What Bicycle Part Varies Least?

Innertube valves, since tire pumps are standardized. There are just 3
standard types that I've seen.

wrote:
Taking the trash out tonight, I stumbled over a normally
jolly old elf, who was curled up in a foetal ball and
whimpering in the snow in my back yard.

(Really--after 65F Monday chinook winds, it began snowing
across Colorado Tuesday night. I can show you the snow if
you're doubtful.)

Anyway, Santa was lying there in the snow, moaning something
incoherent about "Too many . . . too many!" while his
reindeer chewed their cud indifferently.

(I noticed that Rudolph's blinking red nose was in front,
which might cause Sheldon a twinge. I couldn't tell if it
was an LED or not.)

The pathetic figure sobbing in the snow was surrounded by a
dozen mail-order bicycle catalogues. Since I was already
taking my own trash out, I picked up the catalogues that
Santa had dropped just before his breakdown.

Every product in each catalogue had been circled, some of
them several times, from front to back.

A question occurred to me after I tip-toed back into the
house past the example of what excessive choices can do to
the best of us at this happy time of the year.

What part of a bicycle do you think varies the least? And
why?

Choose your own standard--mechanical design, practical
effect, size, weight, cost, material, whatever--and enjoy
the glory of your own theories while suppressing your horror
at the twisted logic of the other numbskulls.

For inspiration, amusement, and reassurance that the variety
is not altogether a recent phenomenon, here's what Santa was
thumbing through almost a century ago:

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/morley/index.htm

http://www.instantattitudes.com/imag...s1908pg170.jpg

http://www.brooksarchives.info/brook...oks/page8.html

Merry Christmas!

Carl Fogel

wrote:

: What part of a bicycle do you think varies the least? And
: why?

Cable aglets. Either that, or the round thumb-nut thing on a presta valve.

- Mark

Pedal threads? I can interchange any pedal from anything onto
anything. Well,except kid's bikes.

Saddle rails? Any saddle fits any seatpost (gah, except some old
Brooks things. And Dursley-Pedersen hammocks. And recumbents.).

Cables? The basic Bowden cable can double up for shifting and braking
duty on just about everything. Yeah, the nipples are different but
other than that you can freely whack any cable into any bike and it'll
do the job. My repair kit includes a spare gear cable, because you can
use it as an emergency brake cable at a pinch. Apart from hydro
brakes, that is. And stupid Positron gears. And rod brakes.

Chain pitch! I'm damned if I can think of a bicycle that doesn't use
1/2" chain pitch. Someone tell me I'm wrong...

wrote:


What part of a bicycle do you think varies the least? And
why?

Sprockets for fixed-gear bikes. I'm sure Cyclo are still knocking them
out on 19th century presses.

Marvin wrote:

Chain pitch! I'm damned if I can think of a bicycle that doesn't use
1/2" chain pitch. Someone tell me I'm wrong...

Hmm...1" pitch chain was popular with trackies, and Shimano tried 10mm
chain more recently. Bzzzt, thankyou for playing ;-)

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 03:25:20 -0600, Jim Smith
wrote:

"Nick Payne" nickDOTpayne@internodeDOTonDOTnet writes:

The ball-bearing.

The bearing-ball.

Dear Nick and Jim,

They're certainly round, and grade 25 suggests darned little
variation.

Offhand, how many different sizes of ball-bearings would you
expect to find if you disassembled a Campagnolo, a Shimano,
and a Fury Roadmaster--front hub, headset, bottom bracket,
pedals, rear hub?

Carl Fogel

On 23 Dec 2004 14:13:09 GMT, (Qui si parla
Campagnolo ) wrote:

What part of a bicycle do you think varies the least? And
why? BRBR

In terms of basic design, the frame. The same double triangle shape that it has
been since the 'bicycle' was introduced.

Peter Chisholm
Vecchio's Bicicletteria
1833 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535
http://www.vecchios.com
"Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

Dear Peter,

Certainly all God-fearing riders use the double triangle.

(Or the recumbent. Or the mixte. Or my mother's 1960's
step-through 10-speed Schwinn. Or my friend in Seattle's
Moulton. Or the tandems.)

(Or the dozens of goofball frames with weird tubes and
bracing wires in "The Frame" chapter in Archibald Sharp's
"Bicycles and Tricycles".)

Carl Fogel

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 14:58:29 GMT, Paul Kopit
wrote:

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 00:29:29 -0700, wrote:

What part of a bicycle do you think varies the least? And
why?

The chain turning gears.
The spacing of the dropout on a front wheel.

Dear Paul,

In terms physical variation, the plain gears are pretty
uniform, although the fixed-gear crowd insists that there is
horribly significant variation (except for Sheldon Brown,
who says that with high-quality parts he has no gear-induced
chain-tension problems).

Of course, the contoured teeth for better derailleur
shifting vary wildly.

I really like your point about the width of the front wheel
dropout--no Scrooge-like objections come to mind, so I'll
have to rely on the nit-picking legions of rec.bicycles.tech
to think of exceptions.

Carl Fogel

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 09:11:29 -0700, Mark Hickey
wrote:

wrote:

What part of a bicycle do you think varies the least? And
why?

That's an easy one. It's the motor. Hasn't changed for many
thousands of years.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $695 ti frame

Dear Mark,

I like your choice, since it never occurred to me.

On the other hand, we have riders ranging from at least 5'3"
to 6'10" here on rec.bicycles.tech.

Arbitrarily tossing out the dwarves and leading the giants
aside, we could claim in a hateful, height-bigoted way that
a reasonable range of riders is 5'4" to 6'4" (this
eliminates Jobst and my mother).

That's a range of 64 to 76 inches, an upward variation of
about 19% (12/64), presumably reflected by the same
variation from hip socket to cleat.

Yet even the unusually broad range of crank lengths from 165
to 180 mm is only about 9% (15/165). If a 165 mm crank is
just right for a 5'4" rider, scaling him up in height to
6'4" suggests that a 195 mm crank would be appropriate.

Makes me wonder about some of the claims about fit and
sensitivity. I suspect that the further people are from
around 5'8" to 5'10", the less their knee angles resemble
the ideal (whatever it is) while they pedal.

Carl Fogel

Surprised no one mentioned spoke nipples. There are only 2 sizes as far
as thread diameter goes and only a few lengths. For the most part, they
are identical.


--
Weisse Luft