Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

I have what is potentially a really dumb question, or maybe this is something totally obvious that people do all the time...

One of my bikes (the one I ride year-round, a Trek Verve 3 that I absolutely adore) has 700c x 35 tires.  I have these nice Hard Case Ultimate Bontrager tires on it that are super-smooth on the paved paths, but have knobby edges off to the sides when I'm off road.  I love 'em.

Anyway, in the winter, I switch over to some knobbier Bontrager tires, I just did that myself this morning for the first time.  It didn't take too long, maybe 20-30 minutes.

Anyway, I got to thinking about how much I'd also like to try out studded/spiked tires, for those days when it's icy or when the knobby tires don't have enough traction - but don't want to not be able to ride when it's clear out.  Swapping would be a little more effort than I'd probably want to do on a regular basis... so then I thought, what if I just bought a second set of rims, tires and tubes, and the same cassette that is on my "regular" wheels... and just physically swap the entire wheels depending on the weather?  That's like a 1 minute job.

What do you think?  Is this crazy?  Or do people already do this as "a thing"?

If I were to do this, I suppose there are all sorts of parameters and nomenclature for specifying the correct type of rim (or, I suppose more importantly, the axle arrangement and offset for the rear one, especially, to accommodate the cassette)...?

I don't think it's crazy at all, I'm planning on doing that this winter, building a set of wheels, (from scratch with spokes, hub, and rim, just for fun), and putting the summer tires for my bike on that one.

That being said, I still don't think I'd bother switching wheels in the winter on nicer days, there's still occasional bits of ice in shadow or whatever, I am riding schwalbe winters which are studded but not terribly knobby (they're not perfectly flat in the middle but they're not too aggressive).  I'm not sure how you'd find them in deeper snow, I find they're just fine on trails, great on ice, and fine in moderate snow. They are noisy as anything on dry pavement, which is annoying, but I just kinda deal with it in the winter.

Still, if you have QR wheels (which I don't) and don't mind switching, I think it's reasonable to have two sets of wheels, frankly, I'm doing so partially to keep my good wheels out of the messy winter salt bath.

[1] https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ca/e...prod118113

[Canard]

Those were the studded tires I was thinking of getting that got my mind spinning with all of this!!

I love the idea of trying to build a rim. It's one of those "this looks impossibly hard" kind of jobs, but then again, that's what I thought about every aspect of bike maintenance I've sort of forced myself to learn how to do. About the only thing I haven't done now is replace the crank bearing ("bottom bracket", ugh ) and lace the wheels!

[Spokes]

Not crazy at all.

I have multiple wheelsets. (Leftovers from my MTB racing days have turned out to be very convenient)

Lacing wheels sucks, but once you get the hang of it it's almost peaceful in how much of an art it is.

You'd be surprised how easy it is for you to get one. You just need rim size and number of gears on your cassette to make sure you have the correct rear hub (am I giving away my past life as a bike mechanic at cyclepath? How many of you remember that place? Haha)

[Canard]

So are all forks (front and rear) the same width to the inside of the member? That's kind of what I was getting at, I mean - I hope that everybody uses a standard or some kind of system - but do they? And the cassette type decides how much room is left on the right side for it (ie, how much closer to vertical the spokes on the right side end up being)?

[danbrotherston]

So are all forks (front and rear) the same width to the inside of the member?  That's kind of what I was getting at, I mean - I hope that everybody uses a standard or some kind of system - but do they?  And the cassette type decides how much room is left on the right side for it (ie, how much closer to vertical the spokes on the right side end up being)?

No, forks have different widths, there are a number of standards:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-spacing.html

It's pretty easy to find the hub you need, most fronts today I think are all 100 mm, rears might differ, but if you're not changing cassettes or anything it should be really easy to find the right size.

[jamincan]

Yeah, switching out wheels is an excellent option if you don't want to be changing tires all the time. I have two wheelsets for my cross bike and plan on building up a third set over the winter.

There are a few different hub standards; I'd recommend going in to your shop and asking them what you need to get.

Even better than extra wheels, though, is another bike. There's nothing better than a used single speed cx bike for winter commuting!

[clasher]

If your hybrid has rim brakes I guarantee you've 100mm front spacing and 135mm rear spacing... that rear spacing has been the same for hybrids since the 90s and was the same for rim brake MTBs too. Same thing if you've got quick release disc brakes. You can check the trek site's spec sheet and it'll probably tell you for sure. With the advent of thru-axle frames things are all over the place now. The number of speeds on your cassette don't really affect hub design, 8/9/10 speed cassettes all fit in the same space, the sprockets are just thinner as the number of speeds increase. 

From a cost perspective a new wheelset is cheaper bought whole from a shop rather than ordering parts. For a winter bike I'd look for a used one TBH. If you can scrounge up used hubs and spokes you might come out ahead, especially if you can find a shop that will order you generic rims that are only 30 or 40$ a piece. I know you can probably find some hubs at recycle cycles but used stainless spokes will depend on what rim and hub combination you choose... they have the most spokes for building 26" wheels since they've been more common on older bikes. Most shimano and generic hubs are oh similar dimensions but rims can be a bit different depending on the profile of the rim... there are spoke length calculators online that will take your measurements of the parts you choose and spit out some numbers.

I would suggest buying and reading Roger Musson's wheelbuilding book if you are serious about building a set. If you don't want to buy it you can go to recycle cycles and build your wheel there, they have a printed copy of the book and it's a quieter time of the year so you can probably do a build on a saturday without too much distraction. I learned how to do it from that book and have built dozens of wheels... I just did one today for my road bike.

[Viewfromthe42]

I bit the bullet and, perhaps foolishly, bought myself a new bike which I'm planning to ride through winter. Some Schwalbe Comp CX's got put on the flat bar Fuji with fenders and a rack. My 10-12yo beater bike was truly an excessive beater; If I was lucky the rims and wheel hubs would be ok, but pretty much every other piece of the bike is in need of a change (aluminum front shock diamondback). I'm thinking I might set it up with very deep snow/studded tires for the horrible days.

First thing I'm noticing is that in switching from a pretty tightly packed 700x38 treaded tire to the 700x35 comps, and now from really beat up rim brakes to fresh disc brakes, wow is that a lot of stopping power, to the point where I'm locking up my wheels far more than I ever have.

[danbrotherston]

I bit the bullet and, perhaps foolishly, bought myself a new bike which I'm planning to ride through winter. Some Schwalbe Comp CX's got put on the flat bar Fuji with fenders and a rack. My 10-12yo beater bike was truly an excessive beater; If I was lucky the rims and wheel hubs would be ok, but pretty much every other piece of the bike is in need of a change (aluminum front shock diamondback). I'm thinking I might set it up with very deep snow/studded tires for the horrible days.

First thing I'm noticing is that in switching from a pretty tightly packed 700x38 treaded tire to the 700x35 comps, and now from really beat up rim brakes to fresh disc brakes, wow is that a lot of stopping power, to the point where I'm locking up my wheels far more than I ever have.

Nice! This winter I also retired my old winter beater, which was corroded something fierce.  My replacement however was my partner's old bike, which ended up needing so many repairs, I wonder if a new bike would have been a better choice.

[Spokes]

I bit the bullet and, perhaps foolishly, bought myself a new bike which I'm planning to ride through winter. Some Schwalbe Comp CX's got put on the flat bar Fuji with fenders and a rack. My 10-12yo beater bike was truly an excessive beater; If I was lucky the rims and wheel hubs would be ok, but pretty much every other piece of the bike is in need of a change (aluminum front shock diamondback). I'm thinking I might set it up with very deep snow/studded tires for the horrible days.

First thing I'm noticing is that in switching from a pretty tightly packed 700x38 treaded tire to the 700x35 comps, and now from really beat up rim brakes to fresh disc brakes, wow is that a lot of stopping power, to the point where I'm locking up my wheels far more than I ever have.

Nice!  You'll love the new ride!  And gone are your days of full strength braking hah.

[KevinT]

I would suggest buying and reading Roger Musson's wheelbuilding book if you are serious about building a set.

Thanks for that, just bought myself a copy.

I doubt that wheel building is anything I'll ever do, but I remember back in the early 90s when I was biking to and from college on ye olde 27 x 1 1/4" rims they would always warp after a month.  I had a spoke wrench and would tweak them by tightening here or loosening there to get them back into true, but eventually they'd wind up true but egg-shaped, and nothing my deductive brain said should help was helping and so I'd bring them in to Braun's for professional service.  With this book I can hopefully give 20 year old me some closure.

(The solution back then was to buy 27 x 1 1/8" racing rims with presta valves that cost twice what that high school road bike did.  The guy at Braun's said they used a different spoke pattern which was much more stable and wouldn't have warping issues, and he was bang on.  I still have that old bike with those rims on it today, though it gathers dust in the basement in deference to the mountain bike.)

[Viewfromthe42]

I bit the bullet and, perhaps foolishly, bought myself a new bike which I'm planning to ride through winter. Some Schwalbe Comp CX's got put on the flat bar Fuji with fenders and a rack. My 10-12yo beater bike was truly an excessive beater; If I was lucky the rims and wheel hubs would be ok, but pretty much every other piece of the bike is in need of a change (aluminum front shock diamondback). I'm thinking I might set it up with very deep snow/studded tires for the horrible days.

First thing I'm noticing is that in switching from a pretty tightly packed 700x38 treaded tire to the 700x35 comps, and now from really beat up rim brakes to fresh disc brakes, wow is that a lot of stopping power, to the point where I'm locking up my wheels far more than I ever have.

Nice!  You'll love the new ride!  And gone are your days of full strength braking hah.

Certainly hoping for much improved experience, just a matter of ensuring I get a hang of winter bike maintenance for the first time, lube and cleaning, etc, to make sure this isn't an annual expenditure haha.

[clasher]

I would suggest buying and reading Roger Musson's wheelbuilding book if you are serious about building a set.

Thanks for that, just bought myself a copy.

I doubt that wheel building is anything I'll ever do, but I remember back in the early 90s when I was biking to and from college on ye olde 27 x 1 1/4" rims they would always warp after a month.  I had a spoke wrench and would tweak them by tightening here or loosening there to get them back into true, but eventually they'd wind up true but egg-shaped, and nothing my deductive brain said should help was helping and so I'd bring them in to Braun's for professional service.  With this book I can hopefully give 20 year old me some closure.

(The solution back then was to buy 27 x 1 1/8" racing rims with presta valves that cost twice what that high school road bike did.  The guy at Braun's said they used a different spoke pattern which was much more stable and wouldn't have warping issues, and he was bang on.  I still have that old bike with those rims on it today, though it gathers dust in the basement in deference to the mountain bike.)

If you read through the whole book you'll have a pretty good idea about truing wheels too.

Cheap old 27 1-1/4 rims were mostly rolled sheet steel and it bends really easy. I've seen some decent old aluminum 27x1-1/8 rims and they were far and away the better choice BITD.

[danbrotherston]

So the uptown bike lanes continue to be an utter joke.

   

This vehicle has been parked in the bike lane almost every night I've biked home, I've spent literally an hour calling bylaw about it, and I finally asked them to give me a call, around 7, they call, no ticket issued, the vehicle is gone.  They won't tell me whether they responded to all my other reports, apparently I'm not allowed to know whether I'm wasting my time, but I'm guessing that I am.

Bylaw is a lie, I'm sick and tired of it, I'm not bother wasting my time calling anymore.  If I had a crowbar, I'd use it....

[ijmorlan]

https://www.myparkingpermit.com/Parking-...-BEALw_wcB

Unfortunately I don't see a “bicycle lane” version.