jefnvk

I hate to say that I have given up on vintage touring bikes, because I haven't, but I went to the REI garage sale this morning. This bike has been sitting around since at least December, but I'm kinda in between sizes with REI bikes, and didn't want to pay what they were asking for it before. After eyeing it over some more, I asked the manager how bad they wanted to get rid of it. It was already a pretty good deal at $440, but she knocked it down to $350, and it is now sitting in my garage! Love the handlebars, although it needs a bit longer stem. 3x10 speed Deore drivetrain, bar end shifters, clearance for even more than the 40mm tires already on it (think they are getting downsized a bit), what's not to love? Also picked up some double sided Deore XT pedals out of the bargain bin for $20, since it is the first bike I've bought that didn't included pedals.

As far as I can tell, it is the exact same thing as the ADV 3.1 selling for $1100, so I feel it was a pretty good haul. Previous owner supposedly rode it for a while and decided it didn't fit, but other than some crud on the tires and a couple scratches, it looks pristine.

Any good tutorials on dealing with disc brakes, TRP Spyre specifically (as I am led to believe that discs are fairly unique amongst brands)? They need some tweaking to run, they stop but none too smooth.

Also, any good way to get rid of three bikes by the time the fiancee gets home tomorrow from her bachlorette weekend, so there is still a wedding to plan for?

DanBell

Haha! I have no advice on either the fiance or the bike, but that's a great value. I can understand why you jumped on it. Congrats on your new bike day!

J.Higgins 

The brake pads probably aren't bedded in, Jeff. Some smooth downhills with the brakes softly applied will bed them nicely. Never come to a hard full stop until you do this.

seeker333

Helluva deal for tree fiddy. Hope the boss sees it that way. WRT reducing bike inventory, Craigslist and eBay can be useful, I have sold a few this way. It's unlikely you'll sell them in a day at any reasonable price, which I suspect you already know. CL is free for seller, however eBay takes 13% of the total of selling price plus shipping cost.

WRT mechanical disc brakes, two things come to mind which are not usually mentioned in brief mfg instructions, as these are written primarily for initial installation with new parts:

1. Ensure rotors are not bent before you do anything else. If a rotor wobbles as it turns, it forces one to back pad(s) off so they won't drag, which then results in more of the brake lever's cable pull being used up to move the pads to contact rotor, while concomitantly leaving less to generate clamping force on the rotor. You can straighten or "true" steel rotors with plenty of light and patience, a good eye and a small adjustable wrench which you use to clamp the rotor in the area where it is bent and exert an opposite bending force.

2. Start with new brake pads. Disc brake pads often don't wear evenly front to back or top to bottom. Irregular wear creates small gaps which result in braking degradation, since a smaller surface area is making contact when the pads clamp the rotor. Use new pads to realign the brake caliper according to mfg's procedure, as it may have been aligned incorrectly earlier with worn pads resulting in poor alignment of caliper, pads and rotor.

jefnvk

Not quite sure that is it. There is a very noticeable difference in the pull in the front and the back, the back is much touchier, even when just sitting still. Seems to be pretty straight forward, but just to make sure, there isn't any sort of release mechanism like calipers have to take the wheel out, right?

jefnvk

Yeah, so long as I am making an effort, she's fine! Actually think if I play this right, I can make enough off two that I have in mind to take care of this purchase, which will make her and me happy. I live near the University of Michigan, so I'm in no rush to sell at a discount right now, kids will be coming back to class in a few weeks.

Thanks for that info too, I'll take a look at the rotors and pads, as it wasn't new-new to me. Are Kool Stops as highly recommended for discs as the are for rim brakes?

Mountain Mitch

Sure, send 'em here. I'll even split the shipping costs with you!

seeker333

The rim brake Kool Stop pads I tried a couple times never worked quite as well as Avid pads on my Avid Single Digit 7 calipers, which are great rim brakes BTW. I've never tried Kool Stop disc pads.

Last week I renewed BB7 brakes on my Disc Trucker, replacing the original Avid pads with some pads I got cheap off eBay. These pads work well now, but I had to file down the retainer tabs a bit to get them to fit into the retainer clip, as they were shaped slightly differently than the Avid pads' tabs. So if you go with off-brand pads, then you may have to do some custom fitting to save a few bucks. If I had TRP brakes I'd stick with TRP pads, or try some compatible Shimano pads.

Brian25

See.... I told ya that there were deals out there!

jefnvk

Oh, I don't doubt that (I'm a king at bargain hunting), they just can't be counted on when one is looking for something!

Squeezebox

And congrats on the upcoming wedding!!
Live well!
Be Happy!

Does the flare of the handlebar interfere with using the brake levers properly?

jefnvk

Thanks!

And not as far as I can tell. I only had a five minute parking lot ride so far, and need to tweak the brake adjustment, but the bars and levers feel incredibly natural to me. I've always preferred the swept out rando style drops, though, this is just an exaggeration of that. Even my Miyata has a decent amount of sweep.

mstateglfr 

Dude- thats a hellagood deal. I came soclose to buying a mazama last year for $650ish before i built up my gravel bike. Didnt do it only because the largest size wasnt great for me.

The build and design is 90% the same as a 90s hybrid i turned into a dropbar gravel bike a few years ago. Seriously cool bike with a bunch of do-anything options.
The sweep and flare of thpse bars matches what i have on my gravel bike. Origin8 gary sweep OS bars. Level the drop section with the ground and it rides comfortably in the drops as well as the tops and hoods. That type of bar is intended(though i dont do it) to be ridden mostly in the drops.

It may not be c&v, but its well thought out and minimal while still effective. That, to me, is much of what i love about c&v.

36Oly_Rider

This is what I did. The other thing with the Spyre is the pads are adjustable from the side facing the wheel. I think I gave it about a 1/8 turn...clockwise with a 3mm Allen wrench. If your calipers feel spongy, upgrade to a higher end brake housing. I used the "supposedly" semi-compression-less Jagwire CEV-SL (I think) housing, not good at all...the Jagwire KEV-CL is much nicer and very responsive.

djb

Re the bars--if you don't like them after a while, look into salsa cowchippers, which have a good amount of flare out, or even their cowbell model, which has just a bit of flare. I have cowbell on my Troll and they work great for me.

Trp mechanicals are supposed to be easier to set up than my bb7 avid mechanicals, all I can say is that it comes down to learning new stuff about how to deal with the few pain in the keester aspects of discs, so read up on them, watch YouTube videos and play around with taking the pads out, putting them back in etc.
I'd say the main thing is how small caliper adjustments and even tiny wheel placement differences can result in pad rub on disc, something we aren't used to with rim brakes.

New bunch of stuff to learn basically. Can be frustrating at times. But they do brake really well, especially loaded.

jefnvk

Yeah, this bike was somewhere around that mark back in December, and I passed it up for a couple garage sales as the fit wasn't perfect out the door. It worked out to my advantage, but I don't know why on the things like kayaks and bikes REI limits themselves to selling only on garage sale days. This thing would have sold easily months ago for far more money if it was available on the floor with all the other bikes, when people were out shopping for a bike, instead of hiding in the back room only coming out for a few hours andd hoping someone was looking for that exact thing.

Cool, thanks. Not sure what housing is on there. Not really a spongy feel, just feels like the front is a lot looser than the back, which feels solid.

Yep. Add external bottom brackets to that list, too! At least I look at it as an opportunity for my wrenching skills (and tool box) to expand!

Thanks for those other handlebar recommendations, too. As of now, I really like the feel of the ones that came on the bike. I have another project in the works, if it turns out to be a good rider that I am going to keep, they look like they'd work perfectly for my C&V gravel bike build.

fietsbob

N+1 is always encouraged, on this forum..

yes you can change many component parts, from those OEM factory/Product Managers choices..

did they have one in your girlfriends size? Helps the politics of approving of your other bikes..





...

djb

I suspect the housings are fine, and perhaps a pad adjustment is all thats needed, although to be aware that with my BB7s anyway, you dont need as exact a lever position to work properly as opposed to rim brakes, play around anyway and you'll see.

re external bb, the Troll was my first with them, and again, look at park tools youtube vids or other good ones, and you'll see that they are pretty darn easy to take apart, although yes, you need to buy another tool, but thats par for the course. I took mine all off to put some frame saver in my frame, and remounting the same shimano bb was pretty straightforward, following instructions and asking mechanics I know at stores I've gone to for years. How long the bearings will last is something I'm still living with, will be less than a good square taper, but we'll see for me (although being alight guy, I dont put a lot of torque into drivetrains in general)

52telecaster

awesome find man. i think that would be a killer touring rig.

jefnvk

I dunno. I got it up on a stand, took the wheels out. While the front takes far more pull to engage (probably just pad adjustment), the back actually does feel gritty. It was just set to tight that it engaged almost immediately. I'll have to do a bit more digging and see if I can figure it out.

I know N+1 is always encouraged, but N-3.5 is on Craigslist right now. In all honesty, 2 of those 3.5 never did end up fitting me perfectly and really won't be ridden with the last three purchases also in the stable. 1 is a project that is never going to be complete, and the other .5 will only be sold if it gets full asking price before anything else goes. I guess I can thank this bike for finally kicking me in the butt and accepting the inevitable.

Yeah, especially with a second set of tires/wheels. I think it can competently cover the duties of both my Miyata road touring role, and my Iceland MTB->Touring build with nothing more than a tire swap.

May come to regret it when I start to look at the price of 10spd replacement consumables over 5-7 parts, though!

jefnvk

Should a brake cable be this kinked? I'm wondering if this could be the issue. I've got others I could toss on, just don't want to waste them if it isn't the concern.

manapua_man

...no, they shouldn't be kinked like that. Also, I've heard some good things about HY/RDs, if you ever consider hydros. Never tried them myself though.

djb

Ya, there is no reason for a kink to be there, just as with a rim brake setup.
While you are doing that, look at trp spyre stuff before hand and remove pads and reinstall so you become familiar with them. Don't touch pad material, especially with greasy fingers.
You should be able to find good trp maintenance issue documentation.

Re chain costs and all that, we only have one 10 SPD bike in the house now, and is new, but I don't expect it to be any worse than 9 speed stuff.

Of course, how you take care of your drivetrain, or not, as well as riding conditions, all play a big part in longevity.

jefnvk

I'll choose my words carefully, but I came about THIS close (imagine me holding up a couple fingers close together) to buying a fat bike last spring, and trialed a bunch of bikes, the hydros kicked the crap out of the mechanical IMO. I don't need to be convinced about their superiority, but baby steps. I am coming from an old Miyata which I had to constantly adjust the caliper, because it wouldn't stay centred, and a MTB which I put V-Brakes on that cost $3 per set (which, in fairness, functioned extremely well). Lemme get used to basic discs before jumping into motorcycle brake world

In good news, the stupid Xs that REI put on all their garage sale stuff (and on this bike, put right over the Reynolds 520 markings) comes off extremely well with rubbing alcohol!

jefnvk

Yeah, but how does it cost compared to $8 chains and $17 cassettes for 7 speed?

But seriously, just joking about cost. The amount of stuff I have replaced in all the bikes I've rebuilt that was truly worn compared to all the stuff I've replaced because it was neglected is stacked towards the neglected side. Outside of crappy conditions that I ride in, I've got no desire to treat my stuff towards the neglected side.