Albino Wino

I have a few reactions to this advice: 1) If I were you, I'd likely tell me the same thing. 2) I have reasonable bike handling skills, it's a tough commute to be gentle on the bike...The roads here just really are dog ****.



I'm in wet sand a lot, the shoulder is often mostly wet sand. There are sections of these roads that are just all lumps of hot fill from years and years of filling. It's probably a lot like riding cobbles in europe. There isn't a lot you can do to mitigate it sometimes. I do pretty well, but between the roads being **** and handling traffic and not being perfect sometimes the bike gets rocked.


When I originally posted this I was fresh off a conversation with this friend, who (again) does not touch his bicycle that he rides every day....which I find frustrating. I have subsequently asked him more questions, and indeed, he hasn't replaced anything after years of daily riding. No tires, no chains, no brake pads, nothing. Evidently that's what life is like being little on an expensive bike. It's ****ing frustrating. Then again, knowing where he lives and a lot of his riding, a lot of what he does is flat and smooth on pretty clear bike path whereas I'm up and down hills on gravely/sandy road shoulders...so it's apples and oranges to a degree.

When my chains get really stretched out, I get a new chain. I would guess maybe 4K miles yearly, I tend to give up when it starts being sub zero every morning. That's a few months. It's overly dangerous to attempt my commute when it's snowed more than 3 or 4 inches, or really I guess just whenever the county plows are operating, and that happens here somewhat regularly. Not that you can't ride a bike when it's like that, but there are some specifics of the roads I have to ride to get to my job that are problematic...so commuting is out and rec time is on skis that time of year.

It's relatively heavy on commute mode, I often have clothes, and I always have a few tools and a spare tube. This time of year I have heavy gloves and an extra wool sweater. Since there are grocery stores and hardware stores near my place of employment, I tend to pick things up on my way home. I'm not riding to and from work with a frozen turkey or whatever. Geographically, logistically, I'm combining trips because it makes sense. I can't really imagine riding 30 minutes to work, 20 minutes home, changing bikes, then riding the exact same 30 minutes to a place 1/2 mile from where I just was and 20 minutes home again.

Anyway I'm thinking I'll probably just build myself a 48h rear wheel and be done with it. I've also acquired a trailer, and I'm probably going to be setting that up for any really heavy trips.


You know...for such a legit question, it's pretty tough to answer. I mean, I don't weigh my groceries....and I think it varies. Frequently I grab 20ish lbs of stuff in a few bags. Infrequently I make a bigger trip that may be 50 lbs or more. There's no doubt I'm maxing it all out. I'm a 275 lb man riding downhill on bumpy messed up roads with a grocery cart of stuff in my panniers. I can feel frames and wheels flexing.



I'm getting there. DB is a kind of upright city bike setup with 26x2.0 touring tires and very low gearing for running heavy. Spc is on 26X1.5 slicks with drop bars in a little bit faster/lower setup...can carry stuff but not as much. Just picked up the ironman, 700X28 which won't be carrying any weight besides my fat ass. Sort of a poor mans trucker/cross check/pacer trio.
I think if I got something right now I'd get a 60cm 26" disc trucker. I don't have that kind of money...even a good deal would be a tough sell to the wifey...so I'm making do. I wish there were a realistic (meaning easy and efficient) way to just trade my stupid arsenal of late-80s time machines for one disc trucker. lol...whatever. f it.

Arvadaman

Albino,

A couple of questions.

Are you breaking spokes on the rear wheel only?

What tire pressure are you riding front and rear?

I am one cheeseburger short of 300 lbs and ride MTBs of the same type and vintage as you. I know they are pretty sturdy and do not break easily for the most part. I just got a DB Ascent EX (1989 or 1993) in Acetylene Smoke paint scheme and it is pretty strongly built.

Arvadaman

Albino,

Also forgot to ask if you are carrying your cargo in rear panniers only or do you have some on the front of the bike?

Albino Wino

always the rear wheel.

The other day I broke 2 more spokes....so I tore down several wheels and very carefully found the best spokes and nips and built a wheel with a hub I don't mind trashing in the salt....very carefully....to just sort of start from scratch with something and see how it goes. It's been taking a real beating riding lumpy snow and rutted ice and my brakes are adjusted really tight to immediately know if it's losing true and so far so good. True, tension even, no signs of fatigue or failure. Interestingly, going through these other wheels and spokes, all these drive side spokes were very damaged from chain suck...all of which would have happened before I had the parts because my stuff is adjusted (and I friction shift, and I just don't remember ever overshifting into the spokes, let alone overshifting and mashing and tearing my spokes up...I don't know how people do that)....so maybe that's more the issue with spoke breakage than anything else; I can say that's where they're breaking.


I ride various tire pressures, I'm at about 50psi on some knobby tires for winter, summer 1.5s are at 100ish, 2.0s at 80ish.

Albino Wino

Day to day minimal weight is just in rears usually...I'll put a gym bag up front sometimes. I've been riding with no rear panniers and just clipping a small commuting bag to my front rack on some days I know I'm not going to need any extra space. Heavy runs I will put a lot of heavy stuff up front. It varies, but I don't think I'm doing anything really out of the ordinary.

I think the stance of the DB in particular puts a lot of my weight on the seat and rear wheel. It's setup upright to be comfortable for me, I can sit on that bike all day and it's totally worth the wind resistance penalty. I'm not riding fast.

Arvadaman

Albino,

To try and stop the wheel issues, you migh try the following.

Continue to work on your rear wheels. I am doing that myself. I got a used Park TS-2 wheel truing stand and a Park WAG-5 wheel dishing tool for Christmas and am working on a few of my rear wheels also.

Consider experimenting with your tire pressure. Maybe go to a lower pressure with more pressure in the rear wheels than the front. A lower pressure may provide more cushion and transmit less stress to the rim on the rough roads you ride.

When you carry loads, try and distribute the weigh across both tires more evenly. The trailer may be helpful with that. Maybe front panniers.

I know this all seems rather obvious but hopefully it might help resolve the spoke problems.

i also like the picture of your Diamondback Apex. It has the same Acetylene Smoke paint scheme my Ascent EX has.

ypsetihw

I've seen several workhorse bikers around here using toddler carriers for cargo like heavy tools and groceries. takes the weight off the frame and lets the bike carry you. there are several on my local craigslist right now for $40-80, just a thought that would be cheaper than a whole new bike.

also I agree, get a road bike, it's amazingly lighter and faster. I still ride my MTB in the winter, just slap on fenders and some road friendly tires. but I'm not setting any PRs out there this time of year.

ypsetihw

No offense, but that thing does NOT look like a speed machine. You shouldn't even try to compare your performance to someone on a stripped down road bike with an aero riding position, tight clothes, and no panniers. You said it yourself, "I'm not riding fast," but wind resistance is a function of frontal area and increases exponentially as you speed up. Maybe you need to consider if it really is "worth the wind resistance penalty" if your goal is riding fast.

Arvadaman

Albino,

Finally got around to getting a picture of my Diamond Back. Similar paint to yours. I think it is a 1993.

Albino Wino

The frustration that prompted this original post was in regards to riding that bike alongside a friend/acquaintance who was riding a pugsley on low tire pressure...so obviously anybody on a road bike is going to be faster. I have 2 levels of faster bike, a fast bike that carries weight and a faster bike that carries nothing. I get that. What's frustrating is to be huffing a puffing along on 80 psi touring tires in a similar position to a guy next to you on 4 inch tires at 20 psi not even working.

for what it's worth, I think some of you don't really get where I'm riding.

This is where I live this time of year, and this photo is not atypical:


so I'm not going to be on a road bike for a few months. Whatever you ride here, now, is going to have a lot of rolling resistance. May-November is a different story, I have other bikes for that.

Albino Wino

I have one now, my plan is to remove all the toddler cloth stuff and attach the top part of a grocery cart to it. Thus, when I'm in the store I can use my cart to gauge how much carrying capacity I have left.

Albino Wino

Nice, that's the same year. Mine will be dead after a few of these winters I think.

Albino Wino

So after a great deal of work and thought I've built some wheels. I rebuilt my winter rear wheel when I was breaking spokes and didn't touch it all winter...rode like 20 psi until it was back to riding pavement instead of ice and snow.

This spring I've built a severe service rear wheel for that bike, 36h deore XT hub, dt alpine 3 spokes, and rhyno lite rim. I'm running 8 speed with 34 tooth low gear and 24 tooth chainring, so I can pull big weight up steep hills. I've also completed my trailer, and it's all fantastic. I've carried all of my laundry and a full grocery cart of heavy stuff simultaneously. Set the trailer up to also easily tow another bike...which is actually pretty handy for running a bike down to the co-op to use their tools or whatever.

In theory, I've also gained about 20 lbs of cargo capacity just by losing 20lbs from my fat ass. Which is also nice.

Built another set of 32h wheels with leftover parts, bontrager corvair rims, deore hubs, cheapo spokes up front and alpine 3s in the back and they haven't moved a mm.

Discovered a lot of the movement I was experiencing in one of my bikes was because of a cracked chainstay, and another had to do with a cracked rack. I added a giant mudflap to the front fender of the foul weather bike that's about 6 inches wide and actually touches the ground...that's allowed me to ride in this muck and wet sand I deal with commuting here without ever really getting any sand in the drivetrain. It's been absolutely amazing how much that mud flap did for the drivetrain.

So, better parts have equated to less maintenance and I'm now somewhat convinced much of my issue was just running really old stuff. Riding all winter really changed my perspective on riding slowly too, I rode slowly all winter on squishy tires and loose snow and it was just fine. So now I feel a lot more comfortable with the concept of just chugging along slowly.

all in all, things are going much better.