[941] Bike Daydreaming

I'm having issues with the rear brake of my bike. On the trainer, or if lifted, the rear brake engages and stops the rear wheel from spinning. It also becomes a challenge to move the pedal when the rear brake is engaged, as it should.

However, when I'm riding and I try to engage the rear brake I rarely feel any stopping power, and after a few seconds the brake starts squealing. I've done my research, aside from bedding the brake pads I'll probably try to adjust the caliper so that the rotor is evenly in between both pads. I'm still not optimistic about it. I do hope I figure out why my bike doesn't slow down with the rear brake only. Am I still too heavy?

Anyway this has led me to the crazy idea that I should get the adapters so I can use flat mount calipers for the bike. If I'm crazy I might even try going to 180mm rotors for the front and back, since I'm already at 160mm rotors already.

Plus getting the adaptors will prep me for any future expensive upgrades, specifically GRX group and brake sets. Hell I'll even do hydraulic if it'll help my bike stop better and safer.

I'll also probably assemble a new wheelset as an upgrade. Tubeless ready rims are a must, even though I want to go with Tubolito inner tubes. And as much as I wanted to get Shimano hubs, apparently there are hubs being sold that you can replace the endcaps so they'll be compatible with either thru axle or quick release. There are more differences with the thru axle but I'll be getting the 142mm width rear ones for sure.

I've also decided I'd rather have thinner tires than my 38mm Panaracer Gravel King SS. Maybe some knobbly cyclocross 33mm tires, so that I have enough clearance on my bike frame for those old school bike fenders.

The Redshift Sports ShockStop System is something that also intrigues me. I've seen very positive reviews on youtube on how it makes riding more comfortable with the stem and seatpost.

Anyway my dreams and dream components are always changing, so I guess this is just "version X.Y" of my dream bike components.

Out.

[940] Second-hand Car Update

I've talked with a friend of mine who knows cars better than me, as well as car parts availability, and he has told me that it would be better to get a relatively older Honda Jazz. His reasoning was that Honda (and Toyota, but that's another paragraph) parts are easier to come by even if the Kia Picanto and Mitsubishi Mirage are newer cars.

What about the Toyota? Well as much as I want to consider the second generation Toyota Yaris I'm not so sure how easy it is to find parts for that car, though I have read in Wikipedia that that Yaris is basically the same as the second generation Vios, so maybe that might be the more economical choice? I really don't know.

The Honda Jazz has magic seats! It's been my "attainable dream car" since the first generation (GD) Jazz was released. However, it could be possible that Toyota parts are cheaper and more readily available here. Not only that but non-OEM parts might be easier to find. I guess I'll have to do more research.

One thing I am noticing though is that these specific models are getting harder to find at the budget I have. Maybe they're getting sold out. Unfortunately I can't act any moment right now since this is a pretty big decision and I don't really want to rush into anything.

All I do know is if I do end up purchasing a second-hand practical car the first thing I'll do is send it to a shop for some preventive maintenance. Oil change, fluid check, brake wear check. I may end up replacing the brake rotors and pads with Brembo OEM replacements, as well as removing the window tints if ever. Of course I'll also add those small, round blind-spot mirrors for the side mirrors, as well as probably investing in a good dash cam.

Other mods, like new rims, better sound system, new and louder horn, will be in the really far future. Might even get improved suspension.

A man can dream.

Out.

[939] Bike Brakes

I just finished installing the replacement rear disk brake caliper on my bike. It took me around three hours overall because I totally forgot that I had to file away considerable material from the mounting point of the previous caliper because it wouldn't fit on the frame.

You see, the rear caliper is post mounted on the chainstay. I have no idea if these calipers I get are too thick or what but they won't fit properly if I don't file away at it. I did manage to mount it properly eventually, making sure the 160mm brake disk doesn't rub on it.

I also used the older brake pad here. That also took a considerable amount of time to remove the cotter pin, but I did manage to do everything this morning. It was pretty fulfilling but it also led me to some conclusions or goals.

I am DEFINITELY getting front flat mount to IS mount adapters and rear flat mount to post moutn adapters for my bike. Why? So I can get flat mount road bike calipers. Plus I think adapters will make it easier to remove calipers in the rear because of said fitment issue.

Getting adapters to use flat mount calipers is also good because that means most of the calipers in my favorite online store that use flat mount are for road bikes, and I use road bike brifters.

In other news, the new caliper brakes. Hard. I cannot wait to road test my bike tomorrow, do another batch of bedding in the rear brake pads because I doubt it was properly bedded in the last time, knowing how weak the rear caliper was in stopping power.

Out.

[938] Gravel Bike Thoughts

I recently just purchased the exact same brake caliper I have attached to the rear of my bike. In case you don't know, the current one leaked oil and has zero stopping power. Why did I choose to just get the same caliper?

For one thing, I discovered I had zero stopping power during one bike ride. I tried to see how poor the rear brakes were engaging and discovered that there was zero difference to my speed no matter how tight I pressed on my lever. So how was I stopping so well? The front brake.

Imagine how decent, or great, my stopping power would be if I had two functioning calipers. So I'm willing to give that hybrid brake caliper yet another shot.

My next plan is once I attach the new caliper I may keep the old one and either dismantle it for science, or buy a brake bleed kit and mineral oil and see if I can get it to work again so I have a spare caliper.

Anyway...

I think I agree with people who gave me advice about my bike. Keep the frame and upgrade everything else. When I say upgrade, I mean save up for the more expensive, better known, and better quality part. I've already seen a shop online that sells adapters so I can use flat mount brake calipers on my IS front mount and Post rear mount. I want to get flat mount calipers because they're usually for road bikes and I think one of the reasons why I need to pull my brake levers all the way is because I'm using MTB brakes with road bike levers.

Getting adapters also gives me the ability to get GRX gear if I win the lottery or something.

Out.

[937] My Dream House

Let's change gears for a while and discuss my dream house. Ideally this would be built on the lot where I live right now, to replace the current house.

It's a small house, ideally around 60 square meters or so. Around 5 meters wide by 12 meters deep, with a 2.7 meter tall ceiling. It should have two bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, and a main hall for the kitchen, dining, and common area.

I'm currently a big fan of the Spanish Pueblo Revival style houses, thanks to this old youtube video I watched from Kirsten Dirksen. I'm a big fan of not only the look, but the flat roof with canales (I have no idea if I heard or spelled that correctly) that basically is the rainwater drainage for the roof. Now, why this look?

First of all I would want to have a water tank on the roof, that way in the event that there is little to no water pressure we can use the water tank on the roof and gravity to make sure we have a steady supply of water.

Second, solar power. I would love to have solar panels on the roof of the house that would help lower power consumption. If there is still some space on the roof at least we have a place to hang out.

The only catch about this is I definitely will require railings on the roof to avoid accidents.

Inside I want to keep things simple and practical in design. Both bedrooms will be on opposite ends of the house, with the bathrooms facing the perimeter.

I've been trying to model this in 3D but I keep changing my mind about the layout and the design.

Out.

[936] Bike Decisions

The difficult thing about building a "budget" bike is that once things go wrong with some components, or you decide to upgrade to better parts, there's a great chance you'll get shocked at how expensive the parts you want are.

Case in point, my rear hybrid brake caliper had a leak. I checked online to buy an exact caliper as a replacement and either they're out of stock or now really expensive.

So I decided to do some research and checked out the fully mechanical SRAM Avid BB7 Road and wow, supposedly they cost about PhP5,000.00 or so per caliper here for the real deal. Yes they do sell replicas online for maybe less than half the price, but why get that right? Still, buy a pair of these would cost more than half what I paid for my bike frame.

I decided to check for cheaper options, because at the moment the gas prices and times require some belt tightening. One option is to buy a brake bleed kit and some mineral oil. I've seen a video on youtube showing how to bleed the brake. This is assuming that the leak was temporary and whatever caused is resolved.

Another option I was thinking of is getting dual piston mechanical brake calipers, some are more expensive than the brakes I got. I have no idea if this is because of inflation, supply and demand, or whatever reason but I do have three options.

The first is the Zoom DB680 and this is my first choice, primarily because these are really cheap. I've watched a review or two on youtube and the biggest concern I have with this is if Shimano brake pads will fit, because I've also heard on youtube that usually switching to original Shimano brake pads improve the braking power a lot. And from what I've seen in online reviews this caliper is sort of weak in braking power, but at least I also know how to bed new pads so hopefully that will help.

My second choice are deez NUTT DA6S calipers. Mostly for the memes ("check out deez NUTTS") and also because I've seen Trace Velo on youtube use the hybrid calipers on his bike, and they seem to provide decent braking.

Finally these TOOPRE calipers. They look the nicest, but the brake calipers and brake pads are really expensive. Non-Shimano brake pads are around PhP300.00 per pair, and from what I heard the original Shimano pads are over PhP600.00 per pair so replacing pads is like buying a new pair of cheapo calipers.

So I'm still undecided what to pick. For now the BB7s are out of the question, and to be honest I'm leaning more on getting the NUTT brakes since my current brakes are Zoom and well, you know what happened.

Out.