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Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#21
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JJP&E Through Axle Conversion Kit
On 9/13/2020 5:36 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 9/13/2020 2:06 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 1:46 PM, jbeattie wrote: On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9:20:35 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote: Op zondag 13 september 2020 om 18:01:23 UTC+2 schreef : On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 8:00:31 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 6:06:31 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:53:30 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:07:10 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: This is a cool product: https://theradavist.com/2020/06/conv...nversion-kits/ I got a 2016 Norco Search 105 gravel bike on super close-out sale from Western Bikeworks back in 2017 as a quick replacement for my broken commuter frame, and it came with 15X100 front through axles and crappy OE wheels. Meanwhile, the market moved to 12mm, so I couldn't swap-in the HED wheels on my more recent Synapse -- and my son just sent me some Roval C38s to replace the OE wheels on the Norco. The Rovals have DT350 hubs and 12mm front through axle. So to avoid buying end-caps or a whole new axle bearing unit (to convert a 12mm HED Ardennes to a 15mm through axle), I got one of these kits. Sweet. Install was a little more labored than the YouTube video because I had to clean up the threads so I could thread-in the insert from the outside of the fork. Otherwise, easy-peasy. I now have a 12mm through axle Search. I can easily convert the old 15mm front hub to a 12mm with a simple sleeve. The hub felt fine, and I'll use that for my fat tire wheel set. The rear hub felt rough, so I pulled off the free hub body. It is some no-brand hub made by Joytec or Novatec or ChiTek -- probably some tec, with a simple 4-pawl free hub body with two 6902 bearings and two more in the hub shell. The hub bearings felt great, but the free hub was really rough, so I knocked those out with a 1/2" copper pipe stub with a cap I had soldered on the end from an old plumbing project. It was the perfect tool. Plumbing meets bike repair. Bearings in the mail. That wheel is otherwise disposable with a cheap rim with ragged spoke holes that zip through the cheesy aluminum nipples -- but it will be good for a second set. It is amazing that relatively expensive bikes now come with junky wheels suitable only for holding-up the bike on the showroom floor. -- Jay Beattie. Tell me if you can feel any difference at all between the 40's and 50 aero wheels. I have a set of Campy cyclocross wheels that are 38 mm deep and my top speed with those and the 50 mm aero carbon wheels is exactly the same. I have this idea that just about any rim deeper than about 24 mm would give you exactly the same performance. Hambini keeps saying that you have to have 50 mm and 23 mm front tire but I think that is windtunnel and not practical information. Well, the C38 are 38mm and the deepest rims I own, so I wouldn't know -- except that I rode some 58mm Zipp 404s on a Roubaix in Utah. What I noticed with those was cross winds. It was unpleasant, particularly when descending fast. There were some "oh sh**" moments coming down one of the canyons on a windy day. I went for a short ride on the Norco and didn't feel any faster, probably because I was inhaling thick smoke. Nobody was out riding. A very post-apocalyptic vibe. I did notice that the Norco has slow steering compared to the Emonda, and the front end was a little too plush because I underinflated my tire. A 21mm internal width rim also rides pretty plush. No seal squeaking like on the OE wheels and no disc drag. It is a gravel bike, so I'm not really expecting it to feel terribly racy. I did a whopping 15 miles with maybe 1700 feet of climbing, rolling around the West Hills near my house. Like Frank, it was really just a glorified run to the hardware store. I wish I had a N95 mask for the smoke, although it would make huffing up hills hard. -- Jay Beattie. Masks while exercising can cause a condition called hypercapnia, or excessive CO2 in your lungs, this can damage your airways. As someone with damaged airways take my word for it that it is not something you should volunteer for. It has been known to cause sudden mental confusion and loss of balance. If you look this up on answers.com they claim it ain't so because the tests were run on people not heavily exercising. As usual, their game is to support the left no matter what. I decided to look to see what I could buy if I sell my Madone and was knocked almost flat. The cost of top end bikes has gone absolutely through the ceiling. I may sell my Madone off and use the results to pay my property taxes. I don't suppose that I'll need more than three bikes to always have a bike ready to go. OK, if you need to sell a bike/frame to pay your property taxes that is a good idea, but please make up your mind it is getting very confusing. Lou His point about top-end bikes is true, though.ツ* My son is always telling me about the newest Specialized bikes, including the new super-secret ones that I can't mention, and then he asks me to guess the price for the S-Works founders edition of the bike.ツ* The numbers are staggering and just keep going up into the stratosphere -- with big jumps as compared to just four years ago. $7K doesn't get you close to the top. Even the Canyon offerings are up by 20% or more. I don't think manufacturing costs have risen nearly that much -- maybe its tariffs (but I doubt it).ツ* I think it is just market elasticity. And that raises a point about diminishing returns. Is a $7000 road bike really twice as good as a $3500 road bike? Is it four times as good as a $1750 road bike? How much does it increase your speed, or your riding comfort, your maximum distance, or anything beyond your bragging rights? One of my earliest biking buddies (back in the early 1970s) said "I can't afford the best car in the world. I can't afford the best stereo system in the world. But I can afford the best bike in the world." Note that his statement wasn't in terms of performance benefits or longevity or anything practical. It was essentially bragging rights and self satisfaction. Almost no consumer items are a linear progression of price/quality at the top end. Bicycles are not different or special in that regard. You're right, of course. I'm sure I could make the same point on discussion groups devoted to airplanes, violins, wine, goldfish... -- - Frank Krygowski |
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#22
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JJP&E Through Axle Conversion Kit
On 9/13/2020 7:59 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 9/13/2020 5:36 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 2:06 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 1:46 PM, jbeattie wrote: On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9:20:35 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote: Op zondag 13 september 2020 om 18:01:23 UTC+2 schreef : On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 8:00:31 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 6:06:31 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:53:30 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:07:10 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: This is a cool product: https://theradavist.com/2020/06/conv...nversion-kits/ I got a 2016 Norco Search 105 gravel bike on super close-out sale from Western Bikeworks back in 2017 as a quick replacement for my broken commuter frame, and it came with 15X100 front through axles and crappy OE wheels. Meanwhile, the market moved to 12mm, so I couldn't swap-in the HED wheels on my more recent Synapse -- and my son just sent me some Roval C38s to replace the OE wheels on the Norco. The Rovals have DT350 hubs and 12mm front through axle. So to avoid buying end-caps or a whole new axle bearing unit (to convert a 12mm HED Ardennes to a 15mm through axle), I got one of these kits. Sweet. Install was a little more labored than the YouTube video because I had to clean up the threads so I could thread-in the insert from the outside of the fork. Otherwise, easy-peasy. I now have a 12mm through axle Search. I can easily convert the old 15mm front hub to a 12mm with a simple sleeve. The hub felt fine, and I'll use that for my fat tire wheel set. The rear hub felt rough, so I pulled off the free hub body. It is some no-brand hub made by Joytec or Novatec or ChiTek -- probably some tec, with a simple 4-pawl free hub body with two 6902 bearings and two more in the hub shell. The hub bearings felt great, but the free hub was really rough, so I knocked those out with a 1/2" copper pipe stub with a cap I had soldered on the end from an old plumbing project. It was the perfect tool. Plumbing meets bike repair. Bearings in the mail. That wheel is otherwise disposable with a cheap rim with ragged spoke holes that zip through the cheesy aluminum nipples -- but it will be good for a second set. It is amazing that relatively expensive bikes now come with junky wheels suitable only for holding-up the bike on the showroom floor. -- Jay Beattie. Tell me if you can feel any difference at all between the 40's and 50 aero wheels. I have a set of Campy cyclocross wheels that are 38 mm deep and my top speed with those and the 50 mm aero carbon wheels is exactly the same. I have this idea that just about any rim deeper than about 24 mm would give you exactly the same performance. Hambini keeps saying that you have to have 50 mm and 23 mm front tire but I think that is windtunnel and not practical information. Well, the C38 are 38mm and the deepest rims I own, so I wouldn't know -- except that I rode some 58mm Zipp 404s on a Roubaix in Utah. What I noticed with those was cross winds. It was unpleasant, particularly when descending fast. There were some "oh sh**" moments coming down one of the canyons on a windy day. I went for a short ride on the Norco and didn't feel any faster, probably because I was inhaling thick smoke. Nobody was out riding. A very post-apocalyptic vibe. I did notice that the Norco has slow steering compared to the Emonda, and the front end was a little too plush because I underinflated my tire. A 21mm internal width rim also rides pretty plush. No seal squeaking like on the OE wheels and no disc drag. It is a gravel bike, so I'm not really expecting it to feel terribly racy. I did a whopping 15 miles with maybe 1700 feet of climbing, rolling around the West Hills near my house. Like Frank, it was really just a glorified run to the hardware store. I wish I had a N95 mask for the smoke, although it would make huffing up hills hard. -- Jay Beattie. Masks while exercising can cause a condition called hypercapnia, or excessive CO2 in your lungs, this can damage your airways. As someone with damaged airways take my word for it that it is not something you should volunteer for. It has been known to cause sudden mental confusion and loss of balance. If you look this up on answers.com they claim it ain't so because the tests were run on people not heavily exercising. As usual, their game is to support the left no matter what. I decided to look to see what I could buy if I sell my Madone and was knocked almost flat. The cost of top end bikes has gone absolutely through the ceiling. I may sell my Madone off and use the results to pay my property taxes. I don't suppose that I'll need more than three bikes to always have a bike ready to go. OK, if you need to sell a bike/frame to pay your property taxes that is a good idea, but please make up your mind it is getting very confusing. Lou His point about top-end bikes is true, though.ツ My son is always telling me about the newest Specialized bikes, including the new super-secret ones that I can't mention, and then he asks me to guess the price for the S-Works founders edition of the bike.ツ The numbers are staggering and just keep going up into the stratosphere -- with big jumps as compared to just four years ago. $7K doesn't get you close to the top. Even the Canyon offerings are up by 20% or more. I don't think manufacturing costs have risen nearly that much -- maybe its tariffs (but I doubt it).ツ I think it is just market elasticity. And that raises a point about diminishing returns. Is a $7000 road bike really twice as good as a $3500 road bike? Is it four times as good as a $1750 road bike? How much does it increase your speed, or your riding comfort, your maximum distance, or anything beyond your bragging rights? One of my earliest biking buddies (back in the early 1970s) said "I can't afford the best car in the world. I can't afford the best stereo system in the world. But I can afford the best bike in the world." Note that his statement wasn't in terms of performance benefits or longevity or anything practical. It was essentially bragging rights and self satisfaction. Almost no consumer items are a linear progression of price/quality at the top end. Bicycles are not different or special in that regard. You're right, of course. I'm sure I could make the same point on discussion groups devoted to airplanes, violins, wine, goldfish... ....tandem bicycles, academic staff pensions... -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org/ Open every day since 1 April, 1971 |
#23
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JJP&E Through Axle Conversion Kit
On 9/13/2020 9:14 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 9/13/2020 7:59 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 5:36 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 2:06 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 1:46 PM, jbeattie wrote: On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9:20:35 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote: Op zondag 13 september 2020 om 18:01:23 UTC+2 schreef : On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 8:00:31 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 6:06:31 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:53:30 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:07:10 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: This is a cool product: https://theradavist.com/2020/06/conv...nversion-kits/ I got a 2016 Norco Search 105 gravel bike on super close-out sale from Western Bikeworks back in 2017 as a quick replacement for my broken commuter frame, and it came with 15X100 front through axles and crappy OE wheels. Meanwhile, the market moved to 12mm, so I couldn't swap-in the HED wheels on my more recent Synapse -- and my son just sent me some Roval C38s to replace the OE wheels on the Norco. The Rovals have DT350 hubs and 12mm front through axle. So to avoid buying end-caps or a whole new axle bearing unit (to convert a 12mm HED Ardennes to a 15mm through axle), I got one of these kits. Sweet. Install was a little more labored than the YouTube video because I had to clean up the threads so I could thread-in the insert from the outside of the fork. Otherwise, easy-peasy. I now have a 12mm through axle Search. I can easily convert the old 15mm front hub to a 12mm with a simple sleeve. The hub felt fine, and I'll use that for my fat tire wheel set. The rear hub felt rough, so I pulled off the free hub body. It is some no-brand hub made by Joytec or Novatec or ChiTek -- probably some tec, with a simple 4-pawl free hub body with two 6902 bearings and two more in the hub shell. The hub bearings felt great, but the free hub was really rough, so I knocked those out with a 1/2" copper pipe stub with a cap I had soldered on the end from an old plumbing project. It was the perfect tool. Plumbing meets bike repair. Bearings in the mail. That wheel is otherwise disposable with a cheap rim with ragged spoke holes that zip through the cheesy aluminum nipples -- but it will be good for a second set. It is amazing that relatively expensive bikes now come with junky wheels suitable only for holding-up the bike on the showroom floor. -- Jay Beattie. Tell me if you can feel any difference at all between the 40's and 50 aero wheels. I have a set of Campy cyclocross wheels that are 38 mm deep and my top speed with those and the 50 mm aero carbon wheels is exactly the same. I have this idea that just about any rim deeper than about 24 mm would give you exactly the same performance. Hambini keeps saying that you have to have 50 mm and 23 mm front tire but I think that is windtunnel and not practical information. Well, the C38 are 38mm and the deepest rims I own, so I wouldn't know -- except that I rode some 58mm Zipp 404s on a Roubaix in Utah. What I noticed with those was cross winds. It was unpleasant, particularly when descending fast. There were some "oh sh**" moments coming down one of the canyons on a windy day. I went for a short ride on the Norco and didn't feel any faster, probably because I was inhaling thick smoke. Nobody was out riding. A very post-apocalyptic vibe. I did notice that the Norco has slow steering compared to the Emonda, and the front end was a little too plush because I underinflated my tire. A 21mm internal width rim also rides pretty plush. No seal squeaking like on the OE wheels and no disc drag. It is a gravel bike, so I'm not really expecting it to feel terribly racy. I did a whopping 15 miles with maybe 1700 feet of climbing, rolling around the West Hills near my house. Like Frank, it was really just a glorified run to the hardware store. I wish I had a N95 mask for the smoke, although it would make huffing up hills hard. -- Jay Beattie. Masks while exercising can cause a condition called hypercapnia, or excessive CO2 in your lungs, this can damage your airways. As someone with damaged airways take my word for it that it is not something you should volunteer for. It has been known to cause sudden mental confusion and loss of balance. If you look this up on answers.com they claim it ain't so because the tests were run on people not heavily exercising. As usual, their game is to support the left no matter what. I decided to look to see what I could buy if I sell my Madone and was knocked almost flat. The cost of top end bikes has gone absolutely through the ceiling. I may sell my Madone off and use the results to pay my property taxes. I don't suppose that I'll need more than three bikes to always have a bike ready to go. OK, if you need to sell a bike/frame to pay your property taxes that is a good idea, but please make up your mind it is getting very confusing. Lou His point about top-end bikes is true, though.テつ* My son is always telling me about the newest Specialized bikes, including the new super-secret ones that I can't mention, and then he asks me to guess the price for the S-Works founders edition of the bike.テつ* The numbers are staggering and just keep going up into the stratosphere -- with big jumps as compared to just four years ago. $7K doesn't get you close to the top. Even the Canyon offerings are up by 20% or more. I don't think manufacturing costs have risen nearly that much -- maybe its tariffs (but I doubt it).テつ* I think it is just market elasticity. And that raises a point about diminishing returns. Is a $7000 road bike really twice as good as a $3500 road bike? Is it four times as good as a $1750 road bike? How much does it increase your speed, or your riding comfort, your maximum distance, or anything beyond your bragging rights? One of my earliest biking buddies (back in the early 1970s) said "I can't afford the best car in the world. I can't afford the best stereo system in the world. But I can afford the best bike in the world." Note that his statement wasn't in terms of performance benefits or longevity or anything practical. It was essentially bragging rights and self satisfaction. Almost no consumer items are a linear progression of price/quality at the top end. Bicycles are not different or special in that regard. You're right, of course. I'm sure I could make the same point on discussion groups devoted to airplanes, violins, wine, goldfish... ...tandem bicycles, academic staff pensions... Hey, tandem bicycles are a good topic for this group! Discuss away! Regarding academia, I'd prefer to discuss the value of tenure. Spoiler: I'm against it, as it's currently configured. But we can discuss pensions too, as long as I don't have to divulge too much personal information. (No, you can't have the name of my first pet.) -- - Frank Krygowski |
#24
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JJP&E Through Axle Conversion Kit
On 9/13/2020 8:23 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 9/13/2020 9:14 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 7:59 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 5:36 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 2:06 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 1:46 PM, jbeattie wrote: On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9:20:35 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote: Op zondag 13 september 2020 om 18:01:23 UTC+2 schreef : On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 8:00:31 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 6:06:31 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:53:30 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:07:10 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: This is a cool product: https://theradavist.com/2020/06/conv...nversion-kits/ I got a 2016 Norco Search 105 gravel bike on super close-out sale from Western Bikeworks back in 2017 as a quick replacement for my broken commuter frame, and it came with 15X100 front through axles and crappy OE wheels. Meanwhile, the market moved to 12mm, so I couldn't swap-in the HED wheels on my more recent Synapse -- and my son just sent me some Roval C38s to replace the OE wheels on the Norco. The Rovals have DT350 hubs and 12mm front through axle. So to avoid buying end-caps or a whole new axle bearing unit (to convert a 12mm HED Ardennes to a 15mm through axle), I got one of these kits. Sweet. Install was a little more labored than the YouTube video because I had to clean up the threads so I could thread-in the insert from the outside of the fork. Otherwise, easy-peasy. I now have a 12mm through axle Search. I can easily convert the old 15mm front hub to a 12mm with a simple sleeve. The hub felt fine, and I'll use that for my fat tire wheel set. The rear hub felt rough, so I pulled off the free hub body. It is some no-brand hub made by Joytec or Novatec or ChiTek -- probably some tec, with a simple 4-pawl free hub body with two 6902 bearings and two more in the hub shell. The hub bearings felt great, but the free hub was really rough, so I knocked those out with a 1/2" copper pipe stub with a cap I had soldered on the end from an old plumbing project. It was the perfect tool. Plumbing meets bike repair. Bearings in the mail. That wheel is otherwise disposable with a cheap rim with ragged spoke holes that zip through the cheesy aluminum nipples -- but it will be good for a second set. It is amazing that relatively expensive bikes now come with junky wheels suitable only for holding-up the bike on the showroom floor. -- Jay Beattie. Tell me if you can feel any difference at all between the 40's and 50 aero wheels. I have a set of Campy cyclocross wheels that are 38 mm deep and my top speed with those and the 50 mm aero carbon wheels is exactly the same. I have this idea that just about any rim deeper than about 24 mm would give you exactly the same performance. Hambini keeps saying that you have to have 50 mm and 23 mm front tire but I think that is windtunnel and not practical information. Well, the C38 are 38mm and the deepest rims I own, so I wouldn't know -- except that I rode some 58mm Zipp 404s on a Roubaix in Utah. What I noticed with those was cross winds. It was unpleasant, particularly when descending fast. There were some "oh sh**" moments coming down one of the canyons on a windy day. I went for a short ride on the Norco and didn't feel any faster, probably because I was inhaling thick smoke. Nobody was out riding. A very post-apocalyptic vibe. I did notice that the Norco has slow steering compared to the Emonda, and the front end was a little too plush because I underinflated my tire. A 21mm internal width rim also rides pretty plush. No seal squeaking like on the OE wheels and no disc drag. It is a gravel bike, so I'm not really expecting it to feel terribly racy. I did a whopping 15 miles with maybe 1700 feet of climbing, rolling around the West Hills near my house. Like Frank, it was really just a glorified run to the hardware store. I wish I had a N95 mask for the smoke, although it would make huffing up hills hard. -- Jay Beattie. Masks while exercising can cause a condition called hypercapnia, or excessive CO2 in your lungs, this can damage your airways. As someone with damaged airways take my word for it that it is not something you should volunteer for. It has been known to cause sudden mental confusion and loss of balance. If you look this up on answers.com they claim it ain't so because the tests were run on people not heavily exercising. As usual, their game is to support the left no matter what. I decided to look to see what I could buy if I sell my Madone and was knocked almost flat. The cost of top end bikes has gone absolutely through the ceiling. I may sell my Madone off and use the results to pay my property taxes. I don't suppose that I'll need more than three bikes to always have a bike ready to go. OK, if you need to sell a bike/frame to pay your property taxes that is a good idea, but please make up your mind it is getting very confusing. Lou His point about top-end bikes is true, though.テつ My son is always telling me about the newest Specialized bikes, including the new super-secret ones that I can't mention, and then he asks me to guess the price for the S-Works founders edition of the bike.テつ The numbers are staggering and just keep going up into the stratosphere -- with big jumps as compared to just four years ago. $7K doesn't get you close to the top. Even the Canyon offerings are up by 20% or more. I don't think manufacturing costs have risen nearly that much -- maybe its tariffs (but I doubt it).テつ I think it is just market elasticity. And that raises a point about diminishing returns. Is a $7000 road bike really twice as good as a $3500 road bike? Is it four times as good as a $1750 road bike? How much does it increase your speed, or your riding comfort, your maximum distance, or anything beyond your bragging rights? One of my earliest biking buddies (back in the early 1970s) said "I can't afford the best car in the world. I can't afford the best stereo system in the world. But I can afford the best bike in the world." Note that his statement wasn't in terms of performance benefits or longevity or anything practical. It was essentially bragging rights and self satisfaction. Almost no consumer items are a linear progression of price/quality at the top end. Bicycles are not different or special in that regard. You're right, of course. I'm sure I could make the same point on discussion groups devoted to airplanes, violins, wine, goldfish... ...tandem bicycles, academic staff pensions... Hey, tandem bicycles are a good topic for this group! Discuss away! Regarding academia, I'd prefer to discuss the value of tenure. Spoiler: I'm against it, as it's currently configured. But we can discuss pensions too, as long as I don't have to divulge too much personal information. (No, you can't have the name of my first pet.) I only mentioned them because you so frequently claim to live outside normal economic phenomena. Tandems are a great example, your typical quality tandem being $5000 to $12000 versus $500 for a department store 7 speed. I don't know or care about your personal finances. I do know many (most?) people with no pension and a few who still work every day in their mid to late 70s, having never paid SS tax. The range of variance is staggering, just like 'bicycles' to 'modern top end carbon bicycles'. -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org/ Open every day since 1 April, 1971 |
#25
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JJP&E Through Axle Conversion Kit
On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 5:40:07 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 9/13/2020 5:34 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 12:46 PM, jbeattie wrote: On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9:20:35 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote: Op zondag 13 september 2020 om 18:01:23 UTC+2 schreef : On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 8:00:31 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 6:06:31 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:53:30 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:07:10 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: This is a cool product: https://theradavist.com/2020/06/conv...nversion-kits/ I got a 2016 Norco Search 105 gravel bike on super close-out sale from Western Bikeworks back in 2017 as a quick replacement for my broken commuter frame, and it came with 15X100 front through axles and crappy OE wheels. Meanwhile, the market moved to 12mm, so I couldn't swap-in the HED wheels on my more recent Synapse -- and my son just sent me some Roval C38s to replace the OE wheels on the Norco. The Rovals have DT350 hubs and 12mm front through axle. So to avoid buying end-caps or a whole new axle bearing unit (to convert a 12mm HED Ardennes to a 15mm through axle), I got one of these kits. Sweet. Install was a little more labored than the YouTube video because I had to clean up the threads so I could thread-in the insert from the outside of the fork. Otherwise, easy-peasy. I now have a 12mm through axle Search. I can easily convert the old 15mm front hub to a 12mm with a simple sleeve. The hub felt fine, and I'll use that for my fat tire wheel set. The rear hub felt rough, so I pulled off the free hub body. It is some no-brand hub made by Joytec or Novatec or ChiTek -- probably some tec, with a simple 4-pawl free hub body with two 6902 bearings and two more in the hub shell. The hub bearings felt great, but the free hub was really rough, so I knocked those out with a 1/2" copper pipe stub with a cap I had soldered on the end from an old plumbing project. It was the perfect tool. Plumbing meets bike repair. Bearings in the mail. That wheel is otherwise disposable with a cheap rim with ragged spoke holes that zip through the cheesy aluminum nipples -- but it will be good for a second set. It is amazing that relatively expensive bikes now come with junky wheels suitable only for holding-up the bike on the showroom floor. -- Jay Beattie. Tell me if you can feel any difference at all between the 40's and 50 aero wheels. I have a set of Campy cyclocross wheels that are 38 mm deep and my top speed with those and the 50 mm aero carbon wheels is exactly the same. I have this idea that just about any rim deeper than about 24 mm would give you exactly the same performance. Hambini keeps saying that you have to have 50 mm and 23 mm front tire but I think that is windtunnel and not practical information. Well, the C38 are 38mm and the deepest rims I own, so I wouldn't know -- except that I rode some 58mm Zipp 404s on a Roubaix in Utah. What I noticed with those was cross winds. It was unpleasant, particularly when descending fast. There were some "oh sh**" moments coming down one of the canyons on a windy day. I went for a short ride on the Norco and didn't feel any faster, probably because I was inhaling thick smoke. Nobody was out riding. A very post-apocalyptic vibe. I did notice that the Norco has slow steering compared to the Emonda, and the front end was a little too plush because I underinflated my tire. A 21mm internal width rim also rides pretty plush. No seal squeaking like on the OE wheels and no disc drag. It is a gravel bike, so I'm not really expecting it to feel terribly racy. I did a whopping 15 miles with maybe 1700 feet of climbing, rolling around the West Hills near my house. Like Frank, it was really just a glorified run to the hardware store. I wish I had a N95 mask for the smoke, although it would make huffing up hills hard. -- Jay Beattie. Masks while exercising can cause a condition called hypercapnia, or excessive CO2 in your lungs, this can damage your airways. As someone with damaged airways take my word for it that it is not something you should volunteer for. It has been known to cause sudden mental confusion and loss of balance. If you look this up on answers.com they claim it ain't so because the tests were run on people not heavily exercising. As usual, their game is to support the left no matter what. I decided to look to see what I could buy if I sell my Madone and was knocked almost flat. The cost of top end bikes has gone absolutely through the ceiling. I may sell my Madone off and use the results to pay my property taxes. I don't suppose that I'll need more than three bikes to always have a bike ready to go. OK, if you need to sell a bike/frame to pay your property taxes that is a good idea, but please make up your mind it is getting very confusing. Lou His point about top-end bikes is true, though.ツ* My son is always telling me about the newest Specialized bikes, including the new super-secret ones that I can't mention, and then he asks me to guess the price for the S-Works founders edition of the bike.ツ* The numbers are staggering and just keep going up into the stratosphere -- with big jumps as compared to just four years ago. $7K doesn't get you close to the top. Even the Canyon offerings are up by 20% or more. I don't think manufacturing costs have risen nearly that much -- maybe its tariffs (but I doubt it).ツ* I think it is just market elasticity. -- Jay Beattie. or Veblen. I'd bet on that. There are people who are conspicuous consumers and then there are those people buying objects of desire. They're all crazy, but for different reasons. I loved bikes as a kid and spent and incredible percentage of my income in college to buy custom bikes -- bikes that I could ride and race and pet and preen. I didn't care one bit whether anyone knew that my bikes were special. I eventually got over it (and got a girlfriend), but I still get that pang seeing a California Masi or a Mike Appel or an early Bruce Gordon or Eisentraut -- and quite a few modern steel builders. I just don't feel that way about carbon fiber, but at my height and weight, it is a far better material for me than steel. I prefer to ride it, but I'm not excited about owning it and looking at it and petting it like the olden days. Modern bikes are an addiction for some of my son's work cohorts who spend crazy amounts on bikes. The latest Specialized bikes are not part of the company blem sales, and even with employee pricing, these guys are spending many thousands of dollars on top end bikes. I'm talking significant percentages of income. It's "I owe my soul to the company store." An intervention is in order. -- Jay Beattie. |
#26
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JJP&E Through Axle Conversion Kit
jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9:20:35 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote: Op zondag 13 september 2020 om 18:01:23 UTC+2 schreef : On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 8:00:31 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 6:06:31 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:53:30 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:07:10 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: This is a cool product: https://theradavist.com/2020/06/conv...nversion-kits/ I got a 2016 Norco Search 105 gravel bike on super close-out sale from Western Bikeworks back in 2017 as a quick replacement for my broken commuter frame, and it came with 15X100 front through axles and crappy OE wheels. Meanwhile, the market moved to 12mm, so I couldn't swap-in the HED wheels on my more recent Synapse -- and my son just sent me some Roval C38s to replace the OE wheels on the Norco. The Rovals have DT350 hubs and 12mm front through axle. So to avoid buying end-caps or a whole new axle bearing unit (to convert a 12mm HED Ardennes to a 15mm through axle), I got one of these kits. Sweet. Install was a little more labored than the YouTube video because I had to clean up the threads so I could thread-in the insert from the outside of the fork. Otherwise, easy-peasy. I now have a 12mm through axle Search. I can easily convert the old 15mm front hub to a 12mm with a simple sleeve. The hub felt fine, and I'll use that for my fat tire wheel set. The rear hub felt rough, so I pulled off the free hub body. It is some no-brand hub made by Joytec or Novatec or ChiTek -- probably some tec, with a simple 4-pawl free hub body with two 6902 bearings and two more in the hub shell. The hub bearings felt great, but the free hub was really rough, so I knocked those out with a 1/2" copper pipe stub with a cap I had soldered on the end from an old plumbing project. It was the perfect tool. Plumbing meets bike repair. Bearings in the mail. That wheel is otherwise disposable with a cheap rim with ragged spoke holes that zip through the cheesy aluminum nipples -- but it will be good for a second set. It is amazing that relatively expensive bikes now come with junky wheels suitable only for holding-up the bike on the showroom floor. -- Jay Beattie. Tell me if you can feel any difference at all between the 40's and 50 aero wheels. I have a set of Campy cyclocross wheels that are 38 mm deep and my top speed with those and the 50 mm aero carbon wheels is exactly the same. I have this idea that just about any rim deeper than about 24 mm would give you exactly the same performance. Hambini keeps saying that you have to have 50 mm and 23 mm front tire but I think that is windtunnel and not practical information. Well, the C38 are 38mm and the deepest rims I own, so I wouldn't know -- except that I rode some 58mm Zipp 404s on a Roubaix in Utah. What I noticed with those was cross winds. It was unpleasant, particularly when descending fast. There were some "oh sh**" moments coming down one of the canyons on a windy day. I went for a short ride on the Norco and didn't feel any faster, probably because I was inhaling thick smoke. Nobody was out riding. A very post-apocalyptic vibe. I did notice that the Norco has slow steering compared to the Emonda, and the front end was a little too plush because I underinflated my tire. A 21mm internal width rim also rides pretty plush. No seal squeaking like on the OE wheels and no disc drag. It is a gravel bike, so I'm not really expecting it to feel terribly racy. I did a whopping 15 miles with maybe 1700 feet of climbing, rolling around the West Hills near my house. Like Frank, it was really just a glorified run to the hardware store. I wish I had a N95 mask for the smoke, although it would make huffing up hills hard. -- Jay Beattie. Masks while exercising can cause a condition called hypercapnia, or excessive CO2 in your lungs, this can damage your airways. As someone with damaged airways take my word for it that it is not something you should volunteer for. It has been known to cause sudden mental confusion and loss of balance. If you look this up on answers.com they claim it ain't so because the tests were run on people not heavily exercising. As usual, their game is to support the left no matter what. I decided to look to see what I could buy if I sell my Madone and was knocked almost flat. The cost of top end bikes has gone absolutely through the ceiling. I may sell my Madone off and use the results to pay my property taxes. I don't suppose that I'll need more than three bikes to always have a bike ready to go. OK, if you need to sell a bike/frame to pay your property taxes that is a good idea, but please make up your mind it is getting very confusing. Lou His point about top-end bikes is true, though. My son is always telling me about the newest Specialized bikes, including the new super-secret ones that I can't mention, and then he asks me to guess the price for the S-Works founders edition of the bike. The numbers are staggering and just keep going up into the stratosphere -- with big jumps as compared to just four years ago. $7K doesn't get you close to the top. Even the Canyon offerings are up by 20% or more. I don't think manufacturing costs have risen nearly that much -- maybe its tariffs (but I doubt it). I think it is just market elasticity. -- Jay Beattie. That窶冱 why I have a Specialized Tarmac Pro and not an S-Works. But hey, if you have the money and it floats your boat, go for it. |
#27
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JJP&E Through Axle Conversion Kit
On Sun, 13 Sep 2020 20:54:33 -0500,
AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 8:23 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 9:14 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 7:59 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 5:36 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 2:06 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 1:46 PM, jbeattie wrote: On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9:20:35 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote: OK, if you need to sell a bike/frame to pay your property taxes that is a good idea, but please make up your mind it is getting very confusing. His point about top-end bikes is true, though.??????? My son is always telling me about the newest Specialized bikes, including the new super-secret ones that I can't mention, and then he asks me to guess the price for the S-Works founders edition of the bike.??????? The numbers are staggering and just keep going up into the stratosphere -- with big jumps as compared to just four years ago. $7K doesn't get you close to the top. Even the Canyon offerings are up by 20% or more. I don't think manufacturing costs have risen nearly that much -- maybe its tariffs (but I doubt it).??????? I think it is just market elasticity. And that raises a point about diminishing returns. Is a $7000 road bike really twice as good as a $3500 road bike? Is it four times as good as a $1750 road bike? How much does it increase your speed, or your riding comfort, your maximum distance, or anything beyond your bragging rights? One of my earliest biking buddies (back in the early 1970s) said "I can't afford the best car in the world. I can't afford the best stereo system in the world. But I can afford the best bike in the world." Note that his statement wasn't in terms of performance benefits or longevity or anything practical. It was essentially bragging rights and self satisfaction. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Often the case. In my situation, I had certain wishes in picking a tandem--ability to pack it into suitcases, and absence of paint (for least damage). So that ratcheted up the price pretty dramatically. Almost no consumer items are a linear progression of price/quality at the top end. Bicycles are not different or special in that regard. You're right, of course. I'm sure I could make the same point on discussion groups devoted to airplanes, violins, wine, goldfish... ...tandem bicycles, academic staff pensions... Hey, tandem bicycles are a good topic for this group! Discuss away! I only mentioned them because you so frequently claim to live outside normal economic phenomena. Tandems are a great example, your typical quality tandem being $5000 to $12000 versus $500 for a department store 7 speed. True, to some extent. My second tandem ran about $12k, in part for the reasons I mentioned above. My first one cost $1200 in 1996, and I sold it for $1k earlier this year. A very serviceable Rodriguez, that had received a number of upgrades. So indeed quite a variance. -- Ted Heise West Lafayette, IN, USA |
#28
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JJP&E Through Axle Conversion Kit
On 9/14/2020 9:42 AM, Ted Heise wrote:
On Sun, 13 Sep 2020 20:54:33 -0500, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 8:23 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 9:14 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 7:59 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 5:36 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 2:06 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 1:46 PM, jbeattie wrote: On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9:20:35 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote: OK, if you need to sell a bike/frame to pay your property taxes that is a good idea, but please make up your mind it is getting very confusing. His point about top-end bikes is true, though.??????? My son is always telling me about the newest Specialized bikes, including the new super-secret ones that I can't mention, and then he asks me to guess the price for the S-Works founders edition of the bike.??????? The numbers are staggering and just keep going up into the stratosphere -- with big jumps as compared to just four years ago. $7K doesn't get you close to the top. Even the Canyon offerings are up by 20% or more. I don't think manufacturing costs have risen nearly that much -- maybe its tariffs (but I doubt it).??????? I think it is just market elasticity. And that raises a point about diminishing returns. Is a $7000 road bike really twice as good as a $3500 road bike? Is it four times as good as a $1750 road bike? How much does it increase your speed, or your riding comfort, your maximum distance, or anything beyond your bragging rights? One of my earliest biking buddies (back in the early 1970s) said "I can't afford the best car in the world. I can't afford the best stereo system in the world. But I can afford the best bike in the world." Note that his statement wasn't in terms of performance benefits or longevity or anything practical. It was essentially bragging rights and self satisfaction. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Often the case. In my situation, I had certain wishes in picking a tandem--ability to pack it into suitcases, and absence of paint (for least damage). So that ratcheted up the price pretty dramatically. Almost no consumer items are a linear progression of price/quality at the top end. Bicycles are not different or special in that regard. You're right, of course. I'm sure I could make the same point on discussion groups devoted to airplanes, violins, wine, goldfish... ...tandem bicycles, academic staff pensions... Hey, tandem bicycles are a good topic for this group! Discuss away! I only mentioned them because you so frequently claim to live outside normal economic phenomena. Tandems are a great example, your typical quality tandem being $5000 to $12000 versus $500 for a department store 7 speed. True, to some extent. My second tandem ran about $12k, in part for the reasons I mentioned above. My first one cost $1200 in 1996, and I sold it for $1k earlier this year. A very serviceable Rodriguez, that had received a number of upgrades. So indeed quite a variance. Right. And I only mentioned the current range of popular items. A custom carbon tandem can get expensive. -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org/ Open every day since 1 April, 1971 |
#29
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JJP&E Through Axle Conversion Kit
On 9/13/2020 9:54 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 9/13/2020 8:23 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 9:14 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 7:59 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 5:36 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 2:06 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 1:46 PM, jbeattie wrote: On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9:20:35 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote: Op zondag 13 september 2020 om 18:01:23 UTC+2 schreef : On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 8:00:31 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 6:06:31 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:53:30 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:07:10 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: This is a cool product: https://theradavist.com/2020/06/conv...nversion-kits/ I got a 2016 Norco Search 105 gravel bike on super close-out sale from Western Bikeworks back in 2017 as a quick replacement for my broken commuter frame, and it came with 15X100 front through axles and crappy OE wheels. Meanwhile, the market moved to 12mm, so I couldn't swap-in the HED wheels on my more recent Synapse -- and my son just sent me some Roval C38s to replace the OE wheels on the Norco. The Rovals have DT350 hubs and 12mm front through axle. So to avoid buying end-caps or a whole new axle bearing unit (to convert a 12mm HED Ardennes to a 15mm through axle), I got one of these kits. Sweet. Install was a little more labored than the YouTube video because I had to clean up the threads so I could thread-in the insert from the outside of the fork. Otherwise, easy-peasy. I now have a 12mm through axle Search. I can easily convert the old 15mm front hub to a 12mm with a simple sleeve. The hub felt fine, and I'll use that for my fat tire wheel set. The rear hub felt rough, so I pulled off the free hub body. It is some no-brand hub made by Joytec or Novatec or ChiTek -- probably some tec, with a simple 4-pawl free hub body with two 6902 bearings and two more in the hub shell. The hub bearings felt great, but the free hub was really rough, so I knocked those out with a 1/2" copper pipe stub with a cap I had soldered on the end from an old plumbing project. It was the perfect tool. Plumbing meets bike repair. Bearings in the mail. That wheel is otherwise disposable with a cheap rim with ragged spoke holes that zip through the cheesy aluminum nipples -- but it will be good for a second set. It is amazing that relatively expensive bikes now come with junky wheels suitable only for holding-up the bike on the showroom floor. -- Jay Beattie. Tell me if you can feel any difference at all between the 40's and 50 aero wheels. I have a set of Campy cyclocross wheels that are 38 mm deep and my top speed with those and the 50 mm aero carbon wheels is exactly the same. I have this idea that just about any rim deeper than about 24 mm would give you exactly the same performance. Hambini keeps saying that you have to have 50 mm and 23 mm front tire but I think that is windtunnel and not practical information. Well, the C38 are 38mm and the deepest rims I own, so I wouldn't know -- except that I rode some 58mm Zipp 404s on a Roubaix in Utah. What I noticed with those was cross winds. It was unpleasant, particularly when descending fast. There were some "oh sh**" moments coming down one of the canyons on a windy day. I went for a short ride on the Norco and didn't feel any faster, probably because I was inhaling thick smoke. Nobody was out riding. A very post-apocalyptic vibe. I did notice that the Norco has slow steering compared to the Emonda, and the front end was a little too plush because I underinflated my tire. A 21mm internal width rim also rides pretty plush. No seal squeaking like on the OE wheels and no disc drag. It is a gravel bike, so I'm not really expecting it to feel terribly racy. I did a whopping 15 miles with maybe 1700 feet of climbing, rolling around the West Hills near my house. Like Frank, it was really just a glorified run to the hardware store. I wish I had a N95 mask for the smoke, although it would make huffing up hills hard. -- Jay Beattie. Masks while exercising can cause a condition called hypercapnia, or excessive CO2 in your lungs, this can damage your airways. As someone with damaged airways take my word for it that it is not something you should volunteer for. It has been known to cause sudden mental confusion and loss of balance. If you look this up on answers.com they claim it ain't so because the tests were run on people not heavily exercising. As usual, their game is to support the left no matter what. I decided to look to see what I could buy if I sell my Madone and was knocked almost flat. The cost of top end bikes has gone absolutely through the ceiling. I may sell my Madone off and use the results to pay my property taxes. I don't suppose that I'll need more than three bikes to always have a bike ready to go. OK, if you need to sell a bike/frame to pay your property taxes that is a good idea, but please make up your mind it is getting very confusing. Lou His point about top-end bikes is true, though.テつ* My son is always telling me about the newest Specialized bikes, including the new super-secret ones that I can't mention, and then he asks me to guess the price for the S-Works founders edition of the bike.テつ* The numbers are staggering and just keep going up into the stratosphere -- with big jumps as compared to just four years ago. $7K doesn't get you close to the top. Even the Canyon offerings are up by 20% or more. I don't think manufacturing costs have risen nearly that much -- maybe its tariffs (but I doubt it).テつ* I think it is just market elasticity. And that raises a point about diminishing returns. Is a $7000 road bike really twice as good as a $3500 road bike? Is it four times as good as a $1750 road bike? How much does it increase your speed, or your riding comfort, your maximum distance, or anything beyond your bragging rights? One of my earliest biking buddies (back in the early 1970s) said "I can't afford the best car in the world. I can't afford the best stereo system in the world. But I can afford the best bike in the world." Note that his statement wasn't in terms of performance benefits or longevity or anything practical. It was essentially bragging rights and self satisfaction. Almost no consumer items are a linear progression of price/quality at the top end. Bicycles are not different or special in that regard. You're right, of course. I'm sure I could make the same point on discussion groups devoted to airplanes, violins, wine, goldfish... ...tandem bicycles, academic staff pensions... Hey, tandem bicycles are a good topic for this group! Discuss away! Regarding academia, I'd prefer to discuss the value of tenure. Spoiler: I'm against it, as it's currently configured. But we can discuss pensions too, as long as I don't have to divulge too much personal information. (No, you can't have the name of my first pet.) I only mentioned them because you so frequently claim to live outside normal economic phenomena. Tandems are a great example, your typical quality tandem being $5000 to $12000 versus $500 for a department store 7 speed. In 2020 dollars, our tandem cost about $3100. In those days (the 1970s) a custom builder seemed the only way to get a decent quality tandem. I purposely sought out a builder who told me he would keep cost down by reducing the detail finish work. For example, the chainstays are not beautifully sculpted into the dropouts. As I said, this tandem has proven to be one of the best purchases we ever made - except for the disaster of the severely weak front fork, previously described in detail. The bike works very well. Are there better ones? Yes, the technology was advancing pretty rapidly when we bought this one. If we had waited maybe three years, I imagine this one would have been built following Santana's practice, and thus been rigid enough for me to pedal while standing. But that could have been achieved without spending $12000 in 2020 dollars. I don't know or care about your personal finances. I do know many (most?) people with no pension and a few who still work every day in their mid to late 70s, having never paid SS tax. The range of variance is staggering, just like 'bicycles' to 'modern top end carbon bicycles'. Nobody doubts the wide range of prosperity. I hope nobody really doubts the reality of diminishing returns and conspicuous consumption. Those occur with tandems too, as with everything else. -- - Frank Krygowski |
#30
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JJP&E Through Axle Conversion Kit
On 9/13/2020 10:59 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 5:40:07 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote: On 9/13/2020 5:34 PM, AMuzi wrote: On 9/13/2020 12:46 PM, jbeattie wrote: On Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 9:20:35 AM UTC-7, Lou Holtman wrote: Op zondag 13 september 2020 om 18:01:23 UTC+2 schreef : On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 8:00:31 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 6:06:31 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:53:30 PM UTC-7, Tom Kunich wrote: On Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 2:07:10 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote: This is a cool product: https://theradavist.com/2020/06/conv...nversion-kits/ I got a 2016 Norco Search 105 gravel bike on super close-out sale from Western Bikeworks back in 2017 as a quick replacement for my broken commuter frame, and it came with 15X100 front through axles and crappy OE wheels. Meanwhile, the market moved to 12mm, so I couldn't swap-in the HED wheels on my more recent Synapse -- and my son just sent me some Roval C38s to replace the OE wheels on the Norco. The Rovals have DT350 hubs and 12mm front through axle. So to avoid buying end-caps or a whole new axle bearing unit (to convert a 12mm HED Ardennes to a 15mm through axle), I got one of these kits. Sweet. Install was a little more labored than the YouTube video because I had to clean up the threads so I could thread-in the insert from the outside of the fork. Otherwise, easy-peasy. I now have a 12mm through axle Search. I can easily convert the old 15mm front hub to a 12mm with a simple sleeve. The hub felt fine, and I'll use that for my fat tire wheel set. The rear hub felt rough, so I pulled off the free hub body. It is some no-brand hub made by Joytec or Novatec or ChiTek -- probably some tec, with a simple 4-pawl free hub body with two 6902 bearings and two more in the hub shell. The hub bearings felt great, but the free hub was really rough, so I knocked those out with a 1/2" copper pipe stub with a cap I had soldered on the end from an old plumbing project. It was the perfect tool. Plumbing meets bike repair. Bearings in the mail. That wheel is otherwise disposable with a cheap rim with ragged spoke holes that zip through the cheesy aluminum nipples -- but it will be good for a second set. It is amazing that relatively expensive bikes now come with junky wheels suitable only for holding-up the bike on the showroom floor. -- Jay Beattie. Tell me if you can feel any difference at all between the 40's and 50 aero wheels. I have a set of Campy cyclocross wheels that are 38 mm deep and my top speed with those and the 50 mm aero carbon wheels is exactly the same. I have this idea that just about any rim deeper than about 24 mm would give you exactly the same performance. Hambini keeps saying that you have to have 50 mm and 23 mm front tire but I think that is windtunnel and not practical information. Well, the C38 are 38mm and the deepest rims I own, so I wouldn't know -- except that I rode some 58mm Zipp 404s on a Roubaix in Utah. What I noticed with those was cross winds. It was unpleasant, particularly when descending fast. There were some "oh sh**" moments coming down one of the canyons on a windy day. I went for a short ride on the Norco and didn't feel any faster, probably because I was inhaling thick smoke. Nobody was out riding. A very post-apocalyptic vibe. I did notice that the Norco has slow steering compared to the Emonda, and the front end was a little too plush because I underinflated my tire. A 21mm internal width rim also rides pretty plush. No seal squeaking like on the OE wheels and no disc drag. It is a gravel bike, so I'm not really expecting it to feel terribly racy. I did a whopping 15 miles with maybe 1700 feet of climbing, rolling around the West Hills near my house. Like Frank, it was really just a glorified run to the hardware store. I wish I had a N95 mask for the smoke, although it would make huffing up hills hard. -- Jay Beattie. Masks while exercising can cause a condition called hypercapnia, or excessive CO2 in your lungs, this can damage your airways. As someone with damaged airways take my word for it that it is not something you should volunteer for. It has been known to cause sudden mental confusion and loss of balance. If you look this up on answers.com they claim it ain't so because the tests were run on people not heavily exercising. As usual, their game is to support the left no matter what. I decided to look to see what I could buy if I sell my Madone and was knocked almost flat. The cost of top end bikes has gone absolutely through the ceiling. I may sell my Madone off and use the results to pay my property taxes. I don't suppose that I'll need more than three bikes to always have a bike ready to go. OK, if you need to sell a bike/frame to pay your property taxes that is a good idea, but please make up your mind it is getting very confusing. Lou His point about top-end bikes is true, though.ツ* My son is always telling me about the newest Specialized bikes, including the new super-secret ones that I can't mention, and then he asks me to guess the price for the S-Works founders edition of the bike.ツ* The numbers are staggering and just keep going up into the stratosphere -- with big jumps as compared to just four years ago. $7K doesn't get you close to the top. Even the Canyon offerings are up by 20% or more. I don't think manufacturing costs have risen nearly that much -- maybe its tariffs (but I doubt it).ツ* I think it is just market elasticity. -- Jay Beattie. or Veblen. I'd bet on that. There are people who are conspicuous consumers and then there are those people buying objects of desire. They're all crazy, but for different reasons. I loved bikes as a kid and spent and incredible percentage of my income in college to buy custom bikes -- bikes that I could ride and race and pet and preen. I didn't care one bit whether anyone knew that my bikes were special. I eventually got over it (and got a girlfriend), but I still get that pang seeing a California Masi or a Mike Appel or an early Bruce Gordon or Eisentraut -- and quite a few modern steel builders. I just don't feel that way about carbon fiber, but at my height and weight, it is a far better material for me than steel. I prefer to ride it, but I'm not excited about owning it and looking at it and petting it like the olden days. Modern bikes are an addiction for some of my son's work cohorts who spend crazy amounts on bikes. The latest Specialized bikes are not part of the company blem sales, and even with employee pricing, these guys are spending many thousands of dollars on top end bikes. I'm talking significant percentages of income. It's "I owe my soul to the company store." An intervention is in order. My wife and one of my kids both worked (at least part time) for Nashbar when it was headquartered here. That gave us some good buys, including a very special deal on our touring bikes. But yes, the kid bought quite a lot of fancy components and a couple fancy bikes. It's old technology now, but some of the components still live in storage boxes in my workshop. Occasionally they get harvested. That's why the three speed bike I just rode to the store has a titanium bottom bracket! -- - Frank Krygowski |
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