I’m sorry, I had to laugh, not at your travails but at the comic simultaneous arrival of minor mishaps, which can turn a sunny day into a cloudy one. It certainly happens to me. Sometimes it makes me give up in chagrin, go inside, and take a nap — and I’m only partially facetious here.
My own very recent frustrating failures was to, in retrospect foolishly, try to remove the dried Orange Seal Endurance from each RH Oracle Ridge. I spent the better part of 2 hours doing that — got front tire down from 620 grams to 510 grams and the rear from 640 to 530, but while doing this I also removed sufficiently thick, built-up layers of dried latex (OS Endurance dries in a skin instead of rubber octopuses) that by themselves had prevented most thorn flats over the last couple of months — the OS was perfectly dry as I’d not replenished it since early October. 110 gram and very effective and no-maintenance puncture-proof belts are something I should have just left alone. Even worse, when I tried to reseat the beads so I could put in fresh sealant, the beads were too loose to seat with my compressor. Still, the exercise provided occasion to: 1. Air up once again the Soma Supple Vitesse SL wheelset that has been hanging from the ceiling for amost a year unused since I started riding the new Oracle Ridge wheeset. I added 3 fl oz of OS Endurance per tire and rode it today; man, at least 1 cog smaller in back for similar exertion in similar conditions at similar cadences. I had thought that the Oracel Ridges rolled pretty well on pavement but not compared to the SSV SLs. OTOH, the Somas don’t work as well in sand. 2. Finally try The Experiment: order TPU tubes for 50 mm tires and see if they work with OS *regular* formula this time, as Endurance doesn’t work in butyl tubes, at least for goatheads. If TPUs work with OS regular in 50 mm tires at 20 psi, I’ll probably switch my 28 mm Elk Passes and 42 mm Naches Passes from light butyl to TPU, too. High in my area about 49*F, winds NW 18 to 25 gusts to 31 when I went out at just after 1 pm. I used the hooks on the Maes Parallels and I was very glad to have a multispeed cassette — used the 63, 66, 70, and 74 inch gears on the flat terrain as the roughly No-So route curved back and forth and broke in and out of the tree belt along Rio Grande Boulevard and return along the Paseo del Bosque recreational trail; and used them too on the short but steepish climbs and descents out and back on a Paseo del Norte trail excursus). On Wed, Mar 19, 2025 at 8:23 PM Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! < [email protected]> wrote: > I just want to talk bikes for a little bit. Threads with subjects are > great and all, but so is talking shop. And we are about to hit a spate of > cold weather here in SW Michigan and I am a little morose after a few days > of Pretend Spring. I did get 25 miles in today and Monday, but now I want > to talk shop. > > I don’t know what you all have been up to, but I have been fighting with > and fidgeting with my bikes. > > Recently, I went through a great stem swap where I changed over most of my > bikes to Faceplater stems. I even put one on my college boys’ big old Clem > with Bosco bars. I even used my new torque wrench, and…the bars slipped! So > now I have new Albatross bars and stem and shims because Riv believes this > 31.8 clamp will grip 25.4 bars better. I have little experience with shims. > And what I have learned about them is that they will set you to cussing. > You want the bars centered, but then the shims slink out of their spot. > When you want to nudge them just a bit, they have bitten into the center of > the Albatross bar and you must find a way to knock them loose. Then the > whole bar moves and you have to re-center and line up the gaps in > shim/clamp. When you knock the shims loose a few times you realize there > are metal shavings on your fingers, which means you are damaging stuff. And > every time you decide to adjust the position you have to fight with the > shims AND loosen and re-tighten 4 bolts with your torque wrench. I have > emailed 2 people about this, badgering them to check my work and say it’s > safe. I made peace with the shims being a millimeter uneven because at > least the bars are centered. Then I went to wash the metal shavings off my > hands. > > Shims. In short, I hate them. > > During the Great Stem Swap of ‘25, I managed to drop a hex wrench. I heard > the ping of it striking the top tube of my raspberry Platypus on its way > down. Ah, my first real paint chip, and right in a place I’ll see every > day. Tonight, I painted that chip with nail polish I found in a close color > match. It’s passable, but sad. > > I turned my attention to the mermaid Platypus, which I have no good excuse > to have anymore, and noticed the rear tire is flat again. This is because > on Monday, I decided I would top off the sealant, and could not be bothered > to put the bike in the stand. The clamp on the stand needs more seatpost > and I didn’t want to raise my saddle. So I did it with the bike on the > kickstand and was never able to recover the seal between rim and tire. I > have gotten by with this in the past. Got cocky and have now been brought > low. Every week, and you can set your watch by it, I do the walk of shame > into the shop. I fling open their door, the cowbell rings, and I announce, > “Guys! A terrible thing has happened!” I will go there again tomorrow > because a terrible thing has happened - that seal did not hold and we are > back to flat tire and dripping sealant. They are sick of me at this point > but they are Michiganders, good folk through and through, and they do not > let on. > > Meanwhile, Charlie. I’ve been running away with Charlie on club rides. > High winds have really cramped our style. Charlie and I are on a learning > curve. I try and find out if the sounds he’s making are benign or > malignant. There was a screeching pedal (a terrible thing that happened!) > that my shop addressed. But now there is ghost shifting and something > whirring when I stand to climb and toss my weight on the drive side of the > bike. Charlie had been denied his accoutrements because I tried to make him > Pure Road Bike and keep his accessories minimal. We failed miserably and > I’ve junked up the bars just like Charlie’s a Platypus. The final piece, > his German mirror, arrived today. I still don’t know if Charlie is any > faster than a Platypus. Nothing is fast in these winds. We are out there > shredding our thighs, trying to brave winds and get fit for the season with > Charlie and his junked-up non-aero bars. > > What have you all been up to? Are you having the same struggles? Who else > is wanting to throw up their hands and just talk shop? > Leah > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/5175834e-31c3-4cea-87cb-37ee34020bdan%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/5175834e-31c3-4cea-87cb-37ee34020bdan%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive resumes, LinkedIn profiles, bios, letters, and other writing services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *When thou didst not, savage, k**now thine own meaning,* *But wouldst gabble like a** thing most brutish,* *I endowed thy purposes w**ith words that made them known.* -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. 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