I put the Compass Rat Trap Pass tires back on. At first I had to mount them with tubes, but then went into the shop and Trevor was able to mount them tubeless. The bike is soooo much better with these tires.
The Schwalbe Mondials have plenty of life left in them, but I wanted to try a more supple ride on the saga.
Paul's MiniMoto side pull (V) brakes designed for short pull road levers. These should be a big improvement over the Avid Shorty cantilevers.
New chain and cassette.
Service rear hub.
In preparation for this I had taken off the rack, lights and fenders off and gave it a thorough cleaning.
Rainy day so I decided to change our my tires to the Schwalbes I had purchased a while back. I wanted to see if I could do this at home. Tubeless is a pain. I did manage to get the front one seated but broke my pump in doing so. I had to take the rear into the shop and Mike did it. Had to put on new tape and use the air compressor.
I still haven't ridden with these tires. They should be better on the wet roads and in the woods, but I fear the bike will now feel like a tank compared to my Compass tires.
My rear tire was low so I decided to add some sealant. Then I decided I should see if I could break the bead. It wasn't easy but I was able to do it. But then I could not inflate it tubeless, so I put a tube in and went to the bike shop. Mike could not inflate it even with the air compressor. It seems super supple sidewalls make it difficult to get the tire seated when going tubeless. He finially put on another layer of rim tape and that did it.
This is something I should be able to do myself but I don't have the tools to take the cassette off.
Pre tour service. I had replaced the brake pads recently but they were the metalic pads, so I opted to replace them again with ceramic.
New deraileur cables.
Chain and casette were good,
This is the 3rd set of tires on this bike. All have been Schwalbe Marathons, but different versions. All have held up well for many miles with no flats.
Plus - 6,500 miles
Supreme - 7,500 miles
The Saga had always had terrible wheel flop when there is enough weight in the back to lift the front wheel. It has been a real pain. Everytime I park it the front wheel wants to flop to one side or the other. This should fix that.
As you can see there is much less clearance on my bike. In fact it was not an easy installation. The fender had been mounted using a "L" bracket to the back of the fork where the bolt comes through. I removed the "L" bracket and installed a fork crown Daruma. This actually provided a better mount for the fender, and left enough room to install the stabilizer.
This device fits up inside the fork with the brake bolt going through the hole. Then the fender is attached through a hole drilled at the top of the fender.