It’s been a long saga, but I finally have news to report. I got a smokin’ deal on Schwalbe Big Ben tires (2 in?) in 650b for my Clementine. They are a UK company, so of course shipping was going to take awhile. At some point, the tires were lost by the carrier and I was working with the company to figure out next steps. Meanwhile, one fine morning I made it all but a half mile to school and BOOM BOOM BOOM!!! Stopped my bike immediately and saw that the rear tire was pancake flat. I made an instagram video about that as I pushed my bike 1.5 miles uphill in my nursing scrubs. I don’t know why I thought that was funny. You should see the blisters I still have on my heels.
I’m Two-Bike Leah these days, so I decided to take the Clementine to the shop and give them a laundry list of small issues I’d identified, as well as to have them get new tires for it. We all marveled at how dirty the bike was, and T (shop owner) agreed that the black on my pants could definitely be the brake pads. I brought Kool Stop brake pads for installation, because we had decided somewhere on this List that the brake pads were maybe to blame. Plus, what does it hurt to get new brake pads? I needed some tuning for the derailleurs and then the new tires and one new tube. The shop owner had tires in mind and I left him to it. Take my money, I’d said. I’d ride the Betz in the meantime. Meanwhile, my lost tires appeared and the shop’s were late in arriving. He decided to put my Big Bens on my bike instead and asked me to bring them by. I came to pick up the Clementine today and T told me that he really thinks the black dust all over me and the wheels were from those old brake pads. He said they were disintegrating (or something) and that there was metal and erosion in them (or something). He really thinks I’m going to be pleased with these new pads. I did a test ride around the block and I honestly cannot believe how much better the bike feels on new tires and with new brakes. Just wow. I wish I had known sooner. It’s like butter now, whereas my old Kendas always felt a little like going through mud. I have dark wash jeans on today, so no telling about the brake dust, but I’ll certainly be back here whining about it if it starts up again. Carl! Thanks for messaging me about the Kool Stops! What really was the icing on the cake was that T took it upon himself to clean up my filthy, filthy wheels and the multi-colored spoke ends all show up in bright color again. I was so pleased about how the bike came out and as I was leaving one mechanic said, “Your bike always moves to the front of the line when you bring it in. I think you get special treatment here.” “My bike is serious class,” I said, winking. And it is. Leah PS Thank you so very much for helping me figure out this mess! On Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at 8:16:30 PM UTC-7, Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote: > > I have a 2015 Clementine with the original Kenda tires. I have heard those > aren’t nice tires and I’m starting to suspect the rumors are true. “Boggy” > someone once said, and that makes sense to me. > > At any rate, something worse is happening. Every day I come home from the > school commute and notice black speckles all over my legs, and more on my > left leg than right. The dots are not like grease - they LOOK like grease > but wipe off like dust. I took a video of this but think it might be weird > to post leg videos. At any rate, I suspected the stuff was coming from the > chain. Joe Bernard told me to get a chain cleaner and get at it, which I > did, and now my chain is clean but I still have the problem. Roberta asked > about my tires. Are they flaking off? They don’t appear to be, but I don’t > know. > > Whatever the problem, doesn’t this seem like a good excuse to get new > tires? > > I would love your input here. I want them to be the same fatness (there’s > a technical term!) that I have now, because I LOVE them and because they > fit with my fenders. I need puncture resistance. I have a healthy fear of > flats and zero skills to fix them. I’m telling you I live dangerously. That > is all! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/011f3230-c03a-4e9a-8805-62ef1d7ee45a%40googlegroups.com.
