Bicyle review: 6000 km

After more than 6000 km, what kind of problems did we have with our bicycles? Any replacement? Luckily we didn't have many problems. All problems could be solved quickly and easily. Let's hope it will continue like that.

Read also this older post.

Rohloff Speedhub
Both of us use the Rohloff Speedhub. Main reasons were its robustness and its low maintenance. Shifting whenever you want is a blessing. There is no need to get your bicycle rolling for shifting.

After 5000 km a small maintenance action was required, i.e. oil change. We had carried the two oil change sets since Helsinki, Finland, and used them later in Jinghong, China. Changing oil was an easy task but it revealed a problem with Peter's hub. Firstly the amount of old oil that we pumped out of the hub was more or less 0 ml. Secondly fresh oil found some way out of the hub's side. The hub kept leaking. All that didn't look normal as we have Sarah's hub for comparison. Rohloff was very responsive to our emails and told us that even a complete loss of oil did not impact the hub's functioning. Well, fair enough, we can continue our trip but the hub needs some inspection when we'll be back home.

Leaking hub

Rohloff Dropout
Peter's Gudereit LC-R has movable dropouts to adjust the chain tension. One day in Sweden we had to loosen and tighten the screws of the left dropout. Unfortunately the dropout's thread got damaged so we haven't dared to loosen the screws again ever since. Meanwhile the tension of the chain has become loose and would need some adjustment but as long as we don't have a new dropout or professional bicycle shop around it could be a hot thing. Getting this special dropout in China and Southeast Asia is probably impossible. But bicycle manufacturer Gudereit was really helpful. They sent new dropouts and screws to Peter's brother (our personal spare part supplier) in Germany who will visit us in Cambodia in December. Thank you Gudereit!

Dropout

Pedals
Our pedals were not new ones. We used some old and basic mountain bike pedals that we still had at home because we didn't want to use the click pedals. Every now and then we heard some crackling from our pedals. It sounded like sand inside the bearings. In Luang Prabang, Laos, it became worse. Our plan was to clean the bearings but we don't have the right tools. So we went to a "mechanic" in Luang Prabang who destroyed our pedals. We were hopeless! How should we find new pedals in Luang Prabang? The first shop had only cheap plastic pedals. The second shop was kind of a real bicycle shop with Trek mountain bikes and, luckily, offered a range of pedals. The most expensive ones were mountain bike metal pedals made by VP Components. Oh how lucky we were! We did not expect to get VP Components pedals in a city like Luang Prabang.

Fresh pedals for our bicycles

Schwalbe Tires
Peter's Gudereit LC-R runs Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, Sarah's Steppenwolf runs Schwalbe Marathon tires. All tires haven't worn out yet - still good enough - but we swapped the tires, front to rear and vice versa. Our feeling is that the Marathon tires wear out quicker than the Marathon Plus tires.

Puncture tally: Sarah, 2 punctures on the same day in Uzbekistan. We had picnic in the middle of a thorn field. Peter, incredibly 0 punctures.

Valve
One of the Presta valves snapped but we carry 2 spare inner tubes including two spare valves.

Magura HS-33 brake pads
After more than 6000 km the Magura HS-33 brake pads are still good for some more km. But we will have some spare ones 'delivered' to Cambodia, by our special bike part supplier :) Thanks Daniel!

Left: new - Right: 6000 km

Bicycle problem: headset play

Since Uzbekistan I more felt than heard occasional crackling in my head tube. The threadless headset had abnormal play and going downhill the fork of the bicycle was shaking too much. I was afraid that it could be a serious problem.

Being in Chengdu, a megacity, with many bicycle shops, we didn't want to leave the city without having this problem solved. We went to one bicycle shop where the owner was supposed to speak English and unfortunately found it shut down. In the hostel they rang up another bicycle shop but they didn't speak English either. There wasn't much alternative. So I cycled to the shop and when I saw Giant and Trek mountain bikes inside, I knew it was a real bicycle shop and not one of those street repair shops. I "explained" what the problem was and the mechanic found the problem within a second! He added a spacer and the play was gone. There is still a lot to learn about bicycles and like in this particular case threadless headsets.

Problem solved! We can continue! We don't come back home yet!

Bicycle adjustment in Sweden/Finland

We are at Riga airport and waiting for the flight to Dushanbe. So there is some time to have a look at the modifications of our bicycles.

Back in Stockholm Sarah bought her Brooks B17 saddle (there is a Brooks retailer in Stockholm old town Gamla Stan). She had problems with the WTB Pro Gel mountain bike saddle that was on her bike. Since she got her Brooks saddle I haven't heard any complaint.

I was riding on my SDG mountain bike saddle but replaced it by Sarah's WTB Pro Gel saddle. We were carring my SDG saddle for a while and finally sent it back home when we arrived in Finland.

In Jyväskylä, Finland, we swapped our stems. Sarah's riding position was not ideal and she had numb palms (despite the Ergon GC3 bar ends) and backache. My stemis a double adjustable stem whereas Sarah's headset can be adjusted in only a single point. The double adjustable stem allows a more upright riding position. In Helsinki Sarah bought a bended handle bar that again lifts the hand position by 2-3 cm. It all helped, the numb palms and backache are gone.

When we arrived at Noora's place we received the spare part parcel that my brother had sent from Germany. I was riding a 44-teeth chain ring and a 16-teeth sprocket in Sweden and Finland. The first gear was easy enough, but would not be adapted to Central Asian and Chinese mountains. I replaced the 44-teeth chain ring by a 40-teeth Spécialités TA one.

Back in Germany we had ordered the Schwalbe Marathon XR tyres. These tyres are supposed to be the best for touring. Interestingly enough, Schwalbe stopped its production last year. We hoped to receive the XR's at Noora`s place with our spare part parcel as well. Unfortunately the online shop was not able to deliver them. So we were looking for the XR's in Helsinki without any success. At the end we decided to continue with our tyres and bought two foldable Schwalbe Marathon Extreme tyres as spare tyres. Let's see how far the Schwalbe tyres will last. After 2350 km we couldn't see any wear on our Schwalbe Marathon and Marathon Plus.