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my fixie doesn't need improvement



 
 
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  #61  
Old February 19th 18, 05:29 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Joerg[_2_]
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Default my fixie doesn't need improvement

On 2018-02-18 14:21, Tim McNamara wrote:
On Sat, 17 Feb 2018 23:55:46 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

That is an accurate description how it went in the old days. For me 30
years ago. I know no serious cyclists these days that do not allow
themselves STI shifters or the like because they can break and keep
riding Fred Flintstone bikes. Only people that are into vintage do.


I use DT shifters on all my bikes except for my tanem, which came with
STI. I bought a bike with STI in 1992 when I started racing and it was
a decided advantage over DT shifters in competitive situations. I was
never that comfortable with STI's using the break lever for shifts; I
preferred the Campy Ergo system and switched to that for the rest of my
racing career.

Since stopping racing, though, I've converted everything back to DT
shifters. I use a handlebar bag on two of my bikes and the extra cables
interfere with that. Since I'm not racing, the minor inconvenience of
reaching down to shift is a moot point for me. Plus- maybe this is a
function of my generation- I prefer the looks of DT shifters due to the
reduced cables sticking out the front. Once we have wireless shifters
that are reliable, ...



Then one sunny day it don't shift no more and the display bluntly
scrolls "An irrecoverable error has occurred. Please can 1-800 ..." :-)


... then I'd probably think about brifters again (this
doesn't necessarily mean bluetooth or something like that; I think it
would be easily possible to connect an electrical circuit through the
frame to control the derailleurs. Possibly using something like the
Rene Herse circuit for powering headlights from a rear triangle-mounted
generator, which used a brush inside the headtube as the connector
from the frame to the fork).


What is that triangle-mounted generator and can one still buy those? In
web links all I could see was a rear-mounted bottle dynamo.

http://www.jimlangley.net/ride/ReneHerseBicycle.html

I have looked for roller dynamos to mount in the triangle but they seem
to have vanished from the marketplace. The only ones I saw were
expensive used or NOS versions, often from unknown sources.

The battery I have on the road bike has sufficient capacity for my
longest rides but a roller dynamo would allow me to mount a much smaller
one.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Ads
  #62  
Old February 19th 18, 05:34 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
AMuzi
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Default my fixie doesn't need improvement

On 2/19/2018 10:10 AM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/19/2018 10:24 AM, jbeattie wrote:

Di2 is nice, and I have no worry about batteries going
dead, but it is a luxury I can live without. It is not
game-changing in the same way as STI/Ergo except for those
people who can use the remote switch for sprinting or tri
or what-have-you. It also allows programming and software
updating, etc., which is fine for the Garmin set, but I've
run out of brain cells for learning new technology, or I'm
running low.


I'm not part of the Garmin set. But I'm getting more and
more bothered by the "soft" aspect of software.

What I mean is, with anything from word processing to
computer drafting to music notation software to smart phone
apps to even a weather predicting web page, I have to deal
with "updates" and "improvements." So the look and feel
changes. Or what was once in this menu is now in some other
menu. Or the steps I took to make something happen no longer
work, and the "help" file hasn't been updated to tell me the
alternative.

This is bad enough on stuff I use regularly. On things I
would do only rarely (like fine tuning shift parameters on a
Di2 system) it can be really frustrating.

One you learn to use a ratchet wrench, you always know how
to use a ratchet wrench. I wish software was like that.


Just as some riders on some rides are best served by fixed
gear or an SA gearbox or friction 2x5 or Ergo or Di2 or
whatever, keeping an obsolete OS version computer, off-net,
for actual work makes sense to me. No 'auto downgrades'
overnight and one may run classic versions of software to
take advantage of previously written routines, macros,
historic data sets in previous format, etc.

Our modern machines here play video well but we wouldn't put
anything important or sensitive on them since they are
online. YMMV and likely does.

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


  #63  
Old February 20th 18, 02:22 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
John B.[_3_]
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Default my fixie doesn't need improvement

On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 10:57:36 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 2/19/2018 2:34 AM, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 18 Feb 2018 22:45:55 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 2/18/2018 8:04 PM, John B. wrote:

So, one might say that for riding in hilly terrain the STI shifters
are mandatory for success while if riding on level ground are far less
important.

Even in hilly terrain, STI is not mandatory for non-competitive success.
I've crossed the Appalachians with friction shifting.

People succeeded in riding in hilly terrain even before there were
derailleurs, let alone STI.


But my experience was that we pushed up a lot of the hills :-)


I know guys who love climbing hills. They enjoy the challenge.

If you grew up in upstate New Hampshire like I did it wasn't a matter
of love it was a matter of necessity. The hills had been there since
the last Ice Age :-)


I was never a hill lover, but I guess I climbed well enough. My personal
challenge was, and still is, to never dismount and push. On our
coast-to-coast trip, my wife and daughter walked a couple hills but I
never did.

In fact, in my first 40 years of riding I can remember only two times I
pushed up a hill. One was on a tandem ride in very hilly Amish country
in summer, riding with friends on another tandem. Steep hills (certainly
over 10% grade), very hot weather and sticky tar pavement combined to
make us push. The other incident was a solo camping trip, climbing out
of a valley on a gravel road. I could have handled the steep grade, but
the gravel gave so little traction I couldn't keep going.


All this with a single speed bike?

Now last fall, I explored a new route and hit a climb that was about 17%
to 18% by the little inclinometer on my handlebar. I was in my granny
gear and standing, and my legs were yelling at me. But I made it. That's
using friction bar-end shifters.

--
Cheers,

John B.

  #64  
Old February 20th 18, 02:28 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
John B.[_3_]
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Default my fixie doesn't need improvement

On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 07:24:36 -0800 (PST), jbeattie
wrote:

On Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 11:32:00 PM UTC-8, John B. wrote:
On Sun, 18 Feb 2018 21:14:44 -0800 (PST), jbeattie
wrote:

On Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 7:45:57 PM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 2/18/2018 8:04 PM, John B. wrote:

So, one might say that for riding in hilly terrain the STI shifters
are mandatory for success while if riding on level ground are far less
important.

Even in hilly terrain, STI is not mandatory for non-competitive success.
I've crossed the Appalachians with friction shifting.

People succeeded in riding in hilly terrain even before there were
derailleurs, let alone STI.

Nothing is mandatory. I've crossed all the major mountain ranges with friction shifters, too. I just prefer STI. And I would say that it would be handicap to race without them.

BTW, I would have used the old brake hose to pull the new, but the meth-heads pulled the old tube. Why? Who knows. The thief or an associate cut the tube at the bars, took the rear caliper and yanked the tube out of the frame. The grommets are lost, and by pulling out the hose, the thief left the foam outer hose (a foam sleeve that keeps the hose from rattling) inside the frame. I had to fish that out with my Harbor Freight dental tool.

-- Jay Beattie.


Boy, these modern bikes sound complex. I don't have any pipes or tubes
but my cable (1) just tie to the top tube :-)

--
Cheers,

John B.


Look at it this way, modern bikes allow you to develop your electrical and plumbing skills -- not just simple mechanical skills.

I've already developed the plumbing and electrical skills from the
Honeydo projects around the house :-)

I replaced the stolen (now returned) Roubaix with a Synapse, and since I got it on a crash-replacement deal and had insurance dollars, I totally splurged and got Ultegra Di2. Electric is nice, but I don't like it as much as my cohorts -- who are effusive. Learning new levers always takes me a while because I ride every day during the week on old STI.

Anyway, I went out for a muddy ride last week, threw the bike on the washstand and was doing my usual routine with a brush in the cassettes, turning the crank, and I dragged the rear wire into the cassettes and tore it up. GD! It's $16 for a cable run to the junction, and a PITA to fish the wire through the chain stay and the junction out of the downtube through the BB. So, since there is a bunch of redundant wire, I just pulled a little out, cut it back, soldered it together and did a tidy shrink-tube job, and it works like a charm. I did get a new wire to have around, though, and I may throw it in one day. But it was odd getting out the electrical tool box for the bike. What's next? Drywall?

Di2 is nice, and I have no worry about batteries going dead, but it is a luxury I can live without. It is not game-changing in the same way as STI/Ergo except for those people who can use the remote switch for sprinting or tri or what-have-you. It also allows programming and software updating, etc., which is fine for the Garmin set, but I've run out of brain cells for learning new technology, or I'm running low.

-- Jay Beattie.


Now we got the 'lectric shifting the next thing is the 'lectric pedals
:-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

  #65  
Old February 20th 18, 02:33 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
John B.[_3_]
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Posts: 5,697
Default my fixie doesn't need improvement

On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 11:10:18 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 2/19/2018 10:24 AM, jbeattie wrote:

Di2 is nice, and I have no worry about batteries going dead, but it is a luxury I can live without. It is not game-changing in the same way as STI/Ergo except for those people who can use the remote switch for sprinting or tri or what-have-you. It also allows programming and software updating, etc., which is fine for the Garmin set, but I've run out of brain cells for learning new technology, or I'm running low.


I'm not part of the Garmin set. But I'm getting more and more bothered
by the "soft" aspect of software.

What I mean is, with anything from word processing to computer drafting
to music notation software to smart phone apps to even a weather
predicting web page, I have to deal with "updates" and "improvements."
So the look and feel changes. Or what was once in this menu is now in
some other menu. Or the steps I took to make something happen no longer
work, and the "help" file hasn't been updated to tell me the alternative.

This is bad enough on stuff I use regularly. On things I would do only
rarely (like fine tuning shift parameters on a Di2 system) it can be
really frustrating.

One you learn to use a ratchet wrench, you always know how to use a
ratchet wrench. I wish software was like that.


In the software field one thing I've found out is once you get a
version of an application that you like NEVER update it :-)

I feel that bicycles are very much the same.
--
Cheers,

John B.

  #66  
Old February 20th 18, 04:43 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Joy Beeson
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Posts: 1,638
Default my fixie doesn't need improvement

On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 08:01:12 -0500, Duane
wrote:

The fact that we got by without new tech isn't a reason to avoid new
tech if it works.


If it works better than the old tech FOR YOUR PURPOSES, that is.

I was very excited when I first heard of clipless pedals -- until I
realized that I'd always have to wear the same shoes.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

  #67  
Old February 20th 18, 07:24 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
[email protected]
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Posts: 824
Default my fixie doesn't need improvement

On Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 5:43:27 AM UTC+1, Joy Beeson wrote:
On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 08:01:12 -0500, Duane
wrote:

The fact that we got by without new tech isn't a reason to avoid new
tech if it works.


If it works better than the old tech FOR YOUR PURPOSES, that is.

I was very excited when I first heard of clipless pedals -- until I
realized that I'd always have to wear the same shoes.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/


Huh??? Always the same shoes???

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dJ...o/IMG_1984.JPG

Lou
  #68  
Old February 21st 18, 12:00 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Joy Beeson
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Posts: 1,638
Default my fixie doesn't need improvement

On Tue, 20 Feb 2018 10:24:43 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Huh??? Always the same shoes???


You mean that there are clipless pedals that will work with whatever
shoe I already have on?

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/


  #69  
Old February 21st 18, 02:07 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Ralph Barone[_4_]
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Posts: 853
Default my fixie doesn't need improvement

Joy Beeson wrote:
On Tue, 20 Feb 2018 10:24:43 -0800 (PST), wrote:

Huh??? Always the same shoes???


You mean that there are clipless pedals that will work with whatever
shoe I already have on?


You missed Lou's picture. He has 20 pairs of shoes expressly for his
clipless pedals.

 




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