(40 or 42s are an exaggeration and still not clear where or why people ride those sizes, other than maybe Kansas rocks)

I've only ever had 37c WTB Riddlers on my SuperX and while I'm slower on the road and a bit insecure in super muddy MTB stuff, they are about the best of everything. This is just for my quite wide range though, if you're not really going to venture onto any singletrack I'd assume a slick-center tire like the gravelking would be your go-to swiss army tire.

@Bruce van-Schalkwyk How about a spare DR hanger? In case you damage the existing one, having a spare can be a life saver to get rolling again..

I was riding the trails with a buddy using our cross bikes, and he ended up tearing his DR hanger off. The DR seemed fine. After cutting the chain and trying to single speed out, the chain would not stay on with out some form of tensioner, so he had to foot it out. Never hurts to be prepared even if you can get one gear functional better then walking out...

AndrewJohnson said:

I was riding the trails with a buddy using our cross bikes, and he ended up tearing his DR hanger off. The DR seemed fine. After cutting the chain and trying to single speed out, the chain would not stay on with out some form of tensioner, so he had to foot it out. Never hurts to be prepared even if you can get one gear functional better then walking out...

Admittedly I don't carry it on the road, but 10/10 recommend having a spare RD hanger in the tool kit. It's a tiny part designed to break so it can easily ruin a weekend/ week of riding plans if a replacement is tough to come by. 

Definitely not something to carry on rides, but I do encourage everyone to figure out what your hanger is and have a replacement ready in your tools. Owning one is the difference between a five minute fix or waiting days for one to arrive.

I do bring one for most cyclocross races. 

Most times, a hanger will bend and not break, but even in that case, between races, replacing the hanger will be faster/easier than trying to align it.

I also have an alignment tool, which, btw, has become a real solver of mystery misshifts. 

Started hearing some clicking and creaking on my ride the other day when putting 200+w on the pedal.  I'm seeing some excess wear between the stages left crank arm and the bb spacer.. anyone thoughts? On the crank its eating beyond just the paint now which is why I'm asking. Other spacer  (right) is the right crank arm spacer.

Serviced the bb towards the end of last season. Took it apart and nothing seems off, everything was tightened to spec, no play in pedals, spacers, or in the crank arms. Odd that the wear is uneven though too

TIME FOR A NEW BIKE!! OBVS. jk jk

Wanna dissect two pieces:

1. When you serviced it last season, none of this was in progress?
2. Is the left outside cup the discolored one of the left? 

If both of my assumptions are correct, then maybe you re-assembled the bb and crank incorrectly, probably barely. You can try to put it all back together, sometimes that can be enough, altho in this case, I would propose a new/fresh bottom bracket. If it was installed a little bit off, it might be damaged, and probably not worth the trouble.

Strikes me that either you forgot a washer on the reinstall or possibly turned the washer the wrong direction.  If that's the case, Redbeard probably has a super-thin washer that could go into place and solve the issue simply.  

And I bet many of us have something that could fit in between the crank and the BB in a pinch.

eloy said:

I also have an alignment tool, which, btw, has become a real solver of mystery misshifts. 

This is something I've been thinking about getting for too long.  On the one hand, my family has several bikes and I could easily justify it.  On the other, it might get used twice a year.  

Should definitely get it.

Which one did you go with?  The Park shop version seems overkill, but the few 'home' things I saw don't seem precise enough.

mugwump said:

eloy said:

I also have an alignment tool, which, btw, has become a real solver of mystery misshifts. 

This is something I've been thinking about getting for too long.  On the one hand, my family has several bikes and I could easily justify it.  On the other, it might get used twice a year.  

Should definitely get it.

Which one did you go with?  The Park shop version seems overkill, but the few 'home' things I saw don't seem precise enough.

I got this one:
https://www.parktool.com/product/derailleur-hanger-alignment-gauge-dag-2

btw, Park just released a new version of it:
https://www.parktool.com/product/derailleur-hanger-alignment-gauge-dag-3

Wolf Tooth makes one that seems kinda interesting:
https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/products/pack-hanger-alignment-tool

eloy said:

TIME FOR A NEW BIKE!! OBVS. jk jk

Wanna dissect two pieces:

1. When you serviced it last season, none of this was in progress?
2. Is the left outside cup the discolored one of the left? 

haha my thought exactly.. soo about that 9100 double-sided power crankset

1. I saw some wear but it wasn't this bad - it was maybe slightly worse then the spacer on the right side of the photo.
2. yes correct - left is left, and right is right

What you all don't just grab the derailleur by the lower cage and blindly shove it around for a week while you drink beer and stare at it for a few hours each night from a folding chair in the corner of the room until it kind of works "good"? Am I doing this wrong? 

StephenAschkenes said:

Started hearing some clicking and creaking on my ride the other day when putting 200+w on the pedal.  I'm seeing some excess wear between the stages left crank arm and the bb spacer.. anyone thoughts? On the crank its eating beyond just the paint now which is why I'm asking. Other spacer  (right) is the right crank arm spacer.

Got me interested in learning how to replace a derailleur hanger and found a couple videos.  While the repair process is somewhat mundane, both videos go to some pretty extreme measures to get the derailleurs out of alignment.  

The last couple times I bent my hanger, was during racing:

Some guy pedaled his, well, left pedal, right into my rear derailleur, and rear spokes, during the last couple of laps of the watermelon criterium, strangely at no point it felt like we were at risk of crashing. My shifting turned nuts, otherwise I would have won. Obvs

The other was at a cyclocross where I just fell drive side.

The important note, specially on my cross bike, sometimes there's no obvious crash or event. That bike gets banged enough, that the shifting simply gets a little weird over time, and after trying the basics: new chain, new cables, etc... shift still functions kinda weird, for example, the typical: a few cogs shift amazing, but others don't. Re-Aligning the hanger has turned out to be great way to get shifting better than brand new.

Tubeless set up

I knocked over my Joe Blow booster floor pump and the plastic piece that attaches the hose to the body broke off ,I called Topeak and the part is not replaceable ,
I'm debating if I should buy a new one ($169), or stick with my old park tool pump and get one of those canister ,air shot things , 
Anybody use one ? 

 

My tubeless setup is for the cross and mountain bikes. My Vittoria CX tubeless tires mount easily. My other tires are a mixed bag. For those I have a specialized canister that I attach to my pump that works most of the time, but to be honest I get more reliable results if I just use a CO2 cartridge. I’d prefer not to use a disposable method, but then again I am not mounting tires frequently 

To clarify , I'm referring to cross and mountain bike tubeless tire set ups

Mark Taylor said:

To clarify , I'm referring to cross and mountain bike tubeless tire set ups

I have a pump with a boost mode but to be honest either a c02 cartridge or a high-capacity air compressor from Home Depot (or similar) always seems to work best.

A very low tech solution, but I've always had luck using a tube to seat both beads, breaking one to pull the tube out, and then pumping back up to seat the other bead again.

Annoying that its a bit more work, but saves you some money.

My typical way to setup tubeless, in order:

1. Tubeless Tape on rim
2. Tubeless valve setup
3. Mount Tire
4. CO2 Cartridge to explode tire in place (wanna hear those pops!!)
5. Remove valve core (pfffffffff)
6. Put sealant in thru valve
7. Put Valve core back in place
8. Spin, and move tire around so sealant is distributed
9. Reinflate tire with normal pump (50 to 60 psi)
10. If tire is loosing air and wont seal, go back to #5
11. Just in case, plan for #10 in the next morning

You know that short protected on street bike path between Broadway and Fort Washington on West 170th street?  I turned onto it today, first time in a long time, and it was green!  Painted by the DoT.  Finally, I guess.

Only after I was about halfway down the street, I realized that the paint, or some of it, was still wet.  

So I got green pavement paint on my tires, frame, shorts, vest, jersey.  I barely touched any of the paint with my fingers for 90 minutes, as I was riding and assumed if it dried in clumps, it would be easier to get off.  The tires will lose the paint by riding. I'm hoping that Shout can take care of the bike clothing. I think the pro method for removing the paint on the frame is called 'fingernail scraping.'

Where I'm stuck is with my saddle.  It's a leather cover, so I'm reluctant to use a steel-bristle brush.  I don't know if a used toothbrush is enough.  

And the apartment reeks.

Any suggestions for paint removal?  

@DanSztanga
ive used that technique also 

a compressor sound interesting , but i will avoid Home  depot , huge trump backer

@mugwump try a little olive oil on a rag for the saddle (try it on the least visible spot first as a test)

Does anyone have a suggestion how to fix hydro disc brake caliper after accidentally pulling the lever with the front wheel off?  The wheel fits back into place in the dropouts and I’m able to tighten the thru axle, but when I give the wheel a spin it stops after a few rotations.  Also the lever travels much less than the other side, which I assume is a result of the pads contacting the rotor before the lever is even pulled.  

If the caliper can slide in over the rotor, you should be able to take the pads out and there should be enough room to slip in a screwdriver or something flat to push the pistons apart. 

Just make sure to apply even pressure across the piston so it doesn't go back in cocked or it can get stuck.


Here's a video from Park Tool, the relevant section starts at 4:06. Of course they make a special too for it. 
https://youtu.be/Xqw0SaZl-jo