David Singlespeed Unrau

Round 2 – Gluing with the Barnett Bicycle Institute Method.

After the trying the Tufo gluing tape, I next glued the tires on in accordance with the Barnett method – three layers of Gommitalia glue on the rim, one layer on the base tape. The tires were mounted after the last glue layer had dried to tacky. The glue join was infinitely better than the tape. However, Dermont has managed to roll off one of the tires racing, so next we’ll go to the full Greg Reain method.

Round 1 – Tubular Gluing Tape.

I haven’t messed around with tubulars much, because, well, gluing tubulars requires a lot of messing around. For the first round, I thought I’d try out tubular gluing tape. Gluing tape is essentially a gummy double sided tape, and is advertised as completely replacing the gluing process – apply the tape to the rim, mount the tire and you are done. Well, let’s see how it works. Today I mounted a Vittoria Evo XG cross tire on a Ambrosio Excellence tubular rim using Tufo Extreme gluing tape. The tire and rim were new. I scraped the cotton base of the tubular lightly, and cleaned the rim with acetone. The tape and tubular were installed following the Tufo directions.

Note that Tufo only recommends the use of gluing tape with Tufo tires, and recommends standard tape for cyclocross. Mounting the tire with the tape was easy….and rolling the mounted tire off was even easier! At 40 PSI the bond seemed pretty secure by hand – I couldn’t seperate the tubular from the sidewall of the rim. However, on the bike, deliberately pushing the front in a corner rolled the tire off. The force required was high, but definitely in the realm of what would be encountered racing. So, for this tire/rim combination at least, gluing tape is NOT recommended! Next I’ll try gluing the proper way.

Sweat can destroy your bike and your components pretty quickly – we had a good example of this in the shop today that I though I would share. We see lots of sweat-based corrosion damage to bikes, especially in the spring, after a compulsive winter of spinning on the trainer. Bathing your bike in salt water and then leaving it in the heat destroys cables, shifters, frames and components. Here are the results of one winter of spinning on the trainer:

The white is salt and aluminum oxide dust.  The dark in the centre is a where the handlebar is completely eaten away.  Before the tape was removed, the bike looked completely clean and to be in tip-top shape.  This handlebar was completely destroyed – I could easily rip the end of the handlebar right off.  Good thing this did not fail while riding!  What should you do about this?  Make sure you get your bike tuned up by professionals at least once a year, even if your bike looks like it is in good shape.  Stay off the trainer unless you have to – cross train or get a winter bike.  The funny thing is, winter riding does not normally cause this amount of damage, this quickly, so by staying in on the trainer, especially if you are a heavy sweater, you may be causing more harm than good.  Finally, make sure you protect your bike from sweat with towels, and wash your bike regularly if you are riding indoors!

I haven’t had time to post lately, as we are busy getting ready for the Chico Racing 24 Hours of Summer Solstice mountain bike race that is this weekend at Albion Hills Conservation Area. This year I’m racing on a 5 person team, everyone is on singlespeeds. At the shop, we are getting some geared 29er’s together as demo bikes so people can take out a True North on a lap. As well, there are at least 5 other custom frames or full bikes that various people have needed to get for the weekend. Combined with regular business and late shipments from Shimano, general chaos prevails! At home, we’ve wound down the riding to rest up for the weekend, but replaced that with packing and preparation! Well, if you don’t see me over the weekend, don’t expect to hear any more until next weekend, when things will hopefully return to normal!