New 650b Mercury owner

[PH]

Front mudguard spacers falling into the steerer tube was an unexpected frustration.

You're not the first to do that
I don't use mine for any trips where it would need breaking down so can't advise.  I do use rubber tap washers as spacers, the screw needs to thread through these so they tend to retain it, though I don't know how that would work out with frequent removal and you'll have more spacers than me due to wheel size.

[Mike Ayling]

Wow PH thanks for the quick response. Okay I'll give that a go in the morning.

Yes it all just bolted up provisionally now, The rack is here but I thought I'd get the chain on first.

I'll go with the mudguards to rack option as supplied to start with. Then tighten everything up and adjust, or ather vise versa.

Front mudguard spacers falling into the steerer tube was an unexpected frustration. How do I shorten the bike for transport? Pull off the entire fork and all that goes with it? 😄

How do I shorten the bike for transport?
If you did not have those mudguards the quick answer is just remove the front wheel. Even with a mudguard removing the wheel would probably shorten by about 300 mm which might be enough to get it inside your vehicle. If you have a towbar I would be looking atba rack of some sort.

Mike

[Moronic]

Well the hint worked and I realised those clever Thorn techs had probably set things up tight so that the split link would snap closed under tension as you slid the rear axle down the dropout.

So she is all built up and I went out for a maiden 30km or so this afternoon. Couple of things I will need to adjust but she felt fantastic. And having dropped the 'bars a centimetre, having also brought the seat down, I'll be bringing the 'bars up again.

Blurry pic from the day:



I've come from a 1996 Trek hybrid with a lugged and glued carbon-tube main triangle running a fairly fresh touring triple and 700cx35 Schwalbe Kojacs. The Thorn weighed in about 2kg heavier if my suitcase scale can be believed, more than half of which was in the accessories on it and from the Trek having a very small frame. Mid-winter here and for other reasons too I hadn't been out on the Trek for three weeks or so.

Took an identical route to my usual ride on the Trek. Spent the first 10km in a conversation with myself about whether I'd picked up a tailwind. As in: "Wow, this feels so easy." "Yeah don't kid yourself you've likely got a tailwind." "Could be but I can't see the trees or grass moving much." "Well that's not conclusive and besides there is a tiny bit of movement." Stopped and sat on a bench to take that pic and acknowledged I was sitting in dead-still air. Set off again and the tailwind picked up immediately. 

I might say a bit more when Ive done some more miles but so far I am hugely impressed.

As for the Rohloff ... the contrast with comments posted elsewhere over the years by various critics was profound. Doubtless the product has improved. The drivetrain is way quieter than my derailleur set up, dead silent in the upper 7 and all but silent in the lower 6, with a barely audible whirring in seventh. Perhaps because it's so smooth it feels more evficient than my derailleurs, not less, which consistently brought a smile to my face. The gearchange will improve with experience but it's already way ahead of the triple. The super-low bottom gear is fantastic and I don't expect to miss a taller top. And it's a delight to shift across 14 gears without swapping chanrings.

I'll rabbit on about the astonishing tyres another time.

[PH]

Looking good and the first of many miles sound like fun.

[JohnR]

It sounds as if you've got one of the quieter Rohloff hubs. I recently bought a Birdy Rohloff and it's relatively noisy but improving as the miles increase. In addition to the low range noise there's freewheel noise. That hub is recent (2020?) production as the serial number starts with 3 https://www.rohloff.de/en/company/rohloff-ag/milestones. Perhaps the noise of the new hub is noticeable because the Rohloff on my Mercury has clocked up nearly 5000 miles and running very sweetly. The Birdy chain is also noisy compared to the Mercury. The former has a chain tensioner and some offset in the chainline whereas the latter has no tensioner, a good chainline, is fairly slack (see page12 of the Thorn Owner's Guide http://www.sjscycles.com/thornpdf/ThornBikeOwnerManual2Web.pdf ) and, for good measure, is inside a Hebie Chainglider.

The front mudguard spacers are a bit fiddly. A drop of superglue should hold them in place if you need to remove the mudguard for transport (but put the bolts back in during transport). Removal of front wheel, front mudguards and handlebars gets the bike length down to about 1.4m A few days ago I had to get my Mercury into a box for transport to the start of a LEJOG.

[mickeg]

I did  a bike tour two years ago, I flew to my destination and then added the oil to the hub there.  I rinsed and drained the hub at home before I flew so there would not be any leakage from pressure changes in the airplane hold.

I noticed first thing how quiet my hub was on day one with 15ml of fresh oil, but within the first week the hub was getting noisier, much like it had been before my last oil change.

I concluded from that that the hub is very quiet when it has that full 15 (or 25) ml of new oil sloshing about, but as the excess oil starts to drip out the hub, it gets noisier again.  In this case since I was spending several hours on the bike every day, day after day, it was easier to notice the changes in hub noise.

[Moronic]

Thanks for the tips in shortening, mudguards etc. On the Trek I used Zefal clip-on guards that could be removed in about a minute each. With the wheels off too, the bike could easily fit in the rear of a hatchback with the seat down. I'd thought these bigger jobbies might be as easily pulled off - until I started to fit them.

I've no pressing need to pull them. Might have to pick up a van. 

I'm certainly hoping the hub will stay quiet, but if it began to grumble a bit that wouldn't be a huge deal. Good point re the oil level, I can remember reading about that effect.

[mickeg]

I find the Rohloff to be nearly silent in gears 8 to 14, my chain is probably noisier than the hub.  But a third planetary gear is used in gears 1 to 7, that is where it gets noisy, not unlike a 4X4 truck with the transfer case in low range.  I am sure I notice the noise more in gears 1 to 7 for a second reason, I am going slower when those gears are used and when you are going slower you notice less tire noise, less wind noise, etc.