When packing a bike for air travel or shipping, at least one wheel usually must be removed. This leaves the fork or rear dropout susceptible to damage if inward force is applied to the void where the hub of the removed wheel would usually be. Some sort of rigid spacer must be inserted into the axle space to prevent this. Rolled-up cardboard is a common disposable solution.

When searching to see if there was a better solution to this, I came across a post on Bicycles Stack Exchange:

The best and cheapest way to protect your fork and rear drop out is to use a fully threaded bolt, four large washers and four butterfly nuts. A washer and butterfly nut goes inside on both sides and the same is attached on the outside of both sides. Tighten the two interior butterflies against the washers where they are snug and not pushing the frame/fork out past its limits. Then tighten the butterflies on the outside firmly inward, to immobilize the fork or rear dropout.

For the past 20 years, I have been shipping approximately 100-200 bikes to the east coast and back for a yearly event, and this has kept all bikes shipped without damage. It costs approximately $3-5. Soft sided cases are terrible unless there’s a frame involved, and that’s usually marginal.

If I could post a photo of the item I would, but I’m not sure how. In the diagram below, F is the fork or frame, - is bolt or threaded rod, { is a butterfly nut or wing nut, and | is a washer.

- } | F | { - - - } | F | { -

I thought this was a great idea, made even better by the fact that I use Pitlock security skewers on my bikes.

Pitlock skewers usually are just threaded on the business end, with the rest of the rod being smooth. But I recalled seeing that Pitlock also offered fully threaded 240mm joker skewers. Switching to these allows me to implement the above solution with my normal skewer and Pitlock bits, with only the addition of two M5 fender washers and wing nuts (per wheel). That’s only an additional 9 grams (per wheel) to add to my touring kit.

I used this solution on my recent Redoubt tour around Idaho and Montana. It worked great on both flights, despite TSA’s comical attempt to repack the box after inspection on my return flight. The box I rescued from my local bike shop was long enough that I only had to remove the front wheel (and front fender and front rack), so I didn’t have to use this trick on the rear dropouts. I still packed the two washers and wing nuts for the rear in case I found myself with a smaller box for the flight home. They’re small enough and light enough that I don’t mind packing them just-in-case.

I’m glad to have a permanent solution to this problem. So far I have only purchased a single pair of the fully threaded skewers for my new touring bike, but I’ll probably buy a second pair to replace the normal Pitlock skewers on my road bike in case I ever decide to fly with that one.

I tried a few different mirrors on my Jones Loop H-Bars.

The D+D Oberlauda UltraLite Bike Mirror mounted underneath the bars just before the weld worked decently, but the mirror’s clamp is annoying when you want to rest your hand on top of that part of the bar.

After further trials, I developed a preference for the Hafny HF-M951B-FR03. This opinion is shared by others.

The FR03 uses the same high quality glass and mount as the FR06 model Hafny on my road bike, but the two models have slight differences. The mirror of the FR03 is round, where the FR06 has a subtle teardrop shape. The bracket which connects the FR03 to the bar plug attaches to the edge of the mirror, where on the FR06 the bracket attaches in the center of the rear of the mirror. These differences make the FR03 better suited to flat bars, and the FR06 better suited to drop bars.

A bike with Jones bar is a wide load, and a bar-end mirror makes it even wider. I compensate for this by only having a left-side mirror, which gets the job done. I also keep the adjustment bolt loose enough that I can tilt the mirror into the bars if I’m squeezing through a narrow passage.

I broke the drive-side crank on my New Albion XDT crankset. I have strong legs.

The crankset was only 5 years old. I don’t track distance, so I don’t know what sort of mileage it had – more than 10,000 miles and less than 100,000, on a healthy mixture of pavement and dirt – but it is certainly too new for these sorts of shenanigans.

New Albion is one of the many brands of local company Merry Sales. They are responsible for bringing a number of Japanese bicycle components to the American market, and are usually associated with quality equipment. The New Albion XDT is basically a clone of the Sugino XD – made from the same molds, in the same factory, out of the same 6061 aluminum. I also have a lot of miles on an actual Sugino XD (and I put an old one back on after this break so I could limp around town while deciding on a more permanent fix). I’ve never had any problems with that crank. So I’m prepared to accept that this was just a fluke, and it probably would not happen again, but I still wanted to replace it with something I could have more confidence in.

Unfortunately the dystopian hellscape that is the modern bicycle industry means square taper triple cranks are few and far between.

Fortunately Rivendell is still fighting the good fight. The best option I found was their Silver crank. These are made of 7075 aluminum, and Rivendell claims that they pass the EN 14766 mountain bike fatigue standard. They use a 110 BCD for the middle and outer rings, and 74 BCD for the inner. That makes them compatible with any triple chainrings a reasonable connoisseur would want to use.

I bought their full triple crankset with 44x34x24 chainrings. But as I was waiting for it to ship, I sat staring at my broken New Albion crankset and decided that its 48x36x26 chainrings were all still in pretty good shape (if in need of a cleaning). And while I was prepared to try Rivendell’s gearing, I do really like the big 48 ring for flying down mountain roads, and I’ve never really felt like I need anything lower than a 26 granny gear on this bike. So when the Silver crankset arrived, I broke it apart, stored its chainrings for later use, and installed the (cleaned) rings from the New Albion.

The Silver seems to have a slightly wider Q factor than a Sugino or any of its clones. I run a Phil Wood bottom bracket with a 113mm spindle, just like God intended. After slapping on the Silver, I was getting some chain rub on the big chainring when in the two outermost sprockets on the cassette. I was able to adjust the derailleur to account for this, but that makes me think that a couple millimeter shorter spindle would be needed to maintain the same Q factor as I had before. The difference is minor enough that I don’t notice it when actually pedalling. It rides great. And it looks pretty good too.

The other options that turned up in my search all disappointed in one way or another.

The Velo Orange Grand Cru 110 is pretty, but they recommend a 124mm bottom bracket. I didn’t want to buy a new bottom bracket.

The Rene Herse Triple is pretty and passes the EN 14781 racing bike fatigue standard (which I’m guessing is lesser than the mountain bike standard), but is prohibitively expensive, and they too recommend a wider bottom bracket. Their instructions also state that “if you have broken cranks in the past, we recommend that you do not use lightweight components like the Rene Herse cranks.” I now belong to that rarefied coterie, so they’re not for me.

Sugino triples are still to be found here and there, but can be difficult to locate. I wanted something stronger than the 6061 aluminum of the XD, if only for my own psychological comfort. Some years ago I ran a Sugino Alpina 2 Triple. I don’t remember what kind of aluminum it was made of. I stripped the threads on the drive-side after I wore down the bearings on my previous Phil Wood bottom bracket until they were mush and rounded the spindle (they said it couldn’t be done – I took that as a challenge). So I didn’t really want another one of those.

If I had been displeased with the Silver, I would have purchased a Spa Cycles TD-2. This is another Sugino clone – made in the same factory, out of the same molds – but it is made of 2014 aluminum, so ought to be plenty strong. (It’s also a clone of the Alpina 2 rather than the XD. That means the 5th bolt is easy to access, rather than hidden behind the crank, which makes swapping around rings easier.)

But as it is I’m very happy with the Silver cranks. If you need a well designed and well built square taper triple crank – and who doesn’t – I’d say just buy one of those and be done with it. I see no reason why the cranks shouldn’t last me forever. When I need new chainrings, if I don’t want to go with the 44x34x24 gearing from Rivendell, I’ll probably buy the Spécialités T.A. rings that Spa Cycles sells. (I’m pretty anal about staying on top of chain wear, so it may be a while.)