[Toshi]

This wasn't for the pedals (6 mm for those) but for the 8 mm crankarm bolt that when backed out supposedly self extracts the right side crank. Could not get that to move for the life of me.

I'm going to order a 10 m (!) spool of Shimano shifter housing for the 29er and new Park allens for me/the crankarm and give it another try this weekend.

 

[StiHacka]

A breaker bar or pipe extension on the wrench is a better idea, less likely to strip it out. Just make sure you are turning it the right way. Right side pedal uses regular threads(right hand), left side the opposite of normal (left hand).

This. 1/4" inexpensive ratchet, quality 8mm allen key socket, 3ft PVC pipe. Works wonders not only on pedals but also on cranks where you need every bit of torque.

 

[Westy]

This. 1/4" inexpensive ratchet, quality 8mm allen key socket, 3ft PVC pipe. Works wonders not only on pedals but also on cranks where you need every bit of torque.

Probably enough for bike work, but unless you like plastic shrapnel in your face I'd opt for a steel/iron pipe.

 

[StiHacka]

Probably enough for bike work, but unless you like plastic shrapnel in your face I'd opt for a steel/iron pipe.

It gets a bit bendy way before cracking, and the torque needed on bikes is not that big.

 

[canadmos]

I'd go with a set of Bondhus allen keys over park. I got a complete set for pretty cheap on amazon, including non-metric ones that I'll never use. Quality seems pretty good.

 

[Nick]

@Toshi : I have a spool of housing and a bottle of ferrules if you just need a few feet.

 

[Toshi]

@Toshi : I have a spool of housing and a bottle of ferrules if you just need a few feet.

Thanks for the offer. I really should have some around since this comes up now and then (and there are no proprietary standards save for the Gore stuff I already have ) so 'tis in the mail from Amazon. The 5010 is rideable as is so I shall ride it and let the commuter bike languish.

Since I can park it in my locked, private office I may well pedal it in to work tomorrow.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

This. 1/4" inexpensive ratchet, quality 8mm allen key socket, 3ft PVC pipe. Works wonders not only on pedals but also on cranks where you need every bit of torque.

Remind me not to let any of you goons wrench on any machine in my possession.

I'd go with a set of Bondhus allen keys over park. I got a complete set for pretty cheap on amazon, including non-metric ones that I'll never use. Quality seems pretty good.

That. an Allen wrench is an Allen wrench and my Bondhus sets, whether or not branded as Park, work just fine.

 

[Toshi]

First outing on new bike today. Also riding tomorrow super early with Stoney.

Fit felt pretty good. Could maybe use 20 mm more on the bars but not a huge deal. Reach felt about right, and my low speed balance on this thing is exceptional, if I do say so myself. I had lots of time to test this as I spent much of the Belcher climb in 32 x 42t at about 40 rpm, nearly halting forward momentum between pedal strokes.



The climb took me about 1.5 hours and I spent another hour picking my way down (and up, rolling trails for part of it) some fun terrain, like the above. I never felt the need for more suspension. The way it's set up now it doesn't feel plush but rather very well damped. It gave me enough confidence that I was popping off the extra trail features on the side of the trail, little booters and the like.

It will be nice to pop on that 28t oval ring and gain an effective granny gear since I had no issues with top end gearing. I'm also not super psyched on the mounted "frontwards" (wrong, right?) DHR II on the front and Ardent on the rear. Dirt traction was great but some of the rocks seemed more slippy slidey than they should have, IMO.

 

[Nick]

@Toshi : that section is on shorthorn, yes? it's a tricky one, and comes up quickly!

 

[Toshi]

Yup, Shorthorn. Proper line is to monster truck it to the right but not far right?

 

[dan-o]

I love that you're back on a proper mountain bike, and riding, toshi.

 

[Toshi]

I love that you're back on a proper mountain bike, and riding, toshi.

I'm digging it, too. I do like the mountains and this is a much healthier way to see them vs scraping the sides of my Land Cruiser on its similar-but-wider trails.

In other news, I'm very glad that I anticipated this and sprung for the 21 SEER two stage AC setup:

The chart depicts the daily high and low temperatures in June. During that month our AC was running for 142 hours on its first stage and 124 hours with the first and second stages both churning away.

That's 37% of the total hours in the month, in other words.

The beauty of the efficient AC (21 SEER + only 2.5 tons by virtue of the insulated house, and the 2.6 kW of PV panels on the roof) is that our monthly gas + electric bill is still only $125-150.


Edit: Forgot that solar kicked in about 350 kWh last month while we used about 170-200 kWh to charge the EV. That changes the power bill math a bit, as does that we run it between 69-73 (69 at night) because being hot is the suck.

 

[Westy]

Remind me not to let any of you goons wrench on any machine in my possession.

That. an Allen wrench is an Allen wrench and my Bondhus sets, whether or not branded as Park, work just fine.

Well there are shit wrenches out there. As someone who used to turn allen wrenches for a living on machines that had significantly higher torque ratings than bicycles I can say Bondhus makes a damn fine wrench. There is some marginally better stuff at there, but at a significantly higher price point.

 

[Toshi]

New Park wrenches are nice. They're oddly long. /that'swhatshesaid

Front rack and pannier setup. Bar still hanging lifelessly because I am an idiot and forgot to get new derailleur cables along with the housing. 10m spool is being returned for a single set of two cables, two housings, requisite ferrules and cable ends. I has teh dumbz.

I found my dedicated crankarm pulling 8 mm and used it to pull the crankarm.

New oval ring is more oval-ish than I expected. Kind of startling feeling. I will try it on Thursday and on this weekend, methinks.

 

[canadmos]

I found my dedicated crankarm pulling 8 mm and used it to pull the crankarm.

I switched to Shimano cranks pretty much because of this. Their pinch bolt setup is sooooooooooo much easier to use. It has saved my bacon two times this year alone; having to take my crank off the bike in the middle of the forest.

 

[Toshi]

I switched to Shimano cranks pretty much because of this. Their pinch bolt setup is sooooooooooo much easier to use. It has saved my bacon two times this year alone; having to take my crank off the bike in the middle of the forest.

I might stuff that lonely non-Park 8 mm into my Camelbak just in case.

 

[SkaredShtles]

In other news, I'm very glad that I anticipated this and sprung for the 21 SEER two stage AC setup:

View attachment 122895

The chart depicts the daily high and low temperatures in June. During that month our AC was running for 142 hours on its first stage and 124 hours with the first and second stages both churning away.

That's 37% of the total hours in the month, in other words.

The beauty of the efficient AC (21 SEER + only 2.5 tons by virtue of the insulated house, and the 2.6 kW of PV panels on the roof) is that our monthly gas + electric bill is still only $125-150.


Edit: Forgot that solar kicked in about 350 kWh last month while we used about 170-200 kWh to charge the EV. That changes the power bill math a bit, as does that we run it between 69-73 (69 at night) because being hot is the suck.

Just paid my Xcel bill for June - a hair over $80. But my water bill has gone up.

 

[Toshi]

Just paid my Xcel bill for June - a hair over $80. But my water bill has gone up.

You probably keep the AC off and windows open. With combination of neurotic wife + young kids that isn't happening in my house. Efficient AC is the best I can do.

 

[Nick]

June bill was $56 for gas and electricity.
I'm in the 'windows open' camp most of the time, but it's been hawt lately.

 

[Toshi]

For comparison's sake our Xcel bill in our half the size rental was about the same as in this house. Windows are always closed and the AC is on all 40% of the time.

 

[SkaredShtles]

You probably keep the AC off and windows open. With combination of neurotic wife + young kids that isn't happening in my house. Efficient AC is the best I can do.

What the hell is she worried about?

I really would like to get some sort of whole-house fan to pull the hot air out in the late afternoon - but we don't have any attic in the house... gotta find some contractor-type that can do something clever.

But yeah - I turned the A/C on for a couple hours one day in June and for about an hour yesterday (we were in the mountains all weekend, so no opening up the house in the evening for a few days).

 

[SkaredShtles]

June bill was $56 for gas and electricity.
I'm in the 'windows open' camp most of the time, but it's been hawt lately.

I have a Weather Underground station very near me - I keep an eye on it in the morning and when the inside temp and outside temp are equal I close the windows and shades. Almost never goes over 80* inside before the sun goes down and all the windows come open again.

 

[Toshi]

What the hell is she worried about?

Noise waking the kids and temperature changes meaning the kids rooms would be too hot initially then possibly (but not likely) too cold later in the night. We have wind and solar offset power and the bill itself isn't huge so it's not a big deal.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Noise waking the kids and temperature changes meaning the kids rooms would be too hot initially then possibly (but not likely) too cold later in the night. We have wind and solar offset power and the bill itself isn't huge so it's not a big deal.

Might I humbly suggest: http://www.thedaddycomplex.com/post/55268573331/latest-parenting-trend-the-ctfd-method

 

[StiHacka]

I switched to Shimano cranks pretty much because of this. Their pinch bolt setup is sooooooooooo much easier to use. It has saved my bacon two times this year alone; having to take my crank off the bike in the middle of the forest.

Nah, the cinch system is pretty good, beats Shimano especially for single front rings. I liked the SRAM GXP the best though, no axial bearing loading to deal with.

 

[Toshi]

 

[Toshi]

Goofy front-panniered commuter now tested. (This from the inside of my office.)

The Soma Clarence bars have a much longer effective reach than my ~760 mm 12 degree sweep bars previously on them despite being narrower. Must order up a significantly shorter stem ASAP.

 

[Toshi]

Things I have tried to get rid of the creaking noise on my 5010:

- reinstall (and lubricate, implied for all) crankarms
- reset bearing preload on spindle
- reinstall Cinch chainring, including trying the OEM 32t round ring and wailing away on the lockring to way above the specified 30 lb-ft
- reinstall and retorque both bottom bracket cups
- try different pedals and reinstall the Saints with proper torque
- reinstall the derailleur hanger and derailleur itself (weird Torx bit!)
- reseat the seatpost and seat upon seatpost
- make sure all the pivot bolts are tight

The headset doesn't have play and doesn't seem to be the source of this creak. It only happens with chain tension, with either crankarm forward, and with just pressure on the forward pedal. Pressure on the forward pedal with brakes unlocked and butt off seat recreates it. Bouncing on the cranks with them parallel to the ground but no tension on the chain does not result in it.

I'm out of ideas. I'm riding Saturday and Sunday mornings, meeting for the latter at Golden Bike Shop. I'll wait after the ride until they open and drop the bike off there for the new bike routine checkup/having them figure this creaking noise out. I'm on call the 30th and 31st anyway so won't be able to ride, so they get two weeks.

 

[Nick]

I'm riding Saturday and Sunday mornings, meeting for the latter at Golden Bike Shop

what is the Sunday ride plan??

 

[StiHacka]

Things I have tried to get rid of the creaking noise on my 5010:

- reinstall (and lubricate, implied for all) crankarms
- reset bearing preload on spindle
- reinstall Cinch chainring, including trying the OEM 32t round ring and wailing away on the lockring to way above the specified 30 lb-ft
- reinstall and retorque both bottom bracket cups
- try different pedals and reinstall the Saints with proper torque
- reinstall the derailleur hanger and derailleur itself (weird Torx bit!)
- reseat the seatpost and seat upon seatpost
- make sure all the pivot bolts are tight

The headset doesn't have play and doesn't seem to be the source of this creak. It only happens with chain tension, with either crankarm forward, and with just pressure on the forward pedal. Pressure on the forward pedal with brakes unlocked and butt off seat recreates it. Bouncing on the cranks with them parallel to the ground but no tension on the chain does not result in it.

I'm out of ideas. I'm riding Saturday and Sunday mornings, meeting for the latter at Golden Bike Shop. I'll wait after the ride until they open and drop the bike off there for the new bike routine checkup/having them figure this creaking noise out. I'm on call the 30th and 31st anyway so won't be able to ride, so they get two weeks.

Shimano RD? Try disengaging the clutch and see if it still creaks.

 

[dan-o]

stuff.

I'd pull the pivot axles and re-grease, just in case.
Super easy, even when drunk.
Assuming you loosened the collets before tightening the pivot axles?

Sram? Both mine and the guy I ride with most had creaks from the cassette/driver (king hubs) on the initial break in rides.
I don't think I did anything to remedy it, it just went away.

 

[Toshi]

what is the Sunday ride plan??

Stoney says Chimpex.

Shimano RD? Try disengaging the clutch and see if it still creaks.

SRAM XD driver with X01 group.

I'd pull the pivot axles and re-grease, just in case.
Super easy, even when drunk.
Assuming you loosened the collets before tightening the pivot axles?

Sram? Both mine and the guy I ride with most had creaks from the cassette/driver (king hubs) on the initial break in rides.
I don't think I did anything to remedy it, it just went away.

Hmm. I just tightened the visible Allen heads on the pivots. I did not know of this twist.

In any case the creak is quieter now. Only noticeable on steep climbs.

 

[Toshi]

I funded my first Kickstarter just now, for an around town bike trike for the wife.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/taga2/taga-20-the-ultimate-most-affordable-family-bike/description

Taga 2.0 with two seats, accessory bar, rear rack, and electric assist. That thing will be perfect for my wife's use in ferrying the kids.

$1655 shipped, assuming they don't take the Kickstarter money and run.

Pledge successfully funded after convincing Chase over the phone that the charge from Kickstarter indeed is not fraudulent.

From the Kickstarter page, "2,323 backers pledged $2,568,586 to help bring this project to life." Not bad considering their goal was $100,000!

Said page also seems to indicate that it'll ship around Christmas time even though they're charging my card now. Harumph. Still should be nice for around-neighborhood wheels-with-kids for the wife. The 2.5 car garage is rapidly running out of space, even with the shelving and overhead storage that I added. We can certainly resell the bike trailer that sits idle almost all the time once the Taga is in hand.

 

[Adventurous]

June bill was $56 for gas and electricity.
I'm in the 'windows open' camp most of the time, but it's been hawt lately.

June bill for me was $78 and that was with the A/C on the entire time. Granted I let the house get up to 78 during the weekdays but otherwise don't touch the thermostat and let it do its thing. Very pleasant.

 

[Toshi]

First day commuting with the dork-logger. I knew there was elevation gain on the way to work! (One would expect this as I go upstream along Sand Creek and water generally follows a slope.)

The dip at 4:00 is probably artifactual/GPS dropout? 12:40 is going under then climbing up from the railroad trestle (commuter rail and cargo rail lines). 26:00 is waiting to cross Peoria St at a crosswalk. It looks like there were two spurious spikes in heart rate logged but overall seems quite ok for a wrist sensor.

 

[Toshi]

@Nick @stoney @Adventurous: So I booked a long weekend in Winter Park, Labor Day weekend. (Phish concert at Dick's Sporting Goods park, and given how audible Bassnectar and Wu Tang Clan were this weekend I want to be out of the neighborhood.)

I can certainly carve out a half day for the bike park while I'm there. Should I just bring my 5010 and XC lid and go to town? No big drops on the regular lines a la Whistler, right? (Clown Shoes is more than I'd hit on my 5010!)

 

[Nick]

plenty of lower risk trails at WP for sure and only one trail with mandatory features.
XC lid is up to you. If you don't smash your face you'll be fine!

 

[Toshi]

plenty of lower risk trails at WP for sure and only one trail with mandatory features.
XC lid is up to you. If you don't smash your face you'll be fine!

Coolness. Looks like I'll be allowed one 10-5 day on the mountain by the wife. We're bringing the mother in law for kid shepherding assistance because doing so is basically free with the United (and Southwest, in this case,) points I have lying around.

I wonder if I should log those lift assisted runs as skiing in my dork-logger watch.

 

[Toshi]

To follow up on my earlier post about AC usage and efficiency, which revealed that my house runs the unit waaay more than you cheap bastards:

This article suggests that going from a 69 thermostat setting, as we run overnight, to 75 degrees could save perhaps 50%. (It actually states "Lowering the thermostat to 72 degrees [from 75 degrees] may have increased some bills by 34 percent" but I'm extrapolating from there.)

Last month was an expensive Xcel bill for us: $177, of which $144 was electricity, $22 natural gas, the rest taxes and fees. The question is how much of this electricity usage is from the AC. Per Solar City our their panels produced 353 kWh last month. Therefore we actually used 972 billed + 353 generated kWh, whereas in the winter months we're in the ballpark of 800-1000 kWh used per month. Let's be generous and say that the AC sucked up 500 kWh.

This means we're paying about $50/month for the AC, accounting for the solar. We could lower this to $25/month if we added in a ductless minisplit system like the system I got a quote for today, but then again the system would cost money to run. Accounting for high efficiency and smaller size (perhaps 1 ton–whole house AC currently is 2.5 tons) let's say we'd save $12.50 per month.

I haven't gotten the quote but the lowest I foresee it being is $6k (this for one outside condenser/compressor, 3 linesets, 3 heads running to the upstairs bedrooms via the shortest/cheapest outside routing). By very simple arithmetic not accounting for the time value of money that'd be a payoff time of about 80 years since the AC is only on for at most half the year's months. (The heat pump aspect would save some energy in the winter months but given how cheap natural gas is I doubt it'd save anything significant…)

Somehow I don't see this making financial sense. Instead we probably will continue to set the thermostat at 69 and marvel at how cheap electricity is (and how efficient our 21 SEER two stage AC unit is).



Update: Dude never sent me a quote at all.