Category: Scattante

  • How have you been?

    How have you been?

    For a while there I bet you all thought I’d stopped writing. Yes and no. I had stopped for a bit, but I’m baaaack…

    I’ve been really busy with my new position at Pearson. What can I say…I love my job. It’s busy, I work with great people, I’m challenged daily to come up with unique solutions and really pushed to resolve our customers needs to have software that gets out of their way and let them do their jobs. It’s been great working on PowerTeacher Gradebook, PowerSchool and a new product that I’m not sure I can mention at this point. Anyway it’s great work and a lot of fun too.

    In follow -up to previous entries, my Truvativ cranks continue to loosen on each ride. I carry an 8mm wrench with me at all times. I’m taking them to Performance tomorrow to talk to them about what they can do for me. It’s a total pain in my heiny.

    IMG_9187 On another note I watched the Blue Angels do flybys last weekend and here are some pictures from the event. It was the Capital Airshow at Mather Field in Rancho Cordova.

  • “Cheap” Carbon Frames

    “Cheap” Carbon Frames

    carbon_fillerWhile I was working in the industry many customers asked, “Is X a good brand”. Most people don’t realize that the average $500 mountain bike is made in one of three factories. Giant, in Taiwan, is the largest manufacturer of bikes in the world, and make many of the bicycles you find under other companies names. Remember that these are bicycle shop bicycles, not department store bikes! With that in mind consider that only a few really exotic bikes (expensive), hand built steel, and custom frames being made in Europe and the United States, everything else is made in China (low end) and Taiwan (everything else).
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  • Loose Cranks

    Loose Cranks

    On two occasions my non-drive side crank arm has started coming loose. The Truvative I disassembled the crank from the bottom bracket spindle and cleaned the grease off the spindle and put it all back together. The second time it came loose it used degreaser, and blew all the grease out of the crank bolt assembly, scrubbed the spindle, and removed the bearing seal to wipe it down and remove the grease from the surfaces of the seal and the outside of the cartridge bearing. Let’s see if this holds up.

    Doing a search on the SRAM/Truvative site I found this manual (PDF) which states that the splines, and threads need to be greased. Well, I guess I need to call their warranty group to see what they have to say.

    UPDATE:
    After striping the grease off the crank bolt, spindle, and bearing seal, the crank did not come loose. In light of the SRAM tech specs though I decided to try another solution…

    Upon further research several sites have posted threads discussing Truvative cranks coming loose. It appears that the solution to the problem lies in greasing the head of the bolt, the splines, the floating seal, and using loctite on the threads on the bolt. I only had blue loctite and will try this first. Many posts seemed to indicate that the heavier-duty green loctite was the solution. Time will tell.

  • 2007 Scattante CFR Review

    2007 Scattante CFR Review

    scattante-cfr-07With the demise of my circa-1994 Ti frame I settled on the 2007 Scattante CFR. I opted for the full Ultegra, double chainring “Race” version. (more…)

  • Cracked Titanium Frame

    Cracked Titanium Frame

    It’s officially over. I finally cracked my Performance Titanium frame after all these years. I put a lot of miles on it and it was a great frame while it lasted. The weld on the drive side seat stay, right behind the seat clamp cracked, and the crack was spreading across the tube. Oh well. Performance had a lifetime guarantee on the frame so I brought it in for a replacement. (more…)