Tacx brake shoe tuner

Anyone have any experience with this? It looks like an ingenious design,
and I am thinking it might be a real time saver, especially with smooth
post shoes.
http://www.tacx.nl/flash_content/mai...bandwidth=high
Dan


--
Dan Burkhart

Dan Burkhart wrote:
Anyone have any experience with this? It looks like an ingenious design,
and I am thinking it might be a real time saver, especially with smooth
post shoes.
http://www.tacx.nl/flash_content/mai...bandwidth=high
Dan


Neat looking tool; might actually work. Gotta try one. Thanks for the find.

Horrible website. Flash geeks.

Tom

Dan Burkhart wrote:
Anyone have any experience with this? It looks like an ingenious design,
and I am thinking it might be a real time saver, especially with smooth
post shoes.
http://www.tacx.nl/flash_content/mai...bandwidth=high
Dan



Or http://www.tacx.nl/html/index.php?pageid=104 for those who don't care
to experience flash.

It's unfortunate that Tacx won't allow a larger picture, but it appears
to be a simple piece of plastic that must be thinner and thicker fore to
aft in the direction of the rim contact. This is a simple toe-in tool.
I can't see how it might be of help with smooth-post pads. It would
be most effective for modern bolt-on pads like vee-brakes and modern
canti's utilize, where you can simply squeeze the lever and align the
pad to the rim. You can't do that with smooth-post canti's.

Besides, any old piece of plastic lying around achieves the same goal.


Robin Hubert

Robin Hubert wrote on Sunday 15 January 2006 17:41:

Dan Burkhart wrote:
Anyone have any experience with this? It looks like an ingenious
design, and I am thinking it might be a real time saver, especially
with smooth post shoes.
http://www.tacx.nl/flash_content/mai...bandwidth=high
Dan



Or http://www.tacx.nl/html/index.php?pageid=104 for those who don't
care to experience flash.

It's unfortunate that Tacx won't allow a larger picture, but it
appears to be a simple piece of plastic that must be thinner and
thicker fore to
aft in the direction of the rim contact. This is a simple toe-in
tool.
I can't see how it might be of help with smooth-post pads. It would
be most effective for modern bolt-on pads like vee-brakes and modern
canti's utilize, where you can simply squeeze the lever and align the
pad to the rim. You can't do that with smooth-post canti's.

Besides, any old piece of plastic lying around achieves the same goal.


Robin Hubert

I have a bit of old, torn up, Shimano carboard box in my toolbox that
sets the brake toe-in just about perfectly. Total cost: ZERO. Who buys
this sort of junk, and why?
--
Regards
Alex
The From address above is a spam-trap.
The Reply-To address is valid

Alex Potter (59) wrote:


I have a bit of old, torn up, Shimano carboard box in my toolbox that
sets the brake toe-in just about perfectly. Total cost: ZERO. Who buys
this sort of junk, and why?

Currently, no one in the US.

However, should it become available stateside, then it might be bought
by some who work on their bikes and are interested in exploring a better
solution to toeing brakes than a "bit of old, torn up, Shimano carboard
box".

If it takes a few minutes less to set a new set of shoes then it might
well be worth the modest price (currently about 12 - 15 Euros)
considering the level of aggravation that can be reached when the task
is not going well and the shims keep falling out.

I set up new shoes on cantilevers several times a year. Currently I'm
using some plastic shims that a tile setter left behind to set the toe.
They work well enough to set toe, but I often wish for second pair of
hands to hold those shims. To that end, the Tacx design is intriguing.

Tom

Tom Schmitz Wrote:
Dan Burkhart wrote:
Anyone have any experience with this? It looks like an ingenious
design,
and I am thinking it might be a real time saver, especially with
smooth
post shoes.

http://www.tacx.nl/flash_content/mai...bandwidth=high
Dan


Neat looking tool; might actually work. Gotta try one. Thanks for the
find.

Horrible website. Flash geeks.

Tom

Gotta agree with you on that web site. I like em simple & easy to
navigate.
Dan


--
Dan Burkhart

Alex Potter (59) Wrote:
Robin Hubert wrote on Sunday 15 January 2006 17:41:

Dan Burkhart wrote:
Anyone have any experience with this? It looks like an ingenious
design, and I am thinking it might be a real time saver, especially
with smooth post shoes.

http://www.tacx.nl/flash_content/mai...bandwidth=high
Dan



Or http://www.tacx.nl/html/index.php?pageid=104 for those who don't
care to experience flash.

It's unfortunate that Tacx won't allow a larger picture, but it
appears to be a simple piece of plastic that must be thinner and
thicker fore to
aft in the direction of the rim contact. This is a simple toe-in
tool.
I can't see how it might be of help with smooth-post pads. It
would
be most effective for modern bolt-on pads like vee-brakes and modern
canti's utilize, where you can simply squeeze the lever and align
the
pad to the rim. You can't do that with smooth-post canti's.

Besides, any old piece of plastic lying around achieves the same
goal.


Robin Hubert

I have a bit of old, torn up, Shimano carboard box in my toolbox that
sets the brake toe-in just about perfectly. Total cost: ZERO. Who buys
this sort of junk, and why?
--
Regards
Alex
The From address above is a spam-trap.
The Reply-To address is valid

Why, to keep innovation alive, and money changing hands, that's why.



--
Dan Burkhart

Tom Schmitz wrote on Sunday 15 January 2006 21:16:

However, should it become available stateside, then it might be bought
by some who work on their bikes and are interested in exploring a
better solution to toeing brakes than a "bit of old, torn up, Shimano
carboard box".


What "better solution"? The idea is to give a small degree of toe-in so
that in use the brakes do not squeal and the pads wear evenly along
their length. My free bit of cardboard does that job perfectly.

--
Regards
Alex
The From address above is a spam-trap.
The Reply-To address is valid

For a year or more it has been part of my vast collection of unnecessary
bicycle tools. I use it sometimes - if I don't have to look for it too
long. It works to it's purpose, and it supplied me with a good picture of
how little toe-in is needed. But I sure could do without it.
But then again I can also get along without the 11 euros it costs at my
favorite mail-order supplier.
I spend many fine hours riding, maintaining af fine tuning my bicycle. And
unnecessary tools are part of my game.

Ivar of Denmark

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 01:54:36 +1100, Dan Burkhart
skrev:


Anyone have any experience with this? It looks like an ingenious design,
and I am thinking it might be a real time saver, especially with smooth
post shoes.
http://www.tacx.nl/flash_content/mai...bandwidth=high
Dan





--
Sendt med Operas banebrydende nyhedsgruppe-
og e-postklient: http://www.opera.com/m2/

Alex Potter (59) wrote:
Tom Schmitz wrote on Sunday 15 January 2006 21:16:


However, should it become available stateside, then it might be bought
by some who work on their bikes and are interested in exploring a
better solution to toeing brakes than a "bit of old, torn up, Shimano
carboard box".



What "better solution"? The idea is to give a small degree of toe-in so
that in use the brakes do not squeal and the pads wear evenly along
their length. My free bit of cardboard does that job perfectly.

Alex -

I believe that you are being deliberately obtuse, however, I will humor
you one time.

Ever since dirt was new we have been using bits of cardboard or what
have you to act as a shim to set the toe in. In order to do that,
especially with smooth post shoes, we have had to hold the shoe to the
rim with one hand, hold an Allen wrench with the other, and hold a
spanner with the other. I don't know about you, but I just ran out of
hands. Meanwhile, in the midst of all of that, the shims fell out, so we
loop to start. I have yet to find a third hand tool that works well with
cantis.

Now, someone comes along with an idea for a tool that might make the job
just a bit easier insofar as the shims might be less likely to fall out.

I would be willing to try that and see if it works. If it does and I
like it, then to me it is a better solution.

I can't help but wonder what other innovations, ideas and changes you
eschew. Are you still using cottered cranks? Running a 5 speed cluster?
Not yet using stainless spokes? Still got those Rigida dimpled rims and
running 27 X 1 1/4 tires? All that stuff worked - why change?

Tom