Jeff's Bike and random bike related stuff from NZ

Saturday, January 06, 2024

Growtac Equal brakes review

 When I saw the Growtac Equal cable brakes come onto the market a while back I wondered how good they would be and if they could be a worthy replacement to the randomly dragging Sram Force hydros on my OPEN UP.

My buddy was doing one of his many trips to Japan for work so the timing was right. There are no agents for Growtac in NZ and buying locally in Japan was a smart move.

As soon as he saw mine he decided he needed a pair for himself, his being gold anodised post mount, vs my blue flat mount variants. 

Flat-mount front


Flat-mount rear
All the reviews I'd seen had been good and at least one of them I trusted. I had several sets of Sram red cable brake/shifters in 10 speed mode so I would need to swap the shifter ratchet from my Force hydro 11 speed into one of the 10 speed cable shifter bodies if I was to retain 11-speed life. Easy peasy. I could have also dropped in a 12 speed Ratio-Technology ratchet, but having an extensive collection of 11 speed cassettes and compatible wheels, I was not that keen to dive into 12 speed life, where the cassette spacings are all different. Sram wide, Sram Road, or Shimano - I don't even know if Shimano MTB is the same as Shimano Road, but I do know that Ratio-Technology makes different ratchets for the first 3. But I digress, this story is about brakes, mostly.....

Sram Red 10-speed cable levers with an 11 speed ratchet borrowed from the Hydros. Very light.

The Growtac kit comes with two sets of cables, compressionless and standard. 2x 170 cms of compressionless and 2x 100 cms of standard. They advise you to use combinations of the standard and compressionless (with a joiner) if you are worried about lots of bendy angles or internal routing paths that might make it tricky. I went with full compression-less, which was a bit wider in diameter than the standard.This made it a bit more of a challenge, forcing it through the cable exit holes in my OPEN, compounded by me not having a proper cable routing tool. I got there in the end with the help of the Rides of Japan OPEN building tutorials which are way more extensive than OPEN's.

Growtac's instructions are precise and very simple to follow, although I used the Japanese instructions rather than hunting down the English versions which are online here. The set-up is very simple. Visually align the "notch" in the brake caliper over the disc rotor by tweaking the inboard and outboard pads. When the caliper is centred, tighten down the caliper's mounting bolts - whether it's flat mount or post mount. Then you back off each pad until there is no dragging. The inboard pad is fixed and the outboard pad moves as you apply the brake. With adjustments via a 3 mm allen key here, and via a nut at the cable adjuster. Dragging brake pads are now a thing of the past.

The inner pad adjuster can be tricky to reach with a multi tool if you are running a large cassette so it's best to carry a small 3 mm separate allen key in your kit.

Although the brakes have a small rubber o-ring inline to stop water ingress the rear brake might benefit from a rubber boot to stop water running down into the cable housing.

Of all the tweaks I've done to my OPEN I think this is the most satisfying. The brake lever action is very light and the braking strong - at least the equal of my old hydros. Maybe that's where the brake's name comes from - "Equal" ? 


I have given these brakes a good thrashing on my local trails over the last month and so far they have performed faultlessly. The kind of riding I do is mostly as I would on a hard-tail, running 2.0 inch 650B tires, often linking up Wellington's trails via our urban short-cuts. For gravel riding and commuting I use the 700 c wheels. 

The Equals are running the stock organic pads, completely silently, but I expect to change to sintered metal when the organics wear out. I haven't ridden the bike with a full Bikepacking load on but my gut feeling is that they would be great. I do not feel like I am missing out on any performance compared to my hydros with these brakes, they are strong and predictable. I am running 160 mm rotors and the silence that comes from this set-up makes it worth every cent. 

Some people ask, what about adjustment, hydros do it automatically as they wear, cable brakes don't. Thats a fair point, but you won't be getting any surprises when your pads do wear out, as often happens with hydros, because you will be more aware of the amount of wear, because it's you that is doing the adjusting. I know a lot of people used to bad-mouth BB7s for this, I suspect they are using organic pads. In the Tour Aotearoa which was 3000 kms long I tweaked my BB7s once.

If you are someone who worries about potential issues with hydro brakes while bikepacking then they are totally worth considering. I know people say this does not happen, but I know it happened to a few of us on the first Tour Te Waipounamu, with air in our brake lines.

The Equals should be compatible with any mechanical rim-brake groupsets brakes out there, and there are many.

The brakes are short-pull only, so compatible with road levers or specific flat-bar levers that are built for using with road disc, road calipers, mini-vees, or canti's. Shimano makes many of these levers as do some of the boutique makers.

So far my buddy is really happy with the post-mount versions he has installed on his Singular Gryphon singlespeed, using Tektro singlespeed levers, replacing the BB-7s.

Post-mount front

My bike is set up with Sram Red cable brake/shift levers, probably the lightest road levers there are, so your mileage will vary with the overall weight if you use something else. 

I carefully weighed both the Sram hydro brakes and the Equals as I installed them and was impressed to see that the Equals/Red combo were around 7 grams lighter than the hydros on my medium sized bike. The larger the bike, the more your cabling will weigh, by comparison hydraulic hose is very light.


Weight information

Growtac Equal - front brake:
Front cable (80 cm)
Outer - 46 grams
Inner - 12 grams
Lever - 140
Caliper - 136
Tiny bits - 2 grams
336 grams

Growtac Equal - rear brake:
Rear cable (140 cm)
Outer - 79 grams
Inner - 17 grams
Lever - 140
Caliper - 136
Tiny bits - 2 grams
374 grams
Growtac Equal total = 710 grams

 

Sram Force hydro - front brake
Front sram hydro lever + hose - 246 grams
Caliper - 100 grams
Tiny bits 7 grams
353 grams

Sram Force hydro - rear brake
Rear sram hydro lever + hose - 257 grams
Caliper - 100 grams
Tiny bits 7 grams
364 grams
Sram Force Hydro total = 717 grams

 

Pros

  • Strong braking
  • Light weight
  • Great colours
  • Field serviceable
  • Shimano compatible pads


Cons

  • Inner pad adjuster tricky to access with multi-tool allen key.
  • Rear brake cable might benefit from small rubber boot.
  • The outside brake adjuster's tiny rubber grommet could be easily get lost


Cheeky Quail during photo session


Related links

https://theradavist.com/growtac-equal-brakes-long-term-review/
https://www.bikegeardatabase.com/gear/growtac-equal
https://bikerumor.com/review-growtac-equal-mechanical-disc-brakes-bicycle/
https://www.bikeradar.com/features/growtac-equal-mechanical-disc-brakes

Growtac Equal brake adjustment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwINFSxrizI&t=265s

Growtac Equal Brake full break-down
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWGguSAWM0s

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Friday, December 29, 2023

The Big Finish Line Party

The Big Finish Line Party is the brainchild of Andy Chalmers. A bikepacking event that doesn’t have a start, only a finish. 

.... well, it does have a start but that’s up to you, where and when you start, and with who you ride. Don’t like rules? There is only one rule. Don’t be late. See you at the finish line. 5pm Saturday. Born from the idea of maximising camaraderie and letting people chose their own experience and level of difficulty, the Big Finish Line Party is in it's third year.

I had limited annual leave so it would be a short trip for me, time enough to catch the evening Ferry from Wellington to Picton in Te Wai Pounaumu, (the South Island) and get in 2 and a half days riding before the finish, then catching up with my family who live in Marlborough. The link Track parallel to Queen Charlotte Drive was my starting point, with the  Nydia  and  Archers  Tracks being the ultimate destinations for the day, time allowing.

I asked around and people seemed to think that the Nydia Track, despite being a Black Diamond Trail, was rideable in the opposite direction, which I was intending to do. I had no idea how far I was going to get, but I had a new tent and there were plenty of opportunities to camp in the Marlborough sounds. I was riding by myself so had to be very careful from a safety point of view.

The Nydia track was beautiful. It would have been a lovely place to hike, or run. But rideable segments were less than I had hoped for. Waterfalls crossed the track in many places and required 100% concentration to cross. Despite this I lost my footing, and almost lost my bike on one of them. A good reason to remember to carry your personal locator beacon on your body.

Archers track was more fun, following the coastline closely with a lot less tree-fall on the track. I saw a doe disappearing up the bank at one point and nearly hit a mother goat and her kid as they launched off the bank to my side. I rolled into Elaine Bay at around 7pm and set up my new Big Agnes tent at the DOC camping site. There was a long-drop toilet and hand basin nearby so pretty civilized. I was immediately visited by a very inquisitive Weka and as I started to nod off was startled by a strange noise. Sure enough, in the morning I noticed pig-rooting sign all around my camp site. Thankfully not fresh.

The climb out of Elaine bay was on the seal but still very steep. A similar climb out of Okiwi Bay followed with more seal, then a diversion to get off the main road onto a nice quiet gravel B-road. The mussel pies and and hot chips at the Brick Oven café in Rai Valley beckoned, and as I parked up a nasty cold squall raced through. Timing is everything. I stocked up for my next segment which was to be the  Waikakah o Track via Pelorus, Havelock, Linkwater and Cullensville.

I got to the start of the Waikakaho track at around 1:30 pm. The sign said 5 hours walk. Usually track times are a lot less than they state on signage. I figured, I have a bike obviously I will be a lot faster. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s an old narrow gold mining track, like many, hacked out of the side of the hill. Initially there were some rideable bits but there was a lot of elevation to cover, and walking turned out to be just as quick as riding.

It got colder and darker and eventually I came out on a crazy little clearing. Apparently an old mining hut site and probably the only place you could pitch a tent on the whole ride. What I thought was rain turned out to be light snow so I kept moving. A quick look at my app had me still a long way from the finish with no idea on what the upcoming terrain would be like. I eventually found the track exit from the clearing and came across the shell of a  Powelliphant a, the giant snail that can live up to 20 years.

The terrain just seemed to get gnarlier with a fair bit of tree-fall across the track. I realised I wasn't going to break any records with all my bikepacking gear on, and had to stop a lot for micro-breaks, observing all the wild pig-rooting sign. What were they hunting, snails? Eventually snippets of rideable track appeared off and on, and before too long I could tell I was descending a bit. I overshot the track and came across an abandoned mine shaft, back-tracked and tried to carefully enjoy the rooty descent.

I rarely bikepack by myself so had to be very careful not to spear off the track and end up down a bank, it's not like anyone was going to rescue me if I did something dumb. Coming across an old homestead site told me I was getting closer to the trail's end. The final descent was mostly wet clay, but surprisingly I had no offs. It was a wet cold drag all the way out of the valley, but I was happy to be out of the bush. My original plan was to camp at Whites bay on the Beach, and do the loop there on my final day, but I was wet and cold and couldnt see myself warming up much, even if I did get the feeling back in my cold hands. I rung my brother to see if I could crash at his place the night. Sorted. Remember there are no rules, well just one - dont be late.

Obviously I had a luxurious sleep in the next day and decided on a new route. I was done with hikeabiking. A nice 76 km gravel loop of the Taylor and Redwood passes seemed like a much better option. I had barely started when a random guy catches up and says, "Hi there Jeff, I work at the Council with your brother". I think we had met once before at the start of the 2012 Kiwi Brevet, small world. He was my personal escort for the next few hours and showed me a few local short-cuts. It was great to have someone to chat to after riding solo for two days. Of course, the best was yet to come. We were all to meet at the Dodson Street beer garden, 5pm - don't be late. 

This is where you find out who else was doing the ride, and like any other decent event in New Zealand, there are always a couple of top 5 Tour Divide riders there. Not that it matters, it's not a race. There is a lot of catching up with familiar faces and talking about who went where, with who, and where they stayed. It's a great concept, and it works well. It really takes the pressure off. One group's members split off in different directions on multiple occasions depending on wellness, fitness or fatigue - some of them had been riding since the Monday. 

The Big Finish Line Party concept could be the best thing to encourage newbies into bikepacking since the 6 hour stand-down periods that were introduced when Simon Kennett brought bikepacking to NZ in 2010. There has to be a reason for its popularity across the ages and genders in NZ, and knowing that you don't have to indulge in sleep deprivation is a definite plus. 

 A brief AGM was held to choose the location of the next Big Finish Line Party in 2024. 

 Watch this space.  (Better pix here)



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Wednesday, October 18, 2023

I went for a 24 hour ride and this is what I ate

I went for a ride the other day. Just one ride. 310 kms. From Wellington to Wellington via the south coast and Ngawi and back over the Remutaka incline. We left home at 9:50pm saturday night and got home 9:50 pm sunday night, no sleeps, 24 hours for me. A bit less for Matt who lives in the Hutt Valley.

https://caltopo.com/m/7ND9F (click for map)

We had a small gap in the weather and we had to go for it. It was an idea I'd had since doing the same ride over 2 days a year or 2 earlier. I had asked my buddy Matt Dewes if he was interested, he was. That sealed it. If he had said no the idea would have probably died a natural death. 

The plan was to leave early, midnight initially, so that we could finish in the daylight and and not get in too much trouble with our families. 

As spring weather came upon us it was getting harder and harder to find an opportunity to get out for 24 hours of less than crappy weather.

The problem with leaving so late was that there were no shops open anywhere, not Pirinoa, not Waimeha, so we had to take all our own food and water. There was actually one water stop at Corner Creek camping ground on the South Coast, and no food until returning through Martinborough. So, in order to stave off the dreaded bonk, this is what I ate, as much a record for me as anything.

  • Chocolate Up n Goes x2  Calories =195 each
  • Cokes 3x 250ml Calories = 105 each
  • Jelly beans 1x packet Calories = 870 each
  • Peanut M & Ms 1/2 packet Calories = 954
  • Cheese and bean toastie pies x 3.5 Calories = 324 each
  • Powerade 750 ml Calories = 187
  • Muesli bars x 2 Calories = 166 each
  • Water 3 litres
  • Grainwaves x2 Calories = 700 each

 Total calories for 24 hours riding = 4928

Didn't eat.

  • 9 spare muesli bars
  • 2 litres of water.
  • 1 packet frog sweets
  • 1 packet fruit & nuts

The real winner in very long rides is the cheese and baked bean toastie, sometimes with some salami. Your tongue can get very tired of sweet things and the humble toastie somehow feels like real food by comparison. It has protein and fat for saiety and carbs in the beans and bread.

A cheese toastie can live happy in your shirt pocket wrapped up in a bit of lunch wrap for a very very long time. I think 3 days is my record. When cooked correctly the cheese works like a resin in a carbon fibre mould and impregnates the bread, sealing all the good stuff inside!  Try it on your next hike!

The humble cheese and backed bean toastie pie

 

See below some piccies from our ride. 

A moody night on the South Coast

Streams were cold and swift


On the road to Pirinoa

Pirinoia, about 5 degrees at 6 am.



Matt making us a coffee at Ngawi at 8 am. We sure needed that.

Heading to White Rock


Near Mataopera Stream

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Thursday, July 06, 2023

UrbanGrinduro - 2023

 UrbanGrinduro - 2023 - July 30th

Congratulations to everyone that turned up to do the second Urbangrinduro!
We had mint conditions and a great vibe among underbikers and overbikers alike.

Here is the course if anyone wants to do it again, maybe even set an FKT !
https://www.strava.com/activities/9546752050 also, the segment here:
https://www.strava.com/segments/35038454

Thanks heaps to all the people that took photos and especially the guys at Shed 22 who fenced off an area for us so we didn't stink up the joint too much!

The Urbangrinduro course from 2021 can be found here:
https://www.strava.com/segments/29989611

Cheers, Jeff





LAST UPDATE 2pm 29/07/2023

I just did a reccie of the second part of the course, most of which I had not done. It was very cool. A couple of things to note.

The course is so squirrely you will have to follow your GPS very closely if you want to follow the course exactly, not that it really matters! Set the resolution to 50m if you can. 300m was not doing it for me on one of my two GPSes.

It's also wet out there. The CX riders will enjoy a few bits of wet off-camber after Mt Albert !

Also, the course is only 37 kms, but the climbs, though short are sometimes steep. Bring stuff to eat and drink !

There are also a couple of tight twisty downhill segments on wet asphalt. They also have green lichen and wet leaves on them. Be very careful on these bits. I am probably going to walk some of them. Steep ashphalt can be very unforgiving.

Please remember the trails are used by others, in particular, dog walkers near Tawatawa reserve, and walkers on Highbury Fling, so please be courteous.

Ikigai/Serendipidty is probably your best place if you want to go fast. Mt Vic looked good today but as usual will have lots of walkers. 

If it gets a bit much at any time you know you can always straight to Shed 22, (Macs brew bar).

Hit me up with any questions. 
Cheers, Jeff



LAST UPDATE:  6:25pm Monday - 24/07/2023 

Summary-

  • Starts 9am at Transient Track, Polhill/Waimapihi Te Aro
  • Finishes at Shed 22 Queens Wharf pub (Macs Brew bar).

Hi folks. Here is the latest update for the Revolution Bicycles Urban Grinduro! In exchange for naming rights Jonty has promised to make you all an expresso if you visit him at 69 Ottawa Road in Ngaio. Jonty is one of Wellington's original MTBing pioneers and knows a few cool trails.

9am Sunday 30th of July- we start at Waimapihi (Polhill) at the bottom of Transient, ride up Clinical, Highbury Fling, Sawmill Track, down Ikigai Serendipidy and then back up Transient.  From there we head down and across Brooklyn and head into a completely new to me trail that pops us out on the Golf Course in Island Bay. We take in some cool new uphill singletrack over that way before hooking in to Mt Albert, eventually taking in some more new stuff (that I haven't ridden), and ultimately exiting via Mt Vic to visit a pub in town - Shed 22 on the Wharf, opposite Circa/Te Papa

Download GPS files below
If you have an old school Garmin like an Etrex, you can drag n drop the GPX into your GPX folder no probs. If you have a modern Edge styled Garmin you will have to upload using Garmin-connect or RidewithGPS or however you do it. We will endeavour to have a regroup at the tops of some of the climbs so we don't get too strung out. Although maybe strung-out might be good. We don't want to make nuisances of ourselves.

What the course looks like
https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/display/20230723165504-15130-map.html

What it looks like in RidewithGPS 
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/129066027

If you can't load the GPS file onto your GPS or phone you could just try to wing it and ride with someone who has the GPS course loaded! 

The course is around 37 kms with around 1100 metres climbing. 

Cheers, Jeff


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Wednesday, July 05, 2023

Somebody has been eating SRAMs lunch

 For the last few years somebody has been eating SRAM's lunch, and SRAM have finally caught onto it. When they launched their 12 speed road groupset in 2019 it was wireless only. The heavier and way more expensive wireless kit was financially out of the reach of a lot of people. SRAM had officially turned its back on cable gears for 12 speed road/gravel and left a big hole in the market for people who didn't think that you should have to pay a premium just to charge their derailleurs.

Enter Ratio-Technology. Armed with the knowledge that SRAM road levers are actually an easily tunable item for the home mechanic, they started making solutions to fill the gaping hole that SRAM had left them. Starting with a redesigned cable fin to change the leverage of the derailleur and a new ratchet that now had the ability to shift 12 gears, it was game on. 

 Not only did this upgrade work on the modern hyraulic SRAM road system, it also worked on the older groupset, SRAM Red - 10 and 11 speed, probably the lightest modern road gruppo there ever was, before the advances of hydraulic braking and electric gears became popular, forcing the weights up.

Timing was good and with gravel becoming mainstream people were doing all sorts of really cool things empowered by Ratio-technology's hot-rodding of SRAM's "cabled" ecosystem. Mullet derailleur set-ups were now doable in cable, not just wireless.

An MTB rear deraillieur with road shifters was a pretty cool thing, especially with a big increase in Bikepackers going to drop-bars. But Ratio-tech didnt stop there. They next built a replacement cage for the SRAM derailleurs so you could increase the range. A "gravel" derailleur that originally shifted to a 36 or a 42 could now shift to a 52 with their new cage. That is some serious climbing ability right there. 


So thanks to Ratio-technology, you have a massive range, and the ability to shift to 11, 12 and wait for it, 13 gears. Yes, they also build a ratchet that lets you use the Campagnolo 13 speed cassette and chain in an otherwise completely SRAM set-up. They also build their own special chain-rings and a lighter  replacement cage for damaged SRAM AXS derailleurs.

And that's not all, they do kits that let you swap out the way the cable enters your derailleur. Why is this important? A lot of gravel bikes have the derailleur cable exiting at the very end of the chain stay, which is not compatible with the cable entry point of a SRAM MTB derailleur.

SRAM have finally read the memo and a few weeks ago announced that they are now launching a new 12 speed drop-bar cable solution at the Apex level. It seems to fill some of the gaps but if you already have an existing system, what not just upgrade the internals?

Ratio-technology is a solutions based outfit so it will be interesting to see what they do next. All the kits they they build are presented with comprehensive instructions on their site here.

I recently gave up on 2x on my gravel bike, concerned that my chain drops were going to eventually wear a hole through my BB, mostly due to not having a clutched rear derailleur.

I ordered the Ratio-tech extender cage which I mated with an existing Rival derailleur body and have had a trouble free run with it so far using a Garbaruk 11-50 11 speed cassette. I didn't want to shell out for 12 speed compatible wheels at this point given my current stock of barely worn 11 speed cassettes. The option is there with the purchase of Ratio-technology's 12 speed ratchet when I need it. Folks want options!










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Monday, February 06, 2023

Dawn chorus phone alarm download

 One day as I awoke half groggy I said to my wife - "Did you hear the birds this morning, they were so loud", then I realized that it was actually my phone alarm that woke me up. I had recorded the Tui's in our back yard, and was using the recording as an alarm on my phone. So I decided to make a nice "Dawn chorus" ring-tone/alarm to share. All of these birds were just recorded by myself on my phone and I have joined them in order, with the most mellow first. They progressively get more raucous.

Riroriro >> Tui >> Kaka

I also have some cool Tieke calls, and seagulls fighting over fish and chips, but I wouldn't want you to wake up to that. 

You can download the file below via my Dropbox.
m4a file (best for Apple) also works on Android.
ogg file Android.
mp3 file Android.

You don't have to be a Dropbox member to download stuff, even though it can try to confuse you into signing up. The "download" experience (from Dropbox) varies a lot from phone to phone, largely due to what browser you use, and what flavour of Android you have. Ditto if you are downloading it on a computer. The experience for enabling the new sound file in your phone also varies a lot. 

You have 2 main goals. 

1. Download/get the sound file onto your phone.
2. Open your alarm app, and go into the settings to add the new sound file. 

How to
If you click on one of the links above on your Android Phone you should be able to play the sound, see if you like it, if you do, look about on the Dropbox webpage to try to "Download", "Save" or "Export" the file. Then "Save to device/Downloads". It should then save in the Downloads area of your phone. From here you could move it to the "Notifications", "Alarms" or Ringtones folder on your phone. Or maybe your phone will let it work from the downloads folder, YMMV. Some phones are more fussy than others. Most Samsung phones have a file manager called "My Files" which lets you move stuff around, just like windows does.

The next thing to do is to go to the app you use for your clock/alarms and select the downloaded sound file by navigating back to where you stored it. All clock/alarm apps will be different.

For Iphone users I believe you will have to save the sound file into Itunes and sync it over to your phone.

Koha
Feel free to make a small koha using the Paypal link on the right, its not compulsory. Just share the love of our amazing birdlife!  Questions - contact me here.

This is George, or L-44155.  That's probably his call at the end of the recording.
When George says wake up, you should probably listen. He can get pretty raucous.


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