# Commuter conversion



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

I have slowly but surely been converting my old bike (2006 Trek Pilot 1.0) into a commuting rig. Up till now, I have been using a seat post rack with a decent sized trunk bag. It worked fine for packing a change of clothes for spring, summer and early fall rides. For bulkier, colder weather clothes (i.e. pants ) it was a pretty tight fit. 

I recently picked up a Bor Yueh rack from Nashbar on sale for $14.99. It arrived yesterday and I installed it today. The whole thing took 10 minutes. The Trek frame has bolt holes in place on the seat stays for mounting a rear rack so it went on without a hassle. The rack design is nice in that it has three vertical rails on each side. The last one angles almost straight down before curving inward at the bottom. This allows the panniers to sit flush against the sides of the rack without pivoting as the bike moves. 

Next up will be a front fender. Anyone have any recommendations?


----------



## rodar y rodar (Jul 20, 2007)

Only in front? Is there some reason that you can`t or don`t want a rear fender, or did it just come out looking that way in the post?

AFAIK, even if you only want one fender, you`ll have to buy a pair. I have two pairs of SKS fenders- the only ones I`ve tried, so nothing to compare them to, but I like `em. They were fairly easy to mount, do a good job on the infrequent wet roads I ride, look nice, not too expensive. I managed to suck the rear one on my touring bike inside out somehow when I ran over a stick  , but it straightened out allright.


----------



## StageHand (Dec 27, 2002)

You can buy individual fenders, but the cost is usually about 50% higher than buying a set. The rack is doing a fine job of keeping water off your back, but a full fender will keep water off your legs and feet, as well. I've been happy with the Planet Bike and SKS fenders, although the mud flaps on the bigger Planet Bike fenders are pretty sweet.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, my rationale for only going with a front fender was/is:

1.) With the rack installed, I'm not sure about the clearance available on rear wheel. The rack has a tab at the end where I have installed the taillight. That tab and light rests about 1/2 inch above the rear tire. I don't know if a fender will fit.

2.) With the rack, panniers and trunk bag in place I know I won't be completely protected from spray from the back but my priority at the moment was covering the front wheel.

I guess I'll have to look into getting a set of fenders, though. Thanks for the Planet Bike and SKS suggestions. I'll check them out.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

*Mit pics*

I thought I would toss up a pic or two of where the bike stands at the moment. I've been doing some comparison shopping for fenders, but unfortunately, I think any additional purchases are going to have to wait until after the holidays are done. This should provide a good idea of where it's headed though.


----------



## JCavilia (Sep 12, 2005)

*get 2 fenders*

The rear fender keeps a lot of water off your feet and legs. You can make it work with the rack and light bracket. Might require modification of the light mount, but it would be worth it. Every fender mounting is a custom job, IME.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

Good point. And, if worse comes to worse, there is a tab on the back of the trunk bag I could attach the rear light to if I needed to remove the mounting point on the rear rack entirely.


----------



## slowrider (Mar 12, 2004)

It's something about a road bike, with a rack, and bags that makes me want to commute.
I have a rack on my Trek 1000. I think entry level road bikes make the best commuter. 

Have you thought about bigger tires. Conti Contacts 700x28 are a good commuter tire.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

slowrider said:


> It's something about a road bike, with a rack, and bags that makes me want to commute.
> I have a rack on my Trek 1000. I think entry level road bikes make the best commuter.
> 
> Have you thought about bigger tires. Conti Contacts 700x28 are a good commuter tire.


True. The Pilot seems to be pretty well suited to the conversion thus far. It came with eyelets on the chain stays, seat stays and forks which made installing the rear rack a snap. It should make installing fenders pretty simple as well once I get to that point.

I purchased the Krylions back when this was my only bike and I was switching back and forth between commuting and longer solo rides. They've been great thus far, but once they wear out I'll likely swap them for a set of 28s or at least 25s. It could be a while, though, the Michelins have proven to be a pretty tough tire.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

Update - I finally took the plunge (i.e. got my tax return) and purchased a set of SKS fenders. I'll post an updated pic once they are installed and the wind chill outside gets above 0. Given our Winter here so far, however, that may not be until some time in June...


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

The fenders arrived yesterday and I spent a few hours this morning installing them. The process was a bit trickier than I expected. The biggest challenge being threading the clips through the front and rear brakes and tightening everything down while keeping both the fenders and the brakes centered. A third arm would have been helpful. No major issues, though. I will post updated pics soon.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

The curse of the double-post


----------



## brucew (Jun 3, 2006)

slowrider said:


> It's something about a road bike, with a rack, and bags that makes me want to commute.
> I have a rack on my Trek 1000. I think entry level road bikes make the best commuter.


Agreed. Here's my ten-year-old Trek 1000, taken last July. It wears full fenders, SKS P-35s, through the winter.


----------



## brucew (Jun 3, 2006)

Opus51569 said:


> The biggest challenge being threading the clips through the front and rear brakes and tightening everything down while keeping both the fenders and the brakes centered. A third arm would have been helpful. No major issues, though. I will post updated pics soon.


That's the toughest part for me too. I don't have a work stand either. It's kinda tricky with the bike flipped upside down on the coffee table.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

*Yueh rack update*

So, I purchased two sets of new brake pads for my other bike. Once I installed them, I took the old pads from that bike (which were still in good shape) and installed them on the Trek commuter. The Trek's pads were nearly shot.

Once I finished installing the pads on the Trek, I couldn't seem to get the rear brake adjusted and working properly. I went through the list of the usual suspects (cable, barrel adjuster, housing, centering screw, etc.) but nothing seemed to help. 

I was about to pull the brake off the bike completely for a tear-down and inspection, when I noticed just how close the barrel adjuster was to the mounting bracket on the Bor Yueh rack I had installed a while back. Sure enough, when I engaged the brake, the barrel adjuster arm moved and rubbed the bracket, hanging it in place.

I hadn't noticed this problem when I installed the rack initially, nor when I test rode the bike afterward. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately in this case) the weather has been so terrible that I have been off the bike since.

To solve the problem, I removed the bracket and filed a shallow semi-circle about 3/8 inch long in the outside edge. This allowed it to curve around the barrel adjuster through the brake arm's range of motion. Problem solved... I hope.


----------



## kykr13 (Apr 12, 2008)

Opus51569 said:


> The process was a bit trickier than I expected.


I had my first experience installing a set of fenders last fall, and they're SKS too. Same story here... I'm missing one of the hex nuts that clamps the metal stays in place (certainly I couldn't have _lost_ it... ) but figured out that the nut that comes on a Presta tube is the same thread.


----------



## Mr. Versatile (Nov 24, 2005)

Installing fenders on a road bike is, to the best of my memory, the hardest thing I've ever done re: bicycle repair.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

I think I was relatively lucky installing then on the Pilot. It had a decent amount of clearance for both wheels as well as threaded eyelets on both the forks and the chainstays meant for mounting either rack or fenders or, in my case, both. I can see how thinner tolerances would have made this far more challenging.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

*Fender Art*

As promised, here are some updated pics with the new SKS fenders installed. The third pic is a closeup of the modification I had to make in the rear rack bracket to allow it to fit past the barrel adjuster for the rear brake.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

Free at last...free at last...

Finally, some decent weather and, of course, I've got a raging head cold. But the weather was just too nice today, so I said "screw it, I'm going" and took the bike for a spin. It was just a short shake-out ride to get a feel for the new fenders and rack. So far, so good. Fenders worked great. No rattling over bumps. No clearance issues. The rack keeps the panniers firmly in place and far enough back to avoid my size 12 feet. Even with the short ride, man it was nice to be back on the bike. 

P.S. Sunny and 60 today. More snow tomorrow and Saturday...


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

The 1-2 inches they predicted turned out to be 6-7 inches, so I spent a little garage time today and noticed a potential problem with the front SKS fender. The adjustment arms stick out well past the fender itself. If you take a look at the first picture in my Fender Art post above, you get an idea of what I'm talking about. I tried turning the bars while backpedaling and saw that the arms come within an inch of the pedal. With my size 12 feet this would be a problem. So, I took out the 'ol rotary tool with a cutting blade and trimmed about an inch off of each of the adjustment arms. With the endcaps on, they are now roughly flush with the back of the fender itself. Has anyone else had an issue with fender clearance and pedals?


----------



## centurionomega (Jan 12, 2005)

Yes on the fender/pedal clearance problem.

I trashed a front fender one time backpedaling while coasting slowly and turning to try and stay upright. My shoe hooked the end of the fender and broke it away from the bracket. It was OK though because that set of fenders was just some cheapo ones I got on eBay which I replaced with Planet Bike fenders. 

I have only done this one time with the new fenders, and they didn't seem to mind too much. I also become aware that I shouldn't backpedal while turning with fenders. Kinda like clipping out at a stop light.

Oh, I almost forgot. Cool lookin' commuter!


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

Thanks... both for the comment and the feedback


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

*Frankenlights*

I posted elsewhere about my first commute of the season. There, I also mentioned that the I have a set of Planet Bike lights but that they don't offer a lot of illumination. Puttering around the garage, I remembered I had an old set of Trek lights. Hmm...what to do??? It took a few hours of trial and error, but I eventually found a good way to mount both sets of lights. The headlights are mounted one above and one below the stem. The one below I angled downward to help illuminate the road. The one above is angled slightly up to be visible to oncoming cars. It's not pretty, but it seems to be pretty functional. The taillights are mounted side by side on the rear rack and actually look pretty decent. I'll post a few pics soon. I still need to pick up some reflective tape, but I think the Frankenlights will help on those unexpected late rides.


----------



## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

*Frankenlight with art*

Snapped a few pics of the new light setup. For the headlights, I rigged an old clamp I had that was designed to attach an extra water bottle cage to the frame. I mounted it upside down on the stem and attached the gray light to it. Where the clamp comes over the stem, I slid the clamp for the black light underneath. Tightened down, it holds both light pretty securely in place. For the taillights, I drilled a hole in the plastic clip on both lights and bent the clips out just far enough to slide a small bolt through the hole. This allowed me to bolt the lights directly to the rear rack.


----------

