speaking of expensive new bikes

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 16:44:55 -0800, Claire Petersky wrote:

'm having 32 spoke wheels built for the bike, with a Shimano Nexus
Generator Hub -- free from batteries at last! o Probably a Terry Butterfly
seat

Consider getting headlight with a build in LED standlight to go with that
groovy hub.The LED is powered by a capacitor that's charged by the
dynamo. That way folk can see you when stopped. Busch and Muller makes
them--I think Harris Cyclery stocks them for around 40 usd.


o fenders, naturally

bless you.

Questions:
o Should I also consider a rear hub/light?

Vat? a rear generator hub? Don't think they make one of those, but you can
pull a wire from the front.

I'd just go for an LED back since they last so long, but it wouldn't hurt
to have a generator lamp back there too, just in case--that's the way I'm
currently set up.

o It comes with long reach
calipers and Ultegra caliper brakes. Should I consider cantilevers
instead like the touring model has? o Other things I should consider
that I haven't?

If you can get canti bosses brazed on for a nominal charge, I'd go that
way--I think they look neat and old school touring.:P Heck they might
even stop better than the Ultegras too. LOL They'll allow you the best
fender clearance of all, so you might be able to run slightly larger tires
if need be. Unless you're doing fully loaded touring, and that bike seems
designed for more austere loads, the Ultegras should be fine.

And then...colors! OMG! What should I
pick?

I'm thinking maybe:
Kelly Green http://www.co-motion.com/graphics/th...greensmall.gif
or Sunrise Pearl
http://www.co-motion.com/graphics/th...pearlmocha.gif

Sunrise Pearl most definitely. Such a happy color and a bit retro
Motobecanesque.

The green is nice, but I'd call it a green bean green and it would look
better on a cxbike.

In article ,
"Matt O'Toole" wrote:

Claire Petersky wrote:

...it looks like I'm going to buy a custom Co-Motion Nor'Wester
(http://www.co-motion.com/norwester.html). I'm going for the Ultegra
road option, with a triple.

Modifications to the basic spec:

o fenders, naturally

Questions:
o Should I also consider a rear hub/light?
o It comes with long reach calipers and Ultegra caliper brakes.
Should I consider cantilevers instead like the touring model has?
o Other things I should consider that I haven't?

I believe the reason to pick cantis over caliper brakes would be to
accomodate really wide tires (cross tires, or for extra heavy loads).
The stock tires are 32 mm; would you ever put a bigger tire on? I doubt
it. I assume fenders will still fit under the caliper brakes with those
fatty tires (given the mission of this bike), but that's one thing to
confirm.

And then...colors! OMG! What should I pick?

I'm thinking maybe:
Kelly Green http://www.co-motion.com/graphics/th...greensmall.gif
or Sunrise Pearl
http://www.co-motion.com/graphics/th...pearlmocha.gif

What do you think?

Sunset Pearl, definitely. But for my money, probably the green instead
of the extra $110 for the pearl paint. On the other hand, this bike is
going to clear $3000 by a fair bit, well clear of my "more than my car"
benchmark.

I'm all freaked out! I can't believe I'm getting a new bike!

Breathe! Breathe! You'll be fine!

--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.wiredcola.com
Verus de parvis; verus de magnis.

On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 09:11:41 -0800, Ryan Cousineau wrote:

I believe the reason to pick cantis over caliper brakes would be to
accomodate really wide tires (cross tires, or for extra heavy loads). The
stock tires are 32 mm; would you ever put a bigger tire on? I doubt it. I
assume fenders will still fit under the caliper brakes with those fatty
tires (given the mission of this bike), but that's one thing to confirm.

You'd need 45mm fenders to clear any tire over 28mm. Regular road fenders
are 35mm and I'm not sure if those ultegra brake calipers can clear 45s,
as dual pivot brakes provide less room than the old side-pulls. Perhaps
someone on this NG has experience with these calipers.

I'd certainly love the option to mount 37mm tires if I had such a
ride--and hit some fire roads. :P But 28mm is probably a more practical
day to day width.

Tom Sherman Claire,

32-sopke wheels?
Generator hub?
Fenders?
Long reach calipers or cantilever brakes?

Fabrizio Mazzoleni would be mortified if he were ever seen of such a
"Fred" bike!

Fred bike ?, bah! ;-), Claire is planning on the Spring Classics and
Paris-Brest-Paris. A Nor'wester would be great for either.

Vintage Bicycle Quarterly reviewed the Nor'Wester
in the current issue. Also mini reviews of brakes, including the new
Paul Racer. The Pauls will fit a 40mm fender with a 35mm tire.
The 35's are great on the cobbles. ;-)

What size bike you getting and what size wheels ?

Scott G.

Claire Petersky wrote:
...it looks like I'm going to buy a custom Co-Motion Nor'Wester
(http://www.co-motion.com/norwester.html). I'm going for the Ultegra road
option, with a triple.

This is exactly the bike I travel with. I am very, very fond of it.

o It comes with long reach calipers and Ultegra caliper brakes. Should I
consider cantilevers instead like the touring model has?

My bike has caliper brakes and I'm happy about that, but my reasons
may not apply to your situation. I travel with bike in an S&S case,
and when I pack it I find I need to remove the front caliper to keep
it from interfering with whatever gets placed on top of the fork.
Cantilevers would make this worse, and while I guess I could remove
them as well some bad past experiences with cantilevers have given me
an aversion to fooling with them (to be clear, I have no problem with
having cantilevers on a bike, as long as someone other than me is doing
any fiddling with them that they require) and I'd still have the
greasy brake bosses sticking up into the case.

There are some constraints that caliper brakes place on you that you
might want to be aware of in case it matters to you, however. While
I'm pretty sure you could get 35 mm tires under the brakes, doing so
would entirely preclude having fenders at the same time. There is
also insufficient clearance between the caliper arms for 45 mm fenders
on my bike (and I'm not sure they'd clear even with much wider rims
than I use). 35 mm fenders do fit nicely, but these limit you to
28 mm tires at most if the fenders are to be effective at keeping you
dry. I have 35 mm fenders and (somewhat undersized) 28 mm Conti tires
and I find this combination works very well, but that's about the limit
of what you can do.

There's one other annoyance I have with caliper brakes and fenders which
I haven't found the right piece of hardware to solve yet. It is clear
that the fenders (at least standard fenders, like SKS) and brakes need
to share the mounting points at the fork crown and brake bridge. I did
the straight forward thing, by inserting the fender's tab between washers
on the brake mounting bolt, but I'm not entirely happy with this. First,
while this seems utterly harmless, I'm still vaguely uncomfortable doing
anything the least bit hackish with my brake mounts. It also means I
need to mount the front fender tab in front of the fork, rather than
behind it, which pulls the (already a bit short) SKS fenders an inch
further up the back of the rear wheel, making my mudflap longer when I
use it and my feet wetter when I don't. And finally, I like to remove
the fenders whenever it is dry, which since I live in California happens
frequently and reliably, and I'd much prefer being able to get the
fenders on and off without having to remove the brakes.

Now the last time I was in London I noticed a nice solution for all
this seemed quite common there. Bikes with both caliper brakes
and fenders often had the Allen nut which holds the brakes on replaced
with a different nut which was longer, had wrench flats for tightening
and had a bolt in the end on which the fender could be mounted. This
allows the fenders to be mounted and dismounted without touching the
brakes, and puts the front fender tab behind the fork where it belongs.
The bike shops close to where I live have never heard of this, however,
nor have I seen it available mail order, and I've not been back to
London since to see if I could find a pair in a shop there. In any
case, if you buy the calipers you might want to pay attention to how
they mount the fenders with them and encourage them to do the right
thing. At the price of the bike they could probably afford to have
nice mounting nuts machined for you (of course it is also possible
they have nice solutions for this where you live, and it is only
a problem in dry-weather California).

o Other things I should consider that I haven't?

I didn't like the shape of the Deda handle bars that came with the
bike, and eventually replaced them. YMMV

And then...colors! OMG! What should I pick?

I'm not good at colour choices. I got red because someone told me
that red ones go faster and I need the help.

Dennis Ferguson

Dennis Ferguson wrote:



There's one other annoyance I have with caliper brakes and fenders
which
I haven't found the right piece of hardware to solve yet. It is
clear
that the fenders (at least standard fenders, like SKS) and brakes
need
to share the mounting points at the fork crown and brake bridge. I
did
the straight forward thing, by inserting the fender's tab between
washers
on the brake mounting bolt, but I'm not entirely happy with this.
First,
while this seems utterly harmless, I'm still vaguely uncomfortable
doing
anything the least bit hackish with my brake mounts. It also means I
need to mount the front fender tab in front of the fork, rather than
behind it, which pulls the (already a bit short) SKS fenders an inch
further up the back of the rear wheel, making my mudflap longer when
I
use it and my feet wetter when I don't. And finally, I like to
remove
the fenders whenever it is dry, which since I live in California
happens
frequently and reliably, and I'd much prefer being able to get the
fenders on and off without having to remove the brakes.

Now the last time I was in London I noticed a nice solution for all
this seemed quite common there. Bikes with both caliper brakes
and fenders often had the Allen nut which holds the brakes on
replaced
with a different nut which was longer, had wrench flats for
tightening
and had a bolt in the end on which the fender could be mounted. This
allows the fenders to be mounted and dismounted without touching the
brakes, and puts the front fender tab behind the fork where it
belongs.
The bike shops close to where I live have never heard of this,
however,
nor have I seen it available mail order, and I've not been back to
London since to see if I could find a pair in a shop there.

Since I don't presently have any bike with modern caliper brakes, I
don't share the problem you have, and can't examine it in detail.
Still (apologizing if I'm visualizing things wrong) is it possible to
fit a longer mounting screw, one that will stick out the back of the
fork, or out the front of the rear brake bridge?

You'd need a spacer to fill in the counterbore for the allen nut's
head. But that longer screw would allow you to do this: fit one
regular nut to actually mount the brake, and fit another nut (or
perhaps a wingnut) to fasten the fender in place.

The similar trick at the dropouts consists of threading a mounting
screw through the dropouts from the inside, so it sticks out like a
stud. Then use another nut (again, perhaps a wingnut) to mount the
fender stays.

Personally, I'm not very trusting of wingnuts, but it would work with
regular nuts too.

In article ,
Ryan Cousineau writes:

I believe the reason to pick cantis over caliper brakes would be to
accomodate really wide tires (cross tires, or for extra heavy loads).
The stock tires are 32 mm; would you ever put a bigger tire on? I doubt
it. I assume fenders will still fit under the caliper brakes with those
fatty tires (given the mission of this bike), but that's one thing to
confirm.

One issue that might crop up with traditional centre-pull
cantis (such as the Avid Shorties) is, the straddle wire
and yoke could interfere with installing a headlight that
mounts on the brake bolt. One workaround would be to mount
the headlight on the fork blade instead.


cheers,
Tom

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