The drivetrain parts are mostly the lower end mountain Shimano parts -- Acera, Avilio, and Altus. It's got paddle shifters and indexed shifting. It's got an aluminum frame and I've got the 22" version. It already came with bar ends (which I rather like) and a rear rack (which I wanted anyway) and toe clips. (which are too small for my feet and had to go)
You want to know what the most Police part of the bike is? The rear hub. It's much silent quieter than other bikes. When I got it, I was thinking that I was getting a lot of wheel noise, when I realized it was just that I WASN'T getting any rear hub noise...
The bolt-on hardware is likely worth more than the rest of the bike. Perhaps. Right now, I've got a Garmin 315 as the cyclecomputer, a Cateye HL-EL320 on a Minoura Besso on the fork, a Planet Bike Blaze 1W on the bars, a NightRider Cherry Bomb and a Planet Bike Spok on the back and a Cateye TL-LD500 on the rack.
I started out with a pair of Kenda Police tires (which are really just some normal 26x1.95 Kenda tires with fancy reflective strips on the side). The rear tire went first, so I read Sheldon's advice beforehand (and the guy at the bike store knew who Sheldon was.. :D) so I now have a 26x1.5 semi-slick in the back. I've got a 26x1.75 Vittoria Adventure Trail with a little more tread in the front. It came with Alex DM-18 rims, but they weren't built especially well, so the rear one is now built with a Sun Rhyno Lite rim instead.
I have a clip-on front fender for rainy season.
Trouble log
- About 15 miles -- one of the reflectors on the pedals snapped off.
- About 100 miles -- usual stretching of new cables means that it needs to be re-indexed.
- 177 miles - rear shifter lever won't come all the way up sometimes. The Bike Doctor says to gripe if it keeps up. Also, the rear hub isn't as quiet. Toe clips are gone.
- 225 miles - turns out the cable inside of the rear shifter was frayed, hence why it was acting up. Silent hub is silent again.
- 1100 miles - took it into Performance Bike for the free adjustment. The chain was worn 75% so I had them put a new chain on, the brakes needed fairly long adjustment but the pads are still fine. They trued the wheels and re-indexed the gears. It came back shiny and clean, which was nice and made up for me not having the bike for a bit. And then they found that the rear tire valve went leaky, so they swapped out the tire.
-
1443 miles - The rear tire was noisy and a little worn looking. Took it to Walt's Cycle and they told me that the tire may need to be trued again, but that the tire itself was at risk of blowout (and told me that I need to be better about keeping the tires inflated) So I replaced the tire myself and added a fender. The new tire is a 1.5" slick, because that's what Sheldon Brown's ghost told me to do.
- 1826.6 - Replaced cyclecomputer batteries. Cyclecomputer is working better than new
-
1830 miles - Cleaned the chain and sprockets very carefully. Astonished at how much grime and metal was cleaned.
-
1866 miles - When I had the adjustment at 1100 miles, they adjusted the front V-brake on the brake side of the cable, not by turning the adjustment barrel. They didn't do that for the rear brake but I twisted the adjustment barrel to get it about right. Both the front and rear brakes were getting soft recently, so I did the adjustment barrel for the front brake and adjusted the rear V-brake on the rear. Also, trying out the theory that the brake levers/shifters need to be positioned slightly differently.
- 1961.5 miles - Was wondering why the bike was handling really weird that morning. Turns out that my 36-spoke wheels decided that I wanted to have one of those fancy new 32-spoke wheels. Bike in for a rear wheel rebuild with silver Sun Rhino Lite rims and black spokes. Also replaced front tire.
- about 2000 miles - Had a free adjustment, got back a cleaned and adjusted bike which I proceeded to ride in the rain and make very much not clean anymore.
- 2339.2 miles - Replaced chain after I bent a link. Also had the rear tire flat in a mysterious sort of way.. right along the rim tape.
- 2358.4 miles - Figured out that the mysterious flat was because the rear tire was developing sidewall failure. On the way home. So I replaced the tube yet again and also replaced the tire. It's now a WTB Slickasaurus.
- 2386.4 miles - Chain was skipping under heavy load. The chain is new, so I had to replace the cassette. Also, replaced the rear brake with an Avid Single Digit 7
- 2478.2 miles - Replaced the front brake with the Avid Single Digit 7 and also replaced the pedals with a Shimano PD-M424
- 2733.8 miles - Cleaned chain and sprockets then lubed chain. Still absurd amounts of grime collected. Decided brakes weren't properly oriented in back, so I adjusted them and then spent the next 20 miles listening to them squeal until they managed to wear into the new orientation.
- 3916.2 miles - Cleaned chain and sprockets then lubed chain.
- 4257.0 miles - Replaced rear tire, adjusted brakes
-
5898.8 miles - Crashed, replaced fork with a RockShox Tora 318 and replaced rear wheel with a 32 spoke Deore / Rhyno Lite wheel. Replaced chain with a SRAM PC-870.
- 7013.8 miles - Replaced rear tire
- 7450.6 miles - Cleaned chain (I'd cleaned it maybe a thousand miles ago, didn't record) , noticed it was only worn 1/32nd.
Copyright 2007, Ken Wronkiewicz
