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2024-09-19

Securing Dropouts

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.

2024-07-25

gear, bicycle, bondage

Further Developments in Bondage

Back when I began using ROK Straps, I added ITW Web Dominators to control the tail-end of the strap. This tail-end has a sewn-in loop, just like the loops that are used to connect the strap to the mounting platform. Years later somebody told me that you are meant to run this tail-end loop through the male side of the buckle, thus securing the excess without any need for Web Dominators or Velcro OneWrap or any such tomfoolery. This is obvious in retrospect, but I didn’t realize it until it was pointed out to me.

I removed my Web Dominators and have not looked back. Looping the Rok Strap through itself in this matter allows you to more quickly adjust the length of the strap, as you do not need to take the time to roll or unroll and secure the tail-end. It works great both when the straps are not in use and stowed flat on the rack, and when they are expanded out to secure a large load.

2024-07-24

gear, eyewear, review

Celyfos Spectacle Protection

Back in 2022 I purchased a Celyfos case for my Rudy Rydons. The case is one my favorite things. The leather is beautiful. The front of the case is made of a stiff double layer of veg-tan, with a nubuck lining to protect the lenses. The shape and rigidity of this piece protects the eyewear from downward pressure applied along the top of the case. The internal nose bridge is leather on top of a plastic liner. This protects the eyewear from pressure applied along the front face of the case, toward the lenses. You could still damage the temple arms of your optics by placing a well aimed butt-cheek on the rear of the case, but the case will not be deformed by typical negligent abuse. I have no concern about blindly throwing the case into a pack where it may be tossed around or buried under heavy things. The sports model, sold for Oakley glasses, fits the Rudy Rydons perfectly.

When I refreshed my Julbo Micropores I decided that they deserved a Celyfos case of their own. I went with the medium-sized Atlas model. This one has the same thick leather and overbuilt nose bridge as the sports-wrap case, but also includes a plastic liner between the leather layers of the front face. The liner offers even greater crush resistance. Now that I can compare both side-by-side, I think that the sports model, without the liner, is stiff enough just by the nature of the leather and well thought out design that the addition of the plastic liner probably does not offer much practical advantage.

Unfortunately the new case is not a perfect fit for the Micropores. The Micropores have ear hooks that extend down below the bottom of the lens. This raises the spectacles in the case, preventing the nose bridge of the case from fully supporting the eyewear. They still fit in the case, but the peak of the Micropore’s nose bridge is slightly proud of the front of the case. Top-down pressure will be applied directly to the glasses, rather than being intercepted by the case’s rigid front piece. The case still succeeds in protecting against pressure applied along the front face of the case, towards the lenses.

I am still pleased with the new case. I am confident it will protect the Micropores adequately for my use. I think it would only be improved upon by designing a case specific to the typical shape of classic glacier glasses, similar to how the Rydon case is designed specifically to the unique contours of typical sports-wrap eyewear.

Celyfos cases are made-to-order in an Athens atelier, so some customization is possible. For both of mine, I specified black thread, brass hardware, and had my surname embossed.

2024-07-19

gear, eyewear

Micropore Refresh

In 2008 I purchased a pair of Julbo Micropore glacier glasses from Opticus. This was before PRK, so I needed prescription lenses.

At that time, Opticus was the main (perhaps only) supplier of prescription glacier glasses for the US Antarctic Program and Raytheon Polar Services. Opticus sent me the frames with the prescription lenses installed, but included the uninstalled standard Julbo lenses in the package.

After my surgical shine job I installed the standard lenses, but still did not get back into the habit of wearing the Micropore glasses. They had quite a few miles on them by then. Both the nose pads and the rubber covers on ear hooks at the end of the temple arms were torn up, which diminished their comfort. And outside of deployments under Special Circumstances – like being on a glacier (do they still have those?) – the Micropores are not as functional as my Rudy Rydons. They fail to meet my simple sunglass criteria. Yet they are fun to wear, and unlike sports-wrap style spectacles like the Rydons, the Micropores fold down flat (more so if you do not have the leather side shields installed, as I usually do not). That is attractive for travel when you want to be able to store your spectacles without taking up a lot of space in a bag.

Julbo discontinued the Micropores I-don’t-know-how-many years ago. I think the modern equivalent is the Julbo Cham. But I recently learned that Julbo still offers spare Micropore parts. When I saw that, I jumped at the chance to refresh my pair. I purchased new temple arms, a new nose pad, and a new nose bridge.

I couldn’t actually figure out how to remove the old nose bridge. But once I removed everything that was obviously removable, I was able to clean my original nose bridge and decided that I didn’t actually need to replace that part (and my old one was already sanitized). The temple arms and nose pad were simple to replace.

The aggressive curve of the ear-hooks on this style of spectacles does not work well with the cable retention I use on the Rydons. Nor is such a thing necessary to keep them on your face – those big hooks keep them secure. But I do like the option of having some sort of lanyard so that I can drop the glasses and let them hang around my neck. This is especially useful given that the lenses are not photochromic. The Micropores originally came with a simple nylon cord, but I don’t know what happened to that. Now I am using a Chums Tech Cord. It is an injection molded piece of silicone, and about as simple as it gets. I like it.

The Micropores remain inferior to the Rydons, but I’m enjoying wearing them again intermittently. It is pleasing to be able to buy new components and rebuild old equipment. Eventually I may get custom cut lenses.

2024-06-05

bicycle, gear

Hafny FR03 Jones Bar Mirror

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.

2024-03-11

gear, bicycle

The Elusive Triple Crank

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.)

2024-02-25

gear, edc

Elzetta Retention

As I have previously mentioned, I started out using a Prometheus Lights Titanium Pocket Clip on the Elzetta Alpha before switching to the now-discontinued Raven Pocket Clip in 2016. The O-ring provided by the Raven Pocket Clip is key to how I use the light. It allows me to release the light and use my hand for something else, without dropping the light. The clip itself is perfectly adequate, though not as tight and springy as the titanium clip.

Last summer, I decided to move back to the titanium clip, but to add my own O-ring. I basically knocked off what Retention Ring sells, just using spare bits I already had around. It consists of a little bit of Lawson Ironwire, an O-ring with 1” internal diameter, a tiny piece of heat shrink tubing, and a knot. It isn’t pretty, but it has been working great as part of my EDC for the past 8 months.

This article was modified 2024-03-10.

2024-01-05

gear, audio, edc

How I Audio: Mobile Edition

I do not regularly listen to audio of any sort outside of home or the office. But I value the ability to do so, so I always carry earbuds in my bag. As with headphones, the cable is the usual failure point. The solution, once again, is modularity.

Specifically, I recommend skipping the entire consumer earbud category and going straight to “professional” in-ear monitors.

I carry Shure SE215 IEMs. These are near the bottom-end of the IEM market. I’ve heard people claim that paying hundreds, or thousands, of dollars for custom-molded IEMs is worth it. I’ve heard other people claim that the Chi-Fi market now offers IEMs that are cheaper than the SE215s and yet provide better audio quality. To my non-discerning ears, the SE215s sound great, and they satisfy my listening and comfort requirements. But more important than the specific make or model is that most products in this market segment will offer replaceable cables. The SE215s use an MMCX connector.

For portable use, I want a cable with an inline mic (and 3-button remote) so that I have the option of using it to go hands free with my pocket telephone. Shure sells IEMs with such a cable. This cable failed for me after a couple years. Fortunately, the Chinese Communist Party has realized Marx’s dream of a practically infinite supply of generic MMCX cables with inline mics for dirt cheap. I’m now using a cable I bought off AliExpress for about $10, and if I have to spend another $10 in another couple years I shan’t shed a tear. (If this was for more than occasional and incidental use, I would likely purchase something like the Antlion Kumura Cable or Kinera Gramr, but I’m not going to carry that sort of thing around in my bag just in case.)

I prefer silicone eartips when out and about in the world. They are long lasting and easy to clean. They don’t provide as much isolation as foam tips, but I consider that a feature rather than a bug; I don’t want to be cut off from the surrounding environment. (In special circumstances where I do actually want to block or diminish environmental sound, I use actual ear protection). My favorite tips are the Spinfit CP100+. The medium size feels good upon initial insertion, but I find the small size is more comfortable after a couple hours of continuous penetration.

As a general rule, I subscribe to the Kamala Harris School of Audio Peripherals, as documented in my favorite example of modern hard-hitting investigative journalism. Wireless is a trap. But I admit that there are times when a wireless connection is convenient and worth the additional hassle, however few and far between those times may be. With a modular system, this can easily be addressed by the addition of an adapter.

Originally I thought I might purchase something like the FiiO UTWS5 or Shure RMCE-TW2. But both of these utilize telephone software, which I’m allergic to, and I realized I didn’t actually understand what the sales pitch was for this new-fangled category of “true wireless” earbuds.

Instead, I ended up going back to AliExpress and purchasing a much cheaper necklace style adapter. This isn’t something I carry everyday, but it’s nice to have the option to grab it when plans warrant.

Bluetooth is the one component of the modern audio stack where the technology is still improving – or, at least, getting less bad – so using an interchangeable module here makes sense. The adapter I purchased is built on the Qualcomm QCC5181 chip, providing Bluetooth 5.4, which appears to still be the latest and greatest thing. Portable Bluetooth devices have a limited service life due to their integrated batteries, so again, modularity makes sense here. When these batteries fail, or when I determine it is worth updating to the latest chip, I just buy a new adapter rather than purchasing a whole new system. (It’d be great if we could buy adapters with replaceable batteries, but that seems to be a dream too far.)

If someday in the future I decide it is worth it to buy custom molded IEMs, I’ll just order them with an MMCX connector and they’ll be able to play nicely with my existing ecosystem of cables and adapters. This is the antithesis of the market trend and may result in the revocation of one’s listener license.