Junk Drawer

Product Reviews

• Paul Components Motolite Brake and Lever by Ricky D

  A recent reader emailed SSO to ask our opinion on the Paul Components Motolite brakes. Local parts junkie Ricky D happened to have a set and offers his unvarnished opinion on them. Keep in mind he is a fan and owner of many high end parts and frames and doesn't like to ride junk. Also keep in mind this is one person's opinion, you mileage may vary. He also offers his recommendations

  Cons:
  

  • Expensive - $107/brake (each) & $97/levers (pair)
  • Tricky set up - with so many ways to adjust it, it takes a while
  • Easily gunk up - this is my biggest problem with them. I haven't figured out a way to attach a boot on the end of the noodle, so mud and gunk goes straight into the noodle and cable, and pretty soon the whole system seizes up. A boot won't stay on there securely because of the way that the noodle is attached to a quick release arm and a circlip. Even after replacing cables and housing, and cleaning the teflon liner in the noodle, I sometimes have to push the levers out into their resting position so that the brake arms won't rub up against the rim.
  • Soft aluminum is easily stripped - I stripped the cable anchor bolt hole on the arm of one of them. I'm a good mechanic (IMHO), and I know not to "hamfist" things. However, I think the bolt is too small, and the threads are too fine, and thus, strip more easily than others, e.g., Avid & Shimano.
  • Very little clearance with side knobs of fat tires - because the arms are straight, if you have wide tires and regular XC rims, the arms end up hitting the knobs of the tires when the brakes are engaged. Sure, you can increase the distance of the pads from the arms by moving around spacers, but I had to take spacers off of other pads to build it up far enough so that the tire knobs don't rub.
  • Many tools required to set it up - You'll need a 4 mm and a 5mm allen wrench, but you'll also need a 15mm open end wrench to adjust the spring tension. Not as easily carried as the allen wrenches.

  Pros:

  • Looks - so it looks good. so what? Function is MUCH more important, especially for a brake.
  • Range of adjustability - the brake pads can be moved practically all the way up and down the length of the arms. However, this will change the way they feel (mechanical advantage better when pads are closer to the bosses, but they feel squishy).

  Overall, they work decently, but for the price, just not worth it. If you want a high-end V-brake, the Avid Single Digit Ultimates are OUTSTANDING! They are easier to set up, work MUCH better, and are only a little more expensive.

  However, I think the XTR V-brakes are the perfect balance for price, value, and performance. You can usually find someone selling them for decent prices, they are excellent quality, and they are the easiest brakes in the world to set up.

  If you are looking for cheaper than that, I prefer the Avid Single Digit 7.

• Jones H-bar by Joe Whitehair

  Simply put, the Jones H-bars are nothing like you’ve ever seen. Taking sweep to the extreme and offering a huge amount of real estate to mount everything from your cyclocomputer to your coffee mug holder, they are pure titanium goodness. They are built by custom frame builder Jeff Jones (see his profile in this issue) in Medford, Oregon.

  The most unique feature of these patent-pending bars is the three-piece design. The center section is a tube with a consistent diameter along its entire length, unlike a standard straight bar that is fatter in the clamp area and tapered toward the grips. This provides a nice, stiff ride and feels solid when torquing up hills. On both ends are a narrower bar welded at approximately a 45-degree angle to the straight section. The rear section, closest to the rider is flared out wide and provides you grip area. The far section extends past the center bar and provides the mounting area for brake levers and shifters. These tips are pointed inward like built-in, angled bar-ends. Because of their position, I never had any problems snagging them on branches, bushes or large mammals. The bars are better seen than described, so take a look at the accompanying picture.

  So, is this a case of building a better mousetrap or design for the sake of being different? Well, there’s a function behind these, and that’s a more comfortable and controlled ride. The angled grip position puts your hand in a more natural position than standard or riser bars. While they appear to be extremely wide, they were exactly the same width as the Profile riser bars that I was previously riding. However, with the new hand position your knuckles stick out to the sides a bit more than a straight bar. I scraped the skin off a few shooting some tight trees, but it was the exception, not the rule.

  One of the other features the bars offer is multiple hand positions although, honestly I found myself using the rearward 45 degree position over 90 percent of the time. All around riding and climbing was great in this position, but on longer rides I would occasionally switch things up. I found the "bar end" position to be a bit narrow at the tips for my taste. The way my brake cables exited the levers also made a tight fit for my fingers when I wanted to grab things on the fly. The straight section worked fine, but it too felt narrow after riding in the wide position the rear offered.

  Straight out of the box and onto the bike, I had no problem at all adapting to the bars. They handle fine in any type of terrain, from technical rock gardens to jumps. Giant log piles and drops were the same difficulty as with my other bars. It took zero time to get used to them, from day one I was able to do everything I had done with my risers. During the first couple of weeks I played with the position a bit and needed to stack quite a few spacers on my fork to get things where they needed to be. But even during this time, as I was tweaking position, I still felt the setup was comfortable and most of all fun. It was like ripping the trails on a cruiser bar except it felt solid and confident.

  The bars work best for single speeds or with thumb shifters or the newer XTR STI style shifter/lever combo. You might be able to finagle a Gripshift on there, but I doubt it would be comfortable. With the levers (and shifters if you swing that way) mounted on the bar ends this leaves a lot of room for mounting lights and other gizmos on the straight pipe.

  A couple of things to consider: You’ll probably need a different stem than you currently have installed. Because of the different location you’ll be mounting your brake levers, you’ll probably need longer housing. Luckily, I had installed a new front hydraulic brake recently and had left the line long, otherwise I’d be doing some extra work. The rear housing was to short and I needed to swap that out and get a longer cable. With the different location of the levers, I found it best to dial the levers a bit closer to the handlebars for the best reach. Suggested mounting is nearly level with your seat and Jeff suggests a stem longer than you’d run on a standard bar. This means you may need a stem with a good bit of rise on most frames.

  The bar is custom and offered for $159 (tested) and $199 with curved ends. That’s a lot of coin, but they are full Ti built specifically for you and they live up to their intended performance. They spent many months on my bike and I had no desire to take them off. That should tell you something.

• Cannondale 1 FG Headshock by Mike Woods

  Recently I logged onto a singlespeed bulletin board and most of the correspondents were bemoaning the fact that singlespeeding had gone mainstream. Good God! Even Cannondale has a singlespeed rig now - it the end of SS civilization as we know it!

  Well, I let the reading SS public know then that I thought the Headshock system was inline with SS philosophy the simpler, the better. The fact that the company is a major supplier to our team and to our bike store sponsor was icing on the cake for me. I didn’t start out determined to by a 1FG Headshock, but that changed pretty quickly.

  Considering that I am a smaller rider, 5’7 and 140 lbs., and an older rider - 46 rings if you were to cut me in half and count. (Did I mention that I am also a neophyte MTB racer? Second year to singlespeeding?) Concepts like STEEL and CUSTOM were front and center in my mind. I have to worry about standover, and top tube length, which in my roadie alter ego are sort of dialed in to frame sizing.

  After all the burned midnight oil and internet searches, the Salsa cro-mo frame looked like the deal for me. I sent them an email saying that I was ordering one and wondered about a certain arcane piece of sizing trivia. Alas, they replied: you will not be receiving a SS Salsa frame - not from us, not from anyone, not ever. We are done making them, "too expensive", they said. Pissed, I immediately called the shop and ordered the 1FG. Nevermind that C-dale was in Chapter 11. Forget about the fact that the only standover height that would match me would be size "petite". Don’t ask about the geometry; with the Headshock "tower" everything is out of whack. Even one of my taller teammates (5’ 11") had to order a medium.

  Know what? It works. Looks strange as hell as it came out of the box: loooooong handle bar (for leverage?), no gears, a straight line from the headtube to the rear triangle. But it’s cool: Avid discs (a first for me), unpainted alu, and an IMPOSSIBLY long seatpost. It truly is a Frankenstein bike.

  Last weekend I did my first race on the frame, the Bean’s race near new Phillie in Ohio. The ‘dale is a lot different than my old Kestrel with the singleator and the Judy fork: the 1FG is more upright, more balanced, and appreciably lighter. I cleared more technical areas than I really should have, and wasn’t the least bit bothered by lack of a suspension seatpost, which I had on the Kestrel. Of course, I also did more nose wheelies and rode the top tube more in this race than I ever would have on the other bike, because I hadn’t had much time to get used to the balance point on the 1FG.

  I made a lot of rookie mistakes racing a singlespeed, but the 1FG didn’t let me down. As the race got longer, I began to find out what I could get away with and how to work with the bike rather than fighting it. On the whole, I am very pleased. I may make the change to tubeless wheels, but I’d have to say that this bike is not only worth the price, but it’s ready to race right out of the box. And yes, it’s ready to race against bikes with gears!

• "The Bike Path" book review by Joe Whitehair

  Forget the X-games and hard charging, death-defying drops fueled by Red Bull when you pick up Wayne Lankford’s new book The Bike Path. Instead, kick back, relax and think about the other side of mountain biking, the one where you gasp in wonder at the deer drinking from the brook who hasn’t yet been spooked by your presence. Or the warm feeling you get as the morning sun peaks over the horizon and lights the woods with colors not found in the Crayola 64 box you had as a kid.

  In the world of cycling books, there are few that are written about the act of riding, the beauty of the everyday places you go and the way it makes you feel. Most books cover incredible destination spots in the form of guide books or give the stories of cycling’s well know heroes like Lance Armstrong. Others fall into the reference category of repair manuals or bicycle history such as David Perry’s Bike Cult.

  The Bike Path, on the other hand, is as much about philosophy as it is about riding, but don’t let that turn you off. A big part of the book revolves around that special place many of us find ourselves in when we are out in the woods. It’s a place that can be hard to put in words, but Lankford does an admirable job of describing it in a mellow, laid back way. You get the feeling the discovery of mountain biking may just have saved Wayne’s life, something many readers can probably relate to.

  He describes those first struggles in tackling a big hill, out of breath and wondering if this is really what "fun" is. As the chapters continue, you follow his journey as he defines himself as a cyclist and a philosopher. For the experienced rider, sometimes the descriptions of various acts of riding can seem a bit simplistic or obvious. But for a novice or non-rider, I suspect these will give them inspiration for moving forward in growing their skills and thinking, "Yeah, I can do that". For those of us that have spent many years in the woods, you will find yourself remembering your own experiences that mirror Wayne’s: those unbelievable wildlife encounters; the waterfall you never knew was there; the snowy ride that made you feel like a kid again. When you get right down to it, The Bike Path is about how cycling has become a huge and important part of Wayne’s life. It seems one of his goals is to put this into words that will bring non-cyclists into the fold. If that’s the case, he’s on target. And for those of us who have already discovered the place he calls "the bike path", reading this book will probably get you thinking a little deeper the next time you are on the trail. Nothing wrong with that.

Press

• The Midwest Mountain Biking Advocacy Summit will be held March 19, 20, and 21 of 2004. Bikers and land managers from 14 states will be in attendance exchanging information, brainstorming and working on ways to keep singletrack open to MTBers. But it's not just a bunch of jawing, expect racing, bands, raffles and beer. New Belgium Brewing and Dirt Rag magazine are major sponsers. Full details and contact information can be found at earthriders.org

• So you think you are tough. You ride a fixed gear, cranking out the miles, grunting up hills. Well, step right up and see if you have the nads to pull this one off. The Paris-Brest-Paris Audax is a 1200km (about 750 miles) ride that has to be completed in 90 hours. And a couple of guys did it on fixed gears. Not much info, but there is a brief mention here.

• Information exchange is great. With world wide access at your fingertips these days it almost always possible to find someone who can answer a question for you, offer an opinion or just point you in the right direction. There's a few single speed forums available for just this sort of thing. Your first stop in the quest for information, riding partners and good rider posted pix should be the MTBR.com Single Speed Forum. There you'll find the brand new, incredibly comprehensive Single Speed FAQ. For a different flavor, try the Single Speed and Fixed Gear forum at BikeForums.net. There's also a new kid on the block, ripe for molding with an easy name to remember: SingleSpeedForum.net. Last, but certainly not least, single speed friendly Dirt Rag magazine has some new forums with an SS section too.

• Useless SS? What the hell were they thinking with this single speed? Sometimes the mousetrap is just fine the way it is. If you have money to flush down the shitter on productions like this, send it my way and I'll save you the manufacturing hassle. Morons.

• There's a new kid on the block, fighting the good fight: keeping trails open to mountain bikers. Their name is MTB Access and they are taking a bit of a different approach than IMBA. Dirt Rag magazine did a pretty good article with interviews from both organizations. Read it, digest it, then join one or join both. And don't forget to sign up for your local trail group and do some work to keep your favorite places open. If you wait until they are threatened, it's already to late.

• Speedgoat. Interbike. Photos.

• MTB Journal. Interbike. Words.

• bike magazine. Interbike. Lugs.

• ABSSS is a support group for anyone who has ever had a gripe about a derailleur. But you knew that, didn't you?

• The 2nd annual Three Zone Single Speed Epic has gone down. Big mileage, beautiful scenery.

• The 2003 Single Speed World Championships will be going down November 8th and 9th in Castlemaine, Australia. Go here for details. Rumor has it the Germans have already laid claim to '04.

• September 27 saw the Intergalatic Single Speed Championships blast off in Colorado. Looks like a fun ride, wish I had been there.

• There's some new kids on the block, rocking out lugged fixed gear and single speed road frames with utilitarian type tire clearance and 135mm rear spacing for lots of hub options - including their own reasonably priced flip-flops. Find them at Kogswell.com

Tip O the Day

Big tires. Lots of single speeders run their front end rigid and a big tire adds a little cush. They work good with a suspension fork too. The early pioneers of mountain biking were riding balloon tire bikes because they realized bigger was better. Better for rolling over things, better for taking hits and all around more comfortable. Might as well run one on the back of your rig, you'll probably like it there too. Face it, there are certain top speed limitations on a single speed. Compared to the small amount of difference a fat tire may make in that department, a lot of riders think the benefits outweight the negatives. More and more tire manufacturers are making big tires and keeping the weight in a reasonable range. Ask around, see what others are using, what they like and dislike. Then give it a try, you probably won't go back to those skinny treads.