Sir Lancelot, my Surly Long Haul Trucker received a service today at 5,721 km. It has been 1,449 km since the last service which is a lot more than ideal. A full service history can be found here.
This service consisted of:
Wiping down the chain and re-lubing with an application of Rock and Roll Gold chain lube;
Checking of chain wear with a Park Tools CC-3 Chain Wear indicator. The chain is showing wear at the 0.75 point so a new chain will be fitted at the next service;
Checking the tension on all bolts and screws on Sir Lancelot. Found a couple of screws showing signs of loosening, so glad I do this;
I admit, I am a Brooks saddle tragic and have a Brooks B17N on Froggie and a Brooks B17 on Sir Lancelot and plan to purchase a Swift or a Swallow for Froggie, moving the B17N to Julia.
So the purpose of this post is to share these two videos reminding us of the history and beauty of a Brooks saddle and to share a little on my Brooks Saddle experiences.
With respect to my two saddles, I have had a far more positive experience with the B17 than the B17N. The B17 is currently installed on Sir Lancelot and prior to that served time on Chase, so it has done over 10,000 km now. As a first time Brooks owner I did make the mistake of over treating it (treated it fairly regularly with Proofide in the early stages which was a mistake, causing it to sag. Re-tensioning has resolved this little issue and I find the saddle very comfortable and suited to the Surly Long Haul Trucker.
The B17N fitted to my Look 555 has proved a less suitable choice of saddle, taking sometime to break-in. I suspect this is in part due to my part-time riding of Froggie (mainly a weekend ride for most of the year during this break-in period) and the riding position on Froggie. I am not sure that the B17N is the right saddle for this bike and will be replacing it with a B15 Swallow Titanium funds permitting or a Swallow or Swift Chrome if the budget does not allow for a high end Swallow. The B17N will then go to Julia my Giant XTC 2 mountain bike where I suspect the more upright riding position will suit the saddle.
Sir Lancelot, my Surly Long Haul Trucker received a “winter” service today at 4,272km. Winter services are carried out during winter and spring due to the wet weather riding conditions experienced.
Checking the tension on all bolts and screws on Sir Lancelot.
Cleaning the bike.
Removed the Continental Travel Contacts and replaced them with 700×28C Continental Grand Prix 4-Season V tires.
Two special nuts which hold the SKS Chromoplastic P50 mudguards on at the rear have dropped out. I have attempted to contact SKS about getting replacements with no reply so far. Why do business bother to have contact forms if they do not reply? In the meantime I have wired the stays to the guard. Hopefully this will do the trick.
Sir Lancelot, my Surly Long Haul Trucker received a “winter” service today at 3,736 km / 2,315 mi. This one was about 500 km overdue, so really should have done twice in the same period. That said, other than being really dirty, there was no noticeable negative impact from the delay serviced.
Winter services are scheduled every 500 km and consist of:
Checking the tension on all bolts and screws on Sir Lancelot. More signs of rust in numerous bolts and screws. Applied Inox to all the bolts and screws to hopefully slow down the rusting.
Cleaning the bike. I ensured that I covered the Garmin Edge GCS-10 sensor this time with a plastic bag to avoid it getting wet. It seems to have done the trick.
As it is the first service in Spring 09 Sir Lancelot got a polish as well. Applied Turtle Wax car polish.
Tyre wear is okay, brake pad wear is okay and the derailleurs and brakes are holding their adjustments okay.
On the down side there is some paint damage to the top tube. I guess that just comes with life on the road as a tourer and commuter.
The purpose of this post is to summarise my wear, puncture rates and ride experience with these with Continental Travel Contacts as fitted to my Surly Long Haul Trucker.
The Surly Long Haul Trucker is used as both a commuter (city riding on a mix of road and dual use paths) and touring. It is ridden in all weather conditions on bitumen roads a mix of bitumen and concrete paths.
As Western Australia does not have a bottle deposit scheme there tends to be a fair bit of glass on roads and paths.
The Continental Travel Contacts came as OEM on the Surly Long Haul Trucker and went into service on April 4, 2009.
The tyres where removed at 4,272.4 km. A puncture rate of one every 712 kilometres was just too frustrating to warrant keeping the tyres on the bike. At the time of removal they where still showing lots of tread life and would have stayed on the bike if they where more puncture resistance.
Fitted to …
Front or Rear
Cost per km *
Punctures per km
Other Comments
Surly Long Haul Trucker
Front
1,068.10
Four punctures
Wet riding conditions
Cause: glass x 4
Surly Long Haul Trucker
Rear
2,122 km
Two punctures
One in dry weather conditions and one in wet weather conditions
Cause: wire x 1, glass x 1
Summary
$0.0104
712.4 km
Five punctures in total with these tyres.
* As these where OEM tyres, the cost per kilometre is estimated using the Wiggle replacement cost as at September 19, 2009.