Evaulating a bike

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 09:25:26 -0600, Paul Cassel
wrote:

Having had that experience in one sport, and when reading bicycling
magazines I note most of the talk is about equipment (as opposed to
skills) I reasoned that the key to this sport is equipment - or it could
be.

Oh, it matters a little -- there's a big difference between a $50 bike and
a $525 bike, just as there was a big difference between your $10
secondhand ski gear and brand-new good stuff. The difference between 525
and 1000 is much smaller. The difference beyond that gets progressively
smaller and smaller. Imagine that, on your current $10k motorcycles that
are as good as a competitive racing bike in the 80s, the engine and brakes
were currently just as good as they were then (or the other way around),
and the difference is only in the gearbox, ABS, and all the fancy little
gizmos. That's about where bicycles are -- sure, there's a difference
between old and new, but it doesn't affect your actual performance all
that much.


Jasper

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 09:39:19 -0600, Paul Cassel
wrote:

I figured you put your big bucks where the interfaces are so the road
interface is the wheels. I also figured the guy who sold the bike to my
buddy took off great wheels which is why the ones on it aren't any good.
They are true (I trued them). I don't know what makes them bad.

The interface isn't the wheels -- it's the tyres. And since those are
consumables, you won't be able to spend hundreds on 'em. The tyres and the
gearbox are probably the most important bits for performance, plus the
brakes for safety.

Jasper

On 10 Aug 2005 08:23:22 -0700, wrote:

Chain whip is needed to get a freewheel
or cassette (rear cogset) off a bike

Actually, you don't need a chain whip to remove a freewheel. You do need
two of them (or use the bike's chain as one for emergency needs) to
disassemble the freewheel unit, but you don't really want to do that
anyway. You need either a chain whip to remove a cassette lockring, or,
again, use the bike's chain to help you and a very thin lockring wrench
that can fit in there when the wheel is inside the dropouts. To remove an
old style cassette where the small cog is the lockring, you need either
two chain whips or one plus the bike's chain.

Jasper

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 15:50:42 -0600, Paul Cassel
wrote:

I plan to and also ride some more to see if I'll stick with it. I know
many folks who have spend $5k and up for a new bike which, at its
retirement, had 50 miles on it.

So find one of those which fits you and buy it for a pittance.


Jasper (always the practical one)

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 09:49:15 -0600, Paul Cassel
wrote:

You are in line with the general concensus which is why I'm sticking if
he'll sell. Also, and this probably sounds stupid, but I've grown to
LIKE this bike over the miles "we've" covered. It's like the bike and I
have grown to be friends. There is a definite bond there that at least I
feel.

Now you've got your laugh for a day, but I do have an attachment for
this machine.

No, this is exactly the reason why many people will spend as much to
maintain an old bike (or to buy it some fancy new bit of gear) when they
might be cheaper off buying something new sometime.

Hell, a '63 'Vette or a Jaguar E-Type are many times more expensive in
purchase and maintenance and not nearly as fast as a new Mitsubishi Evo 8
-- but do you laugh at people with an E-type?


Jasper

On Fri, 12 Aug 2005 16:34:10 -0600, Paul Cassel
wrote:

I'm surprised, given that experts throw so much money at this hobby,
that nobody has manufactured tubeless tires to be mounted on carbon
rims/wheels. It'd be expensive, but given that I've seen folks in eBay
offering $800 wheelsets cheaply and only ridden a few miles because they
*upgraded* them right off that there is a market.

Oh, but they do offer them. Tubeless tyres are doing fairly well in their
niche, carbon rims, not so much. As long as you want to brake on your
rims, carbon ain't the material for them. But the thing is, tubeless
doesn't offer much of an advantage. In car and motorbike tyres, tubes
routinely get (got) so hot just from rolling friction that they'd melt on
to the rims and the tyres. Bad. Bicycles don't have any real problems
using tubes -- the only possible advantage is weight, and the changes to
other gear (including the tyre itself) you need to make offset that weight
gain.


Jasper

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 09:57:54 -0600, Paul Cassel
wrote:

If a person can buy a bike for $6,000, the tech may not help him, but if
it pumps up his mentals, he WILL do much better on it than he would on
his previous ride. So while I can't discuss bikes at your level, I can
make an arguement for the new fancy equipment - if it does have a
positive mental effect on the rider.

Also known as the placebo effect. If I can achieve the same thing by
injecting the guy with sugar water (instead of anabolic steroids), it's
not a real effect

Jasper