The tire experiment part II

This morning I picked up my Z Pro at my bike shop (Harry, the shop owner being very busy and me having no time was the reason the bike stayed at the shop for such a long period). He took the Z Pro out of the back and proudly showed me his solution : a front brake calliper in combination with a adjusted pivot nut (hand filed oblique). According to Harry, it would be no use to hand file one of the calliper arms. It looked butt ugly, but I took the Z Pro home anyway.

Harry's solution : yuck !

Once I got home, I took everything off and attacked the old rear brake calliper with a hand file. It took me almost an hour to get rid of enough metal (had to file off a lot more than just 1mm) and when I put the brake back, the tire was still rubbing the center of the arms, at a point where you simply cannot remove anything without damaging the brakes. So, was Harry right after all ? No, he was not ! I took the adjusted pivot nut and placed it between the frame and the brake and voilà ! The oblique pivot nut lifts the brake arms just a little bit upward, enough to let the tire run free underneath.

This looks better !

Hardly but just enough space ....

Of course I had to take it for a spin after the modifications so I left for a 40 mile ride. I really was curious about the tires and it did not take long to feel the difference. The wider tires are way more comfortable ! Speed is the same, but comfortwise, it is a big improvement. They are staying on, that's for sure ! I only noticed that the rear brake has a little less power compared to before the switch, but I'm confident that I'm going to get that fixed to !

That's how I like it : beefy comfortable tires !

The tire experiment

After reading a posting on the C.F. Forum about how comfortable riding on 28mm wide tires is compared to 23mm I ordered myself some wider tires from my local bike shop. Since I'm very satisfied with my Continental Grand Prix's, I ordered these in 28mm. I picked them up from my bike shop yesterday and swapped tires this afternoon.
There was absolutely no problem in the front : the front fork is wide enough to go with even wider tires. The back was another story .... Since 28mm tires are wider, they do not fit between the brake pads when fully inflated. That's no problem, just inflate the tires when the wheels are back in place. So far, so good. After inflating the tires properly, I put the bike back on it wheels and wanted to take it to the front of our house. It sure looked nice, those beefy tires on a road bike ( I do like beefy tires !) But the rear wheel did not move, it was blocked ! No, it wasn't the brake shoes, the rim was free. When I looked a bit closer, I noticed that the rear tire got stuck underneath the rear brake caliper, preventing it from moving at all ! Damn !!!

Plenty of space with the 23mm tire ...

but not so with the 28mm tire !

It is only a matter of maybe 1mm, but as you can see on the second picture, the tire really touches the inner rear brake caliper. I called my local bike shop and explained my problem. They told me that I could try the new Shimano 105 rear brake caliper, which is slightly different in shape and might just be different enough to have the wheel fit. Another solution was to try another brand of 28mm tire, or change them into 25mm tires. I'm gonna take my Z Pro to my bike shop to try out that new 105 brake caliper and let's hope that it will fit !!!

Weekend by the Sea

Last Friday my wife and I left for Nieuwpoort, where a collegue of mine owns an appartment which is available for rent. Since I did not want to limit my bicycle riding to tarmac roads, I took the 700X with me this time.
As usual it was pretty windy near the beach, but that did not stop me from riding my bike. Since it was also my wife's birthday on Monday, I promised her not to leave her alone for more than 2,5 hours a day, which left both of us happy ;-)

The 700X turned out to be the perfect holiday bike, since you can ride it on pretty much every surface. There are several local bike routes on gravel going in all directions, so I always started with a head wind, fighting and struggling to keep my speed not too low and then turning around with a back wind, giving me speeds over 25 mph. Nice !

For the 3rd year in a row there's an art exhibit on the Belgian shore, called beaufort 03. Spread across the seaside cities, several pieces of art are exhibited on or nearby the beach. Now I don't consider myself an art-lover, but I don't mind seeing something nice now and then. I got myself a 03 Beaufort Bicycle Route flyer and went looking for some of the artistic constructions. Some of them really looked like crap to me, others were pretty nice. Anyway, it made it easier for me to decide where to ride my 700X to, since I planned everything in advance.

Some of them in plain wood ....

Others were pretty colorful ....

I even mangaged to ride my bike to France on Friday (Nieuwpoort is not that far from the French border). One thing I noticed immediately is that French car drivers are way more cautious then Belgian drivers ! Although there were no real bike lanes on the French roads, I never felt unsave. Vive la France !

Memorial near the church of Bray-les-Dunes

When returing from my bike ride on Saturday, I noticed that my headset had loosened. I do not carry large size wrenches with me, so I could only tighten the headset by hand. Since bike shops are closed on Sunday and Monday, there was no way to have the headset properly tightened before returning home. And I did not want to stay off the bike for another 2 days .... Luckily for me though, my local bike shop back home is open on Sunday from 10 'til 12 a.m. so I called them and explained my problem. They told me that I could keep riding my bike without a problem as long as I rode my bike on smooth surfaces and avoid riding over cobblestones etc. So thankfully I could keep riding my 700X for another 2 days without any problems. Tomorrow I'll ride my 700X to the bike shop to have the headset fixed.

New brake levers

Although I still like the looks of the XT brake levers I originally put on my Z Pro, braking was never quite crisp. I could slow the bike down, but that was about it. Until now I never had to make an emergency stop during my rides, but still ..... So to have some more safety into my rides, I replaced them XT-levers with flat road bar levers. While surfing the internet I discovered that Shimano has the BL-R 550 specially designed for flat road bars and they do have them in black, so the choice was easily made !

Yesterday I rode the Z Pro to my bike shop (I do not have a compressor at home to remove the rubber grips) where I switched the brake levers -and I got called stupid by the bike shop owner for mixing V-brake levers with road calipers. When riding back home I immediately noticed the difference in brake power when I needed to stop. Now it is possible to lock up the rear wheel, something that could not be done with the XT-levers. And to be honest : I kinda like the simple looks of the new levers.

Simple but effective

At last .... alive again !

I know, I know : I should be ashamed ! It's been almost a year since I last posted something on this blog .... And what's even worse : only today I took my Z Pro for a ride since almost a year too ! I can't explain why, but I did not ride my CF-bikes much last year. Most of my cycling has been done either with my Stratus XP or my velomobile. Don't know exactly why, but I just didn't feel like taking either the Z Pro or the 700X for a ride. And even then .... In the last three months, I did not even bother to ride the XP or my velomobile. Only used one of them for commuting and that was that. Could not bring myself to grab a bike and take it for a ride ... Of course, I did ride my old Beamer, but that's something completely different .... So anyway, today was THE day. It was a nice spring day with mild temperatures and since the forecast predicted a drop in temps and rain for tomorrow, I took the Z Pro out of its storage. Inflated the tires, checked the brakes and the chain and off I went. There was a mild breeze, so it was pretty tough to keep the speedometer above 19m/h but anyway, I really enjoyed myself ! Of all the bikes I own, the Z Pro is defenitely the most responsive one. This makes perfect sence, since it's the only bike that has a regular rear derailleur and cogs instead of an internal gear hub. And it's also the lightest, which is also nice to ride !

It took some time to get adjusted to the seat again, but that's only acceptable after not riding a CF seat for such a long period. So yes, I did feel my sitbones after I completed todays' 40 mile ride, but not that it hurt or felt uncomfortable in any way. And yes, I really did enjoy the ride and kept wondering why I didn't spent more time on the Z Pro before. Oh well ....


When I got home, I noticed that the rear tire needs to be replaced, for it has several worn spots as you can see in the picture below. Since it'll be raining all day tomorrow, I'll have plenty of time to replace the rear tire.

Time for replacement ....

Change of handlebar setup

Lately there has been a couple of posts on the CF forum regarding the handlebar setup. Although I was pretty satisfied with the setup I had on my Z Pro, I noticed that for longer rides (meaning +60 mile rides) I was looking for alternate hand positions. I've read about and seen the add on whisker bar solution that Randy Schlitter put ons his handlebar, but I don't like the concept. When it comes to multiple hand positions, nothing beats an trekking or so called butterlfy handlebar. So I put one on my Z Pro. I switched my medium stem riser with the curved riser facing forward, but that was stretching it way too much. Turning the riser backwards was way too close, so off it went. I now use the butterfly handlebar in combination with the long stem riser and that seems to do the trick. The shifter and brake levers are positioned in the beginning of the handlebar, where they are supposed to be. When you ride with your hands near the shifters, the bike's very easy to control. When you're out of town and going for the long road, there's no need to keep your hands there and you've got plenty of options to put your hands. I even managed to rest my ellbows on the curves when riding into strong headwinds, which gives you a little aerodynamic benefit. I have not put many miles with this configuration yet, but if the weather'll be with me, I certainly will !

The new handlebar setup ...

Almost perfect angle for leaning your ellbows on ...

Helping out a fellow rider ....

I had an early shift at work yesterday and since the weather was really nice, I took my Z Pro for a ride in the afternoon. There was a mild breeze, but blue skies all over and plenty of time (more or less anyway). I took a trip across the border with the Netherlands and really enjoyed the Z Pro: all the advantages of a regular road bike minus the discomfort of the saddle !
When I returned from my trip after 40 miles, I noticed a fellow biker who was walking his bike on the road close to home. I noticed that his rear tire was flat and asked him if I could help. Turned out he was Dutch and 10 miles from home without anything with him : no patches, no spare tire, no pump .... Since I always carry that stuff, I parked my bike and offered him my tire levers, my patches and my pump. As soon as I saw him trying to get his rear tire off the rim, I realized he'd never done that before. When I asked him, he admitted he had never done something like that before. Amazing .... Anyway, to make a long story short : I replaced his rear inner tube with my spare one, since his tube had multiple leaks. I let him do the pumping though, that was something he could do, right ;-) ? He thanked me for helping me out, told me his name and the place he lived and was on his way again. And I was home soon after that, feeling that I did my good deed for the day. Made me feel pretty good ....