Gear Update - November 13, 2021

In this post I discuss changes to my gear since I published Gear Update - September 22, 2021.

Pedals

On October 9th I installed the new-old-stock PD-7800 pedals I bought in September of 2020 because I noticed vertical play between the left cleat and its pedal. With the new pedals there is no such play.

Chainrings

From time to time I had been experiencing what felt like the chain skipping. I know it has happened when I was on the big chainring but I'm not sure whether it has ever happened on the small ring. As you can see in the pictures below, the teeth of the large ring are shorter and not as wide (front to back) as the teeth on the small ring.

Holdsworth 34-tooth chainring in good condition

Holdsworth 48-tooth chainring quite worn

I bought a pair of Sugino chainrings (48-tooth and 34-tooth) and installed them with the hope that the skipping would stop. Note in the picture of the 48-tooth Sugino chainring how much larger are the teeth than in the picture of the large Holdsworth chainring.

Sugino 34-tooth chainring

Sugino 48-tooth chainring

There hasn't been any skipping during the first 50 miles with the new chainrings, so I think the worn teeth of the large Holdsworth chainring were the culprits. 

The Sugino chainrings, unlike the Holdsworth chainrings, are not polished, and therefore do not match the Holdsworth crank arms, nor any of my other aluminum components, all of which are polished. I intend to investigate how I might polish the new chainrings.

Sugino chainrings

Wheels

In 2019 I built my first set of wheels with NOS Shimano Dura Ace series 7400 hubs, Mavic Open Pro rims, 14-15-14 gauge spokes, and brass nipples. I've ridden those wheels since May of 2019. I recently bought another pair of NOS Shimano Dura Ace series 7400 hubs and a pair of Mavic Open Pro rims. I plan use 14-15-14 gauge spokes for the drive side of the rear wheel and (lighter) 15-16-15 gauge spokes for the front wheel and the non-drive side of the rear wheel. I will use the new wheels for around town and the first set of wheels for touring.

Shimano Dura Ace HB-7400 and FH-7400 hubs (in the original box!)

I've been experimenting with various cassettes since at least as far back as 2016 and have settled on 12-15-17-19-21-24-28 as my favorite (The numbers refer to the number of teeth on each of the cogs). Given my rear derailleur, this cassette provides the maximal possible range (12 to 28) and the smoothest possible shifting for that maximal range. There's a large jump between the 12-tooth and 15-tooth cogs, but I use those cogs only when I'm going very fast (almost always downhill) so it's easy to deal with the jump. Initially I had planned to put another 12-15-17-19-21-24-28 cassette on my new rear wheel, but I realized that would be a mistake. Instead I will use a 13-16-18-20-22-24-26 cassette. Note that the two cassettes have no cogs in common, which means that when riding around town I will not be wearing out cogs that could be used for touring, and vice versa. The 13-16-18-20-22-24-26 cassette will have smoother shifting than the 12-15-17-19-21-24-28 cassette due to the smaller relative changes between adjacent cogs. The 13-16-18-20-22-24-26 cassette will have a smaller range of 13 to 26 instead of 12 to 28, but I won't miss the larger range because around the city I hardly ever use either the 12-tooth or 28-tooth cogs.

Miniature Flashlights

At my going-away party before my 4,500-mile trip in 2019, Dick Demenus (husband of Jan Albert, the two of them my hosts June 2nd this year) gave me a couple of Photon Micro-Light II LED Keychain Flashlights. These small flashlights are extremely small and extremely bright. I took the flashlights with me on my trip in 2019, but it was only recently that I established the practice of keeping one of them on a ring on a belt loop of my pants so that I will have it with me if I wander off in the dark without bringing the front light from my bike. I call it my "Molly light" because when I walk with it turned on while it's dangling from my belt loop it reminds me of Dick and Jan's dog Molly running around their yard wearing one of these lights.

My off-bike shorts with my Molly light turned on

Tires

I've ridden Continental Gatorskin tires since I got my bike in 2009, but I've now installed Continental Grand Prix 5000 tires which Tom Reingold has told me should give me a more comfortable and faster ride. If they wear out faster I'm willing to deal with that, but not if they get flats more frequently.

Continental Grand Prix 5000

For quite a while Tom has encouraged me to ride with lower tire pressure. He recently sent me the video Your TIRES are LYING to YOU!. In it, from 10:48 to 13:12, Josh Poertner describes how to use smoothness and cornering ability as the criteria for determining optimal tire pressure. My usual has been 90 psi in the front and 95 psi in the rear (90/95), and 5 psi more when loaded for touring (95/100). For several days I let the pressure go down until it reached 70/75. The effect of the small change (3 psi) from day to day was not noticeable, so I maintained 70/75 for three days and then rode with 90/95. Smooth pavement felt rough with 90/95, and even very small bumps were much more noticeable than with 70/75. I then reduced the pressure to 65/70 and of course noticed a large increase in smoothness relative to 90/95. At 65/70 cornering is secure, so I believe I have not yet gone below the optimal pressure. I plan to continue this experiment.

Spindle

In Gear Update - September 22nd, 2021, I wrote about how I installed the spindle in my bottom bracket so that the pedals are the same distance from the center of the frame. Shortly after I did that I had a Feldenkrais lesson with my colleague Anastasi Siotas that helped me improve the use of my legs and integrate the new location of the pedals into my riding. I've been feeling better in my right knee, which has been problematic for several years, and I expect it will continue to improve. And as I wrote in October 14th, 2021 - Sears Bellows County Park, NY, to Amityville, NY, the correct orientation of the spindle has removed some minor shifting problems and eliminated the jumping of the chain when backpedalling on the 48-tooth chainring and 24-tooth cog. What a pleasure it is to be able to backpedal without the chain jumping!

Camping Gear

The stuff sack for my tent had become worn so I bought a replacement ($7 plus $5 for shipping). The new stuff sack was missing one of the draw strings, so I removed one from the worn stuff sack and with great difficulty installed it in the new one, proving that one can, in fact, push on a string.

Old stuff sack (top) and new stuff sack (bottom)

Without charge I was also sent a shock cord for my tent pole which I used to replace the shock cord which I had discovered to be worn on the first day of my recent trip on the north shore of Long Island.

The day after I returned from my 4,500-mile trip in August of 2019 I had Uriel Gurgov of Uriel's Shoe Repair Shop shorten the tab at the foot of the footprint for my tent. On my recent trips on Long Island I realized that was a mistake so I have undone the shortening of the tab by carefully removing all of Uriel's stitching.

As part of my continual improvement of my organization, I now have a single 14" x 11" x 12" cardboard box dedicated to my camping gear. The box holds all my camping gear and contains nothing but camping gear.

Box of camping gear

Mantra

Four times I have lost my phone when it fell out of my unzipped saddle bag. Twice I recovered it in working condition, once I found it destroyed, and once I was unable to find it. To make sure I always zip my saddle bag, I have established the following mantra which I follow whenever I start to ride:

Lights, cleat covers, access!

Initially the mantra was "Lights, cleat covers, zippers!". Can you guess why I changed it?