Welcome to “What Did Tan Tenovo Do Wrong?,” the game where you get to try and figure out what I did wrong when working on my bicycle!
By the way, I asked the AI to generate a logo for the game and that was the result. Obviously the answer there is that I installed the rear rack via levitation instead of using struts. But the real shame is that when a major streaming network buys the rights to this game it will turn out the AI actually owns them since it generated the logo for me and I’ll get nothing.
Anyway, here’s how the game works. As you know, I do most of my own bicycle repairs and maintenance, and as you also know, I’m pretty bad at it. As a result, something invariably goes wrong after I work on a bike. So this is a chance for YOU, the insufferable bike dork, to diagnose the problem and tell me how exactly I fucked up.
That’s the AI’s take on “An insufferable bike dork who’s inordinately pleased with himself.”
Okay, so the other day I put new tires on the Roadini:
Oh, speaking of tires, someone yesterday asked if the streets around here were paved with broken glass or words to that effect, and the answer is YES:
I just figured everyone knew that about New York.
Anyway, subsequently, I decided I wanted to take the wheels off again and reserve them for another project. See, those wheels are 11-speed compatible, and I’ve got a little something in mind for the Milwaukee:
As for the Milwaukee, it was sporting a lovely pair of wheels with Campagnolo hubs that I’d recently Shimano-ified:
So here’s what I did this morning:
- Exchanged the tires and tubes between wheels
- Put the 11-30 8-speed SRAM cassette from the 11-speed wheels onto the Shimagnolo wheels and put the 12-26 9-speed SRAM cassette from the Shimagnolo wheels onto the 11-speed wheels
- Exchanged the brake pads between bikes because the Shimagnolo wheels have what I assume is a ceramic braking surface and they work better with certain pads
Then I went for a ride:
I was immediately pleased with the result. The Shimagnolo wheels are lighter than the 11-speed wheels, and while it may just have been the very pleasant weather we’re suddenly having, I felt like I noticed the difference:
Also, the silver spokes look better. It shouldn’t matter but it does.
Something else I really like about these wheels are the old-fashioned pre-tubeless rims:
Now that most rims seem to be tubeless compatible, I’ve gotten used to the fact you now have to inflate a tire to a gazillion PSI and/or wrestle with it for awhile to get the bead to pop into place, and it was a tremendous relief not to have to do that. Yes, there was a good 20 years there in between the tubular era and the tubeless era when changing your tires was almost as easy as changing your socks, but alas, most cyclists have little tolerance for simplicity.
As for the ceramic (at least I assume it’s ceramic) braking surface, it’s very durable, and it enhances the stopping power of the brakes quite a bit:
However, I’ve found that with certain pads you’ll sometimes get some squealing. Yes, I know there are ceramic-specific pads, but I don’t even know if anyone even makes those anymore (in the age of disc brakes nothing is less relevant than rim brake surface treatments), and anyway I switch wheels a lot so I don’t want to use a pad that’s meant only for a ceramic rim. Certain SwissStop pads seem to work particularly well, so that’s what I’ve been using, though on the Roadini they do seem to be making some noise. (I don’t know why that would be, but maybe it has to do with the longer brake arms.) It’s only sometimes, and it’s not too bad, so maybe I’ll just wait and see if it goes away.
By the way, I cannot use these wheels at all on the Cervino, because under hard braking they’ll vibrate enough to open the quick release on the vintage Campy brakes.
In any case, except for the occasional moan or squeal from the brakes (and who among us doesn’t moan or squeal occasionally?) the wheels felt fantastic, and everything was shifting beautifully–until I hit a descent and upshifted all the way to my top gear, and found that the chain was hopping jumping around on the 11-tooth cog like crazy. So at the bottom I stopped to check it out. Here’s what it wasn’t:
- The derailleur limit screws
- Anything with the shifters
- Anything having to do with drivetrain adjustment
- Anything with the chain, like a sticky link, or anything like that (it’s a 10-speed chain)
It was particularly strange since I’d already been using this exact same cassette on the other wheels, and I had no problem using the 11-tooth cog.
Eventually I was able to figure it out, and I fixed the problem when I got home.
But can you figure it out? What did I miss?
Come back tomorrow for the answer.
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