Make Quick Work of Brake Adjustments

Setting up brakes can be a challenge. This little jig from Tacx makes installing and adjusting your brakes a snap.

Little blue wonder !

It’s called the BrakeShoe Tuner. I bought it off ebay for $24.99 shipped to my door from a seller in Taiwan.

I don’t often change out wheels, however, when switching from my aluminum Zonda wheels to my Easton carbons, the position of the pads always need adjustment. This is where this ingenious little tool comes in.

It’s simple to use. Simply loosen the bolts on the pad holders and cable retaining bolt. Slip the tool (observing the proper orientation) between the wheel and the pads. Tighten the cable using your third hand tool and torque to spec. Then torque the pad retaining bolts to spec.

The jig keeps the pads a perfect 1 – 1.5mm off the surface of the rim and sets the toe-in perfectly. The entire job took less than 5 minutes to adjust my front and rear.

As a helpful hint, after the cable is loosened, reset your cable adjuster screw to the mid-point, particularly if you have been tightening it to accommodate for pad wear over the season(s).

If you are constantly fiddling with your brakes or are disappointed with how your brakes perform, try this tool !

New SL Fork Upgrade…wow !

I got a 121 gram savings switching my standard R3 fork to the SL. Less weight I expected. A completely different ride I did not. It’s like a completely different bike.

Yes, it’s impossible to swing a dead cat without hitting a Cervelo – they are that popular. It took a fork change to the 33K SL fork to see what all the hubbub was about.

Don’t get me wrong, the R3 is well engineered bike. Not particularly nice to look at. The paint and graphics are somewhat pedestrian. And it’s  not the best built compared to higher end offerings from France – Look, Time – or Italy – Colnago, Pinarello.

As much as I like riding, the R3 has remained emotionally neutral for me, much like a useful tool is. It was, in my mind, ok, but it certainly didn’t evoke a “I LOVE riding this bike” like others I have ridden. It wasn’t worth every penny. Cervelo fans might gasp if I boldly claim it was perhaps a bit over-rated. After nearly 2 seasons of riding it, I don’t even know if I would even endorse it for others looking for a new ride. It’s good but not exceptional. Unless asked directly, I doubt I would even would have told anyone I rode a Cervelo in a casual conversation about cycling.

But the SL fork has changed my opinion.It’s not a good bike anymore. It’s a very, very good bike. Really very good. Fantastic.

I put 120 km over the weekend. Not a lot, but as much as I could muster with my schedule the way it is at the moment. The SL fork, while at first impression not as stiff as the standard fork, is where the magic comes from. You can still feel the road imperfections, but barely. The font end feels every so slightly disconnected from the road but not in a bad way. Chip & seal roads become less buzzy and my hands don’t nearly get fatigued as quickly. The bike still tracks and steers well and standing on the pedals while exerting a hard effort during a climb doesn’t flex the font at all negatively. Gravel vanished under me. Now **this** is the bike the “pro’s ride”.

There was a huge difference in price between the R3 and R3 team when I bought my R3 early last year. I paid less than $2,000 for a complete bike with SRAM rival. I sold the wheels with tires and tubes, the Rival group, FSA crank and BB, seatpost, saddle and bars for around $800 on ebay and locally to defer the cost of the R3 frame with stem and headset to around $1200.

A R3 team was $2900 MSRP for the frameset alone.

That’s a significant difference.

But so is the ride.

After 120 km, hands were still feeling fresh !

New Frame Shopping. Decisions, decisions….

Having more than one bike for most probably seems like an necessary luxury. Any cyclist with more than one bike (of which I am one as well) when speaking casually about cycling to a non-cyclist will usually be met with that witty “how many can you ride at once” retort when he or she mentions they have more than one bike in their garage. After all, in Toronto (and probably most of Eastern and Central Canada save Quebec) at least, a bike is something you stop riding after you get your divers licence, or are foolish enough to lose it after a DWI charge, right ?

My stable is pretty light. I have my carbon road bike, and my aluminum city bike with basket and fenders. The latter is used to run small errands to the local hardware store, the liquor store and casual rides with my children.

But inevitably, for anyone who clocks a few 1000 km a year or more, a second road bike becomes something more of a necessity than a luxury. It’s that go to machine when it rains (or snows) – those times when you want to ride but cringe at the thought of your newly cleaned bike becoming fouled with git and road oil – or worse still, a beautiful day to ride but a mechanical failure puts your bike out of commission.

My rationale is slightly different. Yes, I need a rain bike. But I also want a second bike for those times when riding my carbon road bike isn’t necessary and where my 30 pound single speed city bike would be impractical.

After many years of mainly solo riding, I have been fortunate to have found a group of cyclists to ride with. While not speed demons and at minimum +15 years older than me (some close to 30 years older), I can honestly say our weekly 60-90 km jaunts are something I desperately look forward to. Some are ex-racers and have been cycling for more than 40 years and still remain far fitter than average. The pace is more casual and social. The sprints and KOM’s are done more in jest than to humiliate or intimidate. We stop half-way for a coffee and pastry and talk. And the roads purposely chosen are rural, less traveled and dirt and gravel.

Here, a second bike, purposely chosen for wider tires and a wee bit more comfort is ideal. So this is my intention and my shopping list. Steel or aluminum. I want a modern quick handling and stiff frame, so a PF30 or BB30 bottom bracket and carbon fork is desired. My short list is a follows, the Chris King Cielo Road Racer, the Guru Sidero or the Stoemper Taylor. On the aluminum side, the Stoemper Darrell, or a Gaulzetti Corsa look good.

Of the group, the Cielo ticks the most boxes but the geometry has me concerned. The medium, with 129mm headtube and 555mm toptube seems I would have an enormous saddle to bar drop on account of my long leg vs short torso bias, while the large with a 152mm headtube and 570mm toptube would have me stretched out more than I like.

The Sidero, with PF30 and tapered carbon fork and head tube is growing to be the most expensive option on the steel side, but is Canadian made and full custom geometry.

The Darrell ticks all the boxes too, but could be more battering ram that what is required. The Gaulzetti looks business, but too, could be more bike than what I am bargaining for. Both look absolutely bad ass.

Decisions, decisions.

Cervelo R3 to R3 Team Upgrade

Cervelo R3 to R3 Team Upgrade.

Cervelo R3 to R3 Team Upgrade

So has it really been a year since I blogged last….?

First off, I am hardly a weight weenier, but when the opportunity struck to pick up a matching (well, “complimentary”) Cervelo SL fork for cheap on ebay, and from a local (Toronto) seller, I seized upon the opportunity.

Why bother (rhetorically speaking), given I am not a weight weenie ? Perhaps I am in reality,

Well, since my decision to pick up a 2012 R3 (late model, all black), lots of changes in the Cervelo R line up. Gone is the R3 Team, the R5 VWD and hello R2. Yes, future proof cable management has arrived. Better paint schemes (ATMO) too…..but a -60 gram upgrade for 130 dollars plus shipping….why not. People spend more for less every day. Well, weight weenies do. And this is a last chance to seize upon a R3 Team now that they have been discontinued. 

Previous to the Cervelo I had been riding a Look 565 with much more aggressive geometry thanks to a shorter head-tube (155mm vs 172mm) and while I appreciated the more upright riding position of the Cervelo, my fitness and enthusiasm for a lower position was growing. I was going to drop my bar position by at least 10mm anyway, and given all the work it was going to take to remove and cut the fork, why not just see if I could obtain a second fork before I committed to cutting down the original….then I found one, an SL, in black/grey….locally…..hello and thank-you ebay.

For the uninitiated, there is a proper weight difference between the standard R3 fork and the SL that came standard on the R3 Team and R5 models. The SL is a much lighter model, thanks to the 33K carbon layup. The differences are apparent to the naked eye.

299 grams, 215mm tube length….

Hey chubby…395 grams, 230mm steer tube

Searching “Cervelo SL Fork Weight” on the interweb, I found that, according to others at least there is a  60 gram difference between the 30K standard fork and 33K SL. Turns out it’s even more, or at least in my case – a proper 96 grams !

The only stumbling block was my miscalculation in steer length and stack height of the headset . There was no way I could use the standard 15mm stack height of the FSA orbit headset cap, which prompted another purchase on ebay – a Cane Creek 110 top cap assembly, 27 USD, shipped to my door in 3 days.

The old 15mm top assembly, retaining ring and spacers, 39 grams for all the bits.

Cane Creek 110 top assembly. 6mm stack height. 14 grams all in.

So, quick math – 96 grams saved off the fork, an additional 25 grams in bits….121 grams total or slightly more than a quarter of a pound. For 157 dollars. Cha-ching !

Changing the fork was dead easy. Remove stem and brake, remove top cap, pop out bearings, clean, re-grease, and install the fork, cap and stem. Clean and re-install the brake, trim off a bit off the cable, mount wheel, set the pads, torque to spec, then start tightening up the pre-load prior to tightening the stem….what the hell ? Something is wrong here…..

Merde ! Aluminum insert and star-fangled nut pulling out of the steer tube !

Argh ! Luckily I had some epoxy in the tool box. So, scrape off the old glue, clean with acetone, then carefully re-set the aluminum insert with the mighty Park Tool TSN-1!

Once set (around 1 hour) I re-re-installed the fork and gingerly set the pre-load, torqued the stem down and test rode. Beautiful ! 

How low can you go ? This is as low as I dare….

The Cane Creek 110 is the cats ass….

Meaner and 121 grams leaner…..

It’s hard to believe by a casual glance it’s not the original stock fork. In many ways, I prefer this R3 “team” to the red & white graphics to the genuine factory R3 Team frameset of 2012. Are there other differences between my “team” and a real R3 Team ? I honestly don’t know. I do know that the bare frame with hanger was 980 grams (size 56). Yes, sub kilo, but nowhere as light as some of the weights I have heard bantered about for a R3 frameset…or does everyone ride a XS ?

So, my R3 “team” frame & fork – 1279 grams “real” weight. Can anyone with a official R3 team 2012 size 56 comment ? The only other reference point I have noted is somewhere in the region of 996 grams, size 56 frame with hanger and collar. My collar was 22 grams, which put that at 974 grams vs my 980 gram frame, apples to apples. So in reality and most probably, the only difference between a R3 and R3 Team is the SL fork.

Drawbacks ? Well, I haven’t given it a true shakedown yet. What I am pretty sure is there is an appreciable difference in front end stiffness. The old fork was much more rigid thanks to it’s heavier construction. Only a real ride with confirm my suspicion.

Will I honestly feel that 121 grams on the road (as I feel my love handles)….no. No way.