushings at the main rocker pivot are IGUS L289 sleeve bushings. The part number for them is LFM-1012-06. The “-06” part of this part number is in reference to the bushing length which is 6mm.

However, what I would recommend trying is a bushing with a 10mm or 12mm bushing length (part no. LFM-1012-10 & LFM-1012-12, https://www.igus.com/product/?artnr=LFM-1012-10). It will allow for a bit more overlap with the frame and should help reduce the play.

I ordered that part, 12mm size. It fit perfectly and the frame is like new again. Actually, better than new!

Another issue that gradually develops is side-to-side play. The frame pivot that meets the bushing has a shiny black surface (paint?) that gradually wears down, allowing this play. The solution is to place thin spacer washers around the bushing’s core, “inside” between the bushing face and the frame. This pushes the bushing faces slightly outward to eliminate the play. The best washer size is 1/2″ inside diameter, 3/4″ outside diameter, and 1/32″ thick.

Rear Hub Failure

The last problem I encountered was a severe ride-stopper. It stranded me out in the desert near Moab and I had to walk my bike out. Going up a hill, the bike suddenly made a horrible clacking sound and the pedals were free-spinning. The chain was completely intact. I took apart the rear hub by the side of the road to discover that pawls that engage the freehub ratchet had worn down and were slipping.No way to fix that by the side of the road. And after I hiked back to the car and drove to town, none of the bike shops in Moab could fix it either.

Fezzari connected me to Hayes/Reynolds where I contacted a guy named Dan and ordered the parts:

Part 21290 "Reynolds XD Driver Body" replaces the cassette ratchet gear.

Part 20702 "2015-2016 Attack Assault Strike Hub Rebuild Kit" replaces the hub pawls (and other things).

When I told Reynolds this unusual and catastrophic failure happened to a bike that was only a few years old, equipped with some of their best carbon wheels, and left me stranded having to hike out of the desert pushing my bike, they gave me a 25% discount. The above parts fixed it. The pawls were the essential part; they were visibly and obviously worn down and rounded off. The freehub ratchet wasn’t obviously worn, but I replaced it anyway since it could have had non-visible damage from the damaged pawls slipping over it.

After just over a year, I inspected the new pawls to find that they had visible wear, though they were still working. I ordered another set of pawls, installed them, and kept these as emergency replacements.

It’s frustrating to note that if these pawls were made of steel, they’d last forever and the wheel would only be a few grams heavier. But they’re made of some kind of lightweight alloy.

Bottom Bracket Crank Arm Spindle Bolt

After servicing the bottom bracket (cleaning & re-greasing bearings) I was re-assembling it. These SRAM cranks have a single bolt on the left (non-drive) side that holds everything together. The spec says tighten to about 52 Nm, or 38 ft.lbs. As I was tightening it, well before it got that tight, I felt it give. I removed it and discovered 2 things:

  1. The head had sheared off the bolt
  2. The bolt was made of aluminum (or alloy) — not steel ?!

This is a high torque, high stress bolt. It should be made from steel! Making it from a softer, weaker aluminum alloy is a total fail in design. I’ll gladly pay a weight penalty of a measly 12 grams for the confidence of knowing my cranks won’t fall off the bike. Apparently I’m not the only person who thinks so. Shout-out to one of my LBS, Gregg’s Cycles, who had a replacement bolt in stock. I bet I know why they keep these bolts in stock… <groan>

Details:

  • Truativ GXP M15 Crank Bolt
  • CR2193
  • 11.6900.002.140
  • M15/M26

Sadly, it is alloy like the broken one. So it is probably “single-use”. I’m still looking for a steel one, but this one will serve until I find it.

Alloy Spoke Nipples

Descending Olallie, I heard a “ping” from the front wheel so I stopped. A spoke was loose; the nipple head had sheared off. I smoothly bent the free spoke to weave it through adjacent ones so it couldn’t flop around. Fortunately, the wheel is strong enough and with disc brakes I was able to finish the ride slowly.

The Timp Peak came with Reynolds AM 27.5 carbon wheels. Apparently, carbon fiber causes a redox galvanic corrosion reaction with alloy nipples. It starts slowly and progresses incrementally over time, so the wheels may go 5 years or so before it weakens the spoke nipples enough for the heads to shear off. I replaced that spoke with a brass nipple and re-sealed the wheel.

After the OTGG, another spoke nipple head popped off while I was truing the wheel–actually loosening the spoke, not tightening it! At this point I unsealed the wheel and replaced all of them with brass. While doing so, I found 4 others that were already cracked just waiting to break.

<rant>
No carbon wheel should use alloy spoke nipples. Brass will last forever and a set of 28 only weighs about 20 grams more. Alloy may be appropriate for super light road bike wheels, but the weight savings is immaterial on a MTB, considering we typically run 800 gram tires. This is an example of the race to the lightest wheelset at any cost. Reynolds confirmed that their wheel builders use only brass spoke nipples when servicing wheels, even though their OEM wheels come with alloy nipples.
</rant>

Rear Rim

The rear wheel rim delaminated near the outer edge; structure failure. Fortunately, I noticed it after a ride so it didn’t fail while riding.Reynolds replaced it under their lifetime warranty. Normally, this means mailing them your broken wheel, they rebuild a new rim onto your old hub and charge you $150 for the parts (spokes, sealing tape). It takes 6 weeks.

But 6 weeks wouldn’t work. This happened 1 week before the OTGG, a 5-day stage ride I had been training for 18 months. I asked Reynolds support to simply mail me a new rim, I would rebuild the wheel myself. And they did! They don’t make the AM wheels anymore, so now I have the closest match, a Blacklabel 287 (which has off-center spoke holes to equalize spoke dish angles). It arrived 1 day before the big ride, I built the wheel that afternoon (using DT 14 gauge straight-pull spokes and brass nipples) and it all worked out. Now that is just-in-time warranty service!

The new rim has a deeper profile, so the ERD is 9mm smaller, which meant I needed shorter spokes. Split the ERD difference in half means 4mm shorter on each side. But the original spokes didn’t fully protrude from the nipple heads, so I added 1mm (3mm shorter). This way the spokes would pass all the way through the nipple heads which makes it a bit stronger.OTGG was this new wheel’s first break-in ride. It performed flawlessly.

Rear Axle

In Sep 2022 riding the John Wayne / Palouse trail, the rear axle broke between Beverly and Othello. This is normally a critical failure that makes the bike un-rideable. At the same time, the derailleur swung forward and sheared off the end stop of the hangar. I was able to MacGyver both the axle and the derailleur in order to ride back to the nearest town and hitch a ride.

Rear Wheel Bearings

While I was replacing the axle I decided also to replace the bearings. They were still in serviceable shape, but not perfectly smooth anymore. I ordered a set of NSK bearings (size 6902) since they’re supposed to be excellent. I cleaned out the rat piss that they use for OEM grease and packed it with Schaeffer’s 221 #2. The bearing was smooth as butter. After installing it (smoothly with a proper bearing press, not whacking it in), it was rough & notchy. I pressed it out and it was smooth again. Weird. So I bought a generic 6902 at the LBS. Same procedure: cleaned out the OEM grease, packed with Schaeffer’s 221 #2, installed. It was smooth as butter installed.

Perhaps the hub’s bearing socket wasn’t perfectly round? Maybe, but 2 other bearings were butter smooth as installed, so seems unlikely.

Perhaps somehow the compression/squeeze forces of the press-fit install, eliminated the bearing’s internal tolerances? Maybe.

Perhaps it was due to the generic bearing being cageless, combined with an imperfectly round bearing socket? The NSK is a caged bearing, which is normally better. Yet perhaps cageless bearings are more tolerant of imperfectly round sockets?

Rear Through-Axle

After riding the bike 15 miles with a broken axle, the through-axle showed metal fatigue right at the point where the axle had snapped. Apparently, this put more stress on the through-axle. It was still serviceable, but due to the visible metal fatigue I replaced it anyway. It’s 12mm OD, 142mm rear dropout spacing, 174mm total length, 20mm of threads at the end, with a 1.75 pitch.

Rear Hub Shell

When the 2nd set of replacement pawls showed signs of wear in only 5 months, I sent Reynolds a photo and asked for a warranty replacement. They studied the photo and found that the pawl pockets machined into the hub are worn & distorted. I took a close look and they’re right! The distortion is only slight and the hub is still serviceable, but its days are numbered.

Looks to me, and to a friend with experienced eyes, Reynolds should have used a harder grade of aluminum alloy. Not only for the hub shell, but also for the pawls, and for the axle (all of which have failed on me).

They offered to warranty the hub shell, which means mailing them the wheel, the rebuild it onto a new hub shell and send it back, charge me $200 for parts (spokes, axle, bearings, freehub) and labor. I asked if they had a parts list because I prefer to do my own work and build my own wheels. They said no, it’s only a service. Which is different from last year, when they mailed me a warranty replacement rim for me to build myself.

That doesn’t sound like a great deal because I can buy top quality parts for less and build the wheel myself. But I do appreciate their sharp eyes in detecting a problem that I overlooked. I suspect they knew what to look for, as this isn’t the first of their hubs that has had this problem. Indeed, after all the problems this rear wheel has given me, I’m not inclined to use another Reynolds wheel. In summary:

  • OEM spoke nipples cracked and failed, due to aluminum/carbon redox reaction. I rebuilt the wheels with brass spoke nipples
  • Freehub pawls sheared, stranding me in the Moab desert.
  • Carbon Rim delaminated; Reynolds sent me a new rim under warranty and I rebuilt the wheel (again).
  • Axle broke, stranding me on along the John Wayne Trail.
  • Hub shell pawl pockets wore out of shape.