~ 
beating previous record [+] in 6h56m18
~ NOTE: continued from part one! having detailed our troubles with our trek’s obsolete helicomatic hub in part one of this two part series, one might wonder why we don’t ‘upgrade’ to something in more ‘advanced’ or at least in better shape.
notwithstanding the fact that new parts will never be available and the time a dipshit on the sidewalk actually touched our trek and said ‘you should get a different hub’, we know that italian shit is in vogue – touché – but we have always been francophiles at heart. we would rather push a citroën than drive a fiat.
also the helix onto which the cluster fits looks cool as shit.
poor pockmarked cone. will i ever find another?
~ the rear hub on our trek 460 is an outdated and oft-disparaged ‘helicomatic’ from the french company maillard; every few hundred miles, the wheel begins to wobble, and we have to tighten the outdated cones. a couple of weeks ago, we tightened them just enough feel no resistance when spinning the wheel, but when we mounted the wheel and tested it, there was a terrible grinding noise, and the wheel would sometimes stop suddenly.
we opened the hub and looked inside. the bearings on the ‘left’ side of the wheel were scarred and some of them were split to pieces. our plans for an afternoon ride were dash’d.
we don’t know anything about bikes that any tool can’t learn by using google. so any knowledge that we utilized in ‘repairing’ our trek could be checked against online information, if there was any available. in the event, we were unable to find any definitive information.
for example, sheldon brown [w] states that the hubs ‘used 13 5/32″ balls on the right side’, but he doesn’t specify what they use on the left side – the same, or something different? meanwhile, a flickr page has photos of the helicomatic states that the hub uses 3/16″ bearings. the folks at yellow jersey [w] are able to tell us that the bearings are not 1/4″, at least.
the point of all this is to preface our list of procedures with a statement that we were working with contradictory information, so anyone reading this page whilst dealing with their own helicomatic issues should bear that in mind.
the bearings that fell out of the hub were 5/32″, so we figured that’s what we would replace
however, maybe the reason they splintered in the first place is that they were the wrong size. sheldon brown’s half-info and our personal experience persuaded us to stick with the 5/32″ bearings.
here’s the hub. note the scarred spokes!
continue reading…
~ well, our local ‘worker owned’ bike shop has screwed us again; spring 2009 is ruined!
our june 2006 post [+] suggesting that we had achieved our ‘final’ long distance record has been proven false; we have busted through that mark by a great percentage. whereas the previously mentioned ‘final’ long distance record was measured in kilometers, a fact conveniently absent from the earlier post, our last ride was documented in miles – 107 of them at 6h58m.
~ we have what is likely to be the final ‘the angry red planet single day distance record’:
Date: May 17, 2006
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: Starts at the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. Brief ceremony at 6:45 pm.
Join cyclists worldwide in a silent slow-paced ride (max. 12 mph/20 kph) in honor of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways.
~ possible article for ghostcycle.org #1:
area man cycling across 47th street discovers it takes more than a full punch to the face to cause him to lose control of his bike.
