Wonders of remodeling

While Bethany was at yoga tonight, Silas, Guthrie, and I took a stroll around Bloomfield. The Bloomfield Bridge Tavern has undergone some interesting renovation in its years. It is sad that the stained glass window no longer ever sees the light of day (in photo above).

The picture below shows a great faux-bricked in doorway as well as a brilliant retrofit set of windows. I wonder if the board was intended to keep the rain off the mailboxes or if it has some other purpose that's unclear to the casual observer.

Brake replacement

The rear brakes on my road bike have been acting up for a while. I suspected the brake pads were worn, but hadn't really taken the time to pull them apart and check them until yesterday. Turns out that they were less worn than I feared. I was worried I'd blasted all the way through the brake material into the metal substrate. Luckily, that hadn't happened yet, but you can see in the first picture below that it was very near at hand on the inboard pad. The big problem was that the retaining/return spring had broken. This forced the outboard pad into misalignment and allowed the grab tab on that pad to rub on the rotor. The wear on the rotor is visible, but it doesn't appear to be seriously grooved. I'll be keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't warp or rust out.


For comparison, here is the set I pulled from my parts bike to replace the pair shown above. The spring has much more spread to it, not to mention is still whole. The pads have a little wear, but I didn't have many miles on that bike before I got hit on it and destroyed the frame.


For reference, these are for an Avid BB7 road mechanical disc brake. The pads have something like 1,500-2000 miles on them, including this past winter's commuting.

Dead cassette too

Despite my relatively frequent chain changes, my rear cassette has died. I've put either 3 or 4 chains on the bike in 2 years at 800-1,000 mile intervals. I guess the winter riding and all the crap on the roads that sticks to the drivetrain takes it toll. I really don't think I'm a believer in the recent craze in 10-speed cassettes. It makes the chains very narrow and much less durable. There is less tolerance all around. They're fine for fair-weather training and for racing, but as a commuter, I feel pretty ill-served.

After changing the chain this last time, it's been skipping in the middle gears. I checked for a seized link and for the correct chain length. They check out fine. I measured the last chain, and it's not that bad. Not quite the 1/8 inch stretch over 12 inches that most references suggest doing a cassette change at the same time. On closer inspection of the sprockets, it's pretty clear the teeth are worn badly on the sprockets I tend to use the most. I had the mechanic at the Trek store swap out the cassette with the one on my parts bike (the one I got hit on a month after getting). While it was sunny, I went for a 20+ ride in the hills and didn't experience any skipping.

Broken chain

My chain broke this past week. It failed at the link that I had opened it up to clean it a month or so ago. Darn. So much for my confidence with the chain tool. It probably had 1,000 or more miles on it, so it was time. I had wanted to get more of the rainy spring weather behind me before I changed to the next $60 chain.

In any case, a bike drivetrain overhaul needs few tools, but requires some good company. Silas and Guthrie hung out with me. The sum total of tools needed was a chain tool (to add/remove links), a rag, a bit of lubricant, and a bottle of decent beer (Lake Louie Milk Stout, in this case).


Silas is pulling himself up on everything, including things that rotate. I put my trust in the bike, why shouldn't I encourage him to? :)

Clean chain!

My chain recently spent a few hours bathing in a cleansing bath of citrus degreaser. It was much happier as a result, as was I. I didn't feel like I was leaving little piles of gear dust on Liberty Ave so I could find my way back home at the end of the day.