August 21, 2017
Two Weeks, Two Hours, Two Minutes: Day 14 - Nuits-St-George to Dolé With a Pit Stop in Tart le Bas
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We've been in France for two weeks and that's how long its taken us to find the right person with the right tools to replace Kirsten's rear cog. Today we found Olivier in the very small town of Tart le Bas. We spent two hours with him in his lovely garden on a gorgeous sunny afternoon. The cog replacement took about two minutes!
Now we cycle on with the threat of belt failure in the dark recesses of our minds.
Many thanks to Vincent at Rohloff, Jean-Marc and Chris at Gates and of course Olivier, for bringing this all together.
I'll write more later. Now I'm upoloading pictures. The campground at Dole has reasonable wifi, as long as everybody else isn't using it. I got up early, 7 am, when only 6 other people in this city are up. Four are working in Patisseries making the wonderful concoctions people will eat much later in the morning and the other two are sweeping the steps of the cathedral. This gives me a chance on the wifi!
Okay, more drivel ....
Actually I shouldn't say that. Today was ...repeat warning... another really great day. Perfect weather, problems solved, really great people were met and we finished off in a beautiful small city.
When we got up this morning we knew we had a pretty short ride (about 30 km) to get to Olivier's, so we didn't need a really early start. We rode into Nuits St George and did the classic French breakfast (for us). Some quiche and croissants from the Patisserie and then a table at the adjacent Café for our café au lait. We were overlooking the central square where they still had props and advertising for the Tour de France (one of the stages came through here this year). It was so nice we had two café au lait's!
When we set off east to Olivier's it was quite remarkable how quickly the vineyards ended and we were back into general agriculture. Still very beautiful but quite different from the well tended vines.
We arrived at Olivier's right at 11:30. He was just finishing up with a customer who was taking one of his mtb's out for a test ride.
I wasn't sure what to expect when we got there, I was kind of thinking it would be a small shop with welders and tube benders, but it turns out that Olivier has a day job and runs his small, but very nice, custom bike business out of his house and garage.
We quickly got Kirsten's cog / pully replaced (amazing what the right tools can do!) and then spent the better part of the next two hours chatting with Olivier about all matter of things. We even broke our rule again and had a beer. And why not, we just made a new friend who helped us solve a problem that had been vexing us for a couple of weeks!
We finally pulled ourselves away from Olivier's garden and set off down the road to Dolé.
What a delight. Neither one of us knew anything about this place or had any preconceived ideas about it, other than it had a campground close to the city centre. That it did, and the city itself was a bit of a gem. Lovely pedestrian area by canals and the Cathedral, and it turns out Louis Pasteur was born here.
The campsite was very good, and full of folks including a good number of bikers (like us - not Harley's). we got ourselves cleaned up and set off into towm to look for dinner. It's still August, and it was Monday, so quite a few restaurants were closed. We turned off of one of the main streets, with lots of tourist traffic, and literally stumbled upon La Romanee, which turned out to be an incredibly great restaurant. I won't bore you with the description of what we ate, but it was right up there with Autour d'un Cep from Angers last week.
We toured around the central town after supper, taking in the beautiful lighting on the buildings and streets, and then headed off to bed. Another great day!
Song of the day:
Pump up the Jam by The Lost Fingers ... a Québec swing band who do great covers ... like this one,...
"go on, make my day...". Olivier made ours and topped it off with a beautiful night in Dole
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Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 1,057 km (656 miles)
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How many km on the broken belt and
How many km on the worn sprocket?
Rohloff has now changed to a splined sprocket for the chain drives and sprockets can now be changed by simply removing a circlip.
Whether you go chain or belt the Rohloff hub is a great bit of kit!
Mike
3 years ago
Kirsten's belt and cog had about 9,000 km on it, exactly the same as mine. The bikes had been ridden virtually side by side with nearly identical loads over those miles (classic Canadiana - mixing km's and miles!).
My belt and cog had no wear (cog tooth width ~3 mm, same as new) while Kirsten's cogs were worn down to ~2 mm with sharp edges that were noticiably damaging the belt. I noticed this when I was getting the bikes ready for this trip.
It seemed like Kirsten's belt had more tension than mine, and I mentioned this to the bike shop we got the bikes from when I contacted them to get a new cog and belt. I was told in no uncertain terms that the tension on both bikes was fine and that I should not touch the eccentrics to adjust the tension.
I assume you've read day 21 in this journal, where we took the bikes into the Toute Terrain factory in Freiburg, had a complimentary overhaul and they showed us that Kirsten's belt was in fact over tensioned!
It turns out that Rholoff changed over completely from threaded to splined carriers a few months after we got our bikes. After this trip I ordered the new splined carriers (with the circlip) and cogs from Cycle Monkey (the main NA Rohloff authorized dealer - highly recommended).
I changed the carrier and cog on my bike prior to heading off on a short EV17 Rhone river tour in the fall of 2018 (I didn't change Kirsten's over as her cog as it was still virtually brand new with no wear (and proper belt tension I might add!).
We continued to be a month or so ahead of Rholoff changes though ... turns out that the splined carrier / clip set up is prone to some small movement causing clicking / clattering on belt drive set ups. About the time we set off on our trip Rholoff came out with a new splined carrier but with a threaded lock ring for belt drive systems.
Sure enough I experienced the click/ clatter (quite pronounced) when we hit Lyon and were climbing a very steep hill to our hotel. It persisted for the rest of the trip! Very annoying but no impact on the performace of the bike.
Once back home, I contacted Cycle Monkey about the clattering problem. They told me about the new design (lock ring) and sent me two new lock ring equiped carriers.
I put these on both of our bikes and we've had zero issues since (3000 + km's, some of it on the steepest most guelling climbs we've ever encountered, on our last 2019 tour).
A bit of a long story but both or bikes have the 'latest' Rholoff technology and are working as they should - perfect and trouble free!
I should add that you do need a special lock ring tool to install/remove the ring, but it's small enough to carry along in your tool kit should you need to replace a cog. A little more complicated than the retaining clip, but no annoying clattering sound.
Rgds,
Lyle
3 years ago
As I am over seventy I am staying home a lot and binge reading your journal so I have reached the episode at Tout Terraine HQ.
Incidently if it a German company why did they choose a French name for the bikes?
Belt/chain tension - too tight may cause some damage to the internals of the Rohloff which is why the bike shop that sold you the bikes told you not to alter the belt tension.
At 9,000 km you would be close to if not actually on your third chain so another plus for the belt.
I see you have posted another journal to entertain those of us who are staying close to home. Thank you again.
Mike
3 years ago
Don't know for sure why they chose a French name. The couple that started the company are Swiss, that might have something to do with it. At a minimum I'm sure the name sounds better in French than German!
As for the belt tension impact on the Rohloff internals, through this whole episode I exchanged quite a few e-mails and phone calls with the Rholloff and Gates folks, and they assured me that excess belt tension (in any practical application) would do no damage to the hub. The folks at Toute Terrain said the same thing.
I'll be more blunt about the advice I got initially from the bike shop where I bought the bikes. They were arrogant. Their attitude was "They were right and I didn't know jack shite".
Anyway, that was a long time ago now and the bikes and the belt drive works great. I would highly recommend a belt to any tourer. Last longer, cleaner, less maintenance, and a spare belt weighs less than 100g! And if you are in North America, deal with Cycle Monkey in Oakland Ca. for Rholoff and Toute Terrain issues! They are great.
Rgds,
Lyle
PS, the latest journal i posted is from a short 900 km trip down the Rhone on EV17 from the fall of 2018. Great ride!
3 years ago
Thanks for the information about too much belt/chain tension not damaging the Rohloff. Good to know.
Now to start reading your next journal!
Mike
3 years ago