Rubber bands

[Matt2matt2002]

An interesting article on the Crazy guy site from a Rohloff rider who had trouble gripping the shifter in hot weather.
A couple of runner bands gave him extra grip.

He also mentioned a problem with the hub after less than 2,000 Km.
I've asked him to expand.

Re rubber bands; I think I recall someone saying they used them around the 2 fixing bolts on the EBB.

Any other rubber band uses on the Thorns?

[Danneaux]

For the most part, I don't use rubber bands because I find they get hard, dry out, break easily or become sticky in short order while touring.

I do have a lot of uses for women's nylon covered hair bands, however. The covering makes them gentle on clothing (no snags on lycra shorts and jerseys that are rolled compactly for storage and held with the bands) and they work well to both keep things together in my bags as well as for compressing sacks and bags to minimum volume while touring. They're ace for holding packets of repackaged foods together as well. They come in a variety of sizes and gauges/strengths and last a long time.

Re rubber bands; I think I recall someone saying they used them around the 2 fixing bolts on the EBB.

<nods> That would be George (username: mickeg).

Best,

Dan.

[John Saxby]

a Rohloff rider who had trouble gripping the shifter in hot weather

I've never had that problem, Matt--not here in Ontario's hot and sometimes muggy summer, nor in Queensland's very hot temps.

But, I use cycling gloves all the time, to protect me delicate Scots/Irish skin.  The gloves also let me grip the shifter in all the conditions I've encountered.

Cheers,  John

[mickeg]

...
Re rubber bands; I think I recall someone saying they used them around the 2 fixing bolts on the EBB.
...

Dan is correct, that was me.  Photo shows regular bands from the store but someone on this forum suggested that I cut some bands from inner tube rubber, as they would last much longer in the outdoor weather.  I have done that.

Once while riding I thought something was getting loose, was not sure if pedal bearing or what, but eventually realized that one of the bolts had worked loose.  I wanted to make sure I never lost one, they are an unusual thread specification in USA, I would not be able to get a substitute easily.  Initially I put locktite on but later I removed that.  Then tried the rubber bands (a couple in case one breaks).  Works better than locktite.

I removed the locktite because someone on this forum had mentioned that when he changed his chain tightness settings which involved loosing those bolts, he would remove one of the bolts so he could look at the eccentric through the bolt hole to get one of the previously used indentations centered in the hole before tightening the other bolt.  That sounded like a great idea, but with the fine thread on those bolts, it takes a long time to remove one of those bolts if locktite was used.

***

Second photo, another rubber band idea, but this was with wider rubber bands cut from inner tube rubber.  Keeps the dirt out of my S&S threads.  I still carry a wrench at all times that can tighten the couplers if they get loose, but with the rubber bands on each coupler, they have never worked loose while I rode.

***

When touring, I often used rubber bands to roll up some of my clothing items into cylindrical shapes, use rubber bands to hold them from unrolling. 

[Andre Jute]

I use O-rings. The O-ring holding the base of my bicycle computer on the handlebar has been on there for ten years, and as part of a 10-year valedictory survey of every component and fitting and fastening on the bike I recently tested it, and found it good to go. The computer, a Sigma, is supposed to twist out of the base and be carried in your pocket when you leave the bike, but I live in such a no-crime area that I just leave it on the bike (I also use open pannier baskets, and leave stuff in them, and have never lost anything). So, the O-ring may or may not last so long if it were stressed by repeatedly removing and replacing the computer-head.

[Matt2matt2002]

Thanks Mick, & Andre.
I had a real problem with grip in the Sri Lankan heat a few years ago.And I was using fingerless gloves. I took a pretty flat route but recall the shifter spinning in my hand when I changed gear due to sweat.
Those rubber bands would have helped.
I had a couple on the bottom EBB bolts following your tip. I should have used them!

Andre; crime free area? I'm sure you realise how fortunate you are.
Here in Aberdeenshire we are low risk but sense a change in the wind. Mindless youth vandelism at schools etc. Sad times.

[Andre Jute]

Andre; crime free area?

We had a menage a trios among some guest workers from the Balkans, ending in the murder of one of the three. But they were so clumsy, they threw the body into the river without weights to sink it and in plain sight of the police station. I kid you not. I turned up around noon and a policeman guarding the steps down which the State Pathologist (one, singular, for the entire country) was working told me it was all over bar a storm of paperworks, crime solved, perpetrators caught, confessions being typed up.

***
I typically cycle in my street clothes: khakis, cords, flannels, suchlike, a dress shirt, and a zip-up wind cheater or in the summer a safari jacket. In particular, with reference to grip, I wear leather dress gloves, full fingered, because I'm very light skinned. But even on the hottest day -- nothing like you're referring to -- I have no problem with grip. However, my handlebar grips are like nothing you've ever seen, and that may account for it. They're from Brooks, and they're made from the offcuts of quite thick saddle leather, stamped out into rings which are assembled on short bicycle spokes between two cast aluminium spoke holders, after which the whole assembly is slid onto the handlebar end and fixed with screws through cast ali ends. Mine after many years of wear appear smoother than when new, and a different colour (originally they were honey, but I immediately tinted the honey saddle and grips with neat foot oil to a brown not listed by Brooks) from handling by leather gloves. But run the palm of a bare hand over it, and you can feel the discontinuities between the leather rings. It works at least as well as patterned rubber grips, and looks a damned sight smarter. Here's a closeup of the grip on my bike when it was new(ish).

And here's a fuller description and review:
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=13087.msg98128#msg98128

While we're on the subject of grips, a rubber grip with which I've had particularly good luck is an inexpensive  grip from Herrman of Finland, which finds particular favour with German custom builders, which is where I learned about them. They're manufactured to such tight tolerances that you'd better fit them right the first time, because you'll never take them off again without using a blade. Here's the style SJS carries:
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/search/?term=Herrman's

[Matt2matt2002]

Andre
Here's the style SJS carries:
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/search/?term=Herrman's

Listed at £2.99. surely an error?

[mickeg]

...
I had a real problem with grip in the Sri Lankan heat a few years ago.And I was using fingerless gloves. I took a pretty flat route but recall the shifter spinning in my hand when I changed gear due to sweat.
Those rubber bands would have helped.
...

On this forum I have mentioned a few times that I put three beads of Shoe Goo on my Rohloff shifter, my shifter is the round version, not the older triangular one or newer wave one.  With gloves I always had adequate grip but without gloves when hands were wet I did not have good grip, the Shoe Goo fixed that.

I have no idea if Shoe Goo is available outside of USA or not.  Stores usually only carry the clear version, I used the black version which I ordered on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/SHOE-Shoe-Repair-Adhesive-Black/dp/B00L22CIVY/

I have tried many methods and mentioned some of them on this forum, but the three beads has performed quite well now for a while.  I took the attached photo in 2016 after I got home from my Iceland trip.  While on that trip I decided to use the HubBub adapter to mount my shifter on the end of my drop bar, I am quite happy with that location.  But I have other (derailleur) bikes with bar end shifters so reaching to that location to shift has been quite natural for me for decades.

[John Saxby]

More on Shoe Goo & related:

>  we can buy it here in Canada, but stores sell only the clear stuff.  I bought some of the Shoe Goo black, following George's recommendation, and it's very handy stuff.  I've used it on a couple of work spots on my MTB shoe soles, and it's fixed them well.

>   something sold in the UK, Matt, is Sugru -- fast-curing silicon rubber. [https://sugru.com/].  I learned about this stuff a few years ago from a rural bike shop in Prince Edward County.  I've used it to repair the leatherette covering on foam-rubber bike saddles, for example, and it's very durable. I also used it once to fill the outer side of a sidewall cut on a bike tire, as an emergency bodge, and it did that nicely, too.  If you can't find Shoe-Goo in the UK, Matt, you might try Sugru--fix it onto your shifter as George's photo shows.

[Andre Jute]

Here's the style SJS carries:
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/search/?term=Herrman's

Listed at £2.99. surely an error?

No, they're genuinely inexpensive. Those Germans in whose judgement (and tendency to test everything to destruction!) I put such faith don't care what something costs, little or much, if it tests right. You see Herrman's grips as OEM equipment on quite a few upmarket bikes, and VP-191 sealed-bearing trekking pedals https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/search/?term=VP-191 (the pair on my Kranich are on their third bike, eighteen years of use and still smooth as silk), and Kinex bottom brackets describe at http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=11651.msg84943#msg84943, all of them splendidly long-lasting products that people who think a high price equals "luxury" overlook because they're really very good value. There are many more: the Hebie Chainglider that you already know about is the least expensive of a list of less competent chain enclosures that I tested, some as much as four times as expensive.

[mickeg]

More on Shoe Goo & related:

>  we can buy it here in Canada, but stores sell only the clear stuff.  I bought some of the Shoe Goo black, following George's recommendation, and it's very handy stuff.  I've used it on a couple of work spots on my MTB shoe soles, and it's fixed them well.
...

I tried using it on several different bike shoes to build up the sole where it was worn down.  BUT, once I had to get out a utility knife and remove some of the new sole material that I had added because that was how I learned that part of the shoe sole directly contacts the pedal on SPD cleats.  And by making the sole thicker, it was much harder to engage the cleat.

So, if you use that or a similar product to build up your sole shoes AND if you use SPD cleats, put your shoe into the pedal when you are not wearing it.  Then rotate it around so you can see how the pedal holds the shoe  sole to the pedal so you can see where the pedal directly contacts the shoe sole.  You probably should be careful to avoid making the sole any thicker in that spot.  Or if you try it, be careful.

[PH]

I tried using it on several different bike shoes to build up the sole where it was worn down.  BUT, once I had to get out a utility knife and remove some of the new sole material that I had added because that was how I learned that part of the shoe sole directly contacts the pedal on SPD cleats.  And by making the sole thicker, it was much harder to engage the cleat.

Alternatively you could have lowered the cleat with a washer or two.  I had the same when adding a stick on sole to a pair of SPD shoes, went to a lot of trouble to get it right then they spit elsewhere a couple of months later...

[PH]

VP-191 sealed-bearing trekking pedals https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/search/?term=VP-191 (the pair on my Kranich are on their third bike, eighteen years of use and still smooth as silk),

Interesting, I need some flat pedals, what's the grip like on those Andre?  The plastic ones I've tried can be lethal in the wet and the rugged metal ones can ruin a decent pair of shoes...  if I have to change shoes to ride I might as well use SPD's.

[John Saxby]

You probably should be careful to avoid making the sole any thicker in that spot.

Thanks, George and PH, for the caution.  Yes, I'm aware of that poss problem, but happily for me, the wear was on the outer part of the heel, particularly on the right shoe.

The black shoe-Goo also works nicely in the same spot to build up the worn outer heels on my Sidis.