On Friday, December 6, 2019 at 10:57:28 PM UTC-5, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, December 6, 2019 at 6:13:31 PM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 12/6/2019 5:50 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, December 6, 2019 at 1:28:54 PM UTC-8, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Sun, 1 Dec 2019 04:07:23 -0000 (UTC), news18
wrote:
On Sat, 30 Nov 2019 08:03:46 -0600, AMuzi wrote:

On 11/29/2019 11:44 PM, Chalo wrote:
I notice they have specified a perverse hole pattern. No one's
interest is served that way. Not even the manufacturer's, because
smart and experienced cyclists will avoid it.


It's the way of the world now, when a 22 year old with a CadCam
software can displace an experienced engineer. Hell, we just changed
a worn 53t 2009 Campagnolo chainring on a Record carbon crank which
entailed _both_ chainrings _and_ the bolt set for the 2011 style
which are available, the 2009 being incompatible and unavailable. And
Campagnolo is not the worst of it.

Thank goodness I have four sets of TA cranks and over a dozen unused
chain rings. Those should see me out.

I'm still using my Ritchey Logic 110 mm cranks on almost all my bikes.
Ought to be rings available for those for a long time.

And, LOL, 8sp Shimano cassettes. Seems like the dark ages now, what
with 11sp being de rigeur, except for one bike with a 7sp
freewheel which I guess is the darker ages. But it's a 135 mm OLN and
thus has almost zero dish- same spokes since 1996 with no breakages so
far. Sooner or later...

Not a "disc" brake in sight in my house (except that rim brakes are disc
brakes). One bike with brifters. No CFRP, no AL or Ti frames. All
Brooks saddles of one sort or another. Tan wall tires, polished rims.

I'm not keeping up with the times, I guess. What a Luddite! But hey, I
do have one of those fancy newfangled ISIS BBs on one of my bikes.
Wait, those are 15-20 years old too...

ISIS sucks. I went through ISIS BBs like Kleenex. I was happy when the crank broke, and I was rid of it.

My only old bike is '69 Raleigh Pro track bike -- all NR components with wheels I built back in the '70s. Its now my roller bike.

My fleet of four road/gravel bikes is relatively new because of breakage or theft. All discs except one. Three STI, one Di2. No leather saddles, which I never liked. One aluminum and three CF frames. Each one loved and cherished.

I do regret upgrading my commuter, but I sort of had no choice. It's a warranty replacement frame (CAADX) designed for hydraulics, and the cable brakes didn't work well because of cable routing and housing friction. Upgrading to hydraulics meant going with 11sp. 11sp chains and cassettes wear too quickly. It's nice having all the gears, though -- but certainly not necessary.

I also miss not having a through-hole in the crown of my commuter, and I miss the threaded BB. The CAADX frame came with BB30 and a CF disc fork with no through hole or front threaded boss for my dyno light -- just a threaded boss in the back. I might drill one -- its an aluminum steerer, so I know there is metal in there somewhere!

One good thing about discs (besides stopping well) is that I can use giant tires -- like 35mm studs on my commuter with fenders, assuming it snows. Discs are a plus for me.

-- Jay Beattie.


And then there's pilot meatware, an essential component of
bike control.

This came to me today from Evanston IL as part of a longer
email. His Eastman is a Raleigh Dl-1 Roadster clone modified
with cantilevers and 700-40 Michelins on aluminum rims:

" Interesting mechanical story for you. Was out riding the
Eastman with a friend. He was on his 15 pound BMC with Dura
Ace hydro discs. It was wet, puddles, rain had stopped but
misty. Rims completely wet. We're chatting away and were
inattentive. Coming up to a T-intersection and planning on a
left. Visibility to the right is badly obstructed. It's a
20mph speed zone but with school, park, train station, old
folks home, shopping, traffic is normally quite slow. Except
when someone is coming through at 40mph. So full panic
braking. Which I had not done on the Eastman in all the 15
years I've had it. Brakes grabbed immediately in the wet. No
excitement at all.

" My friend had a harder time. His back tire slipped and
came around. Car was gone by time he was stable. Way too
close. He was doing a lot of things right. 28mm GP5000 at
70psi. Not sitting as low as I would prefer but lower than
the guys he rides with. Jerry is late 50s and is still in
the 40mph sprint group every Sunday. Ten years ago he was
driving the train, now he's wheelsucking, but he does it.
One thing surprised me. He did not slide off saddle to rear,
did not weight back wheel. Had never even heard of that.
He's a flatlander like me but has probably visited the
mountains more than I have. He just never learned to do
that. Even with 66 degree seat angle I was off the saddle
and back. "

Moving weight back is not magic or special knowledge for an experienced cyclists. I'm suspicious of the stories about the guy who is the Cat 2 quality rider who doesn't know about getting his or her weight back to panic stop. It's always some story of a guy on 40mm tires schooling the guy on the 15lb bike.

One part of the story that does resonate is skidding the rear wheel. A rear hydro-disc has far more rear braking power than calipers or cable discs. It takes a few rides before you learn not to be ham-handed. I fish-tailed a few times when I was getting the hang of it. Rear brakes tend to be squishy, and you don't get that with hydro discs.

I don't doubt that you get the hang of it in a few rides; but I'd worry about
when it comes up in a panic situation. Will you still have the hang of it when
it's just the lizard part of your brain operating your muscle memory?

- Frank Krygowski