A bike for sunny days

Tom Sherman wrote:
Dane Buson wrote:

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/zuvembi/nishiki_1.jpg
http://members.arstechnica.com/x/zuvembi/nishiki_2.jpg

What's up with the handlebars being as high as the saddle?

:-P

After I read that I actually went and measured and I'll have you know
it's a two inch drop from saddle to handlebar. Not a fashionable seven
inches of drop I'll admit, but certainly short of the four inch rise on
my grocery bike (necessitated somewhat by a front child seat).

Have you been influenced by the late Sheldon Brown?

Heaven forfend one should be comfortable while cycling. Personally I
like to gird myself with a hairshirt and crown of thorns [1] before I go
on any training ride.

And lets just agree not to talk about those 'recumbent' people.

[1] Inside the helmet of course. Safety first!

--
Dane Buson -
After a few boring years, socially meaningful rock 'n' roll died out. It was
replaced by disco, which offers no guidance to any form of life more
advanced than the lichen family.
-- Dave Barry, "Kids Today: They Don't Know Dum Diddly Do"

On Sun, 11 May 2008 09:24:10 -0700, Dane Buson
wrote:

Tom Sherman wrote:
Dane Buson wrote:

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/zuvembi/dropout.jpg
http://members.arstechnica.com/x/zuv...ut-closeup.jpg

I was less than a mile from my house, just having finished crossing the
I-90 bridge. All flat sections, nothing of note, just riding along.

The most likely scenario is that the area was overheated when welding
the frame. The problem could be due to one particular welder or the
frame design is producing stress raisers at this location.

Yes, this is pretty much what I decided after talking to some other
people as well. That location is one that is prone to breakage to
begin with and if there was a slightly botched weld that could make it
happen that much sooner.

I always figured that the different thicknesses of material required
brazing.that joint on a steel frame.
--
zk

"Dane Buson" wrote in message
...
Well, my commuter bike frame [1] getting broken inspired me to get my
Sunny day bike fixed up last week. I've been stockpiling parts for it
for a while, so it was relatively quick to build up.

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/zuvembi/nishiki_1.jpg
http://members.arstechnica.com/x/zuvembi/nishiki_2.jpg

I've already swapped out the seatpost and seat since I took these
pictures.

Parts list:

- Nishiki frame (the whole bike was $5 at a garage sale)
- Campagnolo Chorus 10 speed carbon shifters ($75 used from a friend)
- 9 speed 12-25 Shimano cassette
- 105 rear hub/Alex Adventurer rim/ 14/15/14 DB spokes
- Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire
- Ultegra front hub / used Nici (Italian) rim
- Continental Top Touring 2000
- Sora rear derailleur (hubbub alternate routing)
- Front D + cranks, whatever was on the bike
- Centerpull brakes
- Modolo t-poc bars (whatever I had lying around)
- Threaded-Threadless stem adapter ($10)
- Threadless stem (spare from parts drawer)
- Nashbar bar tape ($4)
- New seatpost ($15)
- SPD pedals

Total cost: About $110

That is an amazing setup for $110! I think I paid more than that to buy two
new Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires and tubes for them. You much be quite
resourceful.

BobT

Zoot Katz wrote:
On Sun, 11 May 2008 09:24:10 -0700, Dane Buson
Tom Sherman wrote:

The most likely scenario is that the area was overheated when welding
the frame. The problem could be due to one particular welder or the
frame design is producing stress raisers at this location.

Yes, this is pretty much what I decided after talking to some other
people as well. That location is one that is prone to breakage to
begin with and if there was a slightly botched weld that could make it
happen that much sooner.

I always figured that the different thicknesses of material required
brazing.that joint on a steel frame.

I suppose it usually is brazed, either way it's possible it was overheated.

In other news, the frame has been shipped out to Surly and hopefully
this week I'll be hearing about a new frame getting shipped back.

--
Dane Buson -
"It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand
that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand."
-Mark Twain

BobT wrote:

"Dane Buson" wrote in message
...
Well, my commuter bike frame [1] getting broken inspired me to get my
Sunny day bike fixed up last week. I've been stockpiling parts for it
for a while, so it was relatively quick to build up.

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/zuvembi/nishiki_1.jpg
http://members.arstechnica.com/x/zuvembi/nishiki_2.jpg

I've already swapped out the seatpost and seat since I took these
pictures.

Parts list:

- Nishiki frame (the whole bike was $5 at a garage sale)
- Campagnolo Chorus 10 speed carbon shifters ($75 used from a friend)
- 9 speed 12-25 Shimano cassette
- 105 rear hub/Alex Adventurer rim/ 14/15/14 DB spokes
- Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire
- Ultegra front hub / used Nici (Italian) rim
- Continental Top Touring 2000
- Sora rear derailleur (hubbub alternate routing)
- Front D + cranks, whatever was on the bike
- Centerpull brakes
- Modolo t-poc bars (whatever I had lying around)
- Threaded-Threadless stem adapter ($10)
- Threadless stem (spare from parts drawer)
- Nashbar bar tape ($4)
- New seatpost ($15)
- SPD pedals

Total cost: About $110

That is an amazing setup for $110! I think I paid more than that to buy two
new Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires and tubes for them. You much be quite
resourceful.

Well, I suppose it's cheating to count only the parts I bought for the
bike itself. If I count up other things that were salvaged from other
bikes or out of the parts pile, it costs more than that.

Cassette (came with another bike - never used) call it $30
Rear wheel (spoke/rim/hub/tire - $18/$20/$30/$35) - $103
Front wheel ($18/$4/$20/$15) - $57
Sora derailleur (scrounged from friend) - $0
Bars - Off a dead bike - $10
Pedals - used - $5
---
Total = $205

So, counting all that sort of stuff as well adds $205. Still $315's not
bad for a sturdy fast Ergo equipped bike.

This is actually the first bike I've used with Ergo shifters. I've used
STI for about 11,000 miles, barcons for about 30,000, a couple hundred
miles on stem or DT shifters, a couple thousand with trigger shifters.

I'd have to say I like the Ergo quite a bit. I definitely prefer them
to Shimano STI, at the very least for the racheting front lever. Index
shifting for the front is a crap 'innovation'. For the rear is great
though.

--
Dane Buson -
If Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is not by some means abridged, it will soon
fall into disuse.
-- Philip Hale, Boston music critic, 1837

In article ,
Dane Buson writes:
Tom Sherman wrote:
Dane Buson wrote:

http://members.arstechnica.com/x/zuvembi/nishiki_1.jpg
http://members.arstechnica.com/x/zuvembi/nishiki_2.jpg

What's up with the handlebars being as high as the saddle?

:-P

After I read that I actually went and measured and I'll have you know
it's a two inch drop from saddle to handlebar. Not a fashionable seven
inches of drop I'll admit,

Hey, I never knew I was a trend-setter. 'n all I did was
to make a freebie bike that's really a little too short
for me, fit me (more or less.)

I was amused a couple of weeks ago when I parked my bike
beside one owned by an obviously casual sidewalk-rider
(and possible homeless bottle-collector,) and noted my
saddle was as high as his handlebar, and my handlebar
was as low as his saddle.

I desparately need one of those mini apehangers. One
that'll be accomodated by my current stem, which has that
hole right through it that serves as a front brake
cable stop. Speaking of stems, I also have a lovely,
full-on shortie, wide, clamshell-like stem that looks
sorta like a chrome fist, c/w at least half a dozen allen
screws around its copious circumference. With that I
could go with a more Xtreme ape-hanger.

Just thinking out loud.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca