tdonline

Don't mind buying a new tire, just wanted to double-check if there was a tip to fix the old one.

I'm a big fan of Gatorskin and have them on my road bike. Never experienced a flat with them. But as far as I can tell, they only go up to 32?

So if I buy a new tire for the back--can I go smaller than the current 40? I'm thinking 35-38 to give myself a little bit of room with the fender. Are there any issues with running tires of different sizes--since my front tire is 40?

jetta_mike

There's no way to fix a bad tire.

As far as size goes I'd get the same tire as the front, but that's just me.

tdonline

Before heading off to REI (anniversary sale) today, I took one last look at the tire and found about a 2 inch slash on the inside. The slash went through the sleeve but not all the way to the outside of the tire. I may have just missed it initially or the slash became bigger each time I was pumping up the tire.

Bought a Marathon Plus 700X35. Smaller than the 38 as I noted comments about the tight fit. I'm heading out soon so I haven't put the new tire on. Will do it tomorrow morning. And hoping that fixes what brought this up in the first place--tire rubbing against the fender!

base2 

Big slash? Well that explains lots!
Sounds like it's sorted
You'll be back on the road in no time

tdonline

Ok, tweaking fenders is no joke. I can see the hourly rate piling up if it was sent into a shop.

So new Marathon tires on, looks good. I put everything back on--tire, fender and rack. The plastic fender mount on the sprocket side snaps. Thank goodness Breezer sent a pair originally so I had one left. Try tightening everything again, but again see one of the plastic mounts bowing and ready to snap. The bike came assembled as rack and then fender to the frame. And this puts both mounts under a lot of pressure. With nuts semi-loosey, I do not hear any rubbing as I roll the bike...But I can't ride with rack and fender barely hanging on.

So I try fender and then rack to the frame and this is a lot better for the mounts. They stay in a straight line instead of bowing. To accommodate this change, I have to move the stays further back, at about 2:00 and 3:30 o'clock. Tweak and tweak. When I roll the bike, I do not hear rubbing. But when I spin the wheel and have my ears to the top of the wheel, I can hear an ever soft rubbing noise. The back light is wired to the inside of the fender and at the 12:30 part of the fender, it is close to the wheel. I think if there wasn't a light wire--there would be no problem. I can't make this part of the fender perk up just a bit. I hold up that part of the fender while spinning wheel and no noise. I tied a ribbon the light wire that comes out of the fender hole to give that part of the fender a little bit of a lift. But it doesn't lift up quite as well as holding it with my hand. Like I mentioned, it is ever so small a sound.

I rode it around the parking lot and didn't hear the rubbing. And there didn't seem to be like the tire was being held back. I didn't expect to hear anything with the outside ambient noise, but was wondering if I could feel something in the ride.

Afterwards I checked the front tire and it was really tight at the rear right of the tire. Probably will look at that too whenever I figure out the back tire.

I would be lying if this hasn't been the most frustrating bike-related experience! On the other hand, I've fiddled with the tire, rack and fender and haven't destroyed the bike yet. I have not quite fixed the problem but am grateful I have learned a lot. I'm a lot more confident in my bike wrenching skills. Oh and I now know how to deal with a disc brake.

Now...any tips on how to perk up that 12:30 part of the fender. I tried a bungee cord wrapped around the fender and clipped to the rack. That worked really well, the only negative being the bungee cord contacting the tire!

madpogue 

Typical "iterative" process; you resolve one thing, then the next. The tire issue was a show-stopper, though, so good to have that behind you.

Is the rack pushing down on the fender, up at the top? That may be a limiting factor. There may be some fudge factor where the bolts go through the fender stays and rack mounts. Try loosening them, then pull upward on the rack and fender and have an assistance re-tighten. See if that buys you a mm or so.

Too bad they didn't design those stays with some extra length sticking out, that you could trim off once you get it all sized up.

Fresh pics would help.

tdonline

No contact between the top of the rack and the fender. But hmmm..the fenders are now on the outside of the rack on both sides--that's like almost an inch going wider and the top of the fender becoming squatter in relation. Think that explains it.

Will get some photos later tonight.

Here is the mount. On the side not shown is a piece that flexes so the mount has some give. But of course there is a snapping point.

https://images-nitrosell-com.akamaiz...ender_stay.jpg

tdonline

My last post made me think...

The plastic mounts were positioned parallel to the ground. But what if I tweaked them not to be so parallel to the ground? Sure enough, once I pushed them slightly up, the top of the fender popped up. I had to rescrew them differently for this position. So I had said fender and then rack to the bike. I didn't mention that there are spacers, about 1/4 inch each? Okay, so I had it as spacer, fender and rack. Now it's fender, spacer and rack. I needed the change in order to have the mounts from 180 degrees to about 120.

And no rubbing when I spun the wheel. Off for a short spin to see how it does on the road. If it works

And a thousand thanks to all for advice and encouragement.

If this works, then I'll be back for advice on some changes/additions to the bike that I had wanted to do since day one but was waylaid by this finicky problem.

madpogue 

Hmm, I wonder about the fender stays being inbound of the rack. Maybe it's all good, but to me, the rack is "structural", and will be bearing some weight, so it should be the furthest inbound.

Does the frame not have two sets of eyelets brazed onto the dropouts? Hard to tell from the initial pics. Generally best practice, if you have them, to put the fender on one set and the rack on the other. But it looks like you have to stack them. Can you get a macro / close-up shot of the stacking?

daoswald

Take the fenders off. Stop messing around with something so frustrating. If you took them off and only rode on nice days at least you would be riding. When the fall comes, invest in quality fenders.

I get that a new bike shouldn't have quirks. Yours did, and the shop is gone. You got a discount because they were closing. Just take off the fenders so that they can stop being the reason you are not riding.

madpogue 

Oh - duh - I did a TL-DR on the opening post, and didn't realize the rack and fender are part of the OEM build/ship. For whatever reason, the online photos of the bike show the rack and fenders attached in a variety of ways. Best quality pic I could find, however, indicates that yours is not stacked right:

Looks like the rack should go right to the frame eyelet, with the plastic extension stacked outboard of it. Then the plastic extension should point directly aft, then the fender stay attaches to the aft end of the extension.

Yes, those fenders are snug, even in all the stock online pics available. One argument is that more space between the tire and fender means more space for road crud to get past them.

tdonline

I think we may saying the same thing in different ways. The photo belows the current setup. As mentioned already, when I brought the bike home, Performance or Breezer had it as the plastic mount OR the spacer closest to the frame (can't remember order now), then either one next with the rack on the outside.

1. 

And I think it works! I took it out for a sunset spin yesterday and didn't hear or feel any tire rubbing. There was considerable rattling over bad road/path conditions but I understand that's pretty common for aluminium fenders?

tdonline

Fingers crossed, the problem seems to be resolved. More rides will tell me more. It's not simply just taking off the fender as the backlight is wired to it. In any case, I bought the bike specifically for these commuter-type accessories so I'd prefer to keep them if I can.

In any case, I have been riding my road bike and I have a newfound appreciation for it. Have had it for 17 years and there were plenty of grousing about its shortcomings (though I know most of it was the engine...) The original plan was to sell the road bike and replace with this bike. I am completely a city/civilian clothing rider nowadays and thought a commuter would be better for most of my riding. But riding the road bike recently--I appreciate the oldie, it's been great value over the past 17 years. Purchase was $500. Original plan was to sell it to make room for the Breezer as I have limited parking/storage space in my apartment life. But now I'm not so sure. I'll see how the Breezer does, now that it's up and running. If building management pushes on my storage arrangement, maybe I'll sell it instead and keep the oldie roadie.

madpogue 

^^^^^ Oh-oh, "N+1" is now in effect....

Yeah, that's def. a better stack. Wouldn't be the first time an LBS did (how to put this nicely?....) an "off-label" assembly of a new-ish bike. (And won't be the last....)

And actually, another photo from that same site, from a rear 3/4 angle, seems to show no spacer between the rack and the extension. You could probably mount yours without the spacer, and pulling the stays inboard a bit might push the fender outward radially. You'll need shorter screws, of course.

Pretty good sleuthing and solution. I think you can no longer get away with describing yourself as "not mechanically inclined".....

tdonline

I know I'm a bit slow on the uptake but I wouldn't have figured this out without all the posts in this thread. I meandered but all tips here got me to the destination eventually.

And yes, I kept using the spacers because if not, the screw would push into the sprocket. But yeah, I did think if getting rid of the spacer was the solution then I would trek down to the local hardware store. I'm going to commute to work tomorrow--trying to decide to stick with roadie or go with the Breezer. My cautious side is saying ride the Breezer a few more times before I try it out for a 20 mile round trip commute...

tdonline

I also have a folder

So I was going to sell one so I would keep to 2 bikes only...Let's see if management notices or cares about the third bike.