How can I adapt a mountain bike for a one or two week tour? This is the situation. I have GT Agressor 1.0 mountain bike. I want to travel for about a week on my bike, which means that I will have to ride a lot on paved roads (around 70% of the road). So I would like to make the proper adjustments on my GT to improve my speed and make it lighter. Once I come back I'd like to recover my mountain bike. One additional point that is worth mentioning: to buy another bicycle for that specific purpose is not an option.

Said that, the question would be: how can I (temporarily) convert my mountain bike into a touring bike?

Mountain bikes have been pressed into service as touring machines for a long time. Old hardtail mountain bikes make great, bristly touring machines, and they're fun to ride.

Tires

The first thing you'll want to look at are the tires. Most mountain bikes come with knobby tires for riding on dirt and gravel. A set of slicks or semi-slick tires will decrease rolling resistance. Tires with tread on the sides are also good for this.

Carrying stuff

Racks: A sturdy rear rack and a front rack are the best way to go for long-term use. Be aware that a suspension fork can make fitting a front rack difficult, but there are racks made to accomodate this. (Old Man Mountain racks are amazingly sturdy and work with suspension forks, but they're not cheap or light.) Rear racks are only a problem if you have a full-suspension bike.

You may be tempted to put only a rear rack on the bike. This will still allow you to carry a good amount of cargo, but the shorter wheelbase of a mountain bike (compared to a proper touring or cyclocross bike) will encourage wheelies while climbing hills with a load, so be careful.

If your bike doesn't have the fittings for racks, hose clamps are a handy way to get around that.

It may be easier to buy or borrow a trailer for touring. You can get a cargo trailer, or find a kid/pet trailer and convert it. These can often be found at yard sales or on craigslist inexpensively. A trailer also means you can skip buying panniers.

Handlebars

You may find the flat bars of a mountain bike onerous while riding for hours and hours. A pair of barends will help here. I recommend the large, curved kind that allow you to sit more upright.

Other stuff

For a single trip, this would be overkill, but if you decide to do more touring on this bike, look into getting a decent touring saddle that you can sit on for hours on end, or even a Brooks.

Getting fenders for a single trip is, similarly, probably not needed, and many mountain bikes would be tricky to fit them on. But there are partial fenders you can mount on your downtube that might help. (Or you could make one out of cardboard and zip ties, it'd probably last you the weekend and then some.)

I toured several times using an old mountain bike; here it is, with Tubus racks and four panniers and a camping roll:

Double-check your brakes before heading out; enough stopping power to bring you and the bike to a halt might not be enough when you add on the weight of camping gear and clothing and a beat-up guitar for the campfire.

Mountain bike tourers aren't quite as comfortable as dedicated touring bikes, but the fun of being able to hop onto the dirt outweighs that. You may be a little slower than a touring bike, but even with your slick tires, you'll smoke those guys on gravel trails. Have fun!


Campagnolo brake, closes unsymmetrically The rear brake of my road bike closes unsymmetrically which results in bad braking performance and the rear wheel is getting pushed to the side. The Video describes the problem best.

The arms of the brake move and close symmetrically if I uninstall the brake an push the arms with my hand together.

In the very last image of the video there appears to be a small screw hole in the caliper. Looking from the right side of the bike it is behind the exposed cable, between the adjuster and the cable clamp. That screw will adjust the spring tension. Turning the screw "in" will increase the tension on the spring. The increased tension will delay the brake movement relative to the other side. Based on your video I would think you need to back the screw out. Start with 1/4 turns. As others have commented if you can't adjust the issue away it may be time to strip them down and clean and lubricate the pivot points.


Help with choosing steel frame My most recent bike was a Trek Domane SL6 that I loved, but the frame has started to show some cracks and I am looking at switching over the Shimano Ultegra components to a steel frame.

I am a big guy, 220 lb (100 kg) at my fighting weight so bike weight isn't a big concern. The bike will be used mostly on the road for bi-weekly 100+ mile (160 km) rides and the occasional long distance group ride. (I also might do a triathlon later this year but I am not looking to podium, just finish.) It will also be used to ride for fitness and fun, not really any commuting.

I have been looking at the Mason Definition 2 frame as well as some of the All-City frames. Does anyone have any experience with these two companies?

The bike will also be used, on weekdays, on a Wahoo Kickr trainer for workout purposes and to build up endurance.

The Domane is my only experience with modern bikes so I am not sure what else I should look at or avoid, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Buying a frame to build up when you don't have much experience is tricky because you cannot  test ride frames alone. Most importantly you want to make sure you will get a good riding position fit. If there is a bike store that sells complete bikes with the frames you want try test riding those.

If you cannot test ride frames in this way then you need to look at the geometry. You can basically split geometry into the cockpit dimensions: stack and reach, and the handling: head tube angle, fork offset, chainstay length and front-center. You can use the Domane as a reference point. If you liked the riding position look for a frame with similar stack and reach and remember you can adjust riding position by getting a longer or shorter stem. Longer chanstays and slacker head tube angle will give you a more stable but slower turning bike.

Some other considerations. Most steel frames will have a threaded bottom bracket shell. The Domane has a pressfit bottom bracket (BB90 I think). Shimano cranks with 25mm axles will fit in external threaded bottom bracket cups but I think you will want to get a frame with a 68mm road bottom bracket shell width to fit the road crank axle length. (You can check the specs of you crank here.)


Not able to get crank bolt into bottom bracket spindle I recently posted a question about changing my chainset, I was advised on this  SRAM chainset which I could use which would fit my square tapered bottom bracket.

I have attempted to fit the new chainset and managed to get the crank with the chainrings on onto the bottom bracket spindle. However, I am struggling to get the other crank onto the bike because I cannot seem to screw the other bolt that came with the chainset into the bottom bracket with or without the crank. It screws around but does not screw in. This is preventing me from getting the other crank onto the bike. I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, could buying grease for the bolt help attach it or should I contact the seller and try asking for a new bolt?

Here are some photos of the bottom bracket, the problem bolt, and the crank which I added to the bike:

The picture of the left side of your bottom bracket without the bolt is not real clear, but I wonder if there's a round obstruction partially blocking the opening and preventing the threads of bolt and BB from engaging. Normally there is a mm or 2 of unthreaded counter-sink at the beginning of the spindle's hole prior to the threads beginning.  While it could be a photographic anomoly, I could see some of that counter-sink--or some threads themselves--galling and upon removal of the original bolt, get spun up at the opening, creating a partial blockage. That would cause the symptom you describe.

At any rate, here's example of a replacement bottom bracket (not a recommendation).   You'll need to select the correct length of spindle, but as you see, they're relatively inexpensive and replacement is appropriate regardless of the reason the bolt won't engage.


Pedal weight and performance What's the performance difference between getting speedplay zero stainless and titanium, 206g vs 164g.
Only focus on weight and not quality of bearings etc.

I suspect the difference won't be noticeable, but I would like to see the math :-)

Lets say I pedal at 80 rpm, crank length 175mm, how many watt will I save getting the titanium edition? Feel free to define any other conditions, that I have left out.

Edit
A lot of comments and answers, thanks :-) But they don't really address my question. As I wrote, I would like to see the calculations. Sure the whole thing is theoretical, but thats ok I guess?

I was answering the Physics.se version of this question but it got closed (probably rightly so), so I'm posting it here.

The lighter pedals will have very little effect on the performance of your bike, other than through the overall weight, and particularly if you're pedalling at a steady cadence instead of accelerating and decelerating repeatedly.

Making any part of the bike lighter means that accelerating will be easier as you have less inertia, and that you will spend less power at any given constant speed, through a decrease in rolling resistance (i.e. you spend less work flexing your tires). However, you could achieve a similar effect by simply using a lighter frame or handlebars or haircut. To optimize this, if you really are in a trim-all-the-weight-possible mood, you should be comparing this to all comparable weight savings across your bike.

The only real property of the pedals that is affected is their moment of inertia. This means that heavier pedals have more energy stored in their rotational motion than lighter ones. The thing, though, is that at a steady cadence this energy stays constant and you do not need to worry about it. It only comes into play when you are accelerating, and frankly I would be more worried about your translational energy than the rotational energy in the tires and pedals.

In a similar spirit to the above, if you want to minimize this effect, you should compare this with the moment of inertia savings on your pedals, wheels and tires. Since the rims have a larger rotation radius, and rotate at a much faster angular velocity, they hold far more rotational energy than the pedals, and any savings in this area are likely to be easier by using lighter rims.

You asked for math, but I'm afraid it's a bit pointless to do it. The reason is that one can in principle calculate how much energy you save in a given situation, but that will give you a number that doesn't mean much. The only way to give it meaning is to compare it with similar weight losses in your frame and in your rims, at the very least, where 'similar' must be understood, in fairness, to mean a similar increase in price. But then you're in a completely different ball game, far broader than what is in your question.


Question on new bike assembly If I order a Fat Bike online it will come in a box.
Is the assembly hard to do for someone fairly good with their hands?

This depends how much it was assembled before going into the box. I've had one bike that just needed the stem bolts to be loosened and the stem rotated, plus the pedals fitted (using tools provided). The one I bought recently needed a little more work but still only using tools you'd carry on the road plus a pedal spanner. That was a used bike, and had been dismantled just enough to go back in the box.

The seller should be able to tell you exactly what is required. It's well worth asking them.

Important things to be aware of:

Some bolts need to be done up to a specific torque.  On many bikes this can be quite roughly approximated but on carbon fibre and light alloy you shoudl really get a small adjustable torque wrench (sometimes sold as a torque screwdriver).  The parts should normally be marked when the torque matters.
The left pedal has a left-hand thread.  Double check that you've got the pedals the right way round, then grease the threads and do them up with your fingers for severalturns before finally tightening with a pedal spanner (a thin 15mm open-ended spanner)


Vibrations in one of the pedals I feel vibrations in one of the pedals when I put my weight on it.

It feels like the ball bearing is broken or something. Is that possible?

How difficult is it to fix the ball bearings on the pedals if you think that's the problem?

Thanks in advance.

Generally you can squirt some liquid lube in the pedal axle and it eventually wicks its way to the bearings on the inside.  However this won't do much for bearings on the outside end of the axle.

Some pedals can be disassembled for servicing and ball replacement, depends totally on what your pedals look like.

We can tell you more if you post a clear sharp photo of the pedal.

The easiest solution is to buy a new pair of pedals and swap them over.  You'll need either a hex driver or a special thin spanner of the right size, and to know the left side pedal is threaded backwards.   Or a bike shop would throw the new pedals on for nothing or very little cost.

You may also find that squirting some sort of lubricant into the pedal may also work loose any grit or muck that has gotten into the pedal - if that is the case, then simply keep squirting lubricant into the axle area of the pedal until it runs clear and then get the pedals replaced as soon as possible or repack the bearings with grease (otherwise it will keep occurring and the pedals will ultimately fail).


Caliper adjuster for Shimano 600 brakes I have a pair of 1980s Shimano 600 brake calipers that look very similar to this

From https://www.picclickimg.com/d/w1600/pict/253060189019_/SHIMANO-600-BR-6207-etriers-de-frein-brake-caliper.jpg

Sadly the cable barrel adjusters have gone missing. I thought they'd be easy to find on ebay but I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for and some of them seem to be selling for several times what the calipers are worth!

The hole in the caliper arm that should hold the adjuster is not threaded internally. However, it is partly flat so the hole is not perfectly round. Could anyone suggest where I could get such a part cheaply, or a formal name for it that I could use to help me search? I'm not bothered whether it looks retro or not.

Looking at pictures on line, it looks as though sometimes there is a nut above and below the threaded barrel adjuster and sometimes only above it. In the latter case is the adjuster held in place only by the pressure of the cable outer above it?

The part is called simply brake adjuster or brake adjusting barrel or "bremszugeinsteller" in the promised land of affordable mail order. It is indeed held in place only by pressure from cable and is easily lost when the cable is removed. In the picture the nut is put on wrong side to hold the adjuster in place without cable, I have never seen a second nut like on the right before.


Crank is slipping freely occassionally when pedaling; occasional "clonk" sound Crank is slipping freely occassionally when pedaling; occasional "clonk" sound-not sure where sound is coming from-crank is tight, no movement or looseness

More information would be helpful. What kind of bicycle? How old is it?

Assuming the bike has a freewheel or a freehub, there are a couple of things you can check.

For example, if the bicycle has a freewheel (in other words, if it is older), it may need lubrication inside the freewheel. Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) is a great lube for that application, or you can buy various oils. I would advise against using WD-40 for lubricating a freewheel.

A similar kind of skip/slip can happen occasionally (say, once in a few hundred miles of riding) with a freehub, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong. However if it is more frequent, you may want to service the hub, or have your local bicycle shop service it.

If the freewheel/freehub is not the source of the problem, the drivetrain may be worn. The chain can skip, or jolt forward, if the cogs in the rear are worn excessively.


Avid Shorty 4 Carbon Brake Pads I have Avid Shorty 4 brakes on a cross bike. I would like to use zipp 303 carbon wheels, but I am not sure about brake pads. The brake pads on there now are a combined cartridge and pad set. You cannot replace the pads. Any recommendations on pad holders and brake pads for carbon wheels that would fit well on Avid Shorty 4 brakes?

Thanks-

Assuming your current pads are V-brake style, these pads should work well: http://www.swissstop.com/rimbrakes/rxplus/yellowking/

As for the pad holders, it's not easy to find them sold without pads, nor with carbon pads.  That's too bad, but you can buy these anyway and use the pads on another bike: http://www.koolstop.com/english/v_type2holder.html


Should I leave my bike on my trainer? I have a cyclops fluid trainer, and for several months each year I only ride on the trainer. Every time I hook the bike up to the trainer, the trainer bends to accommodate the bike. Is it better for the bike and the trainer (overall) to leave the bike on the trainer for several months at a time or take it off the trainer everyday after my workout?

Here is a video of the bike being placed into the trainer: skip to the 1min,20sec mark.

Releasing the pressure between the tire and the roller daily is a no-brainer.

It will have no negative affect on your bicycle to leave the bike in a trainer for long periods, assuming you have the trainer properly adjusted for the width of your rear axle, and that you do release the roller from the tire as you noted.

In addition, in response to your comment, it will not affect the trainer at all, either.


Bike Hydraulic Brakes constantly pressing against the rotor I hope you can help me with this issue. My bike has Avid juicy 7 brakes, and lately both the front and the rear brakes are pressing against the rotor, which makes it really hard to ride it (feels like putting more resistance on a stationary bike). In the past before it got to this point the brakes randomly would be looser and then later more firm.
Is it a bleeding issue or do you think that it's something else?

I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance!

There are a number of things this could be.  Your rotors could be bent, your wheels could be improperly placed in the dropouts, your pads could be failing to contract, your brake calipers could be improperly adjusted, or your pad engagement point adjustment knobs could be failed or improperly adjusted.

It's likely not a bleed issue (brakes that need to be bled are generally "soft) unless someone injected enough fluid in your brakes to make them permanently partially contracted.

Your best bet is probably a trip to your LBS to get it sorted out.  You could also try the assembly steps here (for your brakes) or find a resource that explains how to adjust hydraulic disc brakes.


Wheel advice/information I just bought a Top Fuel 9, 2016, 27.5. It came with Bontrager Mustang Pro wheels.  Where would I find the specs for these wheels?  I am thinking of upgrading the wheel set.  Any suggestions for upgraded wheels?

The only thing you need to know besides diameter (27.5 duh), freehub body type (standard shimano style or SRAM XD) and rotor mount (6 bolt or center-loc) is rather or not the hubs are "Boost" spec (110 front & 148 rear) or standard thru-axle (100 front & 142 rear).
Of course don't do something silly like buy super wide (30mm internal width or wider) rims and your all set to shred that gnar...


What instead of Sram Spectro s7 shifter I have just damaged shifter and it is no longer usable. Is it possible to replace it with something cheaper and more available? It is just commuter/winter-bike, so I just need it to work and less it costs, better it is.

Go to your local bike shop and ask for something used out of their parts bin. They’ll often have shifters left over when someone upgraded.

My bike shop would throw in the part for free if I paid for labor, but in either case the cost would be trivial. It’d be worth it to get the derailleur cable (both inners and others) replaced at the same time.

Reading Sheldon’s page on Sachs/SRAM IGH it appears that the cable pull for that particular seven speed internal gear hub may not be standard. It may be better to just replace like with like. Again, your local bike shop may have the spare part in their parts bin. A local maker space may be also able to fabricate the part out of nylon or abs using their 3d printer.

If you just need it to work, a friction shifter will work with just about anything. Your bike shop should be able to give you one for free or close to free.


Did my bike shop con me into replacing both sets of Trek 7500 Hybrid disc rotors? ....  I recently purchased a Trek 7500 hybrid via Gumtree.   I was warned in advance, prior to purchasing, that both front & rear brakes were 'squealing' but concluded that this could easily be remedied.

The bike was purchased over 4 years ago & had rarely been used. Stored in a garage.

I tried 'de-greasing' & cleaning the disks and pads but this failed miserably ; I then took the bike to a local professional service provider who informed me that both sets of disks were badly 'burned' through excessive braking with damaged pads ?

I was then advised, that the best option was to replace both F & R Disks.  There was visual evidence of blue / black 'streak' marks on both the F & R disks but my lack of knowledge on this issue was obvious so I have agreed to proceed with the ordering & replacement.

Cannot help sense that I have been conned into this replacement ( estimated costs with labour circa £70.00 ) ;  any advice would be gratefully received.

Regards

Keni C

There are at least two questions here: 1) did the rotors need replacing; and, 2) was £70 a reasonable price for that repair.

1) Did the rotors need replacing: Unless you have photos, it's difficult for us on the intertubes to ascertain. Blue-ing is indicative of very high temperatures - likely produced when someone went down a very long, steep incline while keeping the brakes half-depressed. This produces a lot of heat and can damage not only the rotors but the pads and brake housing itself. The heat warps the rotors and also weakens them.

As for the explanation that "both sets of disks were badly 'burned' through excessive braking with damaged pads" - it would be the excessive heat produced by braking over a long/hard distance that damaged both the pads and the rotors.

So the tl;dr here is that blued rotors might not have needed replacement if you weren't going to ride them aggressively and they might have been able to have been straightened back into shape. But the bluing weakens them for sure (even if just a bit), and the shop may have felt for liability reasons that it was best to recommend replacement. After all, if the rotors did the extremely unlikely thing by shattering right as you headed towards a lorry truck, you (or your lovely widow/er) would have sued them out of existence. Better to be safe (and make a sale) than be sorry.

1a) Maybe the discs were just scoured? It is possible that the discs were just scoured - especially as we don't have photos. Damaged or badly worn pads could have scoured the rotors - as well as a general lack of cleaning and maintenance. That would explain the black streaks you saw. You should have also been able to feel the scouring with your fingernail.  In fact, given that your bike is a hybrid and not likely to have done aggressive downhilling, scouring is a more likely explanation of what happened even though the words "burned" and "blue" that you used are indicative of blue-ing.

If your rotors were scoured, they'd still need replacing if the noise bothered you since resurfacing bicycle disc rotors isn't worth the money. Even if you decided to put up with the noise, you'd have to replace them when the pads ended their already shortened life as you shouldn't put new pads on a scoured rotor as the new pads will pick up the scouring, shortening their life and scouring the next rotor when/if you ever replace it.

2) Was £70 (approx USD$85) a reasonable price for replacement? We don't do valuations here, but the base price for a pair of the rotors would be around US$25-50 in 2017 dollars. Bike shop labor is around $70/hr here (and I should note that 'labor' also includes the rent for the shop, purchasing and depreciation of tools and equipment, training, utilities, etc.) and an hour of labor for installing the rotors, truing them, and adjusting the brakes is reasonable.  So, I don't think you were charged an excessive amount.

p.s. As noted above, I do hope they replaced the pads at the same time as replacing the rotors. This is standard for  both scoured and blued rotors and if they replaced the pads (another US$15-30 cost) then £70 was a really reasonable price.

pps. Scouring is indicative of a bike that wasn't maintained properly, blueing of a bike that was ridden aggressively. In either case, you should perhaps ask the bike shop to do a full inspection to make sure there aren't other hidden treasures.


How to find a frame given a geometry In 2007, I bought my first bike: a Bianchi Boardwalk 2006.  It was a great bike, but I didn't treat it well and it now needs about $300 worth of work.

I've been thinking that maybe I'd like to take this time to upgrade.  Ideally, I'd like a bike that (1) requires less maintenance and (2) won't rip my jeans; I think I want an internally geared rear hub.  My understanding is that this requires horizontal drop outs, which the boardwalk does not have.

I loved how the Boardwalk rode (it was FAST) and it's geometry is up on Bianchi's website - I have the 23" model.  Is there any way for me to search premade bikes or just frames for ones with similar geometry?  Alternatively, is there any way to give my Boardwalk frame horizontal drop outs?

Getting a framebuilder to put horizontal dropouts on the Boardwalk looks quite possible from a quick glance at the picture. On the other hand, it looks as though it has fairly conventional geometry so you may find that a current bike with hub gears off the shelf works for you. It's likely to cost more than $300 to get new dropouts fitted since you'll also be stripping and repainting the frame. Since it's alumnium and most framebuilders work with steel you might struggle to find someone who can do the work.

An alternative is to fit a hub and use a derailleur or chain tensioner to take up the small amount of extra chain you'll need. chain tensioners are common on singlespeed bikes for the same reason as you need one (and singlespeed conversions are very common). This will be the cheapest way to fit hub gears to your current bike.


Compatible front mech replacement for Shimano STX RC FD-MC36 I have an old 2000 Marin Riftzone, indexed gears, 3 rings at the front. The front mech (shimano stx rc) is seized and I want to get the cheapest solution to make it functional again. It doesn't do any offroading any more and I just want to make it functional so someone else can use it.

There seem to be so many options with 2nd hand front mechs on ebay I am lost as to what I need to look at to make sure a new one is compatible (have already accidently bought one with too small a clamp)

Can anyone help me understand  what models are likely to work? Or what to look for.

Current mech is:

bottom pull - do I still need a bottom pull or will top work also?
34.9 mm diameter - obviously need to have this.
3 rings - how do I identify 3 ring mechs? Is there a code in the names or do I just need to look at specs?

Are there any other things I need to keep an eye on?  I don't understand the FD-MC36 bit of the mech model, is this important?

In most cases the pull direction is determined by the cable routing arrangement on the frame. Some frames do give you the option but that's not super common. Most new clamp-on MTB derailers are dual pull (they can be set up for top pull or bottom pull).

You also should match the front derailer to your chain type in terms of width/speeds. The difference in the cage width is real albeit subtle. One may not encounter issues from this, and it's possible to work around it by angling or bending the derailer, but if you want it to have a better chance of just working then get a 9-speed one to match the bike. (Bikepedia says your bike is 9 speed and came with a 9-speed Deore FD. The STX-RC derailer in question here is actually 8-speed, which I presume got stuck on as a less than ideal replacement at some point. If this is incorrect and the bike is actually 8-speed, then get an 8-speed FD).

Virtually all (maybe actually all) 9-speed and earlier mountain front derailers are triple. There are two ways of making the distinction. The good way is double checking on a source like techdocs.shimano.com or just googling the model code and finding the "Service Instructions" pdf for that derailer. My search history for example is littered with things like "fd-mc36 si". There's also the "Specifications" area on techdocs.shimano.com.  The other way is recognizing how triple FDs for both mountain and road have a bigger, more dropped-down inner cage made to reach across and contact a chain that's sitting on a lower, smaller ring. If you look at some pictures you'll see.

You should also match whether your existing derailer is low-clamp/top-swing or high-clamp/bottom-swing, presuming it seems to be the correct choice for the bike (no frame interference issues and correct amount of gap between the cage and the teeth of the large ring). Some bikes can accommodate either.

Finally it's not a bad idea to double check that the new derailer will play nice with the ring profile (tooth count) of the large ring, the max total ring size difference number, and the minimum difference between middle and large rings. Of these, the first two sometimes give you some leeway to fudge it, and the last really does not. Mismatch the optimal ring profile a little and it will usually still work, and exceed the max total difference and the only consequence is it will rub the cage in small-small combinations. If you go under the minimum difference between middle and top spec, what will happen is the inner cage will hit the middle ring as you try and shift onto the large. You can try to get around it by raising the front derailer, but then you wind up with too much gap and you can have chain drop issues. So that's a good one to be hardline about. You can get these numbers with the above techdocs.shimano.com/google procedure. For example here's the sheet that has them for your existing derailer. This is all less relevant here because almost all 9-speed mountain fronts will be fine for your bike on these points, but other times it matters a lot.

The model code doesn't give you anything directly about the compatibility. Stare at Shimano model codes long enough and eventually you'll just know them or you can get an idea from them about chronology and quality, and that's it.


Use a KMC X10 SL chain on an 11 Speed cassette? I have two KMC X10 SL chains that I never ended up using. I got my new bike, which came with a KMC X11 chain (the bike is Specialized Diverge Comp). I am wondering if I can use the X10 chain on this bike?

They will not work at all. Use an 11-speed chain.

If you use the 10spd chain, there is a good chance that it can:

Jam in the rear derailleur jockey wheels
Increase the friction on the cassette, which will:
Increase wear on the chain's side plates, dramatically increasing the chances that the chain will break right in the middle of you hammering up a hill.
It will also shift quite poorly.


Source an internal/hub derailleur for Bianchi Bergamo Is this really such a novel piece of equipment?

2006 Bianchi Bergamo internal/hub derailleur

I commute with a lot of weight on the rack and pop spokes in my rear wheel at least a couple of times a year. I had it rebuilt and had a good six-month run until last week. I asked a local shop to spec a full replacement wheel so I'd have a spare that I could just drop in (so I can then get the other wheel fixed up when convenient, without losing the use of the bike in the meantime).

They came back saying that the hub alone would be $350 USD. The whole bike was something like $600 USD.

I can't find a source for this, and now I'm concerned that someday that thing is going to break and then where will I be? Any suggested courses of action?

You could order your own replacement hub, for example Universal currently lists the 36h Dual Drive (Disc) for $187.  These hubs are a relative rarity, and I don't doubt that your LBS price would be above $300.  Bianchi presumably got them in bulk for a bargain when they specified this frame.

If you're carrying heavy loads upgrading to 36h is certainly a reasonable solution and will definitely help.  You can also select a beefier rim - I personally like the Salsa Delgado, but rims such as the Velocity Dyad and Sun Rhyno Lite are perfectly fine as well. Lastly, get a professional wheel build.  All told you're probably looking at at least $320, most of which is dominated by the price of your hub.

Depending on your riding conditions and preferences, another solution might be to replace your Dual Drive hub with a normal 9-speed derailleur hub. This will cost a bit more than usual in the near term (you'll need to replace the shifter and the derailleur), but you'll have more wheels at your disposal.  Craigslist and eBay can be a treasure trove of relatively inexpensive handbuilt wheelsets, if you're patient.


What does it take to damage an internally geared hub? What behavior can easily damage an internally geared hub (Shimano Nexus or Alfine for example)?

can one jump off high (say 50cm) curbs?
can it be damaged by shifting gears under too much torque?
does water get in if it gets briefly submerged?
are there any dos and donts, any habits one has to change after using derailleurs?

Edit/followup question: are hubs with fewer gears more durable in general?

Usually jumping curbs isn't a problem, as long as you're cognizant of not landing incredibly hard.  I would think that rough landings would damage the rim before the hub.

Most internal hubs wouldn't shift under torque at all.  Some have a system where they won't even try to shift if the mechanism is moving, others have a "sprung" system where it waits for a pause in pedaling and makes the shift then.

Brief submersion shouldn't be a problem.  Prolonged would most likely cause big problems.  I don't know if shifting while submerged would exacerbate this...

The biggest factor I've seen in damage to an internal hub is using one that's slightly mis-tuned for a long time.  I'll have someone come in saying that it stopped shifting into third about a year ago, and now it won't shift into second...  By the time they bring it in to the shop, now it's a much bigger problem than it would have been a year ago.


How to find the serial number on a 26 inch Jamas Trail X mountain bike Jamas Trail X powered by Fuze how can I tell what the year on the serial number is of the bike, and also would like to know about what it’s worth so again it’s a 26 inch Jamás trail X powered by Fuze the front shocks are 191 omnis it has a SRSunTour Kranks and sprocket it has SRAM Dash SX for back brakes with One to one Actuation ratio Andis SRAMSX4 back shifter it also has a SRAMSX 424 speed shifters on XC riser handlebars with tech trough front brake levers and it is also a 7005 aluminum frame

https://www.jamisbikes.com/usa/register.html  says:

Your Jamis serial number is located under the bottom bracket of your Jamis Bicycle.


Should I buy a crank, derailleur, cassette, etc. all from the same company or are the parts of the drivetrain not super specific I am looking to build my own bike and was wondering whether the bike and the drivetrain would work better with matching parts or not. I work at a bike coop and it would be much cheaper to be able to use random parts. I want to know if that would be smart or if I should by the parts in a set from the manufacturer (with a price tag if possible). Thank you!
If you need me to be a little bit clearer feel free to ask.

It's complicated.

There are many groups of parts that will work together just fine, and many that will not. You can mix and match brands in any number of ways and have it work fine.

Buying everything together is an expensive way to guarantee that everything will Just Work.

You can put something together for much, much less money using random bin parts from your co-op. But, you will still have to pay for it with your own research work, in learning all the different ways that the components have to fit together.

The good news is, putting a bike together isn't rocket science. There is detail that you will need to learn, but you can learn it.


What are the advantage of the different gear shifters I have just buy for the first time a road bike (Boardman Team Carbon) after long years on hybrids bike and unfortunately due of a injury I didn't have much time to experience with it.

The bike has a SRAM Rival 10 speed gear shifter and I was wondering what are the difference between all the different type of gear shifters.

It would be good to know what are the advantages and disadvantages and if you have experience with it what are the optimal way to use them.

This is based on my experience with the following type of shifters, but is limited to Shimano so others may have a different experience.  I haven't tried to split out the different variations of brifters either since I've only used 105's.

Integrated brake/shift levers (aka "brifters")

Pros:

Shifters are always close at hand, so you can always shift when you need to without taking your hands off the handlebar (unless your hands are on the flats).
This means shifting while climbing/descending is a breeze.
Similarly, brakes are always nearby

Cons:

Expensive
Complicated devices, so a mechanical issue can cripple your shifter when on a long ride far from the nearest bike shop.
Brake levers are very likely to take a pounding in a crash (whether major or minor), which is bad news for brifters (see "expensive" and "complicated" above)

Bar-end shifters (mount at the end of drop bars or aero bars)

Pros:

Simple devices, usually indexed for quick gear changes, but can also be switched to "friction" mode which allows you to dial in your gear by feel (handy when your shifting goes out of alignment).
Lower total cost than brifters (including separate brake levers)
Easier to learn than down-tube shifters

Cons:

Shifters are nearby, but you still have to take your hand off the bars.
Inconvenient if you need to shift while out of the saddle.
Possible to hit them with your knees (depends on bike and rider geometry) which can cause an unwanted shift (and can be quite painful)

Down-tube shifters

Pros:

Simple like bar-end shifters (including choices of indexed/friction shifting)
Also inexpensive
Shorter shifter cable runs
Not likely to hit your knees

Cons:

Quite far from the bars, so you'll likely shift less often than with the other styles
Inconvenient for shifting while out of the saddle or during a white-knuckle descent
Takes some getting used to finding the levers without looking
Not all modern frames will have the appropriate braze-ons for mounting (but most should).

My current bike uses bar-end shifters based on some of the reasons above.  Plus for long randonneur rides (over 20 hours) I lose a lot of hand strength and the bar-end shifters are the easiest to work with (can shift using the heel of my palm).


Is a headlight required to emit light to the sides? The California Vehicle Code says:

  (d) A bicycle operated during darkness upon a highway, a sidewalk
  where bicycle operation is not prohibited by the local jurisdiction,
  or a bikeway, as defined in Section 890.4 of the Streets and Highways
  Code, shall be equipped with all of the following:

  (1) A lamp emitting a white light that, while the bicycle is in
  motion, illuminates the highway, sidewalk, or bikeway in front of the
  bicyclist and is visible from a distance of 300 feet in front and from
  the sides of the bicycle.

I have a pretty bright Cygolite headlight, but it emits practically no light from the sides, if you look at a 90 degree angle you can't see any light at all from the headlight.

Is this strictly legal under the law? I do supplement with a blinky light that  provides some side illumination (though I'm not sure you could see it from the sides at 300 feet from the bike), but I'm wondering if my headlight meets the letter of the law? If I'm ever in an accident, I don't want the other driver to be able to say "How could I have seen him, he didn't even have the headlight required by law!"

I've looked at a few other states but they didn't have any requirement for side visibility of the headlight.

What the code is saying is that your headlight has to be visible on the sides. That's why most modern bicycle headlights have those little clear plastic channels on the side for the light to seep through and be seen from the side. ( The idea isn't to blind people GordonM )

Maybe it really reaches 300 feet, maybe it doesn't, the traffic police probably aren't going to pull you over and measure. But if you do get in a crash, the other person's lawyer may very well get clever and bring this up, so if you're worried about that, make sure your supplemental blinky light reaches far enough to satisfy the law.

The bottom line is that you want other bicycles and cars to be able to see you so that they don't hit you. If you are in an accident with a car or truck, there's a chance you'll be fatally injured and whether or not you adhered to the law won't mean anything. So be safe and make sure your lights are bright enough for other people to see you.


Is there a downside to spoke protectors? A few weeks ago, the derailer on my touring bike caught on the chain and ripped itself off the frame. (See the link below for more info on the incident.) The spoke protector was cracked in half by this, which says to me that it did its job: stopping the derailer and chain from damaging the spokes. (The wheel was out of alignment and needed truing, but it still rotated.)

In the future, these "dork discs" or "pie plates" (as some like to call them) are going on all my bikes. My question: Aside from looks and the weight, is there any downside to having one of these on a bike?

Sheldon Brown on Spoke Protectors
More detail about the incident where my derailer broke
For fun: Pie In The Sky: A World Without Spoke Protectors

Apart from looks no, but the pie plate won't necessarily protect against what likely happened.

Pie plates are to keep badly adjusted derailleurs out of the spokes. Obviously, maintaining your bike and keeping the limit screws in place will prevent that from happening.

A stick or squirrel or something caught in your drive train won't necessarily be prevented by the pie plate, because that's not what they are there for.

Unless you regularly smash into things.

I remove the pie plates from all my wheels.


How do I know if there is water in my fork I have a SunTour XCR fork. Not wanting to ruin it I am worried that a significant amount of water has penetrated beyond the seals. I have recently ridden the bike in rain, snow, and washed it in a bathroom with a showerhead.

The symptom that I am observing is the following. I just cleaned the stanchions, oiled them, compressed them rapidly to get oil beyond the seals, then wiped off excess oil and dirt, from the seals.

But unlike usually, when compressing the fork, there was a "whum" sound of air leaving the fork boots and passing throught some liquid at the seals.

On one hand, I had just put oil just there. On the other hand, I have never heared this sound (with a brand-new fork), when applying this procedure.

Should the fork be disassebled and dried? What other tell-tales are there that there is water in the a (spring-operated) suspension form?

The XCRs are very simple forks and unless specified don't have an oil or air damper so very user friendly.

It is possible that water has got below the dust wipers but this is generally unlikely.

The mechanism for a XCR is a sealed lock out unit and a coil. You should simply be able to drop the lowers off the fork without disrupting anything else to check them out for water and to ensure there's plenty of grease to protect the spring and other internals.

The 'whum' could be the stanchions being a bit sticky moving through the wipers but not much else I can think off.


Question about chain re-attaching I have a question about chain "closing" (not sure of the english word, but you get it, right?).

I know how to open a chain with a chain tool, and I know I must not "go too far" as to remove the rivet from the outside hole. And I consider I have gone far enough when the chain can be opened. So it's pretty straightforward.

But when closing a chain, how do I know I went "far enough"?

I push the pin to it's 100% correct position (similar to other pins) and 1/10 of a mm more. Assume blue pin on photo.

Then I remove the chain tool and do the following:

with my hands I bend the chain laterally (at the direction where it's not bending) mildly back and forth a couple of times. That is the red arrows on the photo.
I turn the link completelly to one side and to the other (at the direction that the chain is bending) to make sure that the movement is complete and safe. That is the green arrows on the photo.
I apply 2 drops of oil on the link that I've worked on.
redo step 3 once, check again
done

That ensures that the metals on the link (I don't know the exact terminology of the parts) do not remain "packed" together and the link is not stiff. If I don't do this I'm afraid that when it becomes "unstiff" and the metals are unpacked, the pin may not be in the 100% perfect position and this may cause a problem later on when pedaling hard. The worst problem could be that the chain would break while riding.


What is the purpose of this small block on the handlebar? What is the purpose of this small block on a handlebar?

This article on "bicycle archeology" (in Dutch) describes that they have almost completely disappeared, and are found only on very old bicycles.  It does not really describe the purpose, except indirectly that "nowadays we don't care about scratches".  But I fail to see how this block would prevent scratches.

What is the purpose?

My bikes had one. You would simply put your bike against the wall with just that "thing"  and your saddle touching the wall.

It would prevent scratches and made sure your bike doesn't fall.

That thing was made of some sort of rubber/plastic so your handlebars wouldn't simple "slide"  down the wall making your bike fall when you put it against it.

Also. Because of the rubbery consistency of the "thing"  you could put your bike against a wall in weird angles that would otherwise cause your bike to fall.


Modify a front derailleur cage to allow for non-round chainrings like Biopace or Rotor? I am repairing my road bike after a mishap where it swallowed the rear derailleur around the cassette and into the front derailleur.  As part of the rebuild, I'm swapping out the badly worn old chainrings and fitting some NOS Biopace chainrings.

Downside is that my Front Derailleur doesn't have clearance when the chainring's highest position is upward.

I am aware that my FD mech suffered and is probably somewhat bent, but it does clear the original worn chainrings.

Here's two shots showing the chainring teeth at both positions.

The lowest area of the chainring.

Highest point on chainrings, showing the overlap highlighted with red.

The front mech is positioned as high as it can go on the braze-on mount point.  If I tried shimming the mount, the tail of the cage would lift but this would not significantly change the inner plate's height.

The proper plan would be to buy a new front mech with a smaller inner plate.

However I'd like to not spend too much on this repair.  Is it feasible to trim off some of the inner plate?

I'd try to leave enough meat at the top to have something for folding a replacement reinforcement lip, but the lower half is lacking in metal for that, and will likely become quite flexible without additional reinforcement.

Is this a workable solution?   I figure if not, I'm up for buying a new mechanism anyway.

Part is a Shimano model FD-2403 so its a triple road, bottom pull, low normal, and the bike was 9 speed.

Update - the cage cut cleanly with a Dremel cutoff wheel.  Took a couple of minutes, and made plenty of pretty sparks.  I used the dremel to round off the edges.

On installation, I find the mount on the frame is still not high enough to work as required.   I've ordered a couple of Band-on to Braze-on adapters to see if the mech can be mounted higher up the seat tube.

I still don't have enough "reach" to the right to get the chain onto the big ring.  Hopefully this will also be addressed by a bandon mount with more range.

For completeness, I ended up replacing the bolted-on brazeon mount with a band-on braze-on mount.

This allowed me to raise the derailleur by those critical last few millimetres.

If the bike had a brazed-on braze-on mount then I might have had to cut it off and file the seat tube to a round finish, but fortunately this Cannondale frame had a small bracket held on by two 3mm bolts into rivnuts.  The Rivnuts are still in the frame under the band.

(I'm wondering if I should have put two grub screws in the holes to seal them up and reduce rain ingress from the rear tyre.)

Here's the completed fitment:


9/16 pedals wont go in crank - they're too big What about if you have two gears on the crank. I used a 5/8 open wrench to take out my original pedals on my Schwinn Sierra and the new 9/16 pedals won't go in - they're too big. What size would it need? I'd like to use an adapter.

First verify that you are in fact trying to screw the left pedal into the left crank arm and the right pedal into the right crank arm. The pedals are sometimes marked with a R and L on the end of the threaded section. The left side is the side your left hand is on while riding. There are 2 common size pedal threads. Many children's bikes, some lower cost department store bikes and some folding bikes use 1/2" thread on the pedal . Most others use a 9/16" thread on the pedal. My guess is you bought 9/16" pedals and they are too large to screw in to your crank arms. While they make adapters to use 1/2" pedals in 9/16" holes there is not one for the reverse. As an alternative you can ask your local bike shop to determine if the crank arm has enough material to modify it to the 9/16" thread. This likely more expensive them getting the correct pedals.


Lock nuts on new hubs seem strangely tight, but can't seem to loosen them. Any advice? As part of a new build I'm working on, I just had some wheels built up. The hubs are large flanged Miche Primatos with a double-sided fixed wheel.

The rear wheel, straight out the box, seemed weirdly stiff — to the extent that I could barely move it at all, let alone for it to spin freely — so I gave the workshop a call for advice. They suggested the lock nuts were probably just overtightened, and that backing them off a bit would sort it out.

The Miche hubs have sealed bearings, and each side is held in place by both an outer and an inner lock nut. I tried to loosen the outer nuts a bit, but they wouldn't budge. I had to put in all my effort, wrenching in reverse directions on either side of the hub, to get them to loosen even a little, and it would only be in a quick, jerky motion, not smoothly unscrewing. Rather than gradually getting easier as I backed the nut down the axle's thread, it was still just as stiff as when I started. I'd managed to loosen the outer nut by a few millimetres, as shown below, but it was still really stiff (not the hub, but rather the nut on the axle). The force required was such that I quit until seeking further advice; I don't want to do something silly like strip the threads on my axle.

Also, you'll notice in the image that the outer nut is still tight against the inner nut and dust cap. These are three separate pieces, that should have to be removed individually. But here it is as though they've been forged out of the same piece of metal. I cannot loosen the outer nut without the inner one coming with it.

If anyone could help diagnose what's going on here, I'd really appreciate the help. Is it at all possible that the hub is in some way fault? Could the axle have damaged threads?

Those counterlocked axle nuts are binding together more tightly than the threads are on each individual nut, and thus staying counterlocked against one another. Usually this isn't the case and when you put a wrench on the outside nut on either side of the hub, one of the outer nuts will break free. As you're seeing now, not always the case.

You need a box wrench and a cone wrench (or two cone wrenches) to break the inside and outside axle nuts on one side free from each other. Then get the bearings properly preloaded and counterlock them again. This process can be tricky as the preload on the bearings will change as you counterlock the two nuts back together. It usually takes a few tries to get the preload set right and the nuts counterlocked firmly. Too tight? back them both off 1/8 to 1/4 of a turn and try again. Too loose? Do just the opposite.


Brake cable rubbing seat post I am building a tandem and I can run the rear brake and shifter cables three ways.

I can run cable housing the whole way. Since it's really far, that's a lot of housing! And I don't think it would look good. But it would protect the cable.

I can put cable stops on the front and back, and run just the inner cables most of the way. The problem is the cables will rub the seat tube if I run them underneath the top tube. Unless I run the cables on the SIDE of the top tube, which would look weird.

Third, I could put little stubs of housing where the cables run past the front seat tube.

I would like to do the first one and just jun bare cable the whole way, and let the cables rub on the front seatpost where they pass it. Is it really a big deal if they touch it? The angle seems really shallow but I don't want it to make the brakes or shifting funny either.

I think that letting the (inner) cables rub against the seat post is a bad idea. It will cause wear on the cable, scratch your seat post (or seat tube) and probably create noise every time you hit a bump.

Why not go for your third option? Put a cable stop before and after the seat post and run a short length of (almost straight) cable housing around it. Works fine on normal bikes as well, after all.

The first option (continuous cable housing) causes squishy braking, even on normal bikes with shorter cables.

Can’t you run the shifter cable in a straight line along the bottom tube?

I wouldn’t run the cables on the side of the top tube, it causes problems when you lean the bike against something.


Shimano brakeset hood model compatibility I am trying to find out if shimano brakeset hood have compatibility with different brakeset.

In my specific case, I have a ST-2200 but can only find arround hood for ST-5800 or ST-6600.

Is their a compatibility of hood for different brakeset model?

Thanks!

The hoods are different for different models of levers, but the ST-2200 uses the same ones as the ST-3300.

The part you need is Shimano Y-6CU 98040. Ask your LBS to find it for you. Alternatively, you can look for 3rd party manufacturers as well but I doubt they will have something for an entry level part like this. Shimano's documentation indicates that the ST-3400 levers do not use compatible hoods (and the style of the ST-3500 onwards is different).


Front derailleur will not sit properly on large cog without chain rub I bought a Vilano Commuter bike ( 3x7 speed ) a while back and recently upgraded the front derailleur, crankset, brifters, pedals and rear derailleur to tourney A070 components. However, I can't seem to get the front derailleur to sit on the large cog with no chain rub when the rear derailleur is on the smallest cog.

The cable is as taught as it could possibly get and the inline barrel adjuster is also on it's most tense setting. I'm at a loss trying to determine why the FD won't make it passed the largest cog, the FD H limit is as loose as possible and the L limit is sitting as close to the small cog without chain rub ( ~1mm ) when on the largest rear cog.. am I missing something here? Do I have BB that is too elongated?

You say you replaced the the derailleurs, crankset, brifters and pedals, but not the bottom bracket.

My initial thought is that your crank is too far outboard because it requires a shorter bottom bracket axle than your previous crank.

The location of the square taper hole relative to the rings is different for different cranks, so different axle lengths are required to get the correct chain line (distance middle ring from center plane if the frame).

In your first picture the distance between the cranks and bracket shell does appear to be quite large.


Preparing for a long distance ride - long term I've done long rides in the past, the longest of which was 259 km less than 2 years ago, but I've fallen very much out of shape.

I am currently overweight, but I know how to solve this part and by the time I want to do the ride in question, I should weigh around 85 kg. I'm 184 cm tall as a frame of reference.

I would like to do a 280 km ride in May next year, with elevation gain probably exceeding 3000 m - hard to find flat routes where I live. Currently, most rides I do are around 25 km long - I think I could manage a 60 km ride now, but it wouldn't be fun in my current shape. What are the steps I can take, apart from losing weight and just cycling, to ensure I'm ready to do this come next May?

You have more than enough time, so use it.

Start at 25km, increase distance by 10% per week.  This would mean just six months to 280km. Key thing is start slowly, don't over do it, because of your time frame, do less not more, if you take time off (more than a couple of weeks), drop back a bit. Plot a line on a calendar - from now at 25km to May next year at 280km, this is the easiest to sustained buildup. Plot another line, From November at 25km to May. Think to yourself this is the line you must no drop under. For most people, due to 'life' getting in the way of training the reality will be in between these lines.

Better to do 3 rides a week than one big one. Every few weeks have an easy week where you do maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of you previous week.

The biggest obstacles will be being short of time during the week, in which case maximise you training effort, but make sure you get at least one long ride a month in. Failing to get out over winter (depending where you live) can be a problem, indoor trainer, or cross training at gym and pool will get you though winter in good shape. Still try to get out on the bike if you can.


Forward thinking for riding through winter Yes I know it is mid-August and Winter is not here yet, far from it.

I am just thinking way forward on how I will be able to do my daily 18 km commute in the Winter weather of Paris (yes, it's not a very harsh winter, but there will be some negative temperatures some ice etc,...).

I ride on a trekking bike tranformed into a touring one (Trek FX 7.2) with skinny tires (23 mm) which I love for their reactivity when starting and their speed thanks to their low weight (I know skinny tires are debatable but that what I do and love it).

What should I do to ride all winter long? I'm pretty sure I will need spiked tires for ice and snow, however little of it there is in here, but still,..

And since they do those only in fat version (which completely makes sense, obv.) I will need a new set of wheels. I think I will go cheap on that part, a fully built set of 700c wheels for trekking (which will fit my 135mm axle on the rear).

Remaining wonderings are following:

Should I buy 2 pair of tires? one spiked and one non-spiked? changing according to the weather? if so what would be a good choice for the non-spiked tires (the spiked ones would be Schwalbe's Marathon Winter in 700x40c, 35c or 2.00)?
My mudguards are 35 mm wide. Can I keep them on with these changes? I know they will be mostly ineffective but will they leave enough clearance for the large tire?
The brakes will need adjustments, does the fact that the pads will "meet a new rim" against which they have not been worn will reduce efficiency of braking? and can a brake cable be adjusted back and forth between several large adjustments the like of this without the need of replacement?
Any other thought to be had?

I would go for the equivalent Marathon non-spiked.
Look online for 'crud catcher' instead of mud guard - offers great tyre clearance
During the winter its best to run full length inner and outer brake cables so you reduce the amount of moisture inside. Just readjust to the new rim and make sure that the pads aren't worn out. Otherwises just replace the pads.


Which e-bike kit should I choose? Hub vs chain driven (hilly terrain) I am looking in buying one of these budget (I am on tight budget) kits:

Chain driven kit cost $100
front wheel hub kit  cost $100

My bike is multi gear and where I live there are some challenging steep hills, not all of them paved.

Which kit would perform better?

Stealth and sound are not relevant issues for me.

BTW the chain driven (cranked?) one does not connect to the bike gear system, so it does not use advantage of changing gears.

I couldn't find any info about the chain one.

For hill climbing without the ability to change the gear the motor is in you're going to have to pick a lower gear than it was designed with, somehow, and accept that it won't help much on the flat.

The "chain driven" kit you're looking at will only work while you're pedalling, as it requires you to keep the chain tight against the motor sprocket. Despite the bike being shown with gears, the motor will only work in one gear, otherwise the chain won't hit the sprocket on the motor. If you're lucky you will be able to choose the gear, and you can choose a fairly low one to go up hills in. If you're even more lucky the other gears will still be usable without the motor.I suggest you ask the seller those questions before buying. They say:

  This kit is designed for normal bike, not for the bike that can shift gears. However, you can install the kit on the left hand side if your bike is 18speed/24speed

Note that that kit does not come with a battery or charger.

The hub motor kits normally are easier to install, especially if they come built in to a wheel already (I suggest you do this, the extra shipping is usually cheaper than the cost of getting a wheel built). Since the hub motor is already set up to drive the wheel, you don't have to adjust anything that's got a lot of force or power going through it, so it's less critical that you get it exactly right. With a hub motor you only have to get the anti-rotation setup fixed properly. The usual problems are getting the wiring to work - cheap kits will almost always work, for a while, in the workshop. Getting them to work reliably in all weather while riding the bike can be a challenge. It will help if you're willing to solder connectors in place, and you should definitely plan on buying an extra hundred cable ties to hold everything onto the bike.

I think your budget is optimistic. Normally when you find a product that's much cheaper than the competition it's because it's junk. Either it's going to fail much sooner, it doesn't work as well, or it's missing key things you assume are required. In this case I think you'll find that it's both unreliable and less than you expect - the motor will be less powerful and the battery smaller (it will go less distance per charge). It will all fall apart within a few months.

Make sure that you have a reasonable workshop and a collection of bike brackets and stuff that you can use to assemble and install the kit. Those kits either come with a huge bag of brackets and bits that you won't use for your bike because they come with every bracket you might need for any bike, or they come with one set of parts and inevitably you need a different set. Cheap kits will always be the latter type, so you will need to put their brackets in a vice and hammer/bend them to fit your bike. Or add a stack of washers and use longer bolts to get the thing to sit right. You many also end up needing to add more bracing. With the kit you're looking at, note that they mention "spot weld the sprocket"... you will also need a welder.

I have a friend who has spent a lot of time on this, and eventually built a business around importing electric bike kits and bikes from China and Taiwan. His experience has been that since he's legally required to offer a minimum one year warranty, he has to use kits that cost him at least $500 and realistically more like $1000 (because people look at the "100 watts for 30 minutes" kit you get for $500 and don't see the point).


Brake lever seizing up from cold I have perfectly ordinary standard-pull brake levers on my bike. When the temperature gets below 20F or so, the left-hand one seizes up, not wanting to pull, and not braking well if I force it. Once the temperature warms up a bit, it's fine.

Diagnosis? Cure? I'm pretty sure the actual brakes are fine, and the cable looks okay too.

(If there's a duplicate, feel free to kill this one; I looked but didn't find an exact symptom match.)

If the brakes are reluctant to move in both directions then it's mostly likely water in the lines. You may be able to get away with bringing the bike inside letting it dry out for a day or two and re-sealing the lines with grease.


Tubeless road wheels won't pump past 80 psi I bought new Bontrager Aeolus XXX TLR Tubeless Road wheel set and had them put together by A Trek bike shop. They supposedly put in the right amount of sealant but when I pump them up past 80 PSI they immediately decompress back down to about 80 PSI . I rode them at the 80 PSI and they felt good but the rear tire down to 40 PSI at end of 60 miles.

One thing I worry about was the bike shop guy insisted on putting the O-ring on the valve even though the instructions specifically said to remove the o-ring for road tires. The reason I took it to the bike shop was I couldn't get either tire to seat.

I was going to add more sealant but didn't know how much to add since I know there is some already in there and didn't want to deflate the wheel fearing the bead would fall off.

Road tubeless tires have a pressure limit of 80-85 psi (depending on who you ask). I'll admit I'm surprised that this limit is self-enforcing in this way.

The fact that you're losing so much pressure in the course of a ride is obviously problematic—the air is getting out somewhere. I don't think you'd be losing that much air through the tire walls. If the tire walls are very porous, you should see a fair amount of sealant weeping through too, and you may need to add sealant until the weeping ends. There are kits for inserting sealant through the valve, if/when you need to do that. Is it possible you're "burping" the tire and losing pressure that way?

Seating the tires often requires a fast inrush of pressure into the tire to pop the beads past the "shoulders" on the floor of the rim; there are special pumps and pressurizable canisters for this exact purpose.


Surly Pugsley bottom bracket replacement Does the bottom bracket on Surly Pugsley need to be replaced with a like for like  surly part (100mm external bottom bracket) or will any 100mm external bottom bracket be compatible..?

The surly part is quite expensive compared to some other brands, but I can't be certain that they are compatible with the Surly O.D. crank.

First time doing this job, apologise for any ignorance.

Appreciate any insight.

Surly O.D cranks have a standard (for threaded external BB bearings) 24mm spindle diameter, and the outboard bearing units seem to be standard width (unlike the extra wide Surly Moonlander specific variant. I think you are safe with a non Surly 100mm BB.


Can't find a rear replacement wheel 29" x 2.125 coaster brake - single speed Trying to repair my son's motor bike. He wore the brake pads down to the metal and damaged the rim. I'm trying to find a matching 29" x 2.125 - coaster brake - single speed wheel. I'm also wondering if a slightly narrower rim and tire would be compatible or would that cause any problems?? No luck in my search so far... desperate!.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you're in the US then almost any bike shop can easily order you this wheel from J&B Importers, or this one. Those have Weinmann 519 rims, which are kind of more hybrid than cruiser/mountain - around 24mm wide, whereas a proper balloon tire cruiser rim is around 30-32mm. But if you want to go narrower than what's probably on there, it will be fine.

A bunch of dealer-level brands have made 29er cruisers, Torker and Felt in the US market that I can think of offhand, so one way of procuring an inexpensive pre-built 29er coaster cruiser wheel can be from them through their dealers. Usually that kind of thing will mean a call from the dealer to the company to see if they have any as replacement parts, as opposed to being a normal catalog item. Torker is a mostly non-territorial  brand of Accell North America that most shops with an account with them (which, again if you're in the US, is most of them) can get, so if a Torker T29 (the name of their fairly long-running 29er coaster brake cruiser) rear replacement wheel is available, any shop you want to work with can probably get it.

If nothing in that direction pans out, or if you want to spend a little more to get higher quality, then just building such a wheel is something any good shop can do.


How to determine wheel size on touring bike I have a touring bike that has tires that read 36 X 2.0.   It is a 9 speed and I want to  buy new wheels.  Can I buy 26 X1.75 and how does the gear system play into the rear tire sizing?

The gear system doesn't play into the rear tire sizing.

Assuming your old tires are 26x2.0 (not 36x2.0), your rim is an ISO 559 rim and you can buy any tire marketed as 26 x some number in decimal.

That being said, the size of the tire you can run in practice is determined by frame clearance (not a problem since you're going to a smaller tire) and the rim width. If the tire is too narrow for the rim, increased likelihood for rim damage from road hazards. If the tire is too wide, you may have reduced control. But the tire will physically go on a rim thats too wide/narrow if its of the right diameter (in this case, 26 x something in decimals or a tire thats marked as ISO 559).

That being said, most likely you are fine with running a 26x1.75 on these rims.


Training involved to ride 175 miles (281 km) in a day I want to be able to ride 175 miles (281 km) in a day (to do the Ride Across Wisconsin). I used to be able to do about 60 miles (96.5 km), only once hitting 80 miles (128 km), but I'm out of shape now. Wondering how I can systematically train to get to 175 miles at an average of 15 mph (24 km/h) Are there guides out there to help with this?  What's some advice?

[update] The RAW will happen each year, so my intention isn't to ride this year, rather what do I need to do to ride it in some future year?

I'm in the do it this year camp.

In comments you say you can currently ride probably a painful 60 (miles).

In general, a conservative plan is to extend your ride distances by 10% per week. But it's important to realize that marathon and iron man athletes do not train by running a marathon each week. The aim of their training is to build deep core fitness and endurance, so that on the day they have the resources to push beyond their normal levels.

You have 15 weeks to RAW day. If you start now, with a 30 mile (50 km) ride, and do a 50 mile (80 km) ride at the weekend, you'll be on your way. See this answer to a somewhat different question for the kind of plan to follow. With such a plan, in 7 weeks you could be riding 100 miles (160 km) in one ride on the weekend. Yay! All being well, health and injury wise, you could keep extending the distances, but that would be unwise. I suggest that when you can ride the century, that your long ride should be every other week, and as you extend the long ride, reduce the distance of the rides in the next week, to keep the training load constant. Limit the maximum ride to 8 hours in the saddle. At your pace that would be about 120 miles (close to 200 km). That would be about 16-20 hours training per week in the final weeks before you taper over the last two weeks. Oh, and remember to factor in recovery rides for the day after the long rides, especially when they are longer than about 90 miles (150 km). At that point you would be training 7 to 8 times a fortnight (light weeks and heavy weeks).

The RAW website is still being built, so everything is not clear yet. It seems likely that this will be a supported ride, but as I write this it doesn't say that. If it is supported, then the ride will be much easier. You can stop for refreshment at each station for just a few minutes (not too long, you don't want to cool down). One thing to work out on your long training rides is what food and drink works for you. Since you are not aiming at extreme performance (15 mph, ~25 kph), you don't need to use fancy / exotic food and drink. You must, however, eat and drink small amounts frequently, and right from the start.

Another thing to consider is your bike and other gear. Does it need maintenance? Can it carry two drink bottles? Are you practiced with tire repairs? Do you have a variety of cycling garments, especially a lightweight rain top? The latter is valuable as a windproof top, eg if the morning start is cold.


What is ideal for long distance road bike rides 23mm or 25mm tires? I keep reading that the drop line for 25mm tires is greater. Obviously the 25mm tires have more volume. Do they have fewer pinch flats? Are they more comfortable, because they create less vibration? What about wet conditions? Why should I give up a 23mm tire?

A 25mm tyre can be run at a lower pressure with the same rolling resistance, thus giving you a slightly more comfortable ride, and slightly better grip in wet conditions or on a dirty surface.  If you take that reduction in pressure too far, you'll get more pinch flats, but you'll be very comfortable just before you stop to fix that flat. :-)

However, if you inflate to the appropriate pressure then you'll get a better ride, better grip, with minimal difference in rolling resistance - the downside being weight, and possibly an increase in frontal area causing a little more drag.    So why don't the pro teams use a 25mm if there are all those advantages?  There's some indication that they have been starting to over the last few years:

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/are-wider-tyres-really-faster-160403
http://www.competitivecyclist.com/learn/25-vs-23
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/05/news/giro-tech-rise-of-the-25c-tire_218011
http://cyclingtips.com.au/2014/04/tyre-trends-what-the-teams-are-using-for-paris-roubaix/

So what is the right pressure? Here's how to work it out: a 25mm tyre is about 8.7% wider than a 23mm, so round that to 10% for easier calculations which means that you can run about 10% less air pressure in a 25mm as compared to a 23mm.  E.g. if you typically run a 23mm at 100PSI, then run your 25mm at 90PSI.

Note - I have never had a pinch flat in a road tyre in 15 years of riding road bikes, so if that is your concern, the you may be running your tyres at too low pressure for your weight (or your local roads are much rougher than mine).  The thing about the weight is not meant to be an insult - I'm just reminding you that your tyre pressure needs to be in proportion with the weight that's being supported: made up of your bike, you, and your luggage.

If you're riding on gravel/dirt often, consider a 28mm - but first check that it will fit in your frame (1 of my bikes can fit a 28mm on the front, but only a 25mm on the back - which is a bit annoying).


A Good Workout Plan For a Busy Person? I work in this company from Monday to Friday starting from 8 a.m to 6 p.m. I do overtime almost daily and usually arrived at home at around 9 p.m. I'm not a fit person. Last time I tried to do some running I vomit like a dragon. Won't do that ever again so I decided to buy my first mountain bike after 15 years. It's been one month since I bought this.

My current routine is to ride on Sundays (once a week). Usually lasts 1-2 hours with 14 - 27 km distance with 100-ish meters of elevation at 11-12 km/h speed (always the same route each week) I can feel a huge progress on me by just being able to ride longer and farther than my previous routine.

Is it good for a beginners to do a one ride per week routine? I feel like I could improve more by doing a night ride, but I'm not sure because of the dense traffic around my area.

Also I need your suggestion about the most effective routine for a "busy" person. Thank you.

Going for a start on a weekend like you are doing is a perfect idea.
Once you are comfortable with this (sounds like you're getting better already), perhaps the simplest and most time-effective way would be to try and use your bike to get to or from work.

You can start simple: ride to work one day a week, and if that makes you very tired, you can leave it there and return home by other means, riding your bike back the next day. I am a lazy person when it comes to exercise (I would never go to the gym) yet I have found that using my bike to commute effectively gives me 'free' exercise that does not take up any extra time in my day. As a bonus, it gives me something to look forward to in the mornings and evenings too!

No need to rush into things though. As you are doing, start with one day a week, and move from there when you feel ready.


How to assess quality of suspension How does one measure the quality of the suspension of a bike? In other words, what feedback would I be looking for when riding the bike? Is it more than just happy thoughts after landing a few drops off some ledges? The answer is undoubtedly "it depends", but some elaboration on that for some different scenarios would be nice.

After doing dupe due diligence, the closest thing to a duplicate question was this: How to test-ride a full-suspension bike? and at the top the question was about how to know if a frame fits. I could have missed a dupe. If so, I'm sure I'll hear about it forthwith.

This is a hard question to answer without narrowing down the question.  The question is very similar to "What's the best bike for me?" There are several different designs (frame) for doing suspension.  Then there are several different types of suspension (coil, air, elastomer, oil, material, etc).  Just like the different frame designs have strengths and weaknesses, the different shock/suspension types do as well.  Finally there is riding style and preference. None of that even takes into account the vastly different feels than can be accomplished on one bike now through suspension setup (tuning preload, return, etc).

If you took a very small travel suspension setup designed to be extremely light and responsive for XC racing (for example) and tried it off some drops and ledges, assuming you didn't damage it, you'd probably be disappointed with the feel for the cost.  Just as a good bike should be designed with a set of riding circumstances in mind, so should be suspension.  That XC rig might be worth $10K and worthy of a World Cup XC race, but if you decided to try it as an urban progressive bike or downhill rig, you are going to (likely) break it and/or be disappointed.  Similarly, if you took a $10K World Cup Downhill rig and tried to commute on it, or ride it on a XC style trail or course, it's going to feel like an unresponsive pig and wear you out.

In short, the best that you could hope to do was test a suspension setup on a trail, course or conditions you plan to ride and see how it feels.  Even then you'll likely need to make adjustments and such to get the setup right for a particular trail/course/staircase.


Freehub pawl system vs star ratchet system If you were to choose between a Hope Pro 4 hub and a DT Swiss 350 or 240, purely based on their freehub types, ie Hope's pawl system or DT's ratchet system, which would you choose and why?

The main question is, which system is better, and why?

Just to be clear, these are the two types

Pawls System:

Ratchet System:

Hope hubs are a very refined, reliable execution of the pawl design. They don't do much to illustrate the disadvantages of the concept that designs like the star ratchet are trying to address.

One potential downfall of pawl systems like Hope uses is that when things go wrong with them, either the pawls or the part inside the hub shell that the pawls engage, which I'll heretofore call the "drive ring" as it's named by some manufacturers, can become damaged. Typically the drive ring is a hardened steel piece threaded into the shell. Some potential scenarios:

If the pawl mechanism is underlubricated, contaminated, underpowered and/or imprecise, partial engagement between the pawls and the drive ring can occur. In this situation the pawls haven't sufficiently sprung up into the mating teeth of the drive ring at the moment the rider applies drive force. Instead the tips of pawls and the drive ring teeth ram into one another and may slip, potentially causing damage to either or both. Pawl-based drive systems can all do this under the right circumstances, it always has some destructive potential. It's also possible for issues with unequal spring tension, damaged or displaced springs, or other imprecisions to create a situation where some pawls get overloaded and become damaged or fail. Avoiding any such issue is one of the main goals of systems like the star ratchet.
There can be hardening problems with the pawls or drive ring. Sadly I've seen this on the drive ring once or twice on well-known, expensive, small production hubs, which were at least able to be warrantied. Issues of this sort are of course possible with other designs, but see below why it's painful with drive rings.

In either case, the teeth of either the pawls or drive ring can become chipped and deformed. At that point the problem can begin to build on itself. The teeth have to be sharp for the system to work as intended.

One thing about drive rings is that few manufacturers make them easy to replace if something does go wrong. When it is possible, either you need a new one plus a weird, expensive, proprietary tool that goes in and mates with the teeth, or in some cases you need to send your wheel in to the manufacturer. High-end aftermarket hubs and some wheelsets will typically give you one of those two options. Beyond that, neither option usually exists. You can find some high-dollar wheelsets where once the warranty period has elapsed, addressing a drive ring problem is difficult or impossible.

So while the drive ring is not technically a dynamic surface that's integral to the hub, in practice it might as well be in many cases, and my experience is they can be a little more damage-prone than people realize. Pawls and their hardware are typically more available, although sometimes they can only be replaced along with a new freehub body. And for older, lower end, or OEM hubs, they may be unobtainable.

More aggressive sealing and spring force are both design weapons against engagement issues on a pawl hub ever occurring. (Hope hubs take both pretty far). Reliability is increased at the expense of marginally increasing drag while coasting, the funny thing about coasting drag of course being that to a point, it's not a great concern in most riding disciplines where it's reasonable to split hairs about performance.

Systems like DT Star Ratchet and King Ring Drive, which I'm going to arbitrarily call "drive plate" designs, are trying to make partial engagement closer to being physically impossible, even with contamination and poor lubrication. Contact area is increased at every step of the torque transfer, and it's between two unified pieces, rather than separate pawls that are only as good at engaging all at once as their spring tensions are equal. Extant examples of drive plate hubs make all parts fairly easy to replace but very seldom need it, due to their efficacy at distributing load over more area. This quality is of heightened value in a hub one invests in with the intention of re-using indefinitely as rims wear out.

Pawl systems have an advantage at each approximate price point in the rate of engagement numbers they can obtain while still being reliable overall. At the high end, Industry 9 is a poster child, with ROE numbers down to 0.52°. Plate type systems have in contrast seemed to find their limit at 5-6° for a King or 240, presumably because their torque-transferring parts are smaller by necessity and so making the toothed/splined parts any smaller would sacrifice too much strength or otherwise become impractical.

Another way of looking at is that pawl and drive ring systems, and especially the highest performing ones, need to push everything to the limit in terms of materials, hardening, machining precision, matched spring tension, etc. The best ones are only the best because of how close they fly to the sun. Plate systems don't have that dynamic, but at least as far as what exists to date, they take a little hit on rate of engagement potential.

I personally feel that between the Pro 4 and 350 freehub, both are reliable but the star ratchet design gets there in a way that's more elegant and robust. But, the 8° ROE on the Pro 4 versus 18° for a stock 350 would be a reasonable deciding point. Different riders value ROE very differently, and for good reason.


Thoughts about tri bar / trekking bar on hybrid bicycle I have an hybrid bicycle Firefox Rapide 21S. I ride regularly around 40 KM.

In headwind I feel like I should be in aero position so sometimes I put my elbows on my handlebar and it helps to reduce the drag. But that position is not very comfortable when my elbows are resting on flat handlebar. I have flat stem and already have lowered the stem. I also have bar ends.

I'm thinking about adding clip-on tri bars for more aero position, or I can relax my hands on for long rides.

I also thought of replacing riser bar with trekking bar, for more hand position, and also I can put my elbows on trekking bar which can be more comfortable because of bar tape on handlebar.

Is tri bar on hybrid a feasible option? Or trekking bar will be good choice? I would like your thoughts which could be better option.

Or should I simply replace my handlebar with bullhorn bar which would be great. But will my existing brake/shifter will work on bullhorn bar?

Aero bars (this is the actual name of what you call "tri bar") is surely a comfortable and affordable solution. In the Netherlands you see people with aero bars on hybrid bikes quite often - it is very common way to use the bike for a long commute and ease of manoeuvrability in the city traffic.

The only disadvantage of a simple version of aero bars is that you don't have the shifters and brakes there. For the shifters it's just inconvenience, for the brake handles it is also safety issue.

Bear in mind that aero bars have some pads designed for the elbows (or actually forearms) support and nothing (even thick wrapped bar) will beat it.

Don't forget that the distance between the saddle and the bars should not be too long - when your body leans forward you shouldn't be stretching too much to reach for the handlebars. Otherwise you risk lower back pain on longer (in my experience >40km) journeys.

Concerning the bullhorn bars - in my opinion there won't be any added value for you except for the looks of the bike. And whether the brake handles and shifters are compatible depends only on the diameter of the bar you are replacing.


Has SRAM discontinued i-light hub dynamo? I haven't been able to find SRAM hub dynamos lately. Has SRAM discontinued making of hub dynamos?

According to this page yes, the hub

  is discontinued and is no longer available

@armb's assumption may be true. They stopped making IGH's and dynamo hubs for the same reason, at the same time. I-light had such a small market share that it didn't even earned to be mentioned.


Which Shimano Centerlock Rotors Work with Avid BB7 Mountain Brake Calipers? I spent a lot of time trying to figure this out, so I thought I would post this to maybe save others the hassle.
The problem: Avid BB7 Calipers don't play nice with many of the popular Shimano Centerlock rotors.

The center spider on these rotors can extend so far that it fouls the little brass tabs at the base of the BB7 brake pads, especially if you're using the smallest, 160mm rotors.

(True, you can cut those little tabs off easily enough, but that doesn't fix the 2nd problem.)

The broad center spider (there to increase stiffness and provide a heat sink) makes the rotor so stiff that it doesn't work well with the Avid BB7's single-side push design. It can't effectively shove the rotor from the outboard side toward the inboard pad, so you'll get poorer braking, uneven wear, and frequent pad replacement will be required.

There are two different issues here; firstly the rotor width, and then the rotor spider.
I have a spreadsheet of all Shimano's disc brakes (excluding the 1970s models) here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19BJHVS0SvaW-xWd_gmYZuNQlYWgO0M58Um57g8HR29c
check the 'rotors' tab
Essentially the very first Shimano disc brake (post 1970s) in 1999 was made by Grimeca, and was part of the Deore XT M750 series; BR-M755. The Rotor was a six-bolt design called RT75. It was a hydraulic brake.
The next disc brake was the mechanical Deore M515, in 2000. I'm not really sure who made this, but it's a fairly generic design and uses pads that are used on Clarks and Tektro brakes. The same pads are still used on all low-end Shimano brakes today. This came out with RT50
Centerlock was first released in 2002 and was part of the XTR M960 series, hence RT96. There was now a Shimano-specific brake pad, which was narrower (in terms of how far they extend into the diameter of the rotor) than the generic ones used on the M515 etc.

cf. the generic pad used on M515 etc.

The rotor was still a fairly generic design:
RT96:

cf.
RT75

The real change came with the release of XTR M975, in 2006, and RT97. The pad design did not change, but now Shimano was ready to release rotors that only worked with their 'narrow' pads. (the narrow pad design above was changed in 2010, to add support for fins)

And since a 'narrow' pad was standard, Shimano could use less steel for their braking track, and more carbon fibre spider or whatever, saving 10g for XTR users but making everyone else's life more difficult:

Anyway, since the early days Shimano insisted on making a cheap rotor out of non-hardened steel that would wear out quickly if used with sintered pads. The introduction of their new 'high-end narrow' vs 'low-end wide' rotors, pads, and calipers meant that they could eliminate the hardened rotors for the wide calipers. Hence the last such design was SM-RT63, released in 2005. All subsequent 'wide' rotors were non-hardened.
If one compares the SM-RT54 with SM-RT64

Then the braking track is 'wide'.
It seems to me that Shimano set out to create their own ecosystem, incompatible with anyone else's. The problem with SM-RT64 is that it might work with a given third-party brake given that it does not use any plastic parts near the braking surface, but given that the braking track is narrow, it might mean that the third party brake ends up doing something like this, but reversed (i.e. instead of the incomplete contact being on the outside of the rotor, you end up with it being on the inside of the rotor):

Therefore it seems that Shimano's 'narrow' brake rotors are probably best used only with Shimano's 'narrow' brake calipers.
Other than seeking out old rotors such as RT63, it strikes me that Shimano's cheaper rotors (anything numbered below '60' essentially) work just fine, and they are quite cheap, albeit that they should wear out quickly if used with a sintered pad.
Alternatively there are a number of third party centerlock rotors , such as Jagwire, TRP, SRAM 'Centerline', etc.


Should I grease press fit attachments? When two parts are press fit together (e.g., headset cup and head tube, crank arm and bottom bracket, etc.) is it proper to grease the surfaces that will fit together, or not?

if you are using a high-end aluminum-shell BB, then get the "press-fit" specific Loctite and use that.  this stuff is made for press-fit applications and holds well without any creeks.  I put it in for my Cervelo R5 and a ceramic-speed BB and it is perfect over 3 years later. If you are using those cheap, plastic cups, then grease and go.


How to calculate the capacity of a rear derailleur It's easy to calculate what capacity of a rear derailleur will be needed based on the size of the big and small chainring and the big and small cog. What about the converse question, how to calculate the capacity of a derailleur?

I was comparing some short-cage rear derailleurs I have lying around, and I noticed that the cage length and pulley sizes varied enough that they probably had different capacities.

Related question: is there a fairly comprehensive place to look these up?

If you are asking how to calculate the maximum capacity of the chainrings and cogs, based on looking at the derailleur, then it's not going to be as easy as just looking at them.

Finding a derailleur to fit your chainrings/cogs based on just the chainrings/cogs is going to be a lot easier than finding chainrings based on looking at your derailleur. HOWEVER, there are some standards for manufacturer, I have listed them below. I have also included the formula to find out your capacities, since I misread your question initially and decided to answer the part you weren't concerned with. I am not deleting it because, well, it took a while to type.

According to United Bicycle Institute:

Determine Maximum Chainring Difference by subracting the number of teeth in the smallest chainring from the number of teeth in the largest chainring
Determine Maximum Cassette Cog Difference by subtracting the number of teeth on the smallest cassette cog from the number of teeth on the largest cassette cog
Determine Total Drivetrain Capacity by adding Maximum Chainring Difference to the Maximum Cassette Cog Difference
Record the Maximum Cassette Cog (the number of teeth on the largest Cassette Cog)

For Shimano:

SS - Short Cage Road Double - Maximum Cassette Cog is 27 and Total Capacity is 29

GS - Medium Cage MTB/Road Triple - Maximum Cassette Cog is 34(MTB)/27(Road) and Total Capacity is 33(MTB)/37(Road)

SGS - Long MTB - Maximum Cassette Cog is 34 and Total Capacity is 45

For SRAM:

Short - Maximum Cassette Cog is 34(MTB)/28(Road) and Total Capacity is 32(MTB)/31(Road)

Medium - Maximum Cassette Cog is 34 and Total Capacity is 37

Long - Maximum Cassette Cog is 34 and Total Capacity is 45

For Campagnolo:

Short - Maximum Cassette Cog is 26 and Total Capacity is 27

Medium - Maximum Cassette Cog is 29 and Total Capacity is 36

Long - Maximum Cassette Cog is 29 and Total Capacity is 39

NOTE - THIS INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE BY MANUFACTURER

And a great source for all of this is Sutherland's 7th edition

http://www.sutherlandsbicycle.com/7th_Edition.html

Hope that helps


Recommended inexpensive heart-rate monitors? Since I last used a heart rate monitor (about eight years ago), wrist-watch only monitors seem to have increased in popularity (based on the offerings at Amazon)

update apparently these watches come with a chest strap, although the chest-strap is not included in the product description..

In the 90's and early 00's, heart rate monitors never lasted me more than a year or two before the signal or the contacts started to fail.

My primary question is ... can you recommended an inexpensive (<$50) monitor?

I can't speak about HRM's that do not use a chest strap as that's the only type that I have used (other than to play with in the store).  I find the ones with a chest strap to be completely hassle free, and I don't have to contort into a weird position to get a reading.

I've had great luck with HRM's from Timex and Nashbar in the $50 range, and like Polar but have never owned one.

If you do go with a chest strap type, the primary thing to watch out for in the lower-end range is the ability to change the strap battery.  Some have a sealed chest strap, so you either have to tear it apart and super-glue it back together, or replace the strap entirely.


Where can I find local bike routes? Where are the best places to find bike maps with local routes and trails?

Places I typically reference when searching for this includes:

Most local bike shops (LBS) have local maps available or for sale.
Employees of any LBS are often avid riders and will hold a plethora of knowledge about the local area and trails.
Local trail clubs (typically volunteers that help maintain trails in an area) can be a resource to direct you to finding maps or trail information.
Your local Chamber of Commerce or Parks & Rec type of department will typically have maps of local bike routes.
Google Maps has recently introduced the ability to find directions from one place to another by bike.  For certain metro areas they will route you along known bike routes or trails. When doing directions click on the "Bike" icon to tailor it specifically for bikes.

Please feel free to add more.

You can use google maps, and click on the bike to see local bike paths and trails. (still in beta but very good nonetheless.

http://www.bikely.com
http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/
http://www.ridethecity.com
http://www.pedaling.com

are some of the more popular routing sites, I'm sure there are more but that should get you started :)

Also (added by editor)

http://ridewithgps.com/
http://bikeroutetoaster.com/
https://www.strava.com/activities/search