Ultimate weight weenie!

"This fantastic new product is the lightest computer magnet in the
world! It has been designed to solve the wheel balance problem
encountered on very lightweight wheels..."

"The Pulsar is fitted by gluing the magnet to the side of the spoke
(opposite the valve), and as close to the reader unit as possible...
Weighing in at a mere 0.3 of a gram! You will never notice its
there..."

Material: Special high power neodymium magnet
Weight: Only 0.3grams
Size: 4 x 5mm
Colours: silver

Price: £4.99 each
http://www.poshbikes.com/product.php?id=18

They even balanced the last sentence by leaving out the apostrophe!

I weighed a typical presta valve and cap, cut from an old tube, and a
hefty no-name Nashbar spoke magnet.

On my electronic scale, the valve and cap weighed about 5 grams.

The magnet, with fixing screw, weighed about 7 grams.

(A business card is about 1.3 grams on my electronic scale.)

In other words, a normal valve and spoke magnet balance each other
pretty well on opposite sides of a comparatively massive front wheel
and tire--the difference is about 2 grams.

Using the wonderful lightweight 0.3 gram mini-magnet would actually
imbalance a wheel more (5 grams trying to balance 0.3 grams) and make
a non-problem a tiny bit worse

Maybe the reduced wind drag of the smaller magnet would be a better
selling point.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

wrote in message
...
"This fantastic new product is the lightest computer magnet in the
world! It has been designed to solve the wheel balance problem
encountered on very lightweight wheels..."

"The Pulsar is fitted by gluing the magnet to the side of the spoke
(opposite the valve), and as close to the reader unit as possible...
Weighing in at a mere 0.3 of a gram! You will never notice its
there..."

Material: Special high power neodymium magnet
Weight: Only 0.3grams
Size: 4 x 5mm
Colours: silver

Price: £4.99 each
http://www.poshbikes.com/product.php?id=18

They even balanced the last sentence by leaving out the apostrophe!

I weighed a typical presta valve and cap, cut from an old tube, and a
hefty no-name Nashbar spoke magnet.

On my electronic scale, the valve and cap weighed about 5 grams.

The magnet, with fixing screw, weighed about 7 grams.

(A business card is about 1.3 grams on my electronic scale.)

In other words, a normal valve and spoke magnet balance each other
pretty well on opposite sides of a comparatively massive front wheel
and tire--the difference is about 2 grams.

Using the wonderful lightweight 0.3 gram mini-magnet would actually
imbalance a wheel more (5 grams trying to balance 0.3 grams) and make
a non-problem a tiny bit worse

Maybe the reduced wind drag of the smaller magnet would be a better
selling point.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Carl,
But, but, but, what about the (missing) weight from the hole in the rim for
the valve, and the weight of the weld/other rim joining method, which is
usually opposite the valve? Of course, before I lose much sleep over this,
I'll have to find another place for the presta/schrader adaptor (4 grams!)
that currently is stored on the presta valve.
Thanks,
Kerry

On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:30:40 -0800, "Kerry Montgomery"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
"This fantastic new product is the lightest computer magnet in the
world! It has been designed to solve the wheel balance problem
encountered on very lightweight wheels..."

"The Pulsar is fitted by gluing the magnet to the side of the spoke
(opposite the valve), and as close to the reader unit as possible...
Weighing in at a mere 0.3 of a gram! You will never notice its
there..."

Material: Special high power neodymium magnet
Weight: Only 0.3grams
Size: 4 x 5mm
Colours: silver

Price: £4.99 each
http://www.poshbikes.com/product.php?id=18

They even balanced the last sentence by leaving out the apostrophe!

I weighed a typical presta valve and cap, cut from an old tube, and a
hefty no-name Nashbar spoke magnet.

On my electronic scale, the valve and cap weighed about 5 grams.

The magnet, with fixing screw, weighed about 7 grams.

(A business card is about 1.3 grams on my electronic scale.)

In other words, a normal valve and spoke magnet balance each other
pretty well on opposite sides of a comparatively massive front wheel
and tire--the difference is about 2 grams.

Using the wonderful lightweight 0.3 gram mini-magnet would actually
imbalance a wheel more (5 grams trying to balance 0.3 grams) and make
a non-problem a tiny bit worse

Maybe the reduced wind drag of the smaller magnet would be a better
selling point.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Carl,
But, but, but, what about the (missing) weight from the hole in the rim for
the valve, and the weight of the weld/other rim joining method, which is
usually opposite the valve? Of course, before I lose much sleep over this,
I'll have to find another place for the presta/schrader adaptor (4 grams!)
that currently is stored on the presta valve.
Thanks,
Kerry

Dear Kerry,

Cutting-edge technology isn't cheap, so I foresee a day when new and
improved valve holes become available at surprisingly high prices.

If consumers balk at paying extravagant shipping fees for high-quality
rim holes, the companies might offer a two-for-one deal, throwing in a
spare rim hole at no extra cost, in case the original rim hole wears
out.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

wrote: Cutting-edge technology isn't cheap, so I
foresee a day when new and
improved valve holes become available at surprisingly high prices.

If consumers balk at paying extravagant shipping fees for high-quality
rim holes, the companies might offer a two-for-one deal, throwing in a
spare rim hole at no extra cost, in case the original rim hole wears
out.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If the two valve holes are placed 180 degrees apart, then the rim would be
nearly perfectly balanced. For a perfect balance, tubes would have to be
equipped with two stems, also exactly 180 degrees apart. Failing this, it
would be necessary for the rim manufacturers to provide a dummy stem in one
of the holes, which could be filled with some kind of variable weight to
match the real stem on the opposite side.

wrote:

In other words, a normal valve and spoke magnet balance each other
pretty well on opposite sides of a comparatively massive front wheel
and tire--the difference is about 2 grams.

Using the wonderful lightweight 0.3 gram mini-magnet would actually
imbalance a wheel more (5 grams trying to balance 0.3 grams) and make
a non-problem a tiny bit worse

The joint of many rims opposite the valve in fact weighs about the same as
the valve, so the wheel is balanced before a magnet is added.

Maybe the reduced wind drag of the smaller magnet would be a better
selling point.

Or just that it looks neat and a larger and heavier magnet is simply
unnecessary.

~PB

Similar magnets can be found more cheaply on eBay, by the way.

~PB

On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:31:09 -0700, wrote:


Cheers,

Carl Fogel

Carl - why do you seem to take pleasure in such denouncing other
people's foibles?

On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:55:34 -0800, "Leo Lichtman"
wrote:


wrote: Cutting-edge technology isn't cheap, so I
foresee a day when new and
improved valve holes become available at surprisingly high prices.

If consumers balk at paying extravagant shipping fees for high-quality
rim holes, the companies might offer a two-for-one deal, throwing in a
spare rim hole at no extra cost, in case the original rim hole wears
out.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If the two valve holes are placed 180 degrees apart, then the rim would be
nearly perfectly balanced. For a perfect balance, tubes would have to be
equipped with two stems, also exactly 180 degrees apart. Failing this, it
would be necessary for the rim manufacturers to provide a dummy stem in one
of the holes, which could be filled with some kind of variable weight to
match the real stem on the opposite side.

Dear Leo,

Really high-quality valve holes may be placed anywhere on a rim
without disturbing the wheel's balance.

If you wish to experiment, I have a few to spare and can send you as
many as you like for free, as long as you pay the shipping.

Unfortunately, I have only the inexpensive presta valve holes. The
larger Schrader holes save weight, but they cost too much.

Cheers,

Carl FOgel

wrote:

Yes, on some rims the welding or dowel weighs about as much as the
valve, but that's less often true of the kind of wheels specifically
mentioned in the ad that I quoted:

"It [the 0.3 gram glue-on spoke magnet] has been designed to solve the
wheel balance problem encountered on very lightweight wheels..."

It is true for the Open Pro rim - which is light and used by Poshbikes for
some of their wheels.

The marketing may be over the top, but there is nothing silly about using
this type of magnet on a bike wheel. They're cheap and they do the job.
What else do you need?

~PB

On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:37:13 +0100, "Pete Biggs"
t wrote:

wrote:

In other words, a normal valve and spoke magnet balance each other
pretty well on opposite sides of a comparatively massive front wheel
and tire--the difference is about 2 grams.

Using the wonderful lightweight 0.3 gram mini-magnet would actually
imbalance a wheel more (5 grams trying to balance 0.3 grams) and make
a non-problem a tiny bit worse

The joint of many rims opposite the valve in fact weighs about the same as
the valve, so the wheel is balanced before a magnet is added.

Maybe the reduced wind drag of the smaller magnet would be a better
selling point.

Or just that it looks neat and a larger and heavier magnet is simply
unnecessary.

~PB

Dear Pete,

Yes, on some rims the welding or dowel weighs about as much as the
valve, but that's less often true of the kind of wheels specifically
mentioned in the ad that I quoted:

"It [the 0.3 gram glue-on spoke magnet] has been designed to solve the
wheel balance problem encountered on very lightweight wheels..."

And there actually isn't any such wheel balance problem--unless you
believe that a bicycle rider can feel whatever imbalance results from
adding a spoke magnet.

As for looks, that's a bit tricky, since the real idea is that you
can't see it:

"You will never notice its there..."

But it's darn well worth it for those who do notice those large, heavy
spoke magnets!

It's a wonderful site for anyone who enjoys Thorstein Veblen:
http://www.poshbikes.com/i2.php

Here's a neat-looking spoke magnet:
http://www.yellowjersey.org/photosfr...st/OLDCOMP.JPG
http://www.rennrad-news.de/fotos/sho...hp/photo/27297

Looks just like a disk brake!

Cheers,

Carl Fogel