Props to Cal Coast Bicycles

Over the years I have dealt with several local bike shops as well as national chains and web merchants. Some of the LBS' have been very hard to deal with. The national chains offer great prices and adequate customer service and the web merchants, well, they're web merchants and have ranged all over the place. But my experience this past year with Cal Coast Bicycles has been extremely positive.

I went to Cal Coast because they are the only local dealer for Ibis, and when I was looking to buy my Mojo SL, I didn't have much of a choice. The entire purchase experience was great. The bike was built up and ready in a day, and they have supported me every step of the way.

When my XTR rear derailleur went out, they offered to give me an XT swap while they were waiting to hear if Shimano would cover it or, when I suggested that they replace it with an XTR and I would pay them and they could just refund me when positive news came from Shimano, they said OK, but would only charge my CC if they heard back from Shimano that the part wasn't covered.

Then, most recently, my Crank Brothers Jopelin-R seat post died. In the period between sending it off to Crank Brothers, they gave me another Jopelin seat post so I could keep riding. When I went to pick up the repaired seat post on 24/Dec, they were actually closed, and had been for about 2 hours, but someone was there and was kind enough to go through the trouble of turning off the alarm, unlocking the store and exchanging the seat posts.

Finally, yesterday, I returned to the store because I was uncertain how to adjust the seat post cable as well as pick up the new Lopes Link for the bike. I decided to just have them install the Lopes Link, expecting to pay for the service. But, when I got the bike back, there was no service charge! Awesome.

Cal Coast also price matches, so I'm never going to pay more than I would at one of the web merchants. And even though I don't get the "10% back" on top of the price match that I would get at that big national chain, the fact that they didn't charge me for the service will keep me coming back for years to come.

Way to go Cal Coast.

P-Springing My Way Down The Freeway.

Early last week, I called Cal Coast to ask about the P-Spring issue. The mechanic told me to bring the bike in and they would probably just swap out the derailleur and I'd be on my way. Well, since I was also having an issue with the handle bars coming lose on every ride, I thought I might as well have them give it a once over before I go to Moab. So, since I was going to be in the area from Friday night to Sunday evening, I thought I'd just drop if off at the beginning of my time in San Diego, and pick it up at the end of the workshop.

Well, the best laid plans are often ruined by other people, and in this case many different plans were sabotaged to the point of being useless. First, my carpooler couldn't make it early enough for us to get to the bike shop on Friday, so I had to take it in on Saturday. They took the bike in and sent me on my way, mentioning to stop in on Monday evening to pick up the bike.

So, tonight I headed down the freeway, ready to get my bike with visions of riding tomorrow evening after work because I wouldn't be able to commute on my road bike because I need to drop it off to get new tires. So, I skipped work about 20 minutes early and the freeway was empty. I dashed down to Adams Ave. in no time, walked into the shop and saw my bike still in the stand, the chain dangling from a string tied to the stem.

The bad news was relayed to me...They couldn't get in touch with anyone at Shimano because everyone was just coming back from Interbike. So, they had no authority to swap the part out as a warranty issue and weren't about to eat the cost of a new XTR Shadow rear derailleur if it wasn't covered. I was guaranteed that it would be resolved by Tuesday, and could I come back then...

What really sucked is that I was then right in the heart of rush hour, 25 miles from where I wanted to be, and I didn't have a gym kit or a book or a computer or anything else to occupy my time for 90 minutes. Then, to top it all off, I will need to go down there again tomorrow, which really sucks! Oh well, I just hope I don't get a call tomorrow telling me it's not covered! Then I'll really be pissed!.

Fixing A Wheel

How hard can it be to fix a broken spoke. I've done it at least a dozen times. In fact, I've built wheels from scratch. I've got a professional grade truing stand. I've got a wheel dishing tool. I've got a spoke tensionometer. I've got every spoke wrench size. So, like I said, how hard could it be?

Well, it seems that if you've got XTR wheels, it can be quite difficult. Shimano decided that they would put a tiny little part called a Hub Nut. It's a tiny little part, about a half inch long that fits into a hole in the hub and is threaded on the inside. The hub side of the spoke screws into the Hub Nut and then because it's slightly flanged, causes the spoke to stay snug in the hub.

But it seems like none of the shops in San Diego has ever had to replace an XTR M975 spoke. I find it hard to believe that no one in the past year has broken a spoke, but that may be the case. One bike shop touted the strength and stiffness of the wheel and that he's never heard of a spoke breaking without some sort of impact. So, he has heard of a spoke breaking, but still, the shop he worked for didn't have the part available.

Dana had the same thing happen on one of our Nobel Canyon rides a few months ago, and he called the bike shop where he had his repaired (North of the Border) to see if they still had any of the hub nuts available. They said that they did. I'm hoping that it is in deed the same part. I've asked a friend to go to lunch today and will see if she can give me a lift over to the shop to buy the part. In the mean time, I've also ordered a pack of 10 from the Trek store (I suppose I could have ordered it from somewhere closer to me, but they were very helpful on the phone--much moreso than any of the other shops I called.

I certainly hope that I can get this silly wheel fixed by Friday night because I want to ride this weekend.

17-August La Costa Technical Fiasco

It started off like a great ride. I got to the trailhead at about 4pm and was on my bike by 4:20 (Oh how I wish...) Anyway, video camera was rolling, the ipod was jamming and I was zipping up the hill with all my protective gear in place.

I made some of the switchbacks that usually have me pushing the bike and some of the steep loose climbs were easy with my Mojo SL. I had just made it around one of those corners and up a steep grade when I noticed I had some chain suck. I back pedaled and the chain fell out from between the cranks and the chainstay, but then I noticed that the chain was dragging on the ground. I looked back and saw that the lower jockey wheel was completely forward. I handled the Shimano XTR Shadow derailleur hoping that something would snap back into place or something, but there was absolutely no tension on the chain. A fellow MtB rider came by and offered about the same amount of assistance I was able to provide--pushing the jockey wheel cage backwards only to watch it spring forward.

Fortunately, the return to my car was about 98% down hill, so I coasted back, only having to push a few times. I drove home, put the bike on the stand and grabbed my favorite bike repair manual "Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance." I quickly found the page and discovered that there is a part in the derailleur called a Pivot Spring or P-Spring that puts tension on the jockey wheel cage, and thus, pulls the chain taught. This P-Spring was the source of my issues. I quickly disassembled the derailleur and found the P-Spring, put it into place and tightened everything up, but still no tension. So, it was time to read the manual a bit more closely. It turned out I needed to twist the jockey wheel cage around. But to do that I needed to remove a set screw that prevents the jockey wheel cage from spinning all the way around. I removed the screw, but discovered, to my frustration, that I needed to break the chain in order for everything to work right. I guess it was a good time to replace the chain, even though it was almost brand new.

The original chain was an XTR, which while a good chain, caused me some consternation in that I have been using SRAM 971 chains for some years and don't have any XTR links in the even that I would need to replace a few on the trail. So, with the added benefit of some over-zealous chain breaking, where I knocked the pin completely out of the link, it seemed like a good time to just put on the SRAM chain that I had sitting in front of me in the toolbox.

After breaking the chain, I once again removed the set screw from the jockey wheel housing, twisted the jockey wheel housing around, replaced the set screw, and voila, I had a derailleur that would tension the chain once again. I put on the new chain; tested the shifting, which worked flawlessly, and went about cleaning up my mess.

I'm questioning whether I should take the bike in to the shop to have them take a look at it, or whether I should just trust Mr. Zinn's technical explanation and give the bike a ride. I'll be leading two rides this coming weekend for the California Men's Gathering's camping trip to Mt. Laguna. I think I'll bring along another derailleur though, just in case.