What do you think of bikes

What do you think of bikes that have the lighter weight wheels for
touring !!!

tcionnorslotsofspermandacceptedherea...@hot mail.com wrote:
What do you think of bikes that have the lighter weight wheels for
touring !!!

Great for credit card touring.

Terryc wrote:

tcionnorslotsofspermandacceptedherea...@hot mail.com wrote:
What do you think of bikes that have the lighter weight wheels for
touring !!!

Great for credit card touring.

I find it difficult to get any 36 spoke wheels any more.
Nearly everyone used them in 1988.

I have just changed over from the the old 7 speed cluster
to 8 speed cassette with Shimano Sora index set.
The new wheels are 32 spoke, with Alex D22 rims.
I got a new rear wheel for $99, and had to true it up
properly, and one spoke nipple damn well stripped its
square nutting, and I just unscrewed it and replaced it.
But when I just removed the ONE spoke out of 32 in the wheel which was
nearly
trued up, the wheel became very wonky, and I couldn't see myself
being able to ride home with one busted spoke.
Its difficult to replace spokes when your'e touring.
You can get at all the front spokes, OK, but on the rear wheel the
spokes on the
gear side can't be removed/replaced, and they are the ones that tend to
break
because the wheel is dished, and all spokes on the cassette side
are tighter than on the other.
So to replace spokes the cassette must come off, and you need to take a
special tool along with you.

But I used to break spokes every few months when i trained and raced
and toured and always was able to get home with a busted spoke.
Even DT double butted you beaut spokes which now cost about $3 each.
Sometimes I'd break two spokes, still not a worry.

And one has to know how to true a wheel.
There is more to it than getting side way sways aligned.
The rim should have no "hills and dales" when rotated, and
where a dale exists the spokes are tighter than where there is a hill,
and if spokes are unevenly tensioned, then some get more total stress
during use than others so perhaps they fatigue and break first.
When the hills and dales amount to less than 0.25mm,
and side sways ditto, then the spokes must all be reasonably close in
tension.
You get some indication when making a slight adjustment all around the
rim.
Some might be quite loose, while others much tighter in an untrue wheel.


Rod Evans, a guy in Vic who road across Oz back in about 1988
used wheels with 48 spokes because he found any less
and you could get stuck outback someplace.
While on a charity ride from Sydney to Canberra over 14 hours
he used a single speed freewheel of around 48T x 18T.
While I don't recommend single speeds unless you are really tough,
there isn't much to go wrong.

The adjustment of the index gearing on this bike I am re-building
would seem to be rather critical, and it all should work fine but
so far there are gear positions that seem to be not quite right
and the chain wants to hop around from one gear to another, and this is
a royal PITA.
Some riding on it and more adjustments may sort it out, and I will soon
learn
if the change to indexing is worth the expense.

If I was touring, I think I'd be happy with levers on the downtubes.
Touring requires a simple reliable mount.
It ain't about speed, and a little extra kilo is fine.
Its about being comfortable, and avoiding saddle sores, bad backs
and fatigue.
Surly make some intersting bikes, even with stainless steel chain rings.
Wow, you'd never wear one out.
And of course, they say that a steel tube frame is supposed to make the
ride
a lot smoother than with aluminium or carbon.

Just what you use while touring also depends on your weight.
I'm 77Kg, and I like sturdy bikes, but if you were only
60Kg then what would crumble under me may be OK with you.

Patrick Turner.

On Aug 10, 3:38 am, Patrick Turner wrote:
Terryc wrote:

tcionnorslotsofspermandacceptedhereatsexedu...@hot mail.com wrote:
What do you think of bikes that have the lighter weight wheels for
touring !!!

Great for credit card touring.


[chomp]

Patrick Turner.

Pat, you got trolled. Pretty soon you'll start to recognise a troll
here, there's not many of them, and their style is quite distinctive.