On Saturday, March 2, 2019 at 6:24:14 PM UTC-8, Radey Shouman wrote:
Ralph Barone writes:

Joerg wrote:
On 2019-03-02 08:28, Mark J. wrote:
On 3/2/2019 8:04 AM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-28 18:31, AMuzi wrote:
On 2/28/2019 6:49 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-27 14:47, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 08:09:04 -0800, Joerg

wrote:

On 2019-02-25 11:42, Tosspot wrote:
On 2/25/19 5:06 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2019-02-25 07:29, Ralph Barone wrote:
AMuzi wrote:
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/reca...nd-aftermarket







Mysterious. How the hell did that happen in a design
100+ years
old?

They must have improved it.


In German there is the inofficial word
"verschlimmbessern". It sums
up the action of "Here we have a working design but
let's optimize it
anyhow" and then it all goes to pots. A very common
scenario in
software design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_D8r-2hwk


Sometimes those things happen for reasons Tom mentioned.
People using
library modules that others have written, assuming
everything in those
we be just fine. And then things aren't.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer gear with the
least amount of
electronics and software in there and, for example, will
never be caught
with electronic shifters on a bicycle.

True, but then people also have had the metal shift cables
break and
been restricted to a single gear. It appears that
everything is
subject to failure :-)


That is very rare, more so than a derailer ripped away by a
rock.

Main thing is, with batteries the number of available shifts
per charge is finite. I was told that front shifts are
especially hard on the battery and on mountainous
singletrack that's used a lot.

If I had north of $1k burning in my pocket I'd rather spend
that on a Rohloff. That one allows shifts across the
complete gear range at very low or zero speed which is very
useful in MTB riding. To heck with the extra weight.


Old fashioned junk. Try to keep up:

https://bikerumor.com/2019/02/24/rot...pset-at-1785g/



13-speed, yikes. When that has run it's course they'll offer 14-speed.
When will we have CVT for bicycles?

I recently installed a longer rear derailer, a hanger extender and a
11-40T cassette. I hacked it to fit the old 6-speed road bike, now
7-speed. For a guy getting older and having moved into hill country
that makes a major difference. The only downside with such a large
cassette for me is when I stop pedaling too suddenly or pedal
backwards a little to level the cranks for a water crossing. Then the
chain slaps violently and hits the right chainstay. Happens only when
on the smaller sprockets, due to the flywheel effect. So now there is
a piece of slit pool sweep hose on top of that as "sacrificial material".

They make modern rear derailleurs with a "clutch" in/on the jockey
pulley to avoid just this chain-slap problem. Example:
https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/produ...-RX800-GS.html

The described "on-off switch" is for the clutch.


Interesting! However, that derailer retails north of $100. My solution
with a $20 derailer and a chunk of plastic hose with three cable ties
leaves $80 to spend at bicycle gas stations, a.k.a. brewpubs :-)

An upside is that such kludges along with mud caked onto the frame and a
hose clamp fix on the steerer greatly reduce the chance of this bike
being stolen while in a city.

http://www.analogconsultants.com/ng/bike/Hoseclamp.JPG


If you ever decide to fix it in a similarly cheap, but more aesthetically
pleasing fashion, cut a strip out of an old inner tube, then wrap it around
the chainstay and super glue it to itself on the inside of the chainstay.

Or just buy a roll of helicopter tape, enough for several dozen bikes.

--

While that keeps chain grease off of the stay it doesn't prevent it from being slapped hard enough to damage the paint or even dent the stay. When you peel the take off the paint comes with it. The best idea if you can call it that is to have the proper chain length and gear selections so that you don't have chain slap. Also you can learn to shift only one gear at a time so that you get less chain length variation and almost no chain slap at all. Not that I'm not guilty of shifting at the last second and going down 5 gears.