patentcad

You know how when you're feeling like crap on a ride, and you're dying to hold onto the back, and you don't get it, because yesterday you felt great and you were flying. And then you get to the climb, and you get shelled, and you shake your head because you just 'don't have it today'. Then you ride 4 miles up the road and check your brakes, and *voila* your front brake is rubbing so friggin bad the wheel won't rotate half a turn.

That's what happened to me on the Nyack Ride today. Why? About ten miles in we're hammering up this choppy road @ 30mph and I hit a big pothole. My left brake lever suddenly has zero travel. In my anaerobic dyslexia I check the rear brake QR lever to make sure it's open. It was the FRONT lever that got whacked, didn't occur to me at the time. Just thought I didn't have any snot today. All things considered (this wheel was rubbing pretty bad) it's rather amazing that I lasted another 20 miles at the pace they were going today (average was 24mph +, I lost it on the hill). Back at the bike shop, sure enough the left (front) lever had been shifted down the handlebar about 2cm, adding to the brake tension, making the brake jam up against the front rim.

Now that's what I call resistance training. You know, in 20 years of doing this, all the times I thought my brake had to be rubbing because I couldn't possibly be riding that bad, this is the first time it ever actually was rubbing. So that's notable.

Oh yes: my Kysirium wheel was utterly unperturbed by this massive shot. They are friggin utterly completely and unfathomably bulletproof. I've never seen anything remotely like them in a couple of decades of owning lots of high end road bike wheels.

Creakyknees

Sounds like operator error. You should been in the drops. Yeah.

botto 

been there, done that, did marginally better.

patentcad

What's the short version.

deadly downtube

which model of ksyrium do you have pcad?? i'm nearly 180lbs, and my ksyrium elites seem good so far, but i've also trued them once so far.

patentcad

I've never heard of anyone having to true their Ksyriums.

patentcad

30mph isn't fast enough on the Nyack Ride to warrant the drops you Wussy. I start considering them @ 33mph.

ericcox

I have the bottom-of-the barrel ksyriums (the equipes) and am most satisfied. But I have never tried to race with my break rubbing. Are you sure you weren't channeling Armstrong?

brians647

For those with ADD like myself, just skip to the last paragraph.

botto 

:raises hand: :waves:

patentcad

You don't think it's the brake rubbing. You think it's your horsepower ebbing. It's a great relief in that situation to later find out that this time your excuse was somewhat valid. Because 99% of the time it's utter bull****.

ridethecliche

See, if you rode campy, you could have just opened your QR while riding!

(Sorry, I had to do it )

patentcad

I could have done this with my D.A. brake, it really didn't occur to me that the left lever is the FRONT lever and that was the problem. Don't ask me why I thought it was the rear brake. And I ride a motorcycle where they stress RIGHT=R=REAR STUPID, which should clue you in that LEFT = FRONT. They should take away my m/c license for this.

That's what anaerobic stress does to your brain @ 30mph on a racing bicycle.

deadly downtube

i met a guy who put like 10,000 training miles on the fancy ksyriums... SSC or ES, whatever is better than the elites, he said they stayed true for all those miles... not sure why the lighter wheels would be more bomb proof than my elites... maybe i just aim for the pot holes...

patentcad

All I know is I have a set of SL's and two sets of ES's, about 30K miles between them, zero point zero problems or even one truing. That's amazing.

botto 

sometimes sheeyat happens when you ride faster than 16 mph.

deadly downtube

that's pretty rad for such light wheels.... maybe the used ebay specials i got were actually ridden for 50,000 miles by magnus backstedt...

patentcad

The amazing thing is I've hit massive potholes with the Kysiriums @ 38mph (literally), had my handlebars rotate down against four uber-torqued stem bolts, and the wheels shake it off like it's nothing.

Treefox

I had something similar happen - but for 'handlebars' insert 'rib.' Tragically my ribs aren't bolted on.

patentcad

Whose fault is that now?

gr@sshopper

Guy in the cube next to me was becoming a pretty competitive XC racer, and had this happen on a mtn bike. Into concrete culvert. He spiral fractured his dominant arm and won't get serious about riding again b/c he can't afford to miss that much time due to an injury again.

He still rides, but just for fun.

urbanknight

Yeah I know the feeling... except with me the brake pad isn't rubbing.

patentcad

Don't get me wrong, I've pulled over on rides where I felt like crap before and checked the brakes and they were fine. On this particular day they were jammed up.

I'm quite confident the next time the only thing malfunctioning will be my cardiovascular system.

urbanknight

How reassuring.

patentcad

If you want reassurance, take up a sport that doesn't beat the living crap out of you every time you participate.