Tips for using Frame Saver

All this fall weather may have you thinking about riding your bike in the cold and wet. If you have a carbon fiber or titanium bike frame, you should probably at least consider your components and bearings. Why not concern yourself with the frame? Well, your titanium frame will outlast you and probably the cockroaches that take over the planet after we're gone. Your carbon fiber frame is mostly plastic, and as we all know, that just doesn't break down in water. A decent set of fenders, or better yet, a classy pair of fenders, will do a lot to keep your bearings free of muck.

If you have a steel frame, you should consider rust. Any nicks in the paint can be touched up with color matched paint, or if you don't have that, some nail polish from the drug store is an inexpensive and durable option. The inside of a store-bought frame is probably not protected in any way. Water wicks down your seatpost, gets in the weld weep holes and generally finds a way inside. One thing you can do to protect your frame is spray JP Weigle frame saver inside. When doing this to your off the shelf bike, you'll need to remove your bottom bracket, seatpost and fork to keep those parts from getting gummed up and giving you access to the frame. You can spray the stuff into the frame through weep holes, welding holes and braze on holes (such as bottle bosses). In fact, spray from both ends of every tube. You don't necessarily need to de-cable the bike.

Spray frame saver into weep holes

You can stuff your bottom bracket with a rag to keep the frame saver out of the threads. You should lightly grease those anyway. The stuff will run out of the frame so you should do this over dirt or some newspaper. To protect the paint of your frame, you can tie a rag around any tubes, just below openings to catch drips. I left the rear derailler on my road bike and wrapped it in an old sock to keep it from getting covered in frame saver goo:

Notice the black rag used to keep drips off the frame and cable

Aluminum frames don't rust, per se, but do corrode. I don't live in a very salty environment, but I've got to believe that road salt will eventually mess with an aluminum frame, Perhaps Frame Saver should be used on aluminum frames in maritime / road salty environments. Any comments on that?

Good luck and enjoy your fall biking.

Zoney

I once met a guy at a Loaf n' Jug rest stop in Colorado who claimed to have driven there in a VW bus on 3 cylinders from Zoney. Zoney, apparently meant Arizona. I recently traveled there and it turns out it has some bikes too:

Tall bike from leaving the scene of the Tour de Fat.

Airport police.

Miche road components

In our recent post about road bike drop bar shifters, reader Kraytwin makes a great point - Miche is out there selling what looks like complete component groups. However, if you scrutinize the pictures on their web site, it appears that they use Campagnolo 11 speed and 10 speed shifters to anchor those gruppos. I don't know too much about them, and there's not too much about them written in English on the web. I do know that the last time I was shopping for a replacement cassette for my 9 speed Campy bike, their steel 'pignone' were the best deal. Anyone out there using their other stuff?

(BTW, pignone means gears and should not be confused with Pignoni, the Baroque painter who liked his women like he liked his wine - full bodied)

Photos from www.miche.it

The original linear pull brakes

I saw these on a mountain bike at the Velo Bella Surf City cyclocross race last weekend. I recognized them from a story a former coworker told me about the brakes on his mountain bike, maybe 7 years ago. The owner confirmed that they were indeed early versions of the linear pull brakes made under the name "Marinovations." The very first models were apparently nothing more than a piece of aluminum window frame, drilled to fit the studs, cable and pad. These were second generation models that had purpose-made aluminum arms and were more reliable than the first generation. The guy runs them on all his bikes because they just don't fail him.

Nothing exceeds like excess

By my count, there are currently 22 shift / brake lever options currently on the market for your drop bar bike:

Campagnolo Veloce 10 speed Ultra Shift

Campagnolo Veloce 10 speed Escape Ergo Power

Campagnolo Centaur 10 speed Ultra Shift

Campagnolo Centaur 10 speed Carbon Ultra Shift

Campagnolo Chorus 11 speed Ultra Shift

Campagnolo Record 11 speed Ultra Shift

Campagnolo Super Record 11 speed Ultra Shift

Stram Rival 10 speed

Sram Force 10 speed

Sram Red 10 speed

Microshift Arsis 10 speed (seriously, you named it Arsis?)

Sampson Stratics 10 speed

Sampson Showtime 10 speed

Modolo Morphos 7 to 10 speed

Shimano Sora 9 Speed

Shimano Tiagra 9 Speed

Shimano 105 10 Speed

Shimano Ultegra 10 speed
Shimano Ultegra SL 10 speed

Shimano Dura Ace 10 speed

Shimano ST-R700 10 speed short reach

Shimano ST-R600 9 speed short reach

Shimano ST-R500 8 speed

Has there ever been more selection? Will the economy force bike manufactueres to streamline their product portfolio? Do all these options make sense? Should the big two keep selling 4 different gear number options (8,9,10,11 speed)? Will this explode into consumer confusion with electronic shifting?

Did I miss any?

-p-

The Bike Hut

The Northern California bike community is the recent recipient of some amazing generosity. Christine Pielenz and Bill Laven, owners of the enormous Potrero Nuevo Farm, have set up a rest stop specifically for bikers.  They own an organic farm and have dedicated a picnic area and garage to be a spot along the PCH where bikers can stop, get free water and eventually buy organic drinks and energy snacks.  Sometimes when you're riding out in the country, not everyone's very friendly to cyclists so that's pretty nice of them.  

Check it out, it's 1 mile inland of the coast on Tunitas Creek Road, just north of San Gregorio.

____________________

Just got an update from Bill.  They have made an email address just for the bike hut, thebikehut (at) potreronuevofarm.org  They're also soliciting feedback from you, the potential user.  What would you buy from them if you stopped?  Organic energy gel perhaps?  He also let me know that they would have a pump and such stuff for riders in need.

Cyclocross Cable Hanger

Cyclocross season is hot and underway and it's a good time to point out the elegance of this drop cable stop cooked up in part by the mechanic for team HRS Rock Lobster. It's nothing more complicated than a bent piece of sheet metal (pick a fancy alloy for light weight if you want) with a couple of holes. There are tons of cable hanger designs out there, from complex to simple. It is claimed that this one adds a bit of compliance to the brake - fork system minimizing fork chatter.

Raise a Belgian beer for the man who makes his own bike parts.