Cycling Forum / General / Technical / December 2008

Had to play bike santa to myself this year, and only had $75 to burn
with the economy down. Terrible! I budget my craigslist earnings for
bike stuff--and the only recent buyer was for a pristine K1000 that
I'd got for naught.

I was looking at CARBON FIBER seat post today in a bicycle catalog.
I see the cost that a CF seat post can cost up to $200.00, I was
shocked.  What can the post do that $25.00 post can't do? I am really
amazed.

Would these be suitable for biking? Would I need to "lube up" before
riding a distance in them?
http://www.blockemf.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=762&products_id=5058
Anyone know where I can purchase a tin foil lined helmet to go with

Is this combo a no-no?  The salesman at my LBS said it's ok.  I just
don't seem to recall a valve stem with so much space between it and
the rim.  New tube is from Giant (presta, long and unthreaded).
Personaly, i've always liked threaded presta valve stems.  Thanks, Bob.

I have a 700c front road wheel, evidently from the mid 90s.  1st Generation
Zipp ballistic hub laced 32/2x to a Mavic Open4 CD rim.  Wheel absolutely
stays in true, I've used it fairly heavily for a couple of years now.  Nipples
are gold colored and evidently alloy.  Spokes ...

Does anyone know the Q-factor of 6600 Ultegra and 7800 Dura Ace double
cranks?
JT

http://mjgradziel.com/thelmajones/lureoftheopenroad.html
Not a lot of technical content, but much of interest in this
first-person account of a summer-long cycle tour (in 1944!) by two young
women that takes them from Buffalo to the Gulf of Mexico and back.

25.8mm/26mm clamp size road bars were fine for many, many years.  At
some point a few years ago oversize clamp 31.8mm bars came along.  Can
they really be "stiffer" or "better"?  My though is that a system is only as
strong as its weakest link and the 31.8mm clamp bar narrows ...

Today is one of those days when there is a single interesting
technical posting on RBT. Most of the rest is pointless bickering. Not
a good ratio, I'm sure you'll agree.
Learn to use killfiles, folks. It is easy to see who is on RBT because

Visited a bike shop today that I had never been to before.  Looked
around, checked out a few things, yakked with sales guy a bit, etc.  I
wasn't really looking for anything but felt compelled to get something
so I asked for a couple of  plain ol'  700 x 23 tubes.  I had to ask

Sounds great:
http://www.texbiker.net/blog/2008/12/29/vast-50000-mile-bicycle-trail-network-pr
oposed/

I need to cover a couple spots on my Trek 5500 frame where the finish has
taken some wear but not worth sending out for the factory finish..has anyone
got any experience with doing touch ups  like this?  I was thinking clear
nail polish...

There's some confusing stuff in current DT thread; quite possibly it
confuses more than just me, but no one else is admitting to not
knowing...
Which of these statements are true:

Don't have sex with your Euro bike. It could contain lead paint! :)
http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com/2008/12/leading-war-on-bike-love-no-more-says.html
BD