Yesterday a friend and me took the train to Cercedilla and rode back on our mountain bikes. It was a good ride! Here are some pics. Coming down from the town of Navacerrada That's Manzanares El Real behind me. Rocky road nearing Colmenar.
WOOOOOWWWWW, :alabando spectacular background there outside Madrid mate,I love it! As supposed Chainring was testing the fixed hole in his bike anywhere in LA Sierra!. What beautiful photos taken there. I love seeing the snow in the mountains and I love being able to ride back right to your house from there. As you Know I am in Guadalajara but in a month time or so I will be back in Madrid!!!. Oh my God how I miss that beautiful landscape there. You are too cruel to post these pics!!!. I will make up when I am back!. I have something to ask to you about your experience on brakes… brakes once more. Every time I take a wheel out of my hybrid bike –it has mechanical disc brakes-, it takes me too long to avoid the disc to rub the brake pads when I put it back. It really gets me nuts till I got all the system adjusted with no rub noises. On the contrary, I LOVE the simplicity of my road bike brakes. I can adjust them in a split second with no rubbing or alignment problems at all. That said, I´ve of course noticed – and I like it- the greater breaking power that my hybrid has over my road bike. Not that my roadie breaks bad, I guess It has an “average” brake power taking into account it is a road bike with standard side brakes, but definitely my hybrid has a more effective, powerful way of stopping. A disc system also has other benefits; there is no additional pressure inside and outside the rim –Both the tube pressure on the rim and the pad surface on it-, it don´t failure that much when in wet weather, etc... It also weights more. Disc brake systems are greater when it comes to stop, but are they convenient enough when you need to take your wheel out?. If I were asked what I prefer, a “plug and go” road bike system or the “meticulously mounted but effective” disc brake system my hybrid has…No hesitation here, I´d rather go with the speedy gonzalez ones. I really like the plug&go design over a truck brake power. Obviously, What I´d like the most is both advantages combined in one but so far I haven´t experience such a pleasure… just my experience. I like the idea of a light disc brake for roadies but not if it is this mess when you have to put your wheel back. Besides I have to think of what brake system I want my next bike to have. I know that everybody recommends discs but I don´t wanna waste my time adjusting everything every time I take my wheel out, because I plan to drive my bike into my car and need to frequently take the wheels out… So guys, in your experience, sorry if I sound stupid :ups, ¿Are all mechanical or hydraulic disc brakes this way Or just my case?. I mean. Do you ALWAYS have rubbing problems when mounting your wheel?. It´s a real pain in the neck to get the three goals done when mounting the disc brake wheel: no more than 2mm clearance one side, no more than 1mm the other side, and no rubbing problems. Too much going on to work it out in a second!!! Cheers!
I'm not sure I can help you since I really don't have any experience with mechanical disc brakes. My mountain bike has hydraulic disc brakes and I rarely touch them, certainly not every time I take the wheel off, even though I have to admit that at times they make noise, they squeal or chatter. Usually the solution is to lightly sandpaper the brake pads, but to be truthful I rarely mess with them, even if they're making noise, because it tends to come and go. You may want to ask in the Mechanic section of this forum. In any case, in my opinion hydraulic disc brakes are far better than the caliper kind.
Hydraulics all the way. So much less faff than cables. Never touch mine. (I mean in a maintenance way, obviously I touch them to slow down, to do otherwise would be silly)
Thank you Chainring , thank you Mackem.Hydraulic´s better. I admit it. I may be obsessed with a noise coming from a pad rubbing a disc, but I can´t stand it. In fact, it is one of the previous inspections that I do before going out. Since my body engine, say, is a middle class one, I try to keep the most of my energy put on the motion, and only motion on the move… I hate whatever obstacle that disturbs the efficiency of the pedaling process moving forward… Ok, ok… I´ll try to live with it. Disc break noises come and go when I put my wheel back… If it´s not for too long, I´ll let them stay and leave when they wish… 8) I also agree on Mackem´s tip to touch the break when you want to slow down or stop!!!. Idiomatic problem: Sorry for my mistakes on this. It might sound funny to you when I said “take the wheel out”. I forgot how your perception as native English people is. You immediately think of a box to take something out or a spare wheel… A Spanish perception is different here and is not from where but the action itself that counts. Besides we can consider the frame as a kinda box in which the wheel is in, to take the wheel out, not to take it OFF… Or doesn´t this have any sense to you???.:rasca How big has a frame needs to be to consider a wheel inside it!?. My God, These prepositions are really another pain in the neck for foreign people!. Cheers.
Great! I hereby do proclaim myself second to none bilingual biker in this subforum!. Let´s see what I am for now: Areo-hybrid-ecological-bilingual-road-biker LOL.I can´t wait to become a mountain biker when I buy my MTB. I will need to make a word that stands for all that I´ll be. AHEBMRBMOTU or aerohybridecologicalbilingualmountainroadbikermasteroftheuniverse. Not bad, not bad. Cheers!.
Well, my last post was an ego cheer up!. I got frustrated when David told me he got to La Bola del Mundo (The World´s Ball) peak on his bike along with Brian. If you don´t know what it is, take a look at this: And then pay attention to this: It hurts!
Actually I haven't been to the Bola del Mundo yet, though I've been to the Navacerrada mountain pass several times. Believe me, that's plenty, especially if you're coming from Madrid. You're already pretty tired by the time you get there, then 14 km of uphill. I know some people drive to the area and pedal up. Maybe those are the ones passing me up. I didn't realize those towers were the Bola. I suppose sooner or later I'll visit the area. A friend said he was thinking of doing extreme enduro riding down from there. I think I might pass on that one. Interesting graph. As far as I know going up to Navacerrada is the toughest you can do in this area.
Yeah, that´s right. Tired at the beginning and don´t forget you run 53x39 if I remember correctly. Not a great thing if you want to climb. A triple chain set or a compact would be far better mounted to get there. I would also need an electric engine!. Be careful with any MTB extreme downhill at that 2.500 meters high, well, any extreme downhill Cheers!
Here's a video of a trip I was on two weeks ago at Hoyo de Manzanares. Actually I didn't really shine on this ride, but if you want to see me in action, that's me going down a hill at 20 seconds, 1 min 15 secs, and you can see me skillfully performing an involuntary dismount at 4 min 5 secs. I've been working on cornering lately, but as you can see things didn't work out here. [video=vimeo;37271388]http://vimeo.com/37271388[/video]
I like very much your video. You and your friends are fast, I understand now why you like the bikes with fork of more than 120mm... I also think that it´s very dangerous go very near of yours friends. It´s necesary that we have a safe distance of more that 20 meters. It´s as in the car. There is a lot of dangers, for that we put more... Look this video for example. [video=youtube_share;y6OrqS0gNvo]http://youtu.be/y6OrqS0gNvo[/video] Cheers!
Ouch! What an accident! I see what you mean, you really have to be careful. I was once on a ride with a group and we were going down a hill in a line, and the first person crashed, then the others crashed into him. You have to look where you're going, but also at the other riders (if they're close).
Wow! Hip hip Hooray! Well done David, it is by turning that way that you learn!!! Be careful in the process… you really have a skillful and personal style!. Take a look at this monument. Have any of you guys ever seen a bicycle like this??? Take my road bike as a reference.
As far as I know it´s all -head to heels- in metal. The heaviest bicycle in the world!. It´s in the outskirts of Guadalajara... The greatest monument devoted to bikes so far! Cheers!.
Well, I am under the impression that in fact it is on the condition that you know where you have to go!. I just take my bike and go for a ride wherever the road takes me!. There are quite lonely country roads and nice trails which worth a ride. Besides it is a large province with beautiful landscapes if you know how to get there as said. Some years ago I rode almost the entire province on a motorbike and saw very interesting places at their best. I love what it is called “El alto Tajo” and “La Sierra Negra”… astonishing places far from the city but in the province itself. BTW, do you think a thing like this would have protected your stays from muddy terrain?. Neoprene doesn´t seem the right stuff to do the job done but it says it contains an external protection kinda carbon layer or whatever on it. Not so sure about its effectiveness when on the mud. http://www.elcorteingles.es/tienda/...railSize=0&navAction=jump&navCount=0&brandId= Cheers!
Maybe the stay protecter would have helped, but come to think of it, it probably wouldn't have fit between the tire and stay. I was once on a bike ride in Patones, in the "Poor Sierras" or something like that, and we actually crossed over into the province of Guadalajara at times. It was nice! Wouldn't mind going there again sometime.
A few examples of what I see along the way... Castles, Trains, Monasteries, Ceramics, bike-lanes and foxes. :wink: Cheers! Today I am in Madrid. Took a ride to Alcobendas to buy some stuff at SZ, but surprisingly it´s not alredy there!. They have changed locations. Majadahonda over Alcobendas. Tomorrow I´ll be back in Guadalajara. Next week I´ll be in Germany for just three days... Then in Madrid again, I hope. :grin:
