Old School tech group members? McNammara, Brandt, Holtman, Muzi,Vecchio, Tomlinson...?

On Sunday, March 16, 2014 5:56:30 PM UTC-7, JoeRiel wrote:
spincircles writes:



I am back. Who is still out here?



Old School group members I recall:

Tim McNammara, Jobst Brandt, Lou Holtman, A. Muzi, Peter Vecchio...?



Special mention: Sheldon Brown: RIP, friend!



Just curious to see who's still here.



Of that group only Lou Holtman and A. Muzi are still posting.

Andrew is the last of our shop owners. I don't think we have any of the frame builders left or engineers who are actually in the industry, not to denigrate the remaining engineers of various stripe. I think Usenet (even in its zombie Google Group form)is not long for this world. Most of the people posting in '95 are gone.

I think much of this has to do with the fact that there aren't a lot of technical subjects left. Instead of arguing over whether your headset displays mere fretting or true brinnelling, its "pop in a new bearing cartridge." The Park Tool site has answers to most questions. Most question (assuming they're on topic at all) have to do with finding odd parts or choosing among options.

And now our little group is being further assaulted with incessant cross-posting from whack-o political forums.

-- Jay Beattie.

-snip snip-
jbeattie wrote:
I think much of this has to do with the fact that there aren't a lot of technical subjects left.


You and Francis Fukayama!

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Saturday, March 22, 2014 9:31:02 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:
-snip snip-

jbeattie wrote:

I think much of this has to do with the fact that there aren't a lot of technical subjects left.





You and Francis Fukayama!


Well, I'll rephrase that -- there are not the same technical challenges as encountered by the home mechanics of yore. It's been years since we've had a post about a stuck stem, seat post or freewheel. Hacksaws and Dremel tools across the nation are collecting dust -- and so are giant wrenches and cheater bars.

-- Jay Beattie.

On Saturday, March 22, 2014 4:23:09 PM UTC-4, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, March 22, 2014 9:31:02 AM UTC-7, AMuzi wrote:

-snip snip-



jbeattie wrote:



I think much of this has to do with the fact that there aren't a lot of technical subjects left.











You and Francis Fukayama!





Well, I'll rephrase that -- there are not the same technical challenges as encountered by the home mechanics of yore. It's been years since we've had a post about a stuck stem, seat post or freewheel. Hacksaws and Dremel tools across the nation are collecting dust -- and so are giant wrenches and cheater bars.



-- Jay Beattie.

I think that a lot of people go to moderated bicycle forums now too as it avoids all the off-topic replies and so called jokes when one has posted a serious question they ned/want an answer too.

Also, the flame wars have caused a lot of the technical contributors to leave.

Cheers

jbeattie wrote:
It's been years since we've had a post about a stuck stem,

Well, since time is running out, I'd better ask now 8-)

The stem on my AA Cannondale is stuck. Tried to free it a couple
of years ago (WD-40) but was reluctant to apply large force since
the bike's rideable and I didn't want to break anything.

The fork is original steel, stem is aftermarket alloy, neither have
been disturbed for over twenty years. As I get older, I'd like to
raise the bars a little bit.....

Sidenote, the bike's always been somewhat squirrely; it'll headshake
on a smooth road with no hands and narrow tires fully inflated.
Nothing is discernibly bent. If a new fork might fix this issue I'd
be tempted to solve the problem with a hacksaw. In the meantime I'll
just keep riding it.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

On Saturday, March 22, 2014 9:30:48 PM UTC-7, User Bp wrote:
jbeattie wrote:

It's been years since we've had a post about a stuck stem,



Well, since time is running out, I'd better ask now 8-)



The stem on my AA Cannondale is stuck. Tried to free it a couple

of years ago (WD-40) but was reluctant to apply large force since

the bike's rideable and I didn't want to break anything.



The fork is original steel, stem is aftermarket alloy, neither have

been disturbed for over twenty years. As I get older, I'd like to

raise the bars a little bit.....



Sidenote, the bike's always been somewhat squirrely; it'll headshake

on a smooth road with no hands and narrow tires fully inflated.

Nothing is discernibly bent. If a new fork might fix this issue I'd

be tempted to solve the problem with a hacksaw. In the meantime I'll

just keep riding it.



Thanks for reading,



bob prohaska

Coca-cola worked for me once on a [fluted] seatpost. So I think it's worth a try esp. cuz on a stem, if you were to remove the bolt and plug the bottom, it might sit around on the problem for longer and/or in greater quantity.

dkl

... If a new fork might fix this issue I'd
be tempted to solve the problem with a hacksaw. In the meantime I'll
just keep riding it.

BTW, Bob, I have a couple of 1" threadless CF forks that I bought 10 yrs ago from chucksbikes.com and never used. One is a Martec M8 and very beefy - IIRC this was sold for tandem or cross use, and the other a Kinetick Kt01. Both are still in bubble-wrap.

The steel bikes I bought these for are long gone and I'm ready to stop hoarding them, so you are welcome to pick up one or both.

Actually, the way I remembered it, both were Martecs, and this page seems to indicate that the Kinetick is actually a Martec M2, FWIW:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...ec-carbon-fork

Doug

On Sun, 23 Mar 2014 04:30:48 +0000 (UTC), User Bp
wrote:

jbeattie wrote:
It's been years since we've had a post about a stuck stem,

Well, since time is running out, I'd better ask now 8-)

The stem on my AA Cannondale is stuck. Tried to free it a couple
of years ago (WD-40) but was reluctant to apply large force since
the bike's rideable and I didn't want to break anything.

The fork is original steel, stem is aftermarket alloy, neither have
been disturbed for over twenty years. As I get older, I'd like to
raise the bars a little bit.....

Sidenote, the bike's always been somewhat squirrely; it'll headshake
on a smooth road with no hands and narrow tires fully inflated.
Nothing is discernibly bent. If a new fork might fix this issue I'd
be tempted to solve the problem with a hacksaw. In the meantime I'll
just keep riding it.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

If you have an aluminum stem in a steel steer tube, and I believe that
you do, and it has been there for 20 years it has "probably gotten
married" and never the twain shall part :-) I had a similar problem
with a seat post and built a special end mill to bore it out and the
whole affair took me about four days of 8 - 10 hour days, not
something one wants to have the LBS do.

Since then I've come across articles on the Internet that discusses
using Sodium Hydroxide (caustic soda) to remove an aluminum seat post
from a steel frame.

Google on "using caustic soda to remove seat post". I got 10,500 hits.

I'll just mention - Caustic Soda is a very powerful chemical and
should be used with considerable care.
--
Cheers,

John B.

On 3/22/2014 11:30 PM, User Bp wrote:
jbeattie wrote:
It's been years since we've had a post about a stuck stem,

Well, since time is running out, I'd better ask now 8-)

The stem on my AA Cannondale is stuck. Tried to free it a couple
of years ago (WD-40) but was reluctant to apply large force since
the bike's rideable and I didn't want to break anything.

The fork is original steel, stem is aftermarket alloy, neither have
been disturbed for over twenty years. As I get older, I'd like to
raise the bars a little bit.....

Sidenote, the bike's always been somewhat squirrely; it'll headshake
on a smooth road with no hands and narrow tires fully inflated.
Nothing is discernibly bent. If a new fork might fix this issue I'd
be tempted to solve the problem with a hacksaw. In the meantime I'll
just keep riding it.


First off, don't twist it with any great effort using the
front wheel for leverage. Often, the fork and/or wheel will
deform before the stem breaks free.

If it's a crowned fork, hold the crown securely in a vise
(Corian or aluminum vise jaw liners are great for this),
slack the headset locknut[1], add a penetrant and try to
move the stem.

If still no go, cut the stem and send the fork out for stump
removal:

http://www.yellowjersey.org/goodn.html

[1] Often not concentric, slacking it may indeed help.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On Sun, 23 Mar 2014 14:24:16 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 3/22/2014 11:30 PM, User Bp wrote:
jbeattie wrote:
It's been years since we've had a post about a stuck stem,

Well, since time is running out, I'd better ask now 8-)

The stem on my AA Cannondale is stuck. Tried to free it a couple
of years ago (WD-40) but was reluctant to apply large force since
the bike's rideable and I didn't want to break anything.

The fork is original steel, stem is aftermarket alloy, neither have
been disturbed for over twenty years. As I get older, I'd like to
raise the bars a little bit.....

Sidenote, the bike's always been somewhat squirrely; it'll headshake
on a smooth road with no hands and narrow tires fully inflated.
Nothing is discernibly bent. If a new fork might fix this issue I'd
be tempted to solve the problem with a hacksaw. In the meantime I'll
just keep riding it.


First off, don't twist it with any great effort using the
front wheel for leverage. Often, the fork and/or wheel will
deform before the stem breaks free.

If it's a crowned fork, hold the crown securely in a vise
(Corian or aluminum vise jaw liners are great for this),
slack the headset locknut[1], add a penetrant and try to
move the stem.

If still no go, cut the stem and send the fork out for stump
removal:

http://www.yellowjersey.org/goodn.html

[1] Often not concentric, slacking it may indeed help.
Turn the bike upside down. Remove the wheel. pour penetrant in the
hole at the bottom of the stem (center of the fork) On some forks
you can put a punch through the hole, and drive it loose with the
punch. Obviously if yours has no hole, you are out of luck.
I have had some luck with this procedure when dissassembling old
bikes.