review: KCNC VB-1 brakes & brake levers

Between 2011 July and 2011 September, my partner and I did a 3 300km bicycle tour of southern France. The below is a review of a product that we used during that tour. 

KCNC VB-1 brake levers (47g/pair) and calipers (178g/pair, including pads & all hardware) are about as light as brake components get. One need not even use a noodle, saving a further 8g - 9g. It doesn't take much to stop a light bike and, when their return springs stay in, KCNC VB-1 brake calipers do a fine job of it. The return spring came out a time or two before the trip, but one spring or another began coming out every few hundred km as the trip progressed. Though this is not dangerous -- the de-sprung caliper defaults to the rim -- the drag on the rim is such that one must fix the problem quickly.

Daniel Planas of Planas Velo in Pau came up with a brilliant and ultra-light solution (all told it added a bit over 1g to each caliper set) to this problem. He simply used a zip tie (see photo above) to clamp each spring to its respective caliper. Once Monsieur Planas had done this, the springs were fine for the rest of the trip.

Several thousands of km and 650 days after the trip (and the day before a 3-day tour of the very isolated Big Sur), one of the titanium springs snapped. The solution was simple -- I cut a j-bend 2,0mm titanium spoke to the appropriate length and ground down the flared head; as M'r Planas would say, et voila. A 2,0mm unswaged steel spoke probably'd've worked fine, too, but I assume the titanium is a bit springier.

The brake pads, which are definitely soft and probably light, were already well worn before the trip and had worn out after 2 000km of touring. They lasted longer than I expected -- several thousand kilometers for each. I replaced them with whatever the respective shops had. Older Ritchey pads for the front, cheap-o (XLC or BBB or some such) clod-hopper pads for the rear.

review: ExtraLite UltraTerra TNT wheels

Between 2011 July and 2011 September, my partner and I did a 3 300km bicycle tour of southern France. The below is a review of a product that we used during that tour.

The ExtraLite UltraTerra TNT wheels use Stan's ZTR 355 rims, titanium straight pull spokes and ExtraLite Ultra hubs.

I bought these wheels used in 2010. They have seen a lot of action, most of it off-road. Though a rear drive-side spoke snapped on a training ride a couple of weeks before we left for our trip, I took this as incident rather than as harbinger. I used one of the the supplied extra spokes to fix it and had no other incidents (or harbingers) before we started. Within the first 400km of our trip, though, drive-side rear spokes began snapping. By 700km, four spokes had snapped, all of them 2mm down the threads.

Steel straight-pull spokes are common in France, but only for 622mm wheels.  For the first two spokes that broke, I was able to find Sapim Laser spokes in the correct length (277mm - 279mm). I was unable to find replacements for the 2nd pair that snapped, even after visits to over 15 shops throughout the western Rhone Valley and eastern Massif Central. Not only were they unavailable in the shops, none of the shops' distributors carried them. Eventually I found a batch of 275mm DT Pulstar spokes, which the owner gave to me free of charge because he was happy to be rid of them (and me). These spokes were long enough to grab a few threads, which allowed me to get down the road until I could find a permanent fix.

Once we found an internet connection, I ordered from a mail order house in California Sapim CX-Ray spokes for all of the drive-side rear spokes. This delayed us two days and proved exceptionally expensive (70USD). It was only through the grace of Cantal Cycles in Saint Flour that I was able to re-build this wheel. The owner cracked the cassette, gave me a chair and let me replace the spokes. He then trued everything up for me. Without charge.

In the midst of looking for spokes, I contacted UltraLite in hopes they could give advice. The e-mail I received back indicated that these spokes require perfect alignment in order to not snap. This seems a lot to ask of the consumer in good circumstances and makes these wheels unsuitable for touring.

Once the wheel was fixed, I had no further problems. The wheels gained around 12g through all of this (from 1 132g to 1 144g), but this 1,1% increase made them worthy of touring.

Though it is more inconvenience than problem, the freewheeling mechanism on this hub has long been sticky. It always engages correctly, but disengagement is often partial. It is enough that it will turn the cranks quite quickly if I don't keep my feet on the pedals while freewheeling. The only consequence of note is that, while walking with the bike, one must keep one's eye out for the pedals. Particularly the pedals I had for this trip, which would as soon take chunks out of your leg as rotate.

review: Continental Grand Prix MTB 559mm by 25mm foldable tires

Between 2011 July and 2011 September, my partner and I did a 3 300km bicycle tour of southern France. The below is a review of a product that we used during that tour. 

Of the 559mm slicks that I have used,* the Continental Grand Prix MTB is the only one that has proven to be durable, reliable & lightweight -- between 198g & 212g, usually between 203g & 206g.

The GP MTBs on my bike had nearly 1 000km on them before we started our tour. My partner's front tire had less than 300km, her rear tire was unused.

Due to unexpected conditions, my partner and I pushed our GP MTBs well beyond their design limits. This was particularly true on the Canal du Midi, where trail conditions degraded to that of technical single track. The tires also had to deal with abnormal amounts of cold, rain, heat, UV rays, low tire pressure, glass and sudden changes in conditions. They were only occasionally stored out of the elements, but typically they were exposed 24h/day.

The pair I used show substantial wear to the tread and sidewalls, including tread with ubiquitous cracking and three slices and sidewall threads that are beginning to shred. In all, I flatted five times, including three times in the last 500km. I believe they became increasingly susceptible to flats because of the wear.

My partner's tires were nearly flawless. Her tires suffered some sidewall damage on the Canal du Midi, a 200km stretch of trail that was increasingly hostile to biking as we moved south from Toulouse. Despite this, there is no cracking or slicing to her tread and she got no flats. This is in part due to her light weight (25kg less than me), the newer condition of her tires, her better co-ordination on trails and the greater care she takes while riding on road shoulders. Sidewall wear was possibly hastened by our often low tire pressures. Our tires were generally below 400KPa, though the occasional visit to a bike shop would get them up to 700KPa. They are rated to 800KPa.

2013 Update:
Though I recycled the above rear tire when it finally began showing threads after an additional 2 000km of use, I continue to use the front. The cracking has become even more prominent, there are innumerable cuts at the tread and there are multiple cuts and fraying threads on the sidewalls, but I continue to use it for long rides, including a recent 300km tour.

*The Hutchinson Top Slick, which I have had on several other bikes, is equally light but has had repeated problems with sidewall durability, quality control and suffers from quick wear. Others have reported problems with delamination. I have used other slicks for mountain bikes over the years -- Ritchey Tom Slick Pro K 28mm (245g), Specialized Fat Boy 32mm (350g), Panaracer UrbanMax 32mm (340g). The Ritchey tires have been very good, the Fat Boys repeatedly suffered sidewall deterioration, and the Urban Max tires were indestructible.