Thread: Chain waxing
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Old June 13th 18, 05:33 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
JBeattie
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Default Chain waxing

On Wednesday, June 13, 2018 at 7:59:54 AM UTC-7, duane wrote:
On 12/06/2018 8:56 PM, James wrote:
On 13/06/18 08:53, Frank Krygowski wrote:

But now we have true global communication; and people emotional
evolution isn't up to it. We hear about someone on literally the
opposite end of the earth having wallaby problems while bicycling, and
many people seem to say "Damn! I'd better get better brakes on my
bike! No telling where those wallabies will pop out next!"


Strange. I don't recall hearing "many people" say that.Â* Not even
seeming to say it.Â* Are the voices you hear in your head, by chance?

Some skeptics look instead at the data on bike crash causes and say "I
might hit a dog once every million miles; less often if I watch out
for them. I think I'll just watch out for them."

But math is hard.


I ran over a wallaby's tail while descending a small mountain some years
back, and now that I live where there are a lot of wallabies and
kangaroos, I certainly do watch out for them.Â* I most certainly haven't
thought about getting better brakes, just as I haven't heard "many"
others say anything like that.

Perhaps I'm not hearing the same voices in my head as you, Frank.


I had an aligator cross highway 11 in front of me outside of New Orleans
once. He was a baby though, only 4 or 5 feet and seemed more concerned
with getting out of the sun than bothering me. I don't watch out for
them very much, especially as there aren't many in Quebec.

I did hit a cat a couple of years ago. Now if I see a cat on the side
of the road trying to cross I would probably stop and let it go rather
than assuming it would not jump into my wheel.

I'm not sure what this has to do with data tracking or chain waxing or
whatever. WRT brakes, I've heard people discuss the benefits of disc
brakes in wet but never as a solution to avoiding animals. Well except
the one that you already noted...


Discs do double-duty here in the PNW -- avoiding wet animals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFZbciPzAYk

Speaking of discs -- caution, technical comment: I emoted earlier about my son riding the Norco Search (my gravel bike) and getting horrendous chain suck that basically ate up part of the BB, chainstay and downtube. So, in a fit of money-wasting, I took it over to Ruckus for some carbon repair. Not cheap, but the paint matching was incredibly good, in fact, invisible. Its not a show bike, and I really didn't need to match, but since I was descending into the money-pit of repair, what the heck. Keep the economy strong. The CF repair added some bulk, but you would have to do a side-by-side with an original frame to notice. Ruckus does amazing work.

Anyway, after blowing an inordinate amount of time re-running the internal hoses and cables (note to those watching at home -- on the Search, unlike a Roubaix or other bike with a BB "compartment," run the cables and hoses BEFORE putting in the PF bottom bracket), I got the bike up and running, and the rear disc was really weak. The lever felt fine, but the bike didn't stop with rear braking alone.

I had re-terminated the rear disc hose because I had to cut it to get it out of the frame (new olive and barb -- again, warning -- Shimano has a couple of olive and barb standards) and juiced it up with new massage oil; I got all the air out of the system, and the pistons seemed to be working well, but stopping was crappy. So, I put some brake cleaner on the rotor, but that didn't make much difference. Then I replaced the pad, which was not worn out but badly glazed or polluted in some way. The replacement works great, and I'll clean-up the old pad for a spare, but the moral of the story is that discs are not magic. They can foul and work poorly. My front brake on the Norco drags after hard braking even though I've cleaned (alcohol) and lightly lubed (a little TriFlow) the pistons.

In perfect working order, the dry-weather braking is on par with a dual pivot and maybe a little more powerful in the rear, which means no ham-handed right lever braking because you'll fish-tail, but switching between those brakes and my Emonda direct mount brakes, the difference is negligible -- although the rim brakes do add shudder if the wheel has a bad seam or is out of true. Discs add screaming and can add shuddering. The rim brakes never drag, ping or do any of the other weird and episodic disc things. On a mostly dry weather racing bike, I see no reason for discs -- except for long descents on CF wheels, which may be reason enough to have them, although there has been no hue and cry from the Euro pros.

Final note, one thing that drove me crazy about the Norco was the internal cable rattle. The rear derailleur cable runs through housing from the lever to the derailleur, and when I reinstalled it, I put a foam sleeve around it. It's now quiet. Don't know why that wasn't OE. Running internal cables adds an hour to building a bike, at least for me. I don't have one of those fish tools and have to get creative (often with my language).

-- Jay Beattie

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