Scenes from Hammerhands

The brotherhood that exists among bike shop guys is a thing of legends. Like a unicorn or manticore, most people have never actually seen brotherhood amongst bike shop guys, so when I begin to ramble on and on about the brotherhood that exists amongst Freewheel Bike shop guys, you should sit up and take notice.

You there! Sit up and take notice! If this is a good time for you, that is!

Tonight's ride was memorable in that we had pretty much every location of the business represented: Freewheel Mobile's own Thadwick Cialek; West Bank's Tyson Acker; Midtown's John Bemel; Ben Erickson from the front office; and me (Chris) from Eden Prairie.

We talked shop. We talked life. We talked trash. We took bad lines. We cleaned rock gardens. We accidentally skidded once or twice. We awarded style points. Most of all, however, we reminded ourselves and each other and other folks around us why we're in the bike business: we love it.

Perfect conditions and perfect weather (maybe just a touch on the hot side at the start) combined with one of the best trails around are just icing on the cake, but honestly, we could have fun riding around an old city dump at nine miles per hour and getting dizzy from all the turning... oh wait, we do that at Theo Wirth. Yep, we have fun there too!

I've been told that people don't read anymore, and that a picture is worth 1000 words, and that I look like I'm Irish, and that my bike creaks. It does creak, but I'm a mechanic, so I know why it creaks, and if I'm not worried about it, you shouldn't be either, so there! And I AM part Irish! And you're reading this, aren't you?!? But anyways, here are thousands of words worth of pictures.

First you have to GET there. At 5:00 on a Wednesday, it took over an hour.
That's the Thadmobile in red.

So this is us, minus me. I'm busy being the bad photographer.

Tyson, saving it despite a shaky entry.
Note the incredible seat tube on that custom Waterford!

And he sticks the landing!
That's John Bemel's stunning red and black sock in the lower left corner.

Ben, telling an animated story. Thad had apparently heard the story before.

Eating Chipotle in front of a Casual Male XL store seemed ironically appropriate.
Our tapeworms were grateful.

Oh drat my luck! Guacamole blowout, and I forgot to grab a spoon!
Why did I get out of bed this morning?!?

Don't worry, I took it back inside when I was done with it.

6 PM. Wednesdays. Murphy parking lot. You're invited.

Superbe *or* Wizards of Suspension!

Simplicity through Design

In my opinion - the side pull brake is the pinnacle of bicycle component design. They aren't the easiest to adjust, the most powerful or flashy, but something about the simplicity and effectiveness of the design makes me smile.

With a few minutes of their day anyone can figure out how to disassemble, clean and reassemble a pair. Adjustment takes a special wrench, but even then it's just a turn and a tug to get them in the right position. Their form follows their function, but who among us is immune to the charm of satin finish? Now, though, dual pivot and the allure of carbon fiber have taken hold our collective imagination and the side pull has been relegated in all it's glory to the cheapest of brakes, mass produced in Taiwan with not the love or respect the design has known. They have immeasurable beauty inside and out - well worth the hunt for a decent pair from the 70's, 80's or 90's.

It was to my surprise that sitting on BRose's countertop the other day I came to find a pair of Suntour Superbe awaiting an owner. Probably lost in some bin at the cave which was his old home, now they sat with their satin glow. I picked them up and wondered how they got to this location. You see, BRose isn't known for simple...

Step back into the bowels of the Shockspital and you'll find forks, components of all anodized colors and shapes, frames in various states of repair, tools which defy the imagination. It is a lair of wizards and magic, ladies and gentlemen. With Dave Vance at his side their combined knowledge borders on the ridiculous - there is no problem too nuts for them to tackle. Just walking back into the haze of technical babble and disc brake fluid is enough to set even the most serious mountain cyclist into a frenzy of joyous babble.

BRose has set out to make the mystery of suspension and this 'mountain cycling' as simple to me as my beloved side pull break. Over these next few months I'll begin to spend more time with these two gentlemen and try to absorb as much information as possible. It's true, I've never ridden a mountain bike, but I'm going to do my dardest to try. What kind of spandex does one wear in the woods?

So here I stand, in the midst of this wondrous and mysterious land. Feeling almost as out of place as these brakes. Still, the handsome BRose and the wise and all powerful Dave Vance have something to offer and I'll do my best to relay my lessons on to you all.

It is with a heavy heart that I must leave my home in the cafe to the far off land of the Shockspital, but I'm sure my girl back home will be waiting when I return.

Kind Regards,

Aaron Smith

Wrenching at the Nature Valley Grand Prix

The Nature Vally Pro Ride is an awesome opportunity for several amateurs to realize the dream of riding in a real pro event. Thirteen riders from all over the US of A were randomly shanghai'd from regional events and smuggled sketchily into Minneapolis in perforated cardboard crates. They were allowed to bring their bikes, but Nature Valley supplied their kits. Those sprockets on the shoulder? Yep, that's us.

Which is to say, we have to keep their bikes running throughout the event. Golden Wrenchers Pete Hamer and Tyson Meyer have done this sort of thing before, so they took to the opportunity like a chicken watching a card trick. At any rate, these are amateurs who are being treated like professionals, and part of that treatment is bicycle kindness, Golden Wrench style.

Last year we sponsored the women's team, and I personally worked late into the night on a bike that had been ridden into the ground. It didn't shift, the brake pads were more-or-less shot, the rear wheel had a bad hop in it, and the chain was worn out. Peel the tubular back, scoop out the fossilized tubular glue, find the right wrench, true the wheel, ghetto-patch the glue, good as new! Run all new cables plus new housing at the derailleur loop, presto! Write an inspirational message on the bar tape in Australian, yessiree! I happen to speak a bit of Australian: that's how I'm able to understand Andrew the Shimano Tech Rep. In fact, I translate for some of the other guys who frittered away their high school years on Donkey Kong and riotous living.

Anyways, in the frenzy of trying to get to her first professional bike race of her amateur career, one of the athletes forgot her shoes at the host's house. Now, this was the St. Paul crit, and if you've ever tried to get into or out of St. Paul at 6 PM, you realize that shoes in St. Louis Park (for example) would be inaccessible. She was determined to throw down in her running shoes, but we found another way!

Jake, the General Mangler, has the exact same size feet that she had!!! and he carries his road shoes around in the back of his car!!! and his car was only slightly further than a comfortable distance away!!! but nothing he couldn't cover on a borrowed bike!!! and Pete's bike was just sitting there!!! so off he went!!! and back he came!!! and most of his cleat bolts were not stripped or seized, except for that one!!!

Not to make it more dramatic than it needs to be, but we managed to get the shoes from Jake's car, get the ratty old cleats off (including one stripped bolt), install some brand-new Shimano SPD-R cleats (crookedly), and install them on the athlete at the starting line. She was only about 5 seconds late leaving!

Well, her race went to pieces on her. After she caught back up to the group, a crash in front of her forced her to unclip, and she was never able to clip in again. Heartbreaking, especially considering how hard she worked to get there. She was glad to have the absolute worst experience of her cycling career behind her, and if nothing else, we were glad for that as well.

So that was stage two. There were more stories I wasn't privy to, and I heard it through the grapevine that our man Timothy Rugg put on a show for the fans at Stillwater, and went home with a Most Aggressive Rider jersey (with some sprockets on it). He's going somewhere and could use some good fans!

Murphy Hammerhands Hammers Hands

This Wednesday we're going to bring some demo bikes to the Murphy Hammerhands Wednesday Night Ride at Murphy Hammerhands. If you'd like to try out one of the new Trek designs to see if it makes all the difference in your single trackin,' you should oughta call and reserve one of the bikes we'll be bringing.

Choose from Trek Remedys, Hi-Fi DLX's, EX 9.9's, and others! With these proven suspension designs, you'll be laughing at Murphy's hand-hammering tendencies. You will dive into the "Berm of Suck" and laugh aloud at the wrist-shattering braking bumps. You will slice through the random rock garden and laugh aloud again. You will hit the big, partially-concealed ruts in the parking lot left by high school kids whipping donuts in small pickup trucks and laugh aloud. Your voice will be hoarse from all the laughing aloud that you will do.

Oh, and join us for food and refreshments afterwards too.

Winning...

Recently we did some work on the bike of an area mountain bike racer. He had recently done a local mountain bike race in Inver Grove Heights, and his nondescript mountain bike was exceedingly muddy afterwards. This area mountain bike racer was nice enough to clean it up for us, but it seems that he wasn't happy with the gnawing sounds coming out of his nondescript mountain bike. Apparently it was worth the while of this area mountain bike racer to bring his nondescript mountain bike (which was creaking and squeaking like a Conestoga wagon) in to get some Golden Wrenching.

Incidentally, this particular area mountain bike racer had won this particular local mountain bike race by a particularly wide margin. We wanted to find out how, so naturally, we looked at his nondescript mountain bike.

As Tyson tore into the nondescript mountain bike belonging to this area mountain bike racer, he discovered and documented some (and it pains me to report it) "mechanical indiscretions." Now the reader will notice that I have very charitably refrained from calling Mr. Moore (Oops! I meant "this area mountain bike racer!") a "cheater" or a "weasel" or a "mountebank" or a "charlatan" or a "scoundrel" or a "canteloupe" or a "Swede" or an "orangutan" or a "continent" or a "dinner plate" or a "wristwatch of impeccable craftsmanship," but certainly some of these epithets crossed my mind in relation to the abovementioned area mountain bike racer.

Let's have it out: clearly he had maliciously modified his bike for what may be considered an unfair advantage over his hapless competition. One of these "modifications," a derailleur pulley shaved down for extra aerodynamic advantage, he even boasted of on his own blog! The nerve!

In addition to the shaved-down derailleur pulley (saving probably eight grams of crucial rotating weight, plus eliminating the rotation), this area mountain biker was also using ultralight brake pads which consisted of only the metal backing plate. In other words, he was willing to risk life and limb in order to save about ten grams of braking material. Is this truly the cost of winning, and if so, is winning to be done at all cost?

The final straw was revealed when we removed the crank arms from the nondescript mountain bike and discovered that, in direct violation of literally several ethical somethings, he had lightened up his bottom bracket by removing several of the bearings. Certainly one could find wiser ways to save a few grams!

There are a lot of gaps in this smile.

I dunno. Maybe these fast guys just think differently, but this seems to be taking things a bit too far. We are thinking about having a sit-down intervention with this fellow before he starts sawing out his down tube, ventilating his handlebars, or drilling holes in his chain rings.

Wednesday Nights at Murphy Hammerhands

So, last summer a few of us Freewheelers decided that it would be a good idea to have a weekly off road ride at Murphy Hanrehan Park. Over the course of many weeks, we gained more and more riders. Eventually, somehow, Murphy got the nickname of Hammerhands (get it? Hammerhands = Hanrehan)... there is an official mascot, but, to avoid lawsuits, I will not post it here (Imagine "Fighting Irish" with hammers for hands).

Anyway... The second annual "Murphy Hammerhands Freewheel Bike Summer Long Group Ride on Wednesday Nights" is back by popular demand!

What we have in store: (1) A great ride! We are out to have fun and enjoy the summer trails. This ride is open to any level of off road rider. (2) Socialization post ride. Continuing our tradition, we will be roasting off meats and vegetables in the parking lot and will have refreshments available as well.

We will start this week (5/25/11) and go right up till the time trial series (also on Wednesday nights at the end of the summer, stay tuned for more info). Meet in the trail head parking lot off Hanrehan Lake Dr at 6pm. We won't ride if the trails are wet (check trail conditions at MorcMTB.org).

See you out there!

Although it is exciting and fun, cycling is an inherently dangerous sport: Freewheel Bike and its representatives are not responsible in any way for any perceived or actual injury before, during, or after group rides. Please take personal responsibility for your own safety. Helmets are required for all rider.

We Officially Welcome BRose!

We're officially extending a hearty Golden Wrench "WELCOME ABOARD, YOU FELLOW!" to Brian Rose, the gentleman-provocateur Alpha wolf from Shockspital. He's a disarmingly jovial fellow who lives and breathes bicycle history. He knows his retro bikes, and he knows his modern bikes, and he knows his own bike, and can often be found discoursing on the strengths and weaknesses of bygone designs.

And to top it off, the man himself rides an AMP fork: not the single-sprung unit, we're talking the dual-damper, titanium-legged fork that they made right before they bowed out of the industry. That's retro-bike nerd for "legit," as many of our readership are well aware.

Offically, we welcome you, Brian Rose, to the usually-temperate basement of the Midtown Bike Center!

The man, obscured by his fork

That's our official position. Privately, however, we're a bit worried. When he actually began moving into the Midtown Bike Center, he brought with him several enormous tool chests, some housewarming decor, his own bad self, and an extensive omnium-gatherum of suspension oddments dating from my earliest memories. Red plastic bins full of bicycle suspension archaeology form a neat little bunker where BRose can work his magic.

Instant Credibility! This tool does nothing that a well-wielded hammer and a drift punch cannot, but it says AMP on it...

The trouble is not merely the presence of the bins, it is that we have to catalog and inventory their contents. The bins themselves are large and heaping-full, and they are numerous. Plus, some of the parts have long since celebrated the tenth anniversary of their parent company's closure. It's going to be a challenge.

A lively box of springs: one of many such bins in the collection.

Lo, an air can from a Stratos shock! Behold, a damper from a Noleen Smart Shock! Begorrah, if that isn't a Boxxer spring! And what is this beautiful thing? Nope, I dunno. I'll have to ask.

Well, officially, we're going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's got a pile of stuff to do: there's a Lefty from New Mexico, a Fox Alp 4 from Illinois, an old SID from Massachusetts, a lineup of local stuff, and a bunch of conversations to keep up on. As long as those bins don't start multiplying, we should be fine...

Good thing I created a "weather" category

Here in the Upper Midwest we occasionally get some pretty spectacular thunderstorms. Like tonight, for instance. A tiny little storm that barely registered on regional radar still managed to make me run into the house for the camera...

Check out the mammatus action on that sucker! And has anyone ever seen bigger hail? I admit I have not.

Hope you weren't riding home in that.

We want to service your suspension.

And you want this guy to do it.

We now have rental forks for when yours is being serviced!

We just received three rental forks from Rock Shox, two 26" and one 29er. This is just one more step we've taken to make it convenient for you to bring your fork in for it's annual maintenance. These forks are available for rent when we are servicing yours or sending yours in for warranty. The rental fee is $40 for as long as your fork is in for service and installation is included.



Campy Freehub Install

The hubshell has been cleaned and lubricated.

The pawls have been cleaned and reinstalled.

                                         
 

Hold the pawls down with the Campy spring tool.

                                     

Slide the freehub onto the axle.

                                     

The spring tool keeps the pawls down allowing the to be inserted into the freehub.

The tool can the be removed and the freehub inserted the rest of the way.





How Grease Works! (as far as we know)

The guy who cuts Clark Kent's hair probably doesn't have a clue, even if he happens to look down the collar and see the red and blue skinsuit. "Long johns," says the barber, dismissively, then goes back to snippin' and stylin'.

I would never have known that one of our Supercustomers makes tiny little gyroscopes that guide aerospace equipment. You know, like space ships and time machines and fancy electro-transistor huckaloogies that cost lots and lots of money and are not terribly useful for gardening. Meet Andrew Paule, the Physicist.



Not surprisingly (if you know aerospace guys), he's riding around on a set of Campagnolo hubs from 1968, and they're flawlessly smooth. He also has "Dr. Feelgood" as the ringtone on his phone, so we're absolutely sure he's a real human being.

Andrew was impressed with our commitment to the Midtown Greenway and wanted to return a favor, so he agreed to do an entire presentation on lubrication and how it works. So we met after hours on a Saturday evening and talked about grease and bearings and oils and failure and success and why old Campagnolo hubs are so awesome, and why MOPAR-based vehicles should be avoided.

Excuse me, Andrew? How does pizza grease do in the ASTM D2266 test?

It's all theory, of course, and we all know how to be responsible with theories!

Admittedly, for starters, I'm kind of a nerd. Admittedly (and admittedly, it's easier to admit the foibles of others), Freewheel has a few nerds as mechanics, as well as a few guys who don't think they're nerds but may want to check on that. Either way, some of us really enjoyed this presentation. Let's just say that Andrew was pulling the microscopic curtain away and revealing what happens at the nano-level in the highest-stress areas on your bicycle.

It's spooky.

The races on this spindle look perfect, but under a microscope...

Once we were able to wrap our minds around what he was saying, what Andrew shared confirmed many of our sneaking suspicions: many of the products we use on our bikes amount to marketing flummery and snake oil. Here was a chance to take the mythology out of lubrication and let science clarify the matter!

Ha!

It turns out that science is a capricious servant: the truth of the matter was stranger than the mythology.

Grease is essentially just an oil with a thickener and some other additives to help it stay in place and smell awful, and Andrew explained that this puts it into the category of non-Newtonian fluids (think corn starch and water, then think about this before you cough up the money for this). Thus, grease exhibits different characteristics under different stresses. Under the extreme, localized pressure of a ball bearing against a race, awful things happen at a microscopic level, and that's why you get hub cones that look like this:

For the love of Grandma!

Yes, even a greased hub can do this, kittens! It turns out that grease, under the tiny contact point of a ball bearing against a race, can be harder than the metal in the tiny little universe inside your hub! So actually, the thing that is usually deforming is the bearing itself: the grease is just there to make sure that while the bearing deforms it can't weld itself to the race. Apparently it gets really hot when all the microscopic peaks and valleys in your mirror-smooth bearings and races articulate against one another.

It all seems so wrong!

That's why we put dust shields on our hubs: so that the little universe where everything is wrong can't come out and confuse us all. But Andrew the Physicist tells us there's hope.

Some greases, it turns out, resist the above effect better than others. The best ones cost hundreds of dollars an ounce and are used to make satellites go "beep beep beep" across the night sky and drop your cell phone call. Stupid robots.

This stuff costs well over $1000 per liter.
It is impossible to take a non-blurry picture of it.
It is safe to drink.
You first!

Most of the greases used in the bike industry are pretty mediocre according to Andrew the Physicist, but due to the relatively low speeds, this isn't nearly as big a deal as it would be, say, on a dragster. The greases we use all do a great job of inhibiting corrosion and slowing down the galling process, but most are not the greatest on the ASTM D2266 test. Does that mean they suck? No, they're totally adequate for bicycle applications, and may even excel in some specific uses. They just don't meet the absolute highest standards reserved for stuff like dentist drills, watches, interocitors, flux capacitors, and Twiki.

I was delighted to hear that we had some real standouts on our shelves however, and I will definitely prioritize those greases from now on when I do overhauls and bearing repacks.

Trivia Question: what is the official title for a scientist who studies friction?

First to respond correctly as a comment to this post will win a tube of each of our two highest-scoring greases according to Andrew the Physicist!

The top-scoring greases on our shelves: the venerable Finish Line Teflon, and the relatively new and mysterious Morningstar Freehub Soup!

They can be yours, if you're smart, resourceful, or lucky, or some combination thereof!

*Be sure and leave your e-mail address so we can get your prize to you!*

Edit: Thank you for all of the responses. Because your e-mails are included I will not publish them. The winner is Montesano! You can stop by our Westbank location anytime to pick up your prize.

SRAM Technical University

A few weeks back, 4 of Freewheel's ace mechanics attended the SRAM Technical University to learn a few things about Avid brakes, Rock Shox forks, and some of the new SRAM shifting technology.


We all piled in our trusty Subaru Outback and headed west towards Colorado Springs. 13.5 hours later, we had arrived. Woke up Tuesday morning to a spectacular view of the mountains, and an excited state of wonder, looking forward to learning more skills to serve you fine folks better!



First day was the Avid brakes. We learned alot about the proper way to set-up the brakes for a better feel at the lever. We also learned the proper bleeding procedure to make the brakes feel amazing. (We even have a fancy new bleed kit to make things a little easier.) Alot of interesting technology goes into these brakes. The way you can adjust the levers, and the brake master cylinder to improve performance and feel. We also learned about their old brake systems and the changes they made to make them even better! And the nice thing about SRAM is, they are willing to take responsibility for their mistakes. Then they re-engineer the product. Now that's commitment.

Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to Rock Shox suspension forks, and rear shocks. Now the stuff gets really cool! We started by tearing down and re-building a Tora front fork. Even at the "low end" there is some real technology associated with this fork. The way they engineer the air system is quite simple, but very effective at making the fork work properly for each rider and each trail condition.




When we re-built a Monarch rear shock, I admit I was a bit nervous about tearing into an air sprung rear shock. But, after about 2 minutes my fears were laid to rest. It was quite simple to maintain and overhaul! Not many people think they need to maintain their suspension systems, but after miles of abuse on the trail, things can easily wear out without routine maintenance. It's kind of like an oil change for your car. The longer it goes without service, the more likely it is that serious problems and performance issues will arise.

We also had the privilege of working on some of the high-end Lyric and Boxxer world cup forks. The Lyric was simply amazing! The 2-step air system is super cool!
The Boxxer world cup fork is quite a sight. It looks very similar to a motocross fork, just a bit downsized. Man, this fork is super sweet! The new solo air system, improved damping, and it's still pretty light for a DH fork!

We all learned alot, and had a good time doing it. We had the fortunate opportunity to meet new shop people from all over the country, and talk directly to the people who can influence what we see in the future of bike parts and technology. It's good to know we have the full support of a company dedicated to best in performance and customer service. SRAM is still the best with customer service. If you have a problem with any of their components, they want to know about it, and they will do everything in their power to help you.

We also talked briefly about the new and dramatically improved 2X10 system. The way the front chainrings are designed makes the shifting almost instant. No more waiting a half pedal revolution just to shift from the big ring on down. The new Apex road group is pretty interesting as well. It's made to compete with the Shimano 105 group. A lower price point without sacrificing performance. And it's all black!

Thank you David and Chuck at SRAM for sharing your knowledge and sense of humor. I know we all had a blast learning about your product. Also, thanks for the beer and wings! Next time you're in town, the beers are on me!

Remember to get those forks and shocks in for a oil change, or complete overhaul before the spring rush! We are fully qualified to work on all makes and models! Don't be the guy on the trail holding up the group! The mountain lion may just catch up to you first! A properly tuned suspension system makes your bike faster!

Would you like to be a Golden Wrench?

If you've ever wanted to be a professional bicycle mechanic this is your chance.
Freewheel Bike is hiring.  Click here. for more information.

Paradiso or Purgatorio?

Recently my wife and I took a long-planned trip to Kauai, the northernmost and least-inhabited among the Hawaiian islands. Feel free to resent me, but if you are the resentful type, be comforted that they experienced some rather low temperatures and it rained over half the days we were there. This made the forty plus miles of hiking we did a muddy ordeal, but we left with nearly every box checked in our to-do list. I was surprised how nice it was to hike in the rain when it’s nearly 80 degrees: hiking to a waterfall in the rain in January in Hawaii is tough on socks but easy on the eyes.

One of the items on my to-do list was to rent a mountain bike and ride some trails. Most of Kauai is uninhabitable, but between the locals and the State of Hawaii, a substantial network of trails and dirt roads weaves through the hostile terrain. Why hostile? First, it’s a volcanic island, so it’s composed of basalt and pumice with a layer of dense, brick-red clay on top of it. Second, Mt. Waialeale resides in the center of the island, and the warm trade winds sweep up and drop 400-600 inches of rain per year up there.

Mt. Waialeale, from the trail

The water runs off the basalt, saturates the goopy clay, and supports an Edenic garden in shades of green that rival the stars for number. The hills and valleys are impossibly steep, choked with impenetrable walls of ferns, shrubs, fallen trees, and mud pits, and there are streams everywhere that swell to torrential floods with very little warning.

This was the EASY way on a hike we did earlier in the week

Sounds like a great place to ride a bike, right, especially when it has been raining for two days straight? That’s what I thought. So I toodled over to Kauai Cycle in Kapa’a and rented a bike. I walked in the door and somebody said "Howzit," a pidgin term similar to "Bonjour" but with less snooty-tooty. I nearly replied "Howz what?" and gave away that I'm culturally insensitive because I didn't get to the part of the guidebook where they tell you how to respond to "Howzit" politely. I think there's some sort of gesture and a specific grunt. Instead, I got right down to business.

In their flyer they advertise a hardtail for $30 a day, a road bike for $30 a day, or a full-suspension bike for $45 a day. When I arrived, the hardtails were Specialized Hard Rocks, the FS bike (they only had one) was a Specialized Rockhopper FSR (or something like that), size small. Then they had some halfways decent bikes in a separate rack, but those ones were $60 to rent because they were demos. Hmm… no mention of that in the flyer, but oh well.

I took the bait and switch and rented a Stumpjumper Comp 29er. My other options were an Enduro and some freakish DH looking thing that looked like it had blood on it, so I went with what I figured is at least reputed to be the latest greatest thing. I hadn’t ridden a 29er with full suspension before, so it was kind of like product testing, at least that’s how I justified it. The handlebars were about 2" too high, 1" too close, and about 8 degrees too straight; the geometry was aggressive like a Schwinn Stingray; and the saddle felt like it could have doubled as a hatchet if I needed to clear some brush. But it was a 29er with 4" of suspension front and rear, so it would essentially ride itself, at least that's what the message boards say. After some setup fiddling, and some stashing of water bottles on my person, I was ready to rumble.

The trailhead was only about 8 miles from the shop so I just rode there, dodging tourists and feral chickens. The road was flat along the ocean for a while, but then it went up, up, up the mountain, past more chickens, through some third-worldish neighborhoods, and finally up to the trailhead. Factoring in my wrong turn, I had already climbed some 800 feet to get there on a 29er FS bike that was decidedly more dromedary than thoroughbred (it earned the nickname "Dromedarius" on a stretch of pavement that pitched up to 15%). Oh, and it’s 80 degrees with 90% humidity in mid-January, and I’ve been sitting around like a bump on a pickle since cyclocross season! Ahh... mortality, meet humiliation.

A memorable stretch

Dromedarius at the top

From the Kuilau trailhead, it was another 500 feet of climbing to the top of the ridge. It was easy to be distracted with postcard-gorgeous views of Mt. Waialeale mixed with occasional views of the coast below. The trail surface varied between thin, soupy mud; thick, sludgy mud; hardpack coated with “Hawaiian Brown Ice,” and sections of crushed pumice that were as good as riding on the road. Mix in some sinister-looking roots and blowdowns, season with some winter out-of-shapeness, boil at 80 degrees for a long time, and voila!

Gack

The descent was down the Moalepe trail, a rutted horse trail that was very similar in composition to the ascent. A few more punchy climbs occurred at manageable intervals, although one of them was close to 200 feet tall—I don’t know, can you call a 200 foot slog “punchy,” or is that doing a disservice to the English language? I did some backtracking and exploring when I saw what looked like some trails that snaked off into the wilderness. They did just that, either fizzling out completely or leading up to the edge of a precipitous drop. Eight miles in the woods was just about right, given the conditions. I ended up with 26 miles and 1700 feet of ascending on the day.

Dromedarius and Mister Man, still beswarthed with mud after ten miles of road

I stepped into the shop briefly to let them know I survived, and they were pleased. I had the bike for another two days (during which it mostly just rained, so I didn’t get to use it), so I asked one of the mechanics about some chain lube. The mechanic handed me a bottle of Tri-Flow, and sensing my hesitation, asked if I would rather use something a little bit heavier. He held up a bottle of Phil Wood Tenacious Oil and I about passed out. GOOD HEAVENS, MAN, LOOK AT THIS BICYCLE! DO YOU THINK I NEED STICKY CHAIN LUBE??? IF I LUBED THE CHAIN WITH THAT THERE STUFF, EVERYTHING IN THE FOREST WOULD COME BACK TO MY HOUSE IN MINNESOTA!

The bike (not to mention its rider) was already completely plastered over with red clay, festooned here and there with shreds of palm leaves that blow down in heavy rains, and I think there was a feral goat caught in the cassette. I didn’t need to bring anything else out of the woods!

I took the Tri-Flow. When in paradise, do as the locals do.

The Servicing of an Internally Geared Hub

There are many benefits of using an internally geared hub. For the most part, the unit is sealed off the elements, you can use them in a belt drive system, they shift really fast, etc. When we get one of these hubs from Shimano, or on a built bike, they come packed full of grease. With most Shimano internally geared hubs, grease is used to lubricate moving parts. However, here in Minnesota, extreme temperatures can change the way grease acts, especially when you're dealing with gears only a few millimeters in diameter.

Today we will talk about how to clean, service, and re-lubricate (with winter in mind) a Shimano Nexus 8 speed internally geared hub.

First, we need to remove the external components. Turn the shift mechanism locking to the left and the shift assembly slides right off.

Remove the cog snap-ring. This thing can be a huge pain. Unhook it from its groove and get a screwdriver under it. From there, all you have to do it walk it around till it comes off. I like to wear safety glasses of some sort when doing this. Snap-rings can be unpredictable at times.

The cog slides right off from there.

After the cog comes off, there is a dust shield and seal exposed.

Once removed, the drive side is now prepared for the cartridge to come out.

This bike is equipped with a roller brake. It's almost like a drum brake that's actuated with a hexagonal nut looking thing that 6 rollers rotate around pushing pressure plates against the inside diameter of the braking surface.

There is one nut that holds the assembly to the hub shell. Once that's removed, the whole brake comes off.

We now have access to the wench flats of the cone and lock-nut. These can be completely removed...

... And the internals are free of the hub shell!

The dirty, greasy parts get a nice hot bath in the parts washer. I usually let the cartridge sit for an hour or so to allow the old grease to break down.

Here is an exploded view after the parts are all cleaned.

Since when has Shimano made ice cream topping???

Must be "Blue Razzzberry."

The cartridge gets soaked till it's good and saturated. I usually wait till the bubbles subside.

Allow the excess to drain.

Clean the inside of the hub shell.

Apply grease to the bearings and clutch rollers. I also inject 3cc or 4cc of the special Shimano oil (ice cream topping) between the gears before putting everything back together.

Reinsert the cartridge and wipe off the excess grease.

Re-adjust bearing on the non-drive side till there is no play.

Install dust seal.

Grease back of dust shield and reinstall.

Grease the back of the cog and reinstall (We have had issues with these making noise, and grease seems to solve the problem).

Realign red dots with red, yellow dots with yellow...

... And rotate lock-ring to lock the shift mechanism in place.

It's good practice to lubricate the roller brake regularly. Squirt some special roller brake grease in the grease port.

Loosely install the roller brake. Tighten the drive side axle nut, align the reaction arm, then tighten the roller brake nut to fix it to the hub.

Seat the axle in the dropouts and fasten both axle nuts. Align belt if applicable. Check all the gears to make sure there are still 8 of them. If there aren't as many as when you started, something went wrong. Shift into 4th gear and use cable tension to align the two yellow marks in the window.

After performing this service, the hub felt like it shifted faster and more crisply, especially in the extreme cold. One of our year-round commuting employees, Ben, who uses the same hub described the overhaul to make the shifting "less gummy and more direct. It gives me all of it," he concluded. I'm not really sure what that last part means, but it sounds pretty positive.