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Recently there has been a flurry of rumors and products that might indicate that the triple ring crank may be in danger of becoming extinct. Not only on road bikes, where the move to compact cranks has been well established, but also for the mountain bike. The signs of the triples demise are hard to miss. Let’s take a closer look.

Innovations like SRAM’s Hammerschmidt are only one of the recent signs of the fall of the triple ring crankset from favor.

The “triple”, as three chain ring equipped crank sets are often referred to, have been around since the dawn of the modern mountain bike in the late seventies. Used to give off road riders a low enough climbing gear without sacrificing down hill speed, the set up has been basically the same since that time with some tweaks along the way to the specific chain ring sizes and bolt patterns for the rings themselves. However; there also have been instances along the way where riders tried to eliminate the multiplicity of front chain rings. Nothing on the scale of today’s developments where we have seen and heard of many things that may change the way we motivate up and down the singletrack.

The first big technological change made popular was SRAM’s Hammerschmidt which is basically an internally geared two speed crankset. It eliminates the front derailluer and two of the front chainrings for a gear spread equal to what roughly was the “granny” ring and middle gear on a traditional mountain crank. This has found popularity with All Mountain, Freeride, and Downhill riders that rarely if ever use a big chainring on their cranks anyway. Obviously, too much weight and a lack of a high speed gear up front would limit the usage of this idea, but we may not have seen the end of the development on internal geared cranks yet.

Now for the high speed, cross country set, the news is all about 10 speed drive trains utilizing two front chainrings. SRAM is set to hit out first with the new and yet to be launched “XX” group. Featuring a purpose built two chain ring crankset, the idea is much like “compact” gearing for road bikes, with a nearly identical gear spread to a triple chain ring set up, but with better chain lines, and lower “Q” factor. Also rumored to be making the leap to 10 speed/dual front chainring mountain groups is Shimano. They are rumored to be readying a 10 speed mountain group with a two chainring crank set in the XTR and XT levels.

Not only that, but the scuttlebutt is that Shimano will stop production of triple crank XTR and XT cranks altogether in the future. Will this signal a “trickle down” through all of the mountain groups in SRAM’s and Shimano’s line ups? One industry insider I spoke with on the condition of anonymity said that the trend would trickle down eventually. However; he also stated that recreational groups and trekking cranksets looked to remain as triples for the short term.

My take on it is that it would be a big mistake for SRAM and Shimano to cease high end production of triple crank sets. While racing pursuits lend themselves to such set ups, the common trail rider is not well served by fewer choices in gearing. I also feel that adding more cogs to the cassette is not what trail riders and all mountain/free ride folks are looking for. Actually, fewer cogs and a dishless rear wheel are much higher on the agenda here.

While details are scarce and solid info is months away yet, it is alarming to see that this may be on the table. The jury is still out, but things don’t look so good for the common triple crank these days.

The liner for the Stallion has yet to see action due to the cool temps here.

As you may have guessed from reading the other two Hoss posts, I am a bit of a freak when it comes to looks with my clothing. I will say that the Stallion Short passed muster right off. It had no funky quirks with it’s muted “Black with Logo” print, which got my thumbs up right off. The fit, like the Ponderosa Knickers, was spot on. Unlike the Ponderosa though, the Stallion is a “boarder style” short. (Think surfing) with it’s lace up fly closure. I liken it to the old school football shorts. At any rate, it works and there isn’t a buckle to dig into your “overhang”, if you are sporting one. Let’s just say it is comfortable and leave it at that, shall we?

The removeable liner allows you to mix up the Stallion with cool weather gear.

The leg length is down to the bottom of my knee caps on me. Nice length, I think. It has the similar gossamer feeling fabric of the Ponderosa Knicker. Thin, but I was okay with it. Lots of comfort and freedom of movement here with the Stallion. There is no provision to tighten the leg openings though, so if you don’t like your short legs flapping in the breeze, these shorts may not be for you.

Functionally, the Stallion has decent sized pockets. One is rather large. Big enough for a good sized camera, or a pair of summer weight gloves to be stashed in. There are a few other smaller pockets, but no slash pockets to stick your hands in. If you haven’t worn boarder shorts before, this is common, but I think a couple of pockets in the normal places are called for here, especially since the Stallion has a removeable liner, and it looks good enough to wear casually in non-cycling scenes. Anyway, as a cycling short, I don’t mind this lack of pockets in the normal places. Again, things ride nicely in loaded pockets on the bike. A big plus if you are going to bother to sew in some pockets in the first place.

I’ll be back with some warmer weather test results with the inner liner soon. Stay tuned!

I thought the pattern was a little too much at first, but don’t I mind it now.

The Ponderosa Knicker has a 6 panel sewn in short with a chamois that is Cool Max and “Sanitized” with a multi-layer technology for your riding comfort. I found it to be quite pleasant. The inner liner fit well, and the chamois was comfy up to three hours in the saddle. Moisture management in the cool temperatures I was riding in (25- 50 degrees) wasn’t an issue, but I’ll reserve judgemet on that until I get into warmer temps. The outer short is pretty thin feeling, but oddly enough, I felt warm with just a wool long john wearing these even in the coldest range of the temperatures I rode in. The outer short was unobtrusive, easy to adjust, and stayed pretty much right where they are pulled up to. No “plumbers crack” action here! The legs came down to just about middle of the calf, right where they are supposed to. Fit-wise, these seem right on the money.

Functionally, the pockets were good sized and plentiful. Stuff I put in the pockets was secure and rode well while on the bike. It didn’t get in the way of any manuevering I was doing, which was a pleasant thing to find in these knickers. While lots of pockets are cool, if the stuff you put in them doesn’t ride well on the bike, you probably won’t use them. Somebody at Hoss must be paying attention here, because I found this to be one of my favorite features of the Ponderosa Knickers.

So far the only thing I was hoping for was that Hoss would consider doing the knicker idea with a removeable liner. Yes, it would cost more, I realize that. But it would make them much more versatile. For instance, in colder weather I like to wear a tight with a chamois built in and slap some knickers over the top for functionality. (Pockets!) Plus, I don’t look like one of Robin Hood’s Mery Men on my bike. (Not that men in tights is a bad thing, just sayin’!) So with that in mind, I still am impressed with the Hoss Ponderosa Knickers. I’ll come back with some warmer weather testing results soon.

The jersey has a loose, comfortable fit. No “luv handle” showing tightness here, which is a good thing for me! I was impressed with the comfortable feel to the jersey and it hangs off me just right. No weirdness in the fit department. Nice and roomy, with lots of freedom to get your groove on. Now how does it look? I’m pretty picky in this area, and I will throw a piece of clothing out just because I don’t like the way it looks on me. So with that in mind, lets take this with a grain of salt, okay? I liked the collar and the two snap button opening. Okay, that was a bit close, because collars have to be “just so” or I’m thinking leisure suit and it is going in the rag bin. (Hey, I said I was picky!) The color I was sent was listed on the Hoss Technical site as “grey”. Now I like that. No “made up” color, just “grey”. I wasn’t too stoked on the grey color though until my wife swayed me with some very nice compliments. So I tried it out at work, (yes, you could wear this as an everyday shirt, it looks that good) and the ladies I worked with were very complimentary. Now normally I don’t get comments like this, and I’m not saying you will, but that was a major plus for me.

So, enough with the vanity already, how did it work? As in cycling? Great question! I rode to work in it several times and wore it on some extended rides of up to three hours. Honestly, it wears really well. The freedom to move is translated into a garment that doesn’t hinder you and ( a cliche’, I know, but here goes….), disappears. The temps were rather cold on these rides, so I was layering. The Polo Pony works well with wool and base layers, I am happy to report. The long sleeves weren’t too long, but did a great job of not creeping up while riding. Just right for me, and I’ve got longish arms.

So far, I have only one nit with this jersey. Honestly, I am going to lump in the Polo Pony with a lot of current jerseys with this comment by saying the fabric “runs” and snags a bit. I’ve included a pic of this phenomenon to illustrate my point more clearly. (Pic is of sleeve on the opposite side of the elbow.) This is something I find absolutely maddening. I had a riding tee and two jerseys from different companies do exactly the same thing last summer. Hopefully this can be remedied, because as it is, I am hesitant to wear this out in non-cycling venues, which I could have done, and would, if it had not done this. One more thing: I can’t figure out just what does this, it isn’t like I pulled it on a staple or barbed wire or anything. Weird!

Other than that, it has been smooth rding with the Polo Pony. I’ll report back with some feedback in warmer weather conditions soon.

Note the limit screws, their identification, and the alignment of the cage with the chain rings.

The front derailluers travel inboard and outboard of the crankset is determined by these little screws. They are (unsurprisingly) called “limit screws”. Genrally, they should not have to be tweaked, but checking their settings is always a wise thing to do. Shift your front derailluer into the smallest front ring. Then, we will manually actuate the derailluer to find if the limits are set correctly. (Your first clue that something is amiss already would be if your chain drops on the bottom bracket shell, or won’t shift on to the smallest ring. Just manually place it on the smallest ring for now.)

By rotating the crank by hand and pulling on the derailluer cable, you can check the limits of the front derailluer.

By pulling the cable that operates the derailluer by hand while rotating the crank with your other hand, you can find out if your limit screws are set correctly. Pedal at a moderate pace and pull gently on the cable downwards. (See photo above) As the derailluer reaches its limit of outward travel it should pull the chain up on to your largest ring on your crank set. If the chain starts to come over the chainring to the outside, simply lessen the tension on the cable with your hand to keep it from falling off. If this happens, the limit screw is going to need adjustment. (Hold that thought for a moment) Before we get to that though, you need to release the cable gently to allow the chain to be pushed back down on to the innermost chainring on the crankset. (Keep pedalling with that other hand!)

Okay, your chain should be on the smallest ring on the crankset again after you release the cable completely. Check with the shifters now. Is it working properly? If it isn’t, here are the adjustments and things to check on:
#1- Chain fell off to the inside of the crankset. Adjust the low limit screw, (Either having an “L”, or “Low”, marked next to it, or use the inner most screw on most mountain bikes), by turning it clockwise, limiting the travel of the cage to the inside. Small adjustments! Maybe a 16th to an eighth of a turn on that screw. Re-check.

The cable adjuster is normally found where the cable exits the shifter body, as on this Shimano shifter.

Down tube mounted cable adjusters.

#2- Chain won’t go into the smallest ring on the crank. Check the shifter. Did you have it shifted all the way into the lowest setting? If so, check the cable tension. It should have some tension, but not be real tight. If it feels pretty tight, loosen the adjuster at the shifter, (Or down tube boss if a road bike is being tuned. See images above) and recheck. If that doesn’t do it to your satisfaction, you can adjust the low limit screw, (Again, marked with either an “L”, “Low”, or usually the inmost screw on older mtbs) by turning it counter clockwise. Again, small adjustments! Re-check to see if it works.

#3- If your chain went over the top of the outermost chain ring, then adjust the high limit screw, marked “H”, “High”, or the outer most screw on most older mountain bikes. Turn the screw clockwise a little and recheck. Make small adjustments until a satisfactory result is reached.

#4- If you shift into the big ring, (outer most ring) up front and your highest gear in the back, (smallest cog), see if the chain rubs the cage of the front derailluer. If it does, you may need to increase the cable tension by turning the cable adjuster counte clockwise at the shifter or downtube. Small adjustments make big changes. If this doesn’t work, the limit screw may be needing to be turned counter clockwise just a hair. Make sure to use the “H”, “High”, or outer most screw!

#5: I’ve tried everything so far. It still doesn’t work!- Try looking at the cage of the derailluer from above. See if the cage plates are parallel to the chain rings. (See picture #1) If the derailluer looks askew in relation to the chain rings, you will need to adjust this by using the deralluer’s mounting bracket. Make sure you are shifted into the smallest chainring up front to relieve the cable tension. Loosen the clamp,(See photo below), or fixing bolt if it is a braze on deralluer, and align the cage to be parallel to the chain rings. Tighten the clamp or fixing bolt, recheck the cable tension and adjust if necessary, then re-check the shifting.

The up and down position and the alignment with the chain rings for the front derailluer can be adjusted by loosening that bolt on the band clamp for this front derailluer.

#6- Sometimes a clamp was loose and the derailluer creeps down the seat tube. The cage may scrape the chain rings while shifting to larger rings. Or the cage may be too high above the chainrings to shift effectively. In either case, loosen the clamp bolt or fixing bolt, align properly, retighten the fasteners, and re-check the shifting. You will most likely need to adjust the cable tension, and I’d recommend doing that at the anchor bolt. loosen it slightly, just enough to pull the slack out of the cable, or allow some cable to pass through, depending on the adjustment. Re-tighten the anchor and check the shifting.

A trick that helps down tube routed cables is to lube the nylon plate the cables drag across when you shift. Try it!

The Polo Pony long sleeve jersey

The Ponderosa Knickers

The Stallion boarder style short

We will break out each piece with more technical descriptions and our initial impressions in posts coming up over the next week or so. We also have a women’s “Kiva” jersey, but obviously Arleigh will be handling that department. So look for her impressions on that coming up soon!

The barrel adjuster is located where the cable exits the rear of the derailluer housing

The main adjusting feature on your derailleur is the barrel adjuster. It usually is located at the exit point for the rear cable housing from the deralleur body. SRAM derailleurs don’t use this arrangement on the mtb side, and niether do the new Shadow derailleurs from Shimano. The barrel adjusters for these systems are located at the shifter. At any rate, they function the same way. If your derailleur cable is too slack, you turn the barrel adjuster counter-lockwise to take out the slack in the cable. If the cable is too tight, the adjuster is turned clockwise to loosen the cable. Now might be a great time to lube the derailleur cables too. Check out how to do it here.

Set ‘em and forget ‘em!

The two screws found on most derailleur bodies and usually marked “L” and “H” are the limit screws. They keep your rear derailleur from traveling too far inwards or outwards. Once these have been set, they generally do not ever need to be fiddled with again. However, it is worth checking the limits of travel on the derailluer just in case. “L” stands for “Low” and is the screw that limits the travel of the derailleur to the lowest gear. “H” is “High” and limits the travel to the smallest cog, or outside of the bike. Clockwise turning of either screw will limit travel. Counter-clockwise turning of either screw will allow more travel.

Manually checking the limits of derailleur travel.

To check the limits follow the instructions here. Once you have done this, then adjusting the rear derailluer can effectively take place. If you didn’t lube the cables, go back and do that. Now, if you pedal and shift the bike’s gearing system, you should see immediate results when initiating a shift. If the chain hesitates when you shift from a small gear to the next larger, then you may want to add tension to the cable. (Turn the barrel adjuster counter-clockwise a 16th to an 8th turn.) Check it again. If it still hesitates, add more tension to the cable. Repeat the process until you get the shifting to hesitate on the way from a bigger cog to a smaller. Then back off the adjuster an 8th of a turn. If the system is doing the opposite from the get go, reverse the procedures until satisfactory shifting occurs.

Note that it may take some trial and error your first few times to get it right. Also, if your derailleur is not hanging perfectly parallel to the cogset, your derailluer hangar may be bent, or your derailluer damaged. That would mean it is time to see the experts at your shop. Also, if your cable housing is cracked or kinked, or your cables frayed, it might behoove you to replace all of that before you move on.

Next: Front derailluer adjustments.

Stay tuned for our next in the DIY Series on a Typical Tune Up where we will tackle adjusting a rear derailluer. We will also be bringing you some reviews on some Hoss technical wear, and of course, we will always be on the look out for any “blue collar” tips to send your way. Stay tuned! The next post will be up soon!

Threadless head sets are pretty common these days.

The “threadless head set” gets its name from the fact that the steer tube of the fork is not threaded. This type of head set has been in wide circulation since the mid-90’s and is almost all you see on modern day bicycles. The stem on a threadless head set system clamps around the steer tube and is responsible for holding the head set adjustment. The “top cap”, which is over the top of the steer tube, has a bolt running through its center that threads into an “anchor” lodged in the steer tube called a “star nut”. These are the principal parts involved in our discussion of adjusting this sort of head set.

Most threadless head sets have stems clamped at the top of the fork steer tube.

Alternate loosening bolts on threadless stems to reduce the chance of overstressing the clamp and possibly causing cracks to develope on the stem.

The first order of business is to release the stems grip on the steer tube. This is done by loosening the bolt(s) that are clamping the stem to the steer tube. Note: If there is more than one bolt holding the stem to the steer tube, it is best to release the bolts as evenly as possible to reduce unwanted strain on the stem. Turn each stem bolt alternately with turns of less than half a full turn at first until the stem is quite loose. The stem is loose enough when you can turn it on the steer tube and the wheel stays stationary.

The only thing this bolt does is adjust the preload on the head set bearings

Next we’ll tackle the actual head set adjustment. Turn the bolt in the center of the top cap, (usually a 5mm bolt) clockwise about an eighth of a turn or less. Re-tighten the stem bolts, again using alternate turns on bolts if there is more than one bolt, and then check your adjustment. Just as with a threaded head set, you want to try to rock the fork back and forth in the head tube by grabbing one of your grips and the front wheel. If you still feel a knock, or some looseness, try the adjustment procedure again until you get a satisfactory result. Remember! Small adjustments, not big ones, and it may take a few tries.

Once you get what you think is a good adjustment, make sure you have your stem lined up straight with your wheel, and double check those stem bolts that clamp the steer tube. Don’t try tigtening that stem cap bolt! All it is there for is to make adjustments. Note: Some higher end stems and steer tubes require specific torque values to be met for safe riding. Over tightening some exotic carbon steer tubes or aluminum/carbon stems can result in failures. Use a torque wrench, or see your local bike shop for assistance if you are not comfortable doing this adjustment on your higher end machine.

Many stems will have torque specs listed right on them, others will require some research. If you have a higher end machine, follow the torque specs carefully!

If you just can’t seem to get your head set to adjust up, here are a couple things to check. First- See if the star nut is slipping or damaged. To do this, simply back out the center bolt in the top cap and remove the top cap. The star nut should be solidly wedged into the steer tube and not crooked, or with stripped threads in the center. If the star nut is damaged, a new one will have to be pressed in before you can continue. See your local bike shop for assistance. If the star nut checks out, look at the steer tube in relation to the top of the stem. Are they equal in height? If so, their isn’t enough spacers under the stem. You should be seeing at least a 16th to a 1/8th inch difference between the top of the stem and the steer tube, which should be lower. If you need assistance, see your local bike shop for parts and help. You won’t be able to adjust the head set properly until the problem with the spacers is addressed.

Next time: Adjusting the rear derailleur