Are we allowed to hate people who never have problems with their BB30?

You know in the same way the young 'ens are all like, "I can eat whatever I want and not gain weight?"

@Marc - Uh, no.

Marc Bertucco said:

Are we allowed to hate people who never have problems with their BB30?
You know in the same way the young 'ens are all like, "I can eat whatever I want and not gain weight?"

Get off my lawn, fatty!

Marc Bertucco said:

Are we allowed to hate people who never have problems with their BB30?

You know in the same way the young 'ens are all like, "I can eat whatever I want and not gain weight?"

Yes.  My diet, which consists solely of lardon and coconut water, produces a lubricating sweat that silences my BB30.  Atkins was a mechanical genius.

A knew way to shift as well...no more double tap.  One shifter shits up...the other down...push them both together to move either up or down on the front chain ring.

So I saw one Mengoni rider on flatbush yesterday going to the race. He had a training mask on. 

Accumulated carbon monoxide levels from riding down flatbush would likely be of equal benefit. My memory is that CO displaces O2 from your hemaglobin with a half life of 4-5 hours. The only question is how close can you ride behind a hack van to maximize your dosage. Sort of a reverse EPO. Then when you get to GMSR, the fresh air gives you wings.

Gwynna Smith said:

Is there a good reason to keep my interrupters? Gonna change out the cables, thinking I should pull them off. Opinions?

Ever ride in the tops? I never do, unless climbing, I took em off. Weight, makes the brake feel sloppier, crowds the tops, especially if you're on narrow bars.

As someone who races with fenders and is mocked for the brightness of my lights and other high visibility gear, I do have some claim to putting utility over vanity when it comes to biking.  Although I will admit my bike, shoes, and kit are a little too color coordinated to claim practicality as my only guiding principle.  As for your brake interrupters (I had to google it to see what you were talking about), I say it depends on how often you use them.  Some people find them quite nice on a commuter bike.  Some people have raced with them in Paris-Roubaix.  If you don't use them often, take them off.  If you enjoy having them, leave them on!  If you care that other people think they are nerdy, remove them and begin weeping softly into the nearest chamois.  My guess would be that if you bothered to ask about it, you probably think you could do without them.

Gwynna Smith said:

The only time I ever use them is in the subway to keep my bike steady. So not kidding. I just wasn't sure if I *should* be using them other times.

Take a toe clip strap or two with you on the subway.  Use one to lash your seat post to a ceiling support, then the other to keep the front wheel from flopping around.

I don't know about that. Going over potholes and sudden dips will likely cause the bike to bounce up and down on the saddle and swivel around. I'd rather not treat my bike like that.

I wanted to share some first world cycling problems with everyone. This weekend, both my Stages and Quarq decided to die.

Quarq:  I was getting crazy calibration numbers, something like -30,000 and it wouldn't read my efforts on the bike. Battery change and chainring bolt re-tensioning did not help. I called Quarq support and they said something broke in the spider. I bought it in 2011 so it's no longer under warranty. They will upgrade it to a Riken spider (utilizing the same cranks and chainring) for $500 plus return shipping. I think that's a fair deal.

Stages:  My garmin was not detecting the powermeter. I swapped out the battery and in the process damaged the battery cap. It became deformed and, long story short, I had to snip the top tab off to get it to seat properly. The o-ring also kept falling out which was a major annoyance. The garmin detected the Stages once the new battery was in there. I called Stages and they're sending me a couple of caps and o-rings; priority mail.


Good customer service all around. I feel like I don't even exist if I can't tell you what the NP during the race was.

Thater/Stages reference pic

You fucking serious, bro?  You bought something in 2011, have used it for its intended purpose and it broke after 3 years!!  Not only that it cost you what, $1700.  Now they want $500 for a fix?  You and I have a different opinion on what is a "fair deal".

vlad said:

Quarq:  I was getting crazy calibration numbers, something like -30,000 and it wouldn't read my efforts on the bike. Battery change and chainring bolt re-tensioning did not help. I called Quarq support and they said something broke in the spider. I bought it in 2011 so it's no longer under warranty. They will upgrade it to a Riken spider (utilizing the same cranks and chainring) for $500 plus return shipping. I think that's a fair deal.

Looking forward to reading a race report. Chris Thater is a classic and I'm super bummed I had to miss it this year.

Adam said:

This is genius.  As a guy who rents cars frequently, seems like a great option:

https://www.seasucker.com/shop/hornet/

I recently read through all the Seasucker lit and talked to some people there.  It works.  That written, where you mount it does matter, and every time you get out of the car, you should check it.

The warranty is for 2 years. You can't really argue with that. Caveat Emptor bro. The Quarq took a shelling from me. 200+ races and 10,000+ training miles. These are NYC FBF races and training miles laden with pot holes and shit weather. I still think it's fair. Nothing lasts forever, especially when you race it.

Adam said:

You fucking serious, bro?  You bought something in 2011, have used it for its intended purpose and it broke after 3 years!!  Not only that it cost you what, $1700.  Now they want $500 for a fix?  You and I have a different opinion on what is a "fair deal".

vlad said:

Quarq:  I was getting crazy calibration numbers, something like -30,000 and it wouldn't read my efforts on the bike. Battery change and chainring bolt re-tensioning did not help. I called Quarq support and they said something broke in the spider. I bought it in 2011 so it's no longer under warranty. They will upgrade it to a Riken spider (utilizing the same cranks and chainring) for $500 plus return shipping. I think that's a fair deal.

It's all relative. Depends on what you consider expensive and valuable. I've been getting "low battery" warnings on my quarq for a while; I just took to riding with a couple of spare batteries in my pocket just in case. 

Power2Max has me feeling rather old.
Stick with the Quarq.

My Stages got wet July 3rd...it dried out quickly...but it did drain batteries overnight for a few days after...A week out from the contamination it was all good and dry.  Stages also sent me new o-rings and battery covers.

But I have ridden my power2max through several rain storms without incident. And the original battery has been going strong since February.

Yeah WD-40 = best way to get oil stains out of clothes.

If WD-40 scares you. For pretty much two decades I've been using Tri-Flow instead, in same the capacity described in the video. Degreaser and then lube. When I visited Chris Horner at his San Diego home, was surprised he did exactly the same: Tri-Flow for everything.