dang that thing is TAF
This is worth a read re: buffalo bike and WBR
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I nearly included that link too. Doesn’t paint wbr in a great light
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The previous article in the series is more favourable, but still… not a good look for WBR
I installed my stoner mystery light. The thing is beautiful. It’ll look great with my front VO fender if I ever get around to installing it.
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put fenders on and made mudflaps. Need to tweak em a bit or just wait for those new VO stays cuz the nuts on the inside intrude so much its hard to get a good fenderline without the tire hitting them. Also put in a disconnect for the rear light wire so i can move it if i take the fenders off. Put a steerer extender on a while back and i’m actually sort of enjoying riding this bike sometimes.
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love how stuffed those fenders are
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That’s a handsome bike!
need
I spent a hour applying vinyl decals to my spray painted double cross. Then I messed around with two different steel forks deciding on which color I liked better. Moving things around just checking them out and how they matched everything else.
When I was done I had to move some old bike stuff that had been buried in my Mom’s basement. I picked up a carbon road fork, something I haven’t held in my hands in almost a decade, and it was like I was jolted back to reality from a waking dream. I had to stand there looking at it in surprise, waving it around and feeling the nonexistent weight. As if my hands held nothing at all, a whisper.
Shock realization I’ve pushed too far into the past and need to return to modernity. It’s time…
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I fought the 1975 tandem again and it won, again.
Now the bar end shifter pod is stuck ON the bar end shifter but not IN the bar. ugh.
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tl;dr I spent an entire evening unnecessarily dithering brakes on a bike that had just fine brakes to begin with, leaving two other bikes temporarily unridable in the process, and now I have to consume a replacement set of short pull levers for one of those bikes. Not that I would have been doing anything better with my evening otherwise.
A local shop had a deal on some previously mounted short pull flat mount Klampers, so I bought those recently and they gave me some long pull arms that were sitting around to go with them. Except it turns out those arms were for the older post mount Klampers and are not compatible with the flat mounts/newer brakes because the part of the arm where the cable clamps has less offset than the new arms, and I had to order the correct long pull arms from Paul. Those showed up yesterday and I started dithering after work.
Took some sandpaper to a set of lightly used rotors, put the long arms on the brakes, and started putting stuff together. I wanted to use the silver XTR levers that were on another bike, which meant taking grips/levers off the bike being dithered upon, then blowing off the Oury grips I’d put on the other bike to discourage dithering (lol, lmao). Connected the levers to the brakes and WTH they felt awful. It turns out that the angle of the cable stop on the flat mount Klampers is really only setup for short pull arms and the long pull arms end up making the cable rub against the inside of the barrel adjuster when the brakes are used. WTH. Walked away from the bike at this point.
Went back to the bike a little later and decided to try some long pull flat mount Tektros instead. Except that every time I tried tightening the rear bolt on the rear brake it would pull the caliper out of alignment and various combinations of tightening sequences didn’t make a difference. I’ve had that happen with crappy hardware/adapters on other bikes, so I tried some different adapters/hardware even though this stuff should have been good (Shimano hardware, TRP adapters) and had worked just fine with the Klampers. Same problem. Walked away from the bike again.
Went back to the bike a little later and should have just put the original brakes/rotors back on (MX-5 experts), but didn’t against my better judgement (no, dig up, stupid). Took the Tektros off, put the Klampers back on with the short arms. Took the cheap Tektro short pull levers off a third bike. Hooked everything up, adjusted the calipers, and the brakes felt pretty great. Took the bike out of the stand and thought I was done. Except whoops I hadn’t tightened the rotor lockrings on either wheel before doing all that, lol. Bike goes back in the stand, wheels come off to tighten the lockrings, and ended up having to only mess with adjusting one caliper thankfully.
Bikes are great and also awful.
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Took me almost 7 hours to get to this point in the build I have no idea
what took so long. I started at Noon and then before I realized, it was past dinner time. Chain, sealant, and finish cables tomorrow.
I hate doing a first ride in the rain so probably wait until Friday to take it out.
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Especially with those fenders!
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didn’t realize the Soma DCs ever took a tapered fork, I thought they were all straight 1 1/8. Might be a no-go
Packed up my neutrino for a 2.5 week trip in Asia. TW, JP, KR. I’ll be packing and unpacking this thing 6 times.
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Cool. Ask Takahiro for the latest at Growtac!
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Pulled most of the old sealant out of an old MTB tire, I think this is about a quart of Stans and a quart of Truckerco, maybe +60ml Stan’s Race.
Tire also absorbed ~100g+ of glycol (?) from the sealant that did not weep out or evaporate over the several months it sat outside on a covered balcony.
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is sidewall weep more common in gumwalls?
An actual gumwall type, like this old GravelKing, no. You can see the outer sealing layer over the casing rubber. Seeping can happen but it’s most likely due to non-structural damage to the casing that stains the outer rubber and eventually seeps through.
A skinwall, like these two tires, a very old WTB Prowler and Compass BSP, yes. The sealant only has to go through 2-3 layers instead of 4-6.
Old dudes on IBOB have been turning their skinwalls into gumwalls with carpet adhesive and other methods to extend their life for many years. I tried it with sealant myself and it worked for a bit but it really takes a lot of make a new layer on the sidewall.
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