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Do You Road Bike?

In the vid I would say that the abrupt stop is a sign of a problem. The first thing I'd check is the easy stuff, are you 100% sure the brakes aren't dragging? This is an easy one to miss with discs if you don't have much experience with them. Second, is the wheel in straight, another really common issue (and will lead to dragging brakes). Place the bike on the ground with one hand on the saddle, lean over and open the quick release. If the wheel is in straight, nothing should happen. If it's off even a little, you'll feel the bike settle onto the wheel from the pressure on the saddle.
If both of those check out, then is there a rubber dust cap on the non drive side (NDS) of the axle? Try a drop of oil where it meets the hub body and another where it touches the axle/cone, just a drop.
If all that checks out, then the issue is with the axle itself. Like I said earlier, bearing preload is done by feel. Ever so slightly loose in your hand, but no play when clamped in the frame. It's easier to demonstrate in person than describe in writing.
This video here does a pretty good job of explaining how to set the bearings up and at the 12:40 mark he also explains how the skewer affects the preload, something many other videos seem to skip over.
 
rcb78 said:
In the vid I would say that the abrupt stop is a sign of a problem. The first thing I'd check is the easy stuff, are you 100% sure the brakes aren't dragging? ..
This video here does a pretty good job of explaining how to set the bearings up and at the 12:40 mark he also explains how the skewer affects the preload, something many other videos seem to skip over.
Click to expand...

Dang! That's a funny informative guy. Yes, that's a very clear video.

I'm off to go check the a) brakes then the b) play ... soon.

In the meantime I was searching for the cone and bearings and found this long, but of course great link by parktool of course : https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/hub-overhaul-and-adjustment

Inside.. great quote that says the same:
6 ..
If the axle has play when the wheel is outside the bike, but no play inside the bike, the adjustment is adequate. If there is no play in the axle when the wheel is outside the bike, the adjustment is too tight, ..
Click to expand...
 
N4teTheGreat said:
Getting front derailleurs to shift reliably is often a black art. You'll want to check that the derailleur itself is properly lined up with the rings and sits not more than a few mm above the big ring teeth. If there's grime in the pivots / spring those could be resisting the pulling movement making it harder to drop to the small ring as well. The cage can also get bent / worn. On older bikes I'd sometimes tweak the cage slightly to make it narrower so it starts pulling the chain sooner, but that can cause clearance issues and noise in some cases. A worn chain isn't as likely to impact shifting in the front as it will in the rear, also, just like a moto, if that chain is pretty worn, it may have taken the cassette with it so replace with caution.
Click to expand...

I gave up and took off the FD entirely and reinstalled it. Seems to have fixed the problem. My guess is that you're right - it probably wasn't properly lined up with the big chainring to begin with and taking it off and reinstalling it dialed it in.

Went for a quick 8-mile ride and all seemed to shift fine. Will need to do some more testing though. Doing a 30mi gravel ride through Santa Teresa State Park this weekend and will let my buddy borrow the bike so he can put it through it's paces.
 
The only concern I have, is that on this Marin Shitbike, I had to dial the inner limit screw back pretty bigly, so the inner side of the mech is nowhere near the chain. Normally, I'd leave a 1mm gap between the cage and chain, but if I do that then I can't get it to throw the chain over far enough, so I have to dial the inner limit screw way back. My fear is the chain will fly off to the inside but I haven't been able to get it to do that on the stand or driveway. We'll see what happens this weekend.

Pic of my bike with the wife's from past weekend.

XvXwWpS.jpg
 
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I have a tire pressure question.

I have a gravel bike with 32c tires and I used to run Schwalbe Marathon Plus that were punctureproof because I rode alone.

Now that I ride in a group, and 70/30 pavement/gravel I changed the tires to Conti Grand Prix 4 Seasons.

I used to ride at about 65psi. Since I'm doing quite a bit of Category 2 gravel this weekend I decided to air my tires down to 50psi.

What's concerning is that the max tire pressure on the Contis is 105psi, and I'm running at 50, so I'm afraid of getting a pinch flat. Did some searching and the internets are all over the place when it comes to tire pressure.

What should I be running?
 
I would day it depends on your weight? The few times I've ridden gravel on my flat bar bike (running 650b 47c tires) I was running 40 psi (max of 60psi) and I'm 155-160 lbs. Depending on the style of terrain you're riding, 50-60 psi seems like a good starting ground and then go from there? I would probably run 80 psi myself because I like a harder tire.
 
It also depends on how hard you push it on pavement, you can deflate up to the point you start to fold the tire over in turns. Pinch flats are more about the rider than they are the pressure, crowbar in a sandbox and all. I've seen guys pinch tires at max inflation and other guys roll their tires over but not pinch,,, ride light.
 
Well the Contis recommended pressure was a minimum 70psi.. I put them at 55/50. Worked pretty well. Did some pretty rocky trails in Santa Teresa, was funny going past the guys with their full-suspension MTBs.

eUnSEi3.jpg
 
mrzuzzo said:
Well the Contis recommended pressure was a minimum 70psi.. I put them at 55/50. Worked pretty well. Did some pretty rocky trails in Santa Teresa, was funny going past the guys with their full-suspension MTBs.

eUnSEi3.jpg
Click to expand...

great, crisp foto - do ya miss F suspension on those rocky trails?

I usedta ride that area, wasn’t aware that there was a 30-mile loop

I run 32 Contis on my Wilier roadie @ 65# on the pave, no issues
 
What trails in Santa Teresa, got a Strava link? I was on my gravel bike in Calero yesterday, great weather.
I'm taking a new MTB rider (coworker) out to Santa Teresa next week and going to punish him by climbing both Stiles and Rocky Ridge before we turn around bomb back down them.
 
COnti 4 seasons have a pretty hard casing so probably will feel better at lower pressures. I'm an old curmodgeon so I still run 100psi on my old road bike with 23c tires.
 
firstbuell said:
great, crisp foto - do ya miss F suspension on those rocky trails?

I usedta ride that area, wasn’t aware that there was a 30-mile loop

I run 32 Contis on my Wilier roadie @ 65# on the pave, no issues
Click to expand...

The loop went through the park. We started at Bass Pro Shops at Almaden, rode mostly bike trail to the park, did some riding/uphill climbing on trails through the park, and did the descent on the park entrance paved road then continued to Guadalupe trail and eventually got to the downtown SJ area for beers.

Personally I'd hate to waste precious watts on a MTB bike for trails like these. No way would I do some of the single track stuff on the gravel bike, and for me at least, any sort of real downhill shredding is out of the question.

N4teTheGreat said:
COnti 4 seasons have a pretty hard casing so probably will feel better at lower pressures. I'm an old curmodgeon so I still run 100psi on my old road bike with 23c tires.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's kinda what I figured. So far pretty happy with the 4 seasons, especially on pavement, but I also considered the Panaracer GravelKing SK, so I'm not sure if I'm missing out or not. Since I ride 70% pavement, I think these tires make sense.

rcb78 said:
What trails in Santa Teresa, got a Strava link? I was on my gravel bike in Calero yesterday, great weather.
I'm taking a new MTB rider (coworker) out to Santa Teresa next week and going to punish him by climbing both Stiles and Rocky Ridge before we turn around bomb back down them.
Click to expand...

I don't use Strava but I guess I should sign up. We did Fortini, Mine, and Hidden Springs trails. A buddy came on his road bike with 25c tires and he was more or less ok although he struggled a bit on the rocky parts.
 
mrzuzzo said:
I don't use Strava but I guess I should sign up. We did Fortini, Mine, and Hidden Springs trails. A buddy came on his road bike with 25c tires and he was more or less ok although he struggled a bit on the rocky parts.
Click to expand...

Strava isn't the only game, but it's good for sharing rides since so many people use it. That's a nice loop for a gravel ride.
 
Do I need a cycling computer?

I've re-committed to cycling after a break and I'm having a great time. I've been riding a lot of gravel service roads, beat-up farm roads and any weird trail I can find in the northern Delta or around Sacramento. I just want to track mileage and be able to look for alternate routes on the fly as I may extend for cut short my ride at any time. I don't care about syncing with power meters or tracking any performance metrics.

I guess I could use a phone app for this purpose but I'd rather not expose my phone to the level of dust and grime that my bike gets into, so recommendations for a reasonably-priced cycling computer than can take this abuse are welcome.

Oddly for cycling products (sarcasm), there is a dizzying array of choices and prices.
 
If you have other Garmin products (like watches) then the 530 is a solid choice. If you want simplistic then the 130 Plus. I personally have a 530 and a 1030 right now.
Wahoo are arguably the only competition for Garmin and they make some great stuff too. The only thing to be careful with when it comes to Garmin is that you should wait 6-12 months after a product release to give them time to iron out the bugs. They do always get it sorted, but I wouldn't want to be an early adopter with them.
 
I think the same can be said about Wahoo.
Honestly cycling computers now days are like small computers, so you know treat it accordingly.
 
Good info guys. Thanks again.
 
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