After getting the Quickbeam’s S3X squared away, I mounted giant-sized 47mm Schwalbe Marathons, but the front couldn’t quite clear the fender.
- Remove extra large Marathon tire, install Kenda Kwest in 37mm. Looks pretty good!
- Pinch the tube under the tire bead, and have it blow 20 minutes later sitting in the entryway. 6″ blowout in a never-patched tube.
- Put in a new tube. Lots of patches on it, so it’s got to be good.
- As long as the wheel’s off anyway, clean the rim, hub and spokes.
- Putting the wheel back in is a little fussy, because the allen bolt on the front fender stay pokes way in and makes it hard to get to the spades for the dynamo wires to attach. The rear stay is even worse. It almost touches the cog, and looks stupid.
- Change out all the stay mount nuts for shorter ones that don’t crowd the hub or the dynamo wire tabs. Make sure they all take full-size hex heads.
- As long as the nuts are out, I should reorient the V-O fender stay mounts that don’t quite “stay.” They’d been pointing up to get more of the stay inside the mount, but that didn’t help the grip anyway, they may as well hang down properly.
- Hey, look, the front brake pads could use some sanding…
- Snip the S3X shifter wire shorter. That’ll look better. Boom! Crazy hair! Wire strands splay out everywhere. Dammit.
- Remove left crank and bottom bracket cup. Something down there’s been creaking. Grease up the cup threads, and inside, where it contacts the bearing. Reassemble. It only took a minute, and I think it worked.
- The rest of the bike is really starting to look fresh, and the tape is really skanky. I think I bought a roll of green Newbaum’s from Rivendell when I got the orange and blue for the Bontrager and the red and black for the Gary Fisher.
- Peel off top layer of tape. Wow. That looks positively Victorian under there, like something a coal miner would wear. Cover it up, quick… with a single roll of tape for both sides.
- That’s pretty half-wrapped; it barely comes past the hoods. Make up the difference with the tail-end of a black roll, and be done.
- Go ride with the dog.
- Suspect that the new oft-patched tube has a slow leak.
- Ride to the store for 6 lbs of sugar, 6 pack, two sodas and a half liter of red wine vinegar in the front basket.
- Find that the fender front fender is loose. The load is a littel wiggly, and something rattles when you whack the basket. Pop the wheel out, tighten the bolt that mounts into the rack, and get the wheel back on in seconds. All the practice has paid off!
- Buy a fresh tube (SEVEN DOLLARS??) and remount the tire. Do all the stuff as before, but with fingers crossed.
