It was rainy day, but I still went to bicycling. I had planned it already 2 days. I had been getting fat and also On one of my previous ride I had seen, that there was a road reconstructed in a forest I passed, but that time I did not have time to go to check it out. I was curious if it's just for logging, or maybe I can get through of forest. So I went to ride. My feet were wet already after 20 minutes of ride. And toes were a bit cold because of that, but other wise it was pretty good, even though it was just +8C, but I had dressed accordingly.. except shoes. When I reached to gravel road the front brake started to do noise because the sand getting between caliper and brake rotor. So annoying, why to they do the disc brakes for bicycle the way that there's so little cap between rotor and pads? I was trying braking to get rid of the sand. It worked 2 times.. I had brake pretty hard for it though.. there wasn't much braking power also. I believe it worked against noise because brakes getting hot and water vapors. It was much nicer to ride after that, until I wanted to make a stop in forest and braked again. The front brake squeaked and I felt a jerk, like something got stuck and then broke lose.. then there was rubbing of brake, worse than before.
I thought that maybe some tiny rock from gravel got stuck in cooling hole of disc rotor, but that wasn't the case, but I did not figure that out until I got back home. In forest I was just able to get wheel turning pretty freely again and I decided to continue my ride, because the rear brake was still fine. I had replaced brake pads at rear a month ago or so. I replaced rear pads because I had bought new ones and wanted to see how they perform. New ones really were better. Did not replace front pads, because I had still over 1 mm braking surface left. That's more than half. If I remember right the owner manual said that I need to replace when it's reaching to 0.8mm so I was actually keeping my eye on the brakes. I wanted to replace them, but could not since it looked like a big waste. And they did not wear at all. I was already thinking that they never wear off. Even though I have been riding so much in gravel and wet weather. So now I don't understand how they wore so much this time? Is it like the wear accelerates at the end, or maybe that road had some different gravel with more abrasive sand? Actually the max thickness of those brake pads were still little more than a millimeter. The thinnest part was just 0.6mm. I always measure the thinnest most worn edge. Anyways good that I could finally replace it, But worried that, why are bicycles made that way. So unpredictable.. The new pads are semi metallic the old ones type I don't know for sure. They should have been semimetallic. That's what TRP says about their brakes on their website, but. Who knows, they are the brakes that the bicycle was stocked with when I bought it about 3 years ago.
Well I guess that's all for today. If I remember anything else I want to add, I guess I add it to comments. ^_^
Thank you for reading, and if you watched the video, then thanks for that too, although it's very long video with no talking or anything.. have a nice day and well, I still haven't finished cleaning my bike, even though it's already 2 days.. I cleaned the front part and replaced brake pads, cleaned som of the rear too.. the big dirt, but the drivetrain is not encouraging me to clean it. :P But I do that tomorrow.. hopefully. Bye.
Comments
ello, Estanis. Thank you for your comment. What does BTT stand for?
My bike is my most important thing. I don't have a girlfriend, wife or child. It's a cx bike. Merida cyclocross 500. I have installed long wide mudguards. Made mudflap for front mudguard and extended it also ahead at front by cutting a piece from another old mudguard and screwing to it, That it would not spray on camera lenses. Also I replaced handlebar and stem and saddle. Fizzik Arione saddle.. I got a used one little bit cheaper. Handlebar I chose Ritchey comp evo max. I did not like the shape of original handlebar. I could not reach brake levers when on drops. This one has different curve for drops, so even when I point shifting/braking levers more upward on handlebar. I can reach the brakes.. Fastest that I have rode this bike was 68Km/h but my average speed isn't that great.. The bike computer usually shows something from 21 to 24 as average. I probably could get 70km/h easily on down hill too, if I remove mudguards and replace 46 teeth big chain-ring with 50 teeth ring.. But the high top speed actually isn't priority to me. Average speed is much more important. And for that reason the cyclocross 36/46 crankset is perfect for me. I can keep cadence close to my ideal.. It's one reason why I chose this bike - that it had 36/46 crank-set.
I bought the bike online at 2015 January from a German online store. I paid in advance by bank transfer.. EBAN. Waited 2 weeks for it. And because I did not get a tracking number, I had no idea when it will arrive.. Was a bit nervous. They were supposed to send a tracking code but I did not get any. Maybe the shipping method they used did not allow it.. The shipping was only 19.90 for me.. Were they really able to ship it to Estonia with that sum? Maybe it was very bad deal to them.. Losing money. Anyways, it's not that I'm some supper rich to risk for buying online. Just opposite. I'm too poor and maybe little stupid too. But I got that bike 200€ cheaper from there. But as for Aliexpress, there can get pretty bad experience too.. I rather won't buy important bicycle parts from there. I have bought bicycle camera and handlebar extender from there. Both have Chinese quality. I will probably replace the handlebar extender with something stronger soon, since it broke little.. But I had a heavy light, camera and bicycle computer mounted on it.. So it's not surprise it did not withstand well.. It's still usable. I reinforced it and I should reinforce it more, but.. I think it's better to buy a new one.
Ah so your bike is a BTT, while watching your video for a while I thought it was a racing bike. It looks you get a high average speed.
I don,t dare to buy the bike stuffs through the net so I get everything from Decathlon (but the bike)
Hi Onee-chan. Nice to meet you. I know how you feel.. Or well, at least I think I understand somewhat. I searched long time for a good bicycle camera, before I found something that looked right and I could afford. Although there's so many sport cameras in market. They seem all the clones of a famous surfboard camera.. same look, same useless with extremely short battery life and.. ugly shape. I found one that looked right from Aliexpress and bought it. It's still not good enough. It has many bugs. And short comings in design and function. But I was able to fix it's main problem and other bugs, there are also kind of "work-arounds".. I still like it more than those surf board cameras they offer so proudly. ^_^ Now I would like to have also 2 more cameras. One tiny camera on helmet and other one pointing to rear.. Then I could capture all mistakes I do in traffic and other drivers mistakes as well. :D ^_^
Also I think it's fine that I'm not saying anything in that video, because it's so long video. People have easier to skip boring parts and scroll video back and forward without worrying that they miss something important I say.. They can watch it on accelerated speed too. If I were talking there in my broken english, you would not want to watch it at all. Also did you check also the beginning of the video. Maybe u did notice that it started on somewhere half way.. just at moment before the brake broke. There was some boring gravel before that, and in very beginning, there was little bit of a highway and then some industrial zone of country side and then gravel started.. I rode over 50Km on that day. I had planned more, but because no front brake and wet feet and hands.. Actually in end of that video the sound changed. I think it was some water getting into microphone.. I was thinking that this is probably how it sounds when you are transported in fish-tank on a highway. :D
Fizzy@, I did not take many pictures and now the bike is fixed and cleaned. I only have one more picture of dirty rear mudguard and chain stays.. or actually just the rear end of bike. ^_^
Hi Hardi! What a great journey!
I actually wanted to have camera that could stick on my helmet, so I can make a video like this.. LoL
Thanks a lot for sharing this with us. It's interesting. I wish you said something there, though. :))
maybe add more pictures.. it might help .. i got distracted easily if read blog without picture.. i might read half through.. lol
ganbatte ne~~
we should try to lure natasha and kaoru next... =D
Hello Fizzy. Yes, it has been long time I posted a blog, but I try to post more frequently now.. Maybe we meet more often from now on.. And I will try to put more effort into making my posts shorter and cleaner.. It's difficult, because, once I start to correct my mistakes and shorten my sentences, removing extra words. I get new thoughts and ideas, that I want to say. And then the blog that was supposed to be about worn bicycle brake, becomes into a blog about bicycle mudguards and Donald Trump.
I might get bored of initial topic and sentences I already wrote. And then, instead of fixing the old ones. I start to write new ones, they can be repeat the thoughts that I already said, using different wording.. As I'm doing right now.. :D
Hisashiburi .. Welcome back Hardi \(^_^)/
Hello, Paula. Was there a❀❤•❀Paula✿.•❤øº some years ago? I don't remember you. So I'm not sure I'm the same Hardi you are thinking of. I have been here from the beginning of myec.
Thank you for reading and commenting. I did not read my blog after writing it, So obviously there are mistakes, I'm scared to read it, because I know there will be mistakes and then I have to work longer with it to fix them., That's so much of bother. Yes, I'm capable to do better, But it's not fun to do.. But I really should, because now I waste everyone's time who read it. If I spent little more effort and make it shorter, all the ten billon fans of mine, would not have to turn their back to me and run away, because not wanting to waste their time, reading a blog that is difficult to understand. :D
Hi Hardi!! Are you the Hardi that used to roam the halls of EC from time to time a few years ago? If so it is great to see you active. If not, then nice to meet you.
What a great effort you have made writing this blog. There are mistakes, but all in all it is understandable what happened. One thing I noticed in your writing was so many extra words. Sometimes less is more and will get your point across better. Please keep learning and writing!!!! I did enjoy it!!!! Thanks so much for sharing it with us!!!!