Tire width on a CT1?

Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
Ben C wrote:

For MIG and TIG the inert gas comes out of a cylinder and is sprayed
around the hot electrode as you weld. The gas is usually Argon or CO2
(you use different gasses for different materials for some subtle
reasons, I think Argon for steel, CO2 for Aluminium).

Wrong application of gas to metal, but it's a complicated subject. If
you've ever heard of "heli-arc", that's tig using helium or a helium
mix. CO2 is used for MIG only, and is more correctly MAG than MIG
(Active rather than Inert Gas) when done that way, but few people make
the distinction. CO2 is only used on steel. TIG is never done with CO2 -
usually argon, sometimes argon and helium mixed, sometimes more exotic
mixtures depending on the application, but usually straight argon.

So you can TIG weld in the open air, although outdoors on windy days is
not preferred.

TIG tends to make a neater weld than MIG. TIG, MIG and oxy-acetylene can
all be used for fairly delicate work (e.g. plate or tubing only 1mm
thick).

For a nice job on a bike frame, you would want to purge the inside of
the tube, too, so that the back of the weld is protected - SOP if your
weldor knows his stuff. If dealing with titanium, I gather that you
really want / prefer to work in a glovebox (filled with inert gas, such
as argon),

indeed. unfortunately, not all bike frame builders take that kind of
trouble. i've seen ti welds that are black and flaky inside the tube
indicating gross excess of oxygen, perhaps even no shielding at all.


but I have no direct experience with welding titanium, just
the formerly high s/n discussions we'd have on sci.engr.joing.welding
before google and others made anonymous spam posting to newsgroups
available to every scumbucket on the planet...

On Wed, 28 May 2008 05:34:12 -0700 (PDT), "Qui si parla
Campagnolo-www.vecchios.com" wrote:

On May 27, 10:25*pm, C. Ballou wrote:
I have a Colnago CT1 I am set to use as a travel bike. I want to go to
Europe with it, but some of the tours I am looking at have roads that
apparently aren't that good. It has been suggested that I use a bike
with wider tires, like a hybrid. I'd rather not.
Question: Does anyone know how wide a tire I can safely put on my
bike? The rims are Mavic Open 4's. I run 23's now. Can I go 28 or more
for the trip?
Thanks.

Only way to really tell is go to your favorite bike shop, make an
'appointment' to test tire width at THEIR convenience, take along a
sixer of the guy's favorite and put some tires on the wheels to see.
If 28c work, buy them. Try a Conti gatorskin 28 for starters.

This would be my prefered method, but unfortunately my
favorite LBS carries nothing in that size except Panaracers, and no
Conti's at all. Don't like Panaracers, do like Conti's, so I can't buy
from them.

On Wed, 28 May 2008 06:12:52 -0700 (PDT), bookieb
wrote:

On May 28, 1:34 pm, "Qui si parla Campagnolo-www.vecchios.com"
wrote:
On May 27, 10:25 pm, C. Ballou wrote:

I have a Colnago CT1 I am set to use as a travel bike. I want to go to
Europe with it, but some of the tours I am looking at have roads that
apparently aren't that good. It has been suggested that I use a bike
with wider tires, like a hybrid. I'd rather not.
Question: Does anyone know how wide a tire I can safely put on my
bike? The rims are Mavic Open 4's. I run 23's now. Can I go 28 or more
for the trip?
Thanks.

Only way to really tell is go to your favorite bike shop, make an
'appointment' to test tire width at THEIR convenience, take along a
sixer of the guy's favorite and put some tires on the wheels to see.
If 28c work, buy them. Try a Conti gatorskin 28 for starters.

Just ot add to what Peter wrote, the Gatorskin in a 28 is not only
wider than a "racing" 23, but the casing is tougher than most too, so
for poor roads, it gives both more cushioning and better resistance to
damage. If the 28 won't fit, have a look at the 25.

Thanks for the tip. I'll check them out.

On Thu, 29 May 2008 00:49:19 +1000, daveornee
wrote:
+1 unless you have a support vehicle carrying spares like the race moto
or your team car.

Not on this tour. It will be self-guided, but not
self-contained. Route, hotels, luggage transfers included (plus the
bike I don't want), but no support that travels with you or is really
avaible in that night's town. I think they just point you to a bike
shop, if you need something. But... it is a good deal cheaper than
fully supported & I never used most of the daily services when I had
them.

On Wed, 28 May 2008 13:29:34 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:
Save the beer and the time. Assuming you are using foldables, measure,
record, and compare the distances between the beads across the back. I
measure 59mm on some Vittoria Pro-Teams here. Labeled as 23s, but I
know they will take up more much space than some Specialized
foldables, 700 x 25s which measure 48mm between the beads.

Harry Travis
USA

Cool! Thanks!

On Thu, 29 May 2008 20:54:04 +0200, Lou Holtman
wrote:
A Muzi wrote:
Lou Holtman wrote:
High end modern steel frames are all welded.

How does Waterford weld their lugged models? or Nagasawa? Or Panasonic?
Plenty of premium silver or brass brazed (lug and fillet) modern bikes ,
plus several top flight ateliers such as Jonny Cycles.

Well, we have a different definition of 'high end' and 'modern' then.
It's OK with me ;-)

If you're going to define modern by welded versus lugged, you're doing
circular reasoning

Incidentally: Snel (among others) makes fairly high end frames, and while
not particularly *modern* as such, they are lugged.

I'd be tempted myself to define any steel frame as not high end, or modern
for that matter, actually.

Jasper

On Thu, 29 May 2008 10:11:39 -0500, Ben C wrote:

But even so, a frame tube is thicker at the end and then Tigged,
presumably, in a jig. You need at least three hands for Tig welding
without a jig, and the welds I've seen on 631 bikes are very neat.

So if you had say a chainstay that was broken in the middle I doubt
you'd have much success just trying to buzz it back together again.

(Muzi will now post photos of him successfully doing just that to
a customer's bike...)

What makes you think a welder's shop that even has a mig or tig apparatus
in the Wilds Of Africa won't have an extra pair of hands available? At the
very least, there'll be you and the owner, which makes for four hands. And
that might just be enough to get you back to where FedEx delivers,
especially if he wraps a tin of beans around it first.

Jasper