besides the structural issues, looks like this crash has changed your bike geometry rake, head angle, tail, and wheel base.  This will likely result in much more sensitivity to handlebar input.

If you can, I would advise against riding the bike, particularly on low traction surface since a small jerk can put it a handle-bar lock and you into an endo.

As others noted, the clearance from the down-tube is also cause for caution.  The steel fork can likely be bent back, provided that there are no frame fractures and wheel damage (hard to imagine the wheel being perfect with forks bent).

otherwise, it doesn't seem likely that the steel bike would disintegrate as you're riding.

good luck


Disc brake keeps making ping-like shudder

Replaced the brake and all is well. My guess is one side of a piston was being pushed out with more force than another.


Why are my Shimano R540 SPD SL Road Pedals incredibly stiff to clip out of?

If you have the tension adjusted all the way down they should clip out easily. Two things to check:

Is the cleat tight on the shoe? If it can rotate at all, you won't be able to clip out.
Are you rotating your foot outwards to unclip? When I first got my clipless I tried to rotate in, and that doesn't work too well.


Is it better to breathe through your nose or mouth when cycling?

Breathe however you need to in order to get oxygen in. This goes for your mouth, nose or a combination of both.

Riders warming up on their trainers have cotton in their noses that contains something like vapor rub that helps open up the nasal passages. They don't have it in their noses during the race itself.


Combination of different Shimano braking components

V-Brakes and calliper brakes operate with different lengths of cable being pulled.

V-Brake levers pull a lot more cable and in this set up, your lever throw will be too sort to be usable and have very little stopping power.

Sheldon, as usual, has more.

You can get adapters to go the other way, road levers with v-brakes, but I've never seen one go this way.

Your best bet would be to look for some flat bar levers for the calliper brakes you have. Almost any sold as a road lever should work.


Never just tighten one side if a bracket if it isn't tight enough yet. Always do this:

Untighten the lockring which is not fixed to the bracket (mostly left side).
Tighten the bracket inside the frame very, very tight, while the lockring sits at its place very loosely.
Tighten the lockring again.

It sounds like you may have tightened the lockring, while the bracket wasn't tight enough in the frame yet.

Also, let someone hold the bicycle. In this way, you can push your tool tightly in the lockring while using force on the tool.

And mind that the pedals on the cranck need grease, the crancks on the bracket needs grease, and the bracket inside the frame also need grease. Any of these parts can start to squek if no grease is used.


Remove rounded nuts/bolts from wheel on old bike

If the nuts are rounded they're stuffed.  You want to remove the nuts but not damage other things, like axles.

I'll assume you're talking about axle nuts, but the same ideas apply to all nuts, bolts, and even screws to some extent.

So your nuts look something like this:

Clean the flats up with a file.  Use a medium flat file and smooth off the lumps of deformed metal in the corners.  Keep the file parallel to the flats and take your time.
Get the right-sized tool.  An axle nut is often 14mm, but that's not quite 9/16" of an inch.  So try the near-size tools.  They should go on snugly and have minimal play
Use a 6 or 12 point socket, or a ring spanner.  There's even specialist axle nut spanners as pictured which work quite well.     .Do NOT use an adjustable crescent!
Leverage - get a length of pipe and slip it over your socket driver handle. 50cm to 1metre should be ample leverage.  Any more than that and you risk damaging the tool.
If that's not helping then stop here, and get some penetrant oil like PB Rust Blaster, or CRC or anything that will soak in and help break up corrosion.  It could be the nuts have rounded off because they're simply on really well.  Also look for pins or any other secondary retainers.  My landy uses tab washers, which are designed to be folded over nuts to hold them from vibrating loose.

So all the easy fixes have failed.  You're going to have to get brutal and your nuts probably won't survive the later options.

Vise Grips or a Pair of Stiltsons, aka a pipe wrench.
Leverage is your friend, but watch the slip-zone should something give way.
Cold chisel works well on larger diameter things, but small nuts not so much.  I'd not bother with this.  The shock of hammering may upset your bearing cones and cups inside the hub and even the headset takes abuse.
If you have one, try cracking the nut in two with a nut splitter
Finally you can get a small 3" or 4" grinder with a cut-off wheel and thin down the nut.  The danger here is slipping and damaging the axle, or the wheel hub, or yourself.  Plus there's hot spitty sparks which can set fire to lubes and oils and cloths and anything.   A dremel tool with a 1" cutoff wheel might work, but the wheels tend to shatter quickly which is also expensive.
If you can't cut the nut off, then consider cutting the whole axle off.  The nuts pictured above would work well because the flange is a good guide of where to cut.  Once the top part of the nut is off, the flange may slide right off at best, or its only got a couple of threads to undo and you have more leverage.  A new axle is absolutely needed because it will be too short, and will have overheated changing its hardness.

Sometimes heat can help, but its also able to cause worse damage.  A steel fork should be fine, but its very easy to overheat aluminium.  Carbon fibre will melt badly or worse it might overheat, loose strength, but look undamaged.  This is the worst case, so only apply heat if your fork is steel, and there are no plastic parts in the area.

You can also use cold, sometimes, to "shrink" metals and break things loose.  I've found that carefully-applied heat to be much more useful.

Once you get the wheel nuts off, consider replacing the axle and nuts anyway.  A new axle with wheel nuts, two cones, and lock nuts shouldn't be too expensive.


Installing Schwinn Vestige frame LED cable

I would start by pulling the seatpost, fork and the bottom bracket. Use a small mirror similar to a Dentists type to try to see if the wire is attached in the frame or just passes thru. You may then be able to remove it. If possible attach a string to the end of the cable. You can then use the string to pull the repaired light cable back through the frame.


Difference in brakes and switcher cables?

Standard brake cables are 1.6mm thick and have either a cylindrical end perpendicular to the cable for MTB-style levers, or an inline stepped-cylinder (like a pear) for road-style levers.

Standard gear cables are 1.2mm thick and have a smaller cylindrical end, inline (cable enters circular face).

By standard, I mean both Shimano and Campagnolo use these gauges and end-styles and I'm not aware of any other variety used by gear or brake levers in current popular use...


Your rims can almost certainly take the extra width.  The real question is can your frame, forks, and brakes?  Only you can measure that.

Based on nominal dimensions (and some approximations) you would need an extra:

2.5mm either side to the chainstays/seatstays and forks/brake arches.
5mm above (to clear the brakes) and in front of the back tyre.

A few bikes even have the front wheel very close to the downtube.  This assumes a very similar tyre to the one you have, just a bit bigger. You need to add a bit for safety margin, plus you need some clear air between the new tyre and the frame.  So do you have enough clearance around the tyre?

The 28 should give a slightly more comfortable ride, and may even be more efficient.  You'll need a slightly lower pressure.


New wheel. Does it need that little rubber lining between it and the tube?

Yes, you will need a rim tape to protect your inner tube from the spoke holes or the spokes in your rim. There are a few exceptions we come to later.

The rim is the outer part of your wheel. Along its or circumference run two flanges to hold the tyre in place. Between the flanges is the rim bed. A rim tape usually needs to be in this bed. Thus can be a glued cloth tape, a strong adhesive tape, a strong elastic tape, or a rubber strip.

Often the rim profile consists of a chamber. It's one end is the rim bed and the other the inner circumference of the rim. The latter has drilled holes for spokes and nipples. The former has wider holes to access the spokes.

Purpose of the rim tape is to prevent the inner tube from expanding into these holes. The rim tape has to be quite strong to prevent this under pressure.

The tape should also cover the whole width of the rim bed. This keeps it from sliding.

If the inner tube expands into the holes it may burst. Either for being over-strained or by rubbing at a burr from drilling.

Some rims have only one chamber. This was especially  common in the days of steel rims. Here the inner tube may be protected by a soft strip of rubber from chafing at nipples.

If a rim has no spoke holes you do not require rim tape to cover the holes. However, it provides an insulating layer to protect the inner tube from heat coming from the brake track. There are plugs available to cover holes, where the same may apply.

Another exception are tubular tyres that are glued to the rim. But these are only found in sophisticated race bikes.


Occasional chain slipping/skipping - is it possible for the hub to be at fault?

Yes, the hub can be at fault. The freewheel mechanism pawls may be sticking in the retracted position, or the pawls and teeth are worn and the pawls are slipping out of the teeth.
You can try to confirm this by having a friend ride behind and to the right of you and watch the cassette area (in an area free of obstructions where you can do this safely). They should be able to see if the cassette spins when the slip happens. If it does the hub is at fault.


Is a self cleaning lube enough for chain maintenance?

It depends -- on the lube you use, the type of riding you do, and how much of a maintenance nut you are.

The "drier" the lube you use, the cleaner the chain will stay (though "dry" lube does not protect as well against moisture).
If you ride on roads, and rarely ride in the rain or slop, you need less chain maintenance.
Some people have to have their chains spotless, others can tolerate a bit of grime.  Keeping the chain spotless probably adds 5-10% (over "moderate" maintenance) to chain and sprocket life (though you can overdo it and actually make things worse).  But that extra 5-10% life is not that significant.

One important thing to do, after lubing, is to use a rag to wipe the outside of the chain.  This removes a lot of grime and also removes excess lube that will attract more grime.

I generally use a chain washer system about once a season (and when I was commuting regularly I'd use it about once a month).  Others do more, less, or none at all.

(FWIT, I also generally use a Teflon or wax-based "dry" lube, though I used to switch to something heavier when I did winter riding.)


Do I really need a 90-degree arm/torso angle?

That 90 degree suggestion is purely for getting an optimal fit for aerodynamics. By bending your arm to 90 degrees, you're not presenting any of your forearm to the wind. If you watch the pros ride, this is typically how they'll carry themselves on flats and descents. Ultimately, you need to be comfortable though, and if bending your arms that much causes you to lose that much power, then it's probably not the best position for you. It's possible that there are other modifications to your fit that could be done to correct this, but that would require experimentation and/or a professional fitting. Check out this video from BikeRadar. It addresses your question pretty well.


Can a bike computer be used on the rear wheel?

Totally fine - its a good idea.  You'll need to move the sensor and fit a second spoke magnet (or move your front wheel one)

Another option would be fit an ant+ or bluetooth sensor and look at virtual ride tools like zwift, but they're not free.

Another option is count your pedal strokes and aim for 90 every minute, but that gets boring.


How do I know if it's worth restoring my bike?

I volunteer at a community bike shop. We take old donated bikes and fix them up for sale, so I have a lot of experience with this exact dilemma. Here are a few reasons why I will stop working on a bike I am refurbishing:

Frame has worse than just surface rust: i.e. extensive pitting and / or holes.
Seized parts, especially if they need replacing. Sometimes a seized seatpost isn't so bad, as long as the bike is sold along with that information. However if the bottom bracket needs service and can't be removed, the frame is scrap. The same goes for quill stems that can't be removed, locking the fork into the frame.
Damaged threads. If it's not possible to rethread an interface that has been wrecked (e.g. cross threaded), scrap the frame.
Bent or cracked tubing. The odd dent is fine, but if a bike has obviously been bent in an accident I scrap the frame. Same goes for tubes with any cracks in them, even if it's fixable. Obviously any carbon frame with cracks is worthless.

I'd also add that the original quality of the bike plays into these determinations as well. I will spend a lot less time working on the seized seatpost of an old BSO.

I'll also point out that a lot of these issues can be solved with extreme effort, e.g. replacing tubes in the frame. It just isn't worth it in this context and I suspect the same guideline applies for most folks tinkering at home.


After making it to Norway with the Sora groupset, now I regret the change. As far as I remember, the original 105 was faster and I would guess, reliable enough.

I am used to good derailleurs, even though they could be old. For my commuting bike I use a Shimano 600 tricolore from the late eighties and for my road bike I use a Shimano Ultegra from the late two thousands. Once I finished my trip and came back to my other bikes, I realized they are way better, and still reliable even though they are old.

Moral of this story: for shimano at least, it's better old and good than new and bad.


What saddle rail material is the strongest?

As the diameter is standard (sort of) steel rails will be stronger than aluminium*.  But I'm surprised at saddle rails bending.  When I started cycling regularly I was about 100kg and even the roughest bits of road didn't come close to that kind of force.  You may benefit from a suspension saddle post for reasons of both comfort and damage avoidance.  Steel has a further advantage in that it's tougher than any of the other common materials for saddle rails, i.e. it can handle repeated stresses better without failing.

Do you ride very rough roads? If you get the occasional pothole or bump it's worth taking more of your weight on your feet just for a moment (you don't have to pedal while doing this assuming you don't have a fixed gear bike).

* Both carbon fibre and titanium saddle rails exist and are strong.  However they're usually used to make bikes light rather than strong and are unlikely to be available for anything other than road saddles (comfort was specified).m  Their brittle failure modes (carbon in particular) make them a bad choice in this case of unusally high stress.


My crankset stops the pedals from turning when I tighten it onto the bottom bracket

There is no BB Spacer for a square taper crankset (and is a very bad idea to start).
From the image, it looks like you have an (square) ISO crank on an JIS (low profile) spindle. I can see the outer square of the crank was severely deformed.

There is not much you can do but to start thinking of changing the crankset, or keep holding on to it til the day it depart.

Edit:

Sorry, I missed your question. But before answering, can I ask you to check:

If the crankset touches the BB?
If it is a dead-lock or a severe friction on the spinning of your crankset?
If it makes noise when you try to spin the crankset on the BB?


Zzipper makes fairings for upright bikes.

I haven't used a Zzipper or Windwrap fairing myself, but they're well regarded by the people in the forums at bentrideronline.com , who I've gotten good advice from about 2 recumbents I've owned.

Windwrap is sold by t-cycle.com/collections/windwrap-fairings and they're made for recumbents, but the smaller XT and XT mini might fit an upright. It looks like most of of the mounts are being redesigned at the moment.


What waterproofing rating is sufficient for a navigation device for touring?

Easy bit - Touch screens don't usually work when wet, you can easily test it, sprinkle some water on the screen and see how it goes.

Because phones are high volume consumer goods designed as life style toys, not outdoor equipment, as far as IP ratings, I personally believe the claimed IP ratings are based on marketing need for a bigger number than the other guy, tempered by engineering squealing that IP99 is not a real rating, and Finance insisting at that price point they have a budget for X returns out of Y sales. The exception are devices sold as ruggedised.  Read the warranty fine print - I bet it excludes water damage.

IP67 is 1 meter for 30 minutes, but the test is done in factory conditions on a new phone, not after they are a few years olds and lost elasticity, and the user has contaminated the seals with dirt and dust. I had an IP67 phone with a single o-ring seal for the battery cover. I was happy to get it wet in the rain, but would not have left it on handle bars for hours in driving heavy rain while riding. Driven rain on a fast down hill could exceed the pressure of 1 meter of water.

I would also be concerned about "solar driven" moisture entering the phone. It gets wet, sun comes out and shines though the water onto the phone. The water close to the phone surface heats and vapor pressure increases, driving water vapour (not water droplets) into the phone. The expanding and contracting of air inside the phone from changing temperatures can also cause a negative pressure that sucks water in.

Although the risk is small, if you plan on riding with the phone on the bars in all weather, put it in a case or accept you might need to buy a new phone. But in a case, the touch screen may or may not work - you would need to test it.


While your question of identifying a tubeless tyre has been answered, I think that might not actually be what you have to worry about. A bike might come with tubeless tyres, but that doesn't mean that they're set up tubeless. The tyres might still have a tube in them, so your concern should be identifying whether there's a tube inside or not. The easiest way to do that is to look at the valve stem, because a tubeless valve will almost always be secured with a substantial lockring, whereas a tube with a presta valve might have a little silver lockring or usually nothing at all. Any wheel with a Schrader valve is almost certain to have a tube in it as tubeless Schrader setups are extremely rare. This isn't foolproof, because some people will put a big lockring on a tube and some might put a small one on a tubeless valve, but I'm confident that this will be accurate over 95% of the time.

Schrader valve:

Presta valve (tube):

Tubeless presta valve:


I suspect your fork is bent.

Ride straight through a puddle and then leave tracks on dry concrete.  Your back tyre track should be superimposed on top of your front track.  If they follow different lines, your fork/frame is bent.

Use your hand throught the front rim, and by feel hold that in line with the downtube of the frame.  Then look down from above - the front wheel should be straight out the front.  If its not straight, the fork/frame is bent.

Look for corrosion and paint cracks/flakes on the top tube about 1" back from the frontmost weld.  If there's a clear ring of damage here, the fork is bent.

Can you ride hands free normally, but not on this bike?  Fork is bent.

Is a hard front-wheel brake really terrible?   Feels like you're going to be pushed sideways by wind whenever you do a hard front-brake?   Fork is bent.

Take the fork off completely. and look down the side of the steerer tube.   The two tines must curve forward from the crown.... they must NOT go backwards and then sweep forwards... if they do then the fork is bent.

Recovery - Steel forks can generally be tweaked to be better by careful slow bending with a vice and a pipe.  If its an alloy or carbon fork its probably beyond saving, but there are carbon specialists who may be able to advise.


How can I lock a gear barrel adjuster that keeps moving?

One option is to tighten the existing adjuster completely, turning it into a stop.  Then fit an in-line barrel adjuster which will sit in a length of outer (ie, not against a stop)

Some 2 pot epoxy mixed, or a metallic paste like JB Weld would make short work of the existing adjuster moving.

Option 2 might be to replace the adjuster completely.  New ones are relatively cheap and look something like this:

Just be sure to get gear adjusters, not brake adjusters because they're based on a different diameter of the outer cable, and a gear cable will be sloppy in a brake adjuster.

You'll want to chase the threads in the frame stop with the correct sized tap too.  If there's not a lot of metal material left in the frame, then it may come down to replacing the cable stop, or finding some way to use a small nut and bolt the adjuster on through the now less-threadded hole.

Option 3 - swap out that cable stop for a loop, and run a single length of gear outer housing from shifter down the down-tube to the front mech.  May need to resort to cable ties to hold the outer to the bike.  Depends if you have a way to stop the cable further down.  There's a Problem Solver's stop that may help, but this would need the in-line adjuster already mentioned too.


How strong is the remote lockout on rock shox?

First, you should understand how suspensions with lockouts work. Fluid suspensions(oil or air) like yours have a valve inside them that lets the fluid flow through at a constricted rate on the way up, and very quickly on the way down. This is what gives the dampening effect on suspensions. Lockouts effectively completely close off that valve.
However, obviously the valve is not infinitely strong. At some point, it will give way and let the air through. This is where blow-offs come in. Blow-off basically refers to that point where the lockout 'fails' and dampens the shock anyway.
The model you have has something called TurnKey which is Rock Shox patented name for blow-off. It has an adjustable blow-off point which will let you set the amount of force required for the blow-off to occur.
Now that you know how these systems work, consider your case of riding your MTB as a BMX on a track. If you set the turnkey/blowoff too low, you'll risk it suddenly dropping on a big landing and if you are taking a turn or something immediately after, you can risk losing your balance. If you set it too high, you probably can damage the valve in the shocks by stressing it too much.
So to conclude, not really, riding on the lockout won't affect the suspension too much because as soon as the wheel hits something too hard, the lockout will 'fail' and go back to normal damping as long as you don't set the blow-off so high that it is practically impossible to hit the bow-off. Just don't set it so low you hit the drop-off all the time and defeat the point of locking out.


Looking for a cycling jacket for Fall/Spring

I also live in Ottawa, and the last week I've been wearing this MEC Cycling Jersey, along with another regular jersey and a cotton white T undershirt underneath.  This has been sufficiently warm for my 20 minute commute.  My arms get a bit cold, because they only have 1 layer, so I think I may pick up some arm warmers if it gets too much cooler, but I don't think it's really necessary. Other than that I don't have too many problems keeping myself warm.  I find that using lots of layers really helps to cut the wind, without compromising breath-ability.  As far as other clothing goes I have the Roubaix Tights which are worth every penny.  Have kept my legs toasty warm, while not making me sweaty, even in the cold (-1 degree C) we had this morning. Like the jacket that @geoffc mentioned, they have different material on the front and back.  The front blocks out the wind, and the back lets your legs breath and lets some of the heat out. Only problem I have is keeping my hands warm.


It depends on how much you value your time. Taking one of these to pieces and putting it back together again is do-able but may not give you the fix needed, whereas, buy the new part and it might save you time.

To give it a go, type in 'revoshift' into http://techdocs.shimano.com/techdocs/index.jsp and pull up your manual.

And personally, if I were you, I would give it a go.


I need to know what kind of spokes to buy

"The correct length" can be found by measuring an existing spoke.  If your broken spokes have failed at the hub, simply measure from the thread end to the inside of elbow/turn and buy that measurement.  Otherwise take off a known-good spoke, measure, and reinstall.

I've occasionally had to shorten spokes by 1-3 mm because they poke through the nipple into the tube.  10 seconds with a dremel or a couple of minutes with a hand file are all it takes.  Whereas you can't lengthen a spoke, so if in doubt go for a 1mm longer spoke.

Depending on how many spokes have broken, you might find the adjacent surviving spokes are overtensioned now, so get a couple spares, and a decent spoke tool if you don't already have one.

EDIT: Moz makes an excellent point if your wheel is a low spoke count (like in the picture)   If you're not feeling confident, it may be safer to take the wheel to a shop for spoke replacement and true and tension check.


Please help me identify this bicycle (Peugot)

It looks a lot like this 1976 UE-8, except for the front rack.


This project has numbers of obstacles.
Firstly, drop bar hydraulic levers are hose specific, as are the brakes. In practice you may need to use the same manufacturer for brake lever and the brake. (Never ever mix calipers for DOT fluid with levers for mineral oil or vice versa!) If your brakes are Shimano, the levers should be Shimano. I don't know if Shimano specifies compatibility between "road" levers and "MTB" brake calipers. If not, then you're on your own. They may differ in the amount of fluid pushed per amount of brake lever travel.
Of course you can change the brakes, but do note that "road" brakes usually use flat mount and "MTB" brakes post mount, and if your frame has post mount you probably won't find an adapter for attaching flat mount brakes. If you change the brakes, an option is to use mechanical disc brakes which may or may not be compatible with "road" brake levers. (There is a difference in cable pull ratio: short-pull mechanical disc brakes can only be used with levers made for caliper or cantilever brakes, and long-pull mechanical disc brakes can only be used with levers made for V-brakes.)
Also different calipers and levers may use different size hoses. For example my MTB uses SM-BH59 hose (the calipers being compatible with it) and my road bike uses SM-BH90 hose. Levers made for SM-BH90 hose may not be compatible with SM-BH59 hose.
Also, "road" and "MTB" front derailleurs have different amounts of cable pull. So you need to use friction lever for the front which pretty much limits you to bar-end shifters, unless you want to experiment with pulley wheels that translate the cable pull ratio. If you use bar-end shifters, you probably want to use brake levers that don't have shifters but good luck finding hydraulic Shimano drop bar brake levers without shifters!
Of course it could be an option to change the front derailleur, but do note that "road" front derailleurs don't work with "MTB" triple cranksets because of differing chainline. And also "MTB" chainrings may have so little teeth that a "road" front derailleur would not be optimal. So you may need to replace the crankset as well. Different cranksets may need different bottom brackets (square taper / Octalink: different BBs have different length spindle, Hollowtech II: road and MTB use different bottom bracket cup spacing.) So it's crankset + bottom bracket purchasing time!
Then the rear derailleur cable pull ratio may differ. Shimano 10-speed Tiagra and Shimano 11-speed road use 1.4 as the ratio. MTBs used to use 1.7 as the ratio for 9 speeds and less and shifted to something like 1.2-1.1 for 10-11 speeds (not sure what ratio 12 speeds use). If your bike has 9 speeds or less then great, but if it's a 10 speed (or more) bike, then you won't find levers compatible with the rear derailleur. So you need to swap the rear derailleur.
So, bottom line: doable but expensive. You may need to change brake calipers (mechanical disc brakes being the easiest) and derailleurs plus install new shifters and brake levers, plus possibly new crankset and bottom bracket.
The sitation was very much different when I put drop bars on my 8-speed V-brake hybrid bike I bought in 2008 and swapped to drop bars in 2009. I only needed the handlebar (salved it from a 20+-year old bike I otherwise disposed), 8-speed bar-end shifters (were no longer being manufactured but found some new-old-stock ones from eBay), and Dia Compe drop bar V-brake levers. Plus new inner cables (I reused the old housing). That's it! Nothing else new was needed.


It is true that the old style brake levers were not as powerful from the hoods as modern ones. The reason is geometry.

The picture below shows how old and new levers move when pulled. With old levers, braking from the hoods requires one to pull back and push down at the same time. As said in comments to other answers, this is doable but not very effective or intuitive. With new levers one simply pulls the lever towards one's hand. The small blue arrows show how brake cable moves.

If you want to improve braking on the bike and don't require complete authenticity, there are aftermarket levers with modern pivot placement.


I figured out what was wrong and managed to fix it. It was a minor enough issue that I'm not going to return the pump.

As shown in the image above, the pressure gauge is protected by a plastic cover. It's pretty easy to slide this cover up the shaft of the pump and out of the way.

Once this is out of the way, the pressure gauge can be removed by unscrewing it counter-clockwise.

The problem is that the pin indicating the current pressure can slide up its axis to a point where it is going to be turned by the axis when the pressure changes, but it won't start at 0. The way I fixed it was by jiggling the guage until the indicator fell back into place where it should be. I suspect it came loose when I biked the pump across town.

Once it has been re-zeroed, you can screw the gauge back on and slide the protective cover back. Then you're done.


No, a tube will not overheat in those conditions.

Even riding very fast will not heat a bicycle inner tube. And even an under inflated bicycle tire will not warm appreciably.  An under inflated tire can fail or cause crashes but no it is not going to overheat as is the case with motorized vehicles.

Tandems descending 2+ mile steep (6% and greater) hills have been known to blow tires off of rims, but the tandems are 300+ pounds and the blown tires I'm aware of were all road tires 28mm or narrower AND the tandem had rim brakes. Tandems with disk brakes have no issues with overheating (blown) tires.

The larger the tire the more air volume so it takes more heat to warm the air and cause the tire to overheat.

The wider the rim the more heat will be dissipated. The air rushing against the rim & tire will cool the rim and tire.

A bicyclist simply doesn't have enough energy to appreciably warm a tire.


Is the fit wrong on my road bike or is my body too stiff / inflexible?

Honestly, whichever feels most comfortable to you is the one you should go with. Take both of them for as long a demo ride as the shop will let you and don't pay attention to how the fit "looks" in the mirror. Whichever frame you decide on, be sure you get a fitting from a reputable source - ask other cyclists you know to see who has the best reputation in the area.


Hub dynamo, maybe loose contact; maintenance?

Here's a guide for overhauling a cup-and-cone low-end Shimano dynamo:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/34057344/Overhauling_Shimano_Dynamo_Hubs.pdf

The main caution from that article concerns the connector-side cone & nut and the aluminum wire underneath them:

  Using your finger to prevent the plug assembly from turning, break the lock nut from the cone and remove the locknut. The plug assembly will try to turn with the locknut, but if you allow it to rotate while the axle is stationary, the wire which runs from the internal assembly to the plug will break and your hub will be ruined.

For completeness, here's the full article.  Duplicated here because the initial website is already gone, and this enables better indexing by the SE search function

Overhauling Shimano Dynamo Hubs
Shimano makes a nice, affordable dynohub used by many commuters. It isn't as light, efficient, or pretty as the Schmidt, but it is less than half the price and has been reliable for me as well as many customers. Unfortunately, Shimano doesn't provide  any  instructions  for  overhauling  their  dynohub,  and  the  technicians  at Shimano  North  America who I have spoken with are unfamiliar with the hub, offering me  incorrect advice about its disassembly. The Shimano dynohub uses traditional cup and cone bearings, but there is one hitch--there is a wire running from the internal assembly of the hub to the plug on the drive side of the hub. Care must be taken to remove the wire from the plug assembly so that the hub can be taken apart and the bearings serviced.

Tools
The only special bicycle tool you need for overhaul ing the hub is a 15mm cone wrench.  You'll also need a 17mm wrench, a 32mm wrench (a headset  wrench works well) or large crescent wrench that can open to 32mm, and a sharp tool used to pry up a couple of thin pieces connected to the plug.  If any of your bearings need to be replaced, the Shimano dynohub uses 3/16" ball bearings on each side of the hub.

Hub Parts
A pdf of Shimano's exploded diagram for the hub can be found here. (Broken link - if you find one please edit)  This diagram is helpful for visualizing the hub, but it won't help you to access all the bearings, because unless the cone from the drive side is removed--which requires the  removal  of  the  plug  assembly  and  detachment  of the  wire  from  the  plug assembly--the drive side bearings cannot be accessed.

Do I really need to do this?
The  dynohub  produces  electricity  by  the  rotation  of magnets inside  the  hub shell,  these  magnets  give  the  hub  a  "notchy"  feel  w
hen  spun  in  hand.  At  high speeds, this notchiness can also be felt on the bike. This is perfectly normal. The DH-3N71's bearings are very well protected by two seals on each side of the hub. I have used one of these hubs for several thousand miles before opening up to find the  grease  was  perfectly  clean.  Of  course,  your  results  may  vary.  Try  adjusting your hub using the non drive side cone if you feel the bearings are too tight. If you feel  the  grease  needs  to  be  replaced,  or just like to  take  things  apart,  use  the instructions below.

These instructions assume you know how to overhaul a traditional cup and cone hub.  If  you  need  instructions  on  overhauling  a  cup and  cone  hub refer  to  these instructions from the Park tool website - http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/hub-overhaul-and-adjustment

Directions
Place your 15mm cone wrench on the drive side cone in between the plug and
the  hub  body.  Place  your  17mm  wrench  on  the locknut. Using your finger to prevent the plug assembly from turning, break the lock nut from the cone and remove the locknut. The plug assembly will try to turn with the locknut, but if you allow it to rotate while the axle is stationary, the wire which runs from the internal assembly to the plug will break and your hub will be ruined.

Now  that  the  lock  nut  is  removed,  you  can  begin  to take  apart  the  plug assembly  and  remove  the  current  wire  from  the  plug.

Below  is  a  picture  of  the parts on the drive side of the hub. Parts 3 though 8 constitute the plug assembly along with the current wire and the connector that is soldered to the current wire.

Rubber Seal
Cone with Dust Cover and Seal Ring
Back Plate of Plug Assembly
Metal Spacer with Wire Slot
Metal Spacer with Wire Slot (identical to part 4)
Plug Assembly Body
Plastic Plug Assembly Cover
Ground Plate
Lock Nut

Begin to take apart the plug assembly. First, use a sharp tool to lift off the ground plate.

Do the same with the plastic cover to the plug assembly.

Now the current connector and current wire are exposed. Sorry for some of the blurry pictures below.

Use your sharp tool to lift up the current connector and wire. Be careful not to stress the soldered connection between the two.

You'll notice an opening on the bottom of the plug  assembly body. This opening is large enough for the current connector to pass though. Carefully work the plug assembly body off the hub.

If this is the first time your hub has been opened, there will be a mess of white,semi-solid substance (which I assume is Teflon) slathered around the wire where it passes through an opening in the silver metal spacer at the triangular end. You'll probably need to pick away some of the Teflon to remove the spacers. Below the spacers,  the wire runs in the  groove on the hub axle.  After you've removed the spacers (parts 4 and 5), the hub will look like this:

Place the wire along the groove in the hub so that the back plate (part 3) can be removed and the cone screwed off the axle without damaging the wire.

At this point the ball bearings on the drive side are exposed, but they're not easily accessible and you'll find it hard to clean the cups of the hub well unless we remove the axle.

Break the lock nut from the cone on the non drive side of the hub and remove both. Then using a 32mm wrench grab the large nut on the drive side of the hub pictured below and turn counterclockwise. This will take a little force, brace the wheel against your body for a good grip.

Now the inner assembly of the dynamo can can be removed.

With the axle out of the way, the bearings on each side of the hub can easily be removed  and  the  cups  cleaned  and  inspected.  Remove
all the old grease and repack, replacing bearings as necessary.

When reassembling the hub, remember to prevent the plug assembly from turning as you  cinch  down  the  locknut.  Clearly, all owing the plug  assembly to rotate while holding the axle stationary can break the wire.


Nowhere is a good option. A bike can't fall over if its leaned on the ground, and in many cases you can lean a bike against a post or a tree if it needs to be kept upright.

On a more serious note, kickstands can crush bicycle tubes or can interfere with the crank or some other moving part if something goes wrong. Some frames are designed with kickstands in mind and have some reinforcements for kickstand installation. From this perspective, something like a Click-stand (like a folding tenting pole which can be used as a bike stand) is preferable.

If you insist on having a kickstand, check the bike's manual to see if theres a recommended spot. If not, a rear one is preferable for the interference reason, but you're more likely to find a center one legged kickstand easier, which is the one you'll probably install.


How do on-road mountain bike speeds translate to road bike speeds?

On my reasonably flat commute I average around 16 mph on my road bike, but your average speed is dependent on many different factors. A general rule of thumb is that if you are switching from a mountain bike with knobbies to a road bike you will be between 15-20% faster at the same watts/effort.  Typically that's only a change of 2-3 mph.

I teach a bike commuting workshop, and one of the most common questions is whether to switch from a mountain bike to a road bike in order to increase speed.  Typically, I tell people to try three things first:

Swap out your knobby tires for high pressure slicks.  You can find 1.25" -1.5" slick tires that fit mountain bike rims and run at between 75 - 90 lbs of pressure. These will dramatically reduce rolling resistance.
If you have a suspension either lock it out, or set it as stiff as you can.  Locking out your suspension will cause more of your effort to be transferred directly through the drive-train and translate into less loss of momentum from shock absorption.
Try clipless pedals.  Your pedal stroke will be more efficient, again resulting in an increase in speed.

If you do those three things the only real differences between a road bike and your mountain bike will be the weight (which matters a lot more when accelerating than it does when you are already rolling) and surface area resistance from riding in the drops.  But most road bikers don't spend much time in the drops.

Finally, your weight and fitness make a huge difference.  I frequently pass road bike riders while on my commuter rigid frame mountain bike with high pressure slicks.


Is it possible to find the actual GPS coordinates of roads, rather than the surface they're on?

In the UK, Cyclestreet does this. I just tried a route over the Forth Road Bridge, starting and ending on the shore. On the elevation profile you can clearly see that it goes up to 40m (the height of the bridge) and is not projected onto the surface, which would be sea level:

Cyclestreet is based in map data from OpenStreetMap, but it is not clear if they use also data from other sources. Presumably OSM has elevation data, but I could not find a way to see this in OSM directly.


Tire/Rim sizes can be quite confusing. Often times, in American sizing , a wheel listed as a 12-1/2 for example is actually quite smaller than that. The 12-1/2 actually is a rough measurement of about how big it will be with a tire and the wheel is actually only about 8 inches. Another example would be a 24" rim.. which generally have an ISO/bead seat diameter of 507mm, which when converted to inches is actually only 19.96" not 24" as they are listed.

So to correctly find what tire you need, you will need to first find out the Bead seat diameter of the wheel. The easiest solution may to be to take it to a bike shop and have them look at it.

Otherwise it may be helpful to read through these two Sheldon Brown pages, which fully explain how to find the ISO and what exactly it means.

Image from SheldonBrown.com

More from Sheldon:

Rim Sizing

Tire Sizing

Reading through those links will tell you how to determine the BSD of the wheel and in turn tell you what size tire you need. It may be a Japanese or European size that i am not overly familiar with so i don't want to guess on your behalf, just thought it may help to provide some resources and data.

You should look for a number in a format XX-254 on the tire, where the XX would be the width in millimeters and the 254 is the ISO diameter in mm, for example 50-254 would a 14" tire that is approximately 2" wide.

If i were to guess though it will be a 14" tire, if it is a 14 x 1.5 it should have a marking of 38-254 somewhere. They have a ISO of 254mm which translates to 10" which looks to be about the size of the wheel in the image. Purely a guess though, i would take further measurements to be sure.


Does price have a huge impact on the quality of road bikes?

Search some more for secondhand bikes. EUR 300,- should get you a nice enough used bike from a couple of years back.

A tip I was given when searching for my first bike was to search the bike or racing bike category on ebay and similar sites for "ultegra" or the name of some other sufficiently high-end groupset rather than the brand. This filters out a lot of bad bikes, and a high quality groupset is very desirable in a secondhand bike because it is expensive to replace yet wears out very quickly (unlike (most) frames that are also expensive to replace but don't wear out so much). This search on the dutch e-bay equivalent gets you a few good options in your price range.

As to your question, I agree with Daniel R Hicks' comment that beyond about 1000-1200 euro's you are mostly paying for weight reduction (which might even impact durability) rather than 'just' for quality. I also agree with your "experts", you cannot buy even a descent new bike for that price, secondhand is a whole different story however.


Attempting to Rebuild a 2000 Trek 7700 Multitrack

So, the quick answer is to take inventory of what is wrong with the bike, and start by fixing the things that seem possible. I'd be inclined to start with the absolute basics:

Make sure the brakes work.
The tires hold air, and
That you've got at least one gear that works.

Just take it slow and fix things one at a time, aiming for a bike that you're not afraid to ride in an empty parking lot, then for one that shifts, and so on…

I'd probably go to the library to get a good book on bicycle maintenance, maybe one of Zinn's books, but you could Google, or ask here – whatever feels like the right way to get the information you need. If you're in a city of any size check to see if there is a bicycle co-op where you can take the bike to hang out and work on it. You're real likely to have fun, get some good advice, and learn your way around the world of bicycle tools.

For an old bike that's been flooded you should probably think about:

Replacing brake and shift cables and housings.
Cleaning, lubricating, and adjusting the headset, bottom bracket, pedals, and wheel bearings.
Lubricating and maybe replacing the chain.
Adding a bit of penetrating oil to all of the spokes so that they're likely to move when you want to adjust them.
You may need to replace the free hub body (or soak it in a good penetrating lubricant like Kroil).

If you keep in mind that this is a learning project and something that is supposed to be fun, you can putter away at fixing things and understanding how to work on a bike. Undoubtably you'll find things that you "should" spend money on – but that doesn't mean you have to. If the bearing races in your hub are shot, you could get a new wheel, or you could replace the balls, add plenty of grease, and adjust them as best you can. It will work for a while, maybe a long while and you'll have learned something and saved some money. In the meantime keep an eye on craigslist for a deal on a wheelset.

If you approach it as a learning experience with a budget, I think you can easily get by for $300.


Can I use a SRAM X0 Crank with Shimano XT chain rings?

I don't think they will unfortunately. I'm sure the SRAM X0 crankset (below) is 80-120mm BCD on the 2x crankset. Do you know which model of X0 crankset it is that you have? The BCD may be stamped on the chainring, like the one pictured below. Shimano XT, with the exception of their latest M8000 series XT cranks, have a symmetric 64-104mm BCD.

If you're unsure of your crankset model, or it doesn't say on the chainrings, then measuring the BCD is fairly straight forward. Wolftooth Components explains how to do it very well here.

I hope this helps!


How do I remove this style of bottom bracket?

When I fixed up my old bike it had a typical BB with fixed and adjustable cups. I planned on replacing with a cartridge BB so I didn't want to get the special tools just for a removal operation. Though I did get the special toothed socket needed to install the new BB (a cheap version online since I'll only use it a few times). Using a slot screwdriver, or better, pin punch or cold chisel, and mallet/hammer, you should be able to get the cup turning. Make sure you're driving it in the correct direction. To remove non-drive side, drive it counter clockwise. To remove drive side, turn clockwise. A small amount of penetrating fluid can help too.

Edit:
Forgive my crude sketching abilities, hopefully this helps. As in the side view, hit the notch perpendicular, and as in the top view, keep the pin/punch as parallel as you can to the face of the cup. (in this sketch this is for removal of the non-drive side). Depending no how stuck it is, it might help if someone holds the bike upright with the brakes on.


The name of the company you're looking for is Shimano (with one n, not two)


First off, if anyone has mucked with the components on the bike it's possible that they exchanged either the brake levers or the brakes themselves and produced a mismatch where the levers are not capable of providing enough pressure.  But this shouldn't be a problem if the bike has all it's original components.

And if, when you squeeze the brake levers, they "bottom out" against the bar, that indicates that they're misadjusted or the cables are rusted/worn.  (If, due to wheel wobble, you can't adjust tight enough to prevent bottoming out then you need to get the wheel trued.)

But failing those, likely it's a problem with the brake pads.  First make sure they are squarely pressing against the side of the rim and have not gotten twisted to where they're making poor contact.  And check to see that the pads are not worn down to where the metal pad holder is close to hitting the rim.  (Note that the rear edge of the brake pad will tend to wear faster than the front -- simply because the pad looks good from the front does not mean it is good.)

If the pads are not worn out (and they don't have oil on them or some other such problem) then it's probably just a problem with pads that are too hard and you need new pads that are a little "grabbier".  This is, to a degree, a personal choice thing, as there are different pad materials with different characteristics (and most people don't like pads that grab too much), but it's also true that a given set of pads will get harder and brake more poorly as they get older and more worn.

One last possibility is that you have the rare case of steel rims (usually only seen on very cheap bikes).  Brakes don't work nearly as well on steel rims as on aluminum, and so for steel you need pads that are quite "grabby".


Simple answer: yes, but it’s not worth doing.

Cost of hub, spokes, nipples and having wheel rebuilt will exceed the cost of a new wheel. Even if you re-use the spokes a new wheel will still be cheaper.

Wheel building requires special equipment, expertise and time to do correctly.


A great rule of thumb is "Dry lube for dry conditions, wet lube for wet conditions".

A bit of surface rust on an otherwise well maintained cassette and chain is only a cosmetic problem. If this is a concern, clean the chain, lube with a wet lube, wipe dry. The trick is to 'over lube' the chain and then wipe off the excess. I might be tempted to leave wiping the chain for a day or two to let the lube migrate around the links.

As far as the cassette, give it a light spray of WD40 after cleaning. Don't get too much on the chain as its not a lube and you don't want it displacing the lube you just put on.


Why is the rear wheel of my tandem bike skidding?

The captain's weight hardly pushes the rear wheel down at all, while the stoker's weight is almost completely on the rear wheel, so check their weight is positioned correctly. If the stoker is standing up, this can shift weight off the rear wheel, making a skid more likely. Standing up on tandems is "advanced", some would add "insanity".


Chain fell between cassette and spokes, what to replace?

Yes - I've suffered the same event when the chain jumps over the cassette and you keep pedalling.

In my case I kept trying to pedal, and the chain chewed into about 9 spokes right at the elbow.  I probably damaged the chain a bit too.  Surprisingly, the cassette seemed OK.

The fix options

replace the rear wheel - this is the most expensive, but gives you peace of mind and a warranty.   I couldn't afford this.
replace the damaged spokes.  Spokes are between $1 and $3 unless you have weird ones.  You will need a "spoke nipple tool" and whatever tool is needed to remove your cassette/freewheel from the hub of the wheel.  Simply replace the most-damaged spokes one at a time, duplicating the under/over pattern.  Once they're replaced, use the nipple tool to true the wheel.
do nothing and wait for the spokes to break.  Depending on the level of damage you might be able to ride fine for a long time as-is.

The prevention

The chain jumped over the largest cog on your cassette.  This is because the low limit screw is not set right on the rear derailleur, and it allowed the chain to go too far.

Its highly possible your RD was "plinking" into the spokes as well, which is very close to catching a spoke with the RD and then its all badness.

The other prevention is to use a Spoke Protector, which is a clip-on ring that sits between the cassette and the spokes.

Normally made from clear plastic on new bikes, they were steel or aluminium on older bikes.  Old plastic ones go brittle and then crack and fall off.  These are also known as dork disks and while they do their job, they also offer a large flat area to side winds.

There's nothing wrong with fitting one - should be about as much as a spoke or two, available from your LBS.


Carbon bikes make me nervous. Can you ease the tension?

Carbon fiber is stronger, and far less susceptible to fatigue than any other frame material on the market. It can be engineered to have the strength of titanium, the ride quality of steel, and the stiff and powerful performance of aluminum at the same time.

I have only broken 2 frames in my life. Both were aluminum, ridden far beyond the fatigue life of the metal. I have seen carbon break, but usually it is in a major accident. A car crash or something similar.

If a carbon frame cracks from fatigue, it shows small crack in the paint, then splintering, and then it will look like crushed bamboo when it fails fully. The frame will last longer, and you will have more warning of failure on carbon than any other material.

As for why you should choose it, it makes your ride more comfortable, more stable, and more pleasant. It's also lighter, but that is at best a secondary reason.


Modifications and changes to 2011 Specialized BigHit, anyone done these?

Just looking at some pictures of the Specialized Big Hit I believe it’s a single front ring setup.

You can easily swap the ring out for a smaller one down to the minimum supported by the BCD (bolt center diameter) of your crank.

You do not need a different derailleur cage but you may need to shorten the chain.


How can I tell if I can add a front brake to my cruiser?

To install a front brake you will need to have a fork that will accept the brake caliper.  There are three potential options for this: A standard road caliper (hole through the fork crown), cantilever/ v-brakes ( one post on either side of the fork blade) or a disc mount (bracket at the end of the fork on the non-drive side).
The Masi Soulville should have the first option, a hole drilled through the fork crown for installing a standard road caliper.
You will need to get a road caliper that is intended for use with a flat bar brake lever, as many road calipers are intended for use with drop handlebar levers.


How do I change my single-speed to a fixed gear?

Benzo and Glenn Gervais are right on, but I thought I'd include a photo for any visual learners. This is a typical fixed/free, high flange rear hub. Quite often they're available in 120mm and 130mm OLD to fit different width dropouts. These hubs generally have solid axles without quick releases to prevent the hub from slipping and slackening your chain.

The right side is for a fixed cog. (The hub in the picture has a lockring installed already). The left side is for a single speed freewheel.

Below is another example (a White Industries ENO Eccentric) with two big differences. First, instead of two opposite-threaded areas for a cog and lockring, this hub has splines for a splined cog and threads for the lockring (left side of the picture). The second difference is the eccentric axle which allows for chain tension adjustment on bicycles with vertical dropouts (single speed or track specific bikes have horizontal or rear-facing dropouts for chain tension adjustments).


Brake a shifter cable and housings are fairly standardized, so you don't need a special type.

There is big difference between shifter and brake cables and housings. You absolutely must not use shifter cables/housings for brakes.

Brake cables have different ends for road and mountain bikes, so you need to make sure you get road brake cables.

Obviously you get to pick from different levels of quality from different manufacturers.

A cable cutter tool is needed to cut the cables and housings without squashing them. You do not want to use regular cutting pliers. I have found that a Dremel type tool with a metal cutting disc works well as it does not exert any force. It does melt the housing inner a bit though, so that needs to be cleaned out with a small drill bit.

If you have never changes cables and housings before then it's worth reviewing the proper procedures. Park Tool has great articles and videos. Here's a couple of links.

https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/brake-housing-cable-installation-drop-bars

https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/cutting-and-sizing-cable-housing

If you have the existing cables and housings on the bike don't take them off and throw them away, use them to cut the new housings to the correct length.


That's just a light scratch. No issues.

if you are worried that the carbon-fiber composite has been damaged by an impact or scratch, the abrasion is far too shallow for that. It has not even penetrated through the paint.

It's not a crack because cracks do no start in the middle of frame tubes, they propagate from edges or holes.


There are a few things to keep in mind.

Will the current front derailleur work with the new chainring sizes?

If you have enough adjustment range in the position of the front derailleur,      this can almost always work with a double chainring. However, it may require some grinding of the cage on the front derailleur. The outer edge of the cage needs to
match the curvature of the outer ring and the inner edge needs to clear the smaller chainring when the chain is on the big ring. I think the XT derailluer can work, but Shimano also makes a flat bar component group that might better match
the crank. Shimano Flat Bar Road Group
The new crank will require a different bottom bracket, does the new crank work with the size bottom bracket on your bike?

Most MTB's have a wider bottom bracket, 73mm vs the 68mm common on road bikes.
Depending on the exact configuration of the crankset and axle you may be able to solve this with spacers, but the cranks need to clear the chainstays. For a "touring" frame this should not be a problem, my guess is that it would come with the 68mm standard BB width.
Does the rear derailleur have enough capacity to work with the new gears?

The capacity is (Big - little front)+ ( Big - little back ). 50-34 = 16, 38-26 = 12. That should not be enough of a change to matter.


Headset labeling - Does this qualify as EC30?

30.03mm is a measurement one might expect to get off the OD of a 1" JIS cup (called EC29 in SHIS, from the 29.8mm frame bore). That's consistent with the "22.2/30.0/26.4" on the label.

However, 26.4 is the ID of a typical crown race from a 1" ISO/Campy/Professional headset, aka EC30.

You are in possession of a mixed standards headset. These have always been around because some bikes actually come with a mixed standard on their parts, for reasons I can only speculate on. In SHIS parlance this would be EC29/26. The cup size plus a forward slash followed by the SHIS name for the crown race size is how this is communicated in SHIS.

In pre-SHIS days (SHIS is young in the history of bikes), the "22.2/30.0/26.4" label would be the piece of information that communicates this mixed standards configuration. It is naming the physical sizes of the parts, not the frame fitment. It's kinda implicit that this is the case when you look at it, but for a tricky reason: the way the numbers line up, as you've noticed, "30.0" could be taken as either the OD of a JIS cup or the ID of an ISO headtube. This has always thrown people for a loop. But 26.4 is only the ID of an ISO race, as a JIS race is the very different 27.0, so it should be assumed that the label is stating the dimensions of the parts inside, not the frame/fork dimensions.

Mixed standard headsets are pretty obscure, so this is an understandable mistake on the seller's part.


Shimano shoes: what is the correct equivalence of US and EU sizes? Or, which to trust more?

EU sizing is generally more inconsistent than US and UK sizes. For example, my shoes are all labeled 10 or 10.5US, but the EU size labels vary between 42 to 45. The size 45s are Shimano SPD shoes so yes, for the same EU size Shimano shoes are the smallest.
It is interesting that centimeter sizes are almost as inconsistent as EU sizes, even though it should be easy to take exact measurement of the shoe. Some brands are also inconsistent between models, so when shopping online it's worth it to read reviews and comments. Finally, to get an idea how the shoe could fit, find a photo taken from the top and compare the shape against shoes you have. The outline of the sole does not tell how the foot fits inside.


Can I reconnect a normal chain with a quick link

You did not mention the type of your chain, but yes, quicklinks normally also work for other brands. SRAM quicklinks are known to work for Shimano chains etc.
Be aware that you must use 9-speed quicklinks for a 9-speed chain and similar. The widths differ so the the number of speeds must match.
You can solve some problems with wrong chain installation also by opening the derailleur cage (small screws), reinserting the chain, and closing agai. Under tension it could be tricky, though. Definitely take the chain off the crank first.


Chain length and cassette tooth count relationship

I agree with @ Nik that it should not be an issue. You can verify  it by shifting the chain to the big ring in the front and the large cog in the rear. With your hands fold the chain over  itself to simulate it being two links shorter. Observe the rear derailleur. You should see two bends in the chains as it passes around the jockey wheels. If the chain passes thru the jockey wheels in a straight line the chain will be too short.


Bicycling 36 km per day in city traffic is feasible?

I have a co-worker who rides into work on a ~30 mile one way trip. It's no problem for him because he's a good cyclist, has a good bike, and is used to that kind of distance. He's got his saddle worked out, his form is good, his lights are good, and he knows his route.

The biggest problem he has is dealing with a locker room, and needing to move clothes back and forth. He usually drives in on Friday to haul his used up work clothes back his house.

The things I would focus on:

The logistics of clothes, weather, being clean, and your schedule.
Knowing how to fix a flat.
Having a back up plan when you wake up and it's raining/snowing/hailing outside.
Getting used to the mileage. If you've never really ridden before you'll be dealing with soreness, kinks, and gear issues.
Good bike maintenance. If you keep everything lubed up, fix little issues before they get big, and can do your own work (or most of it) you'll have a lot less problems.

I was riding my bike your distance to work when I was 14 years old, but I was also a competitive cyclist so the distance was nothing. A mid-range competitive cyclist can easily pack away 400 mile weeks in the winter so your co-workers are nuts that it's not possible given you have the body and bike to do it.


Looks like it has a freehub and 7 speed shifters by default. So you just need a 7 speed Shimano cassette (note the difference between a cassette and freewheel), which you can find at your local bike shop pretty easily or online.

The default is a Shimano-compatible (made by Shimano, SRAM, IRD, etc.) 7 speed 11-30t cassette. Your LBS probably has some laying around - according to Sheldon Brown's site, that exact cassette is no longer made, but there are several other close ones like this.

You need some tools for replacing a cassette, so it might be cheaper (and it is like a 5 minute job) for your LBS to do it.


It is absolutely possible to skid the back wheel, but you really need to be deliberate about it to do it. In this case, however, it sounds like you were applying back pressure to slow down and noticed something surprising, so it was not likely to be the tire skidding. It was probably the cog slightly loosening.

If you're going to apply any back-pressure at all, you must have a properly installed lockring screwed on after the cog. A lockring is a small device that has a reversed thread, so that it prevents the cog from unscrewing when reverse pressure is applied.

The best practice is to ride hard for a while without applying any backpressure to make sure the cog is seated tightly into its threads, then tighten the lockring to make it hard flat against the cog.

Track cyclists sometimes skip the lockring because they usually don't apply much backpressure, but if you're riding on the street and using the pedals to brake, you need a lockring and it needs to be tight.

Here's a youtube video. There are others. I don't agree with the video about using locktite (use grease instead).


There are a number of problems in your situation, including the behaviour of the groups, which I will breakdown as the following:

A group of 50 is excessively large and it sounds like they also did a poor job of passing.  This is one of the primary problems of large groups, they are hard to move in unison and the club/organizer should have broken the group into smaller more manageable groupings.
When a group is passing another slower road users, such as the OP, the group should have given the OP a very wide berth to:

keep the OP safe as they were not involved in the group;
make it clear that the group is separate; and
make it difficult for the OP to inadvertently get mixed into the group.

The OP needed to decide whether or not they were part of this group, and if not, make it clear and in both actions and vocally, to the group, that they needed space. Speeding up made it more difficult for the group to pass, which prolonged the interaction and increased the probability of a future routing conflict. [This one may generate a some controversy, but I explain further below.]

Personally, I believe by far the biggest issue was with how the group was behaving, they can't expect some random person on a bike to be versed in group riding, and they forget that they are sharing road with other road users.  That said, as someone with a large number of years experience in group riding, I would have attempted to removed myself from that situation ahead of time by asking riders in the group to let me through so I could go straight or asked for guidance.  Expecting someone who is being overtaken to just pull over and stop is arrogant to say the least.

Most people in that situation wouldn't have had that experience or necessarily known what to do;  however, there is still an element of personal responsibility as the OP allowed themselves to integrate into the group (likely because it made riding easier), without known what was really expected.

  "By virtue of the magic of drafting, by the time about ten riders were past me, I had no problem at all keeping pace"

It is clear that the OP was knowingly benefiting from some type of draft, which ultimately made it more difficult for the group to pass and prolonged the OP's exposure to the group. The OP made the decision to speed up, they could have easily kept their original speed (e.g., brakes) which would have allowed the group to pass quicker.  You can't get a free draft (or partial draft) allow yourself to be somewhat integrated into the group, then suddenly do what you want. Groups don't react well to sudden changes. That said, this is a relatively small transgression as most people suddenly finding themselves in this situation won't be thinking of these nuances. Rather, the onus is really on the large group doing the passing to make this work safely.


I want a bolt on crank, but dunno what terminology to use to find one

TL;DR: The search terms to use may be "kidback adapter," "child stoker adapter," or "child stoker kit."

Googling for "tandem child bicycle crank" produced a link to Sheldon Brown's site, which had a page on tandems and children, and which had this to say:

For smaller children, (or larger tandems) a "kidback" attachment is needed. This consists of a "bottom bracket" that can clamp onto the seat tube of a conventional tandem, so that even a toddler can reach the pedals. Most tandem manufacturers offer kidback kits as an option, and there are also aftermarket units available from various sources.

The "bottom bracket" of a kidback is typically 1 1/2-2" forward of the seat tube, so it is best to move the stoker saddle as far forward as possible, either by reversing the saddle clamp if a "pipe" type seatpost is used, or by using one of the forward seatpost adaptors made for use with aerobars. In addition to improving the child stoker's leg angle, the forward saddle position reduces the reach to the rear handlebars.

An extra-long stoker stem is also called for with a kidback, preferably one that is adjustable for length. Many kidback users use drop type handlebars flipped over so that the child can hold onto the outside of the "drops". The U-shaped handlebars supplied with many small-wheel and children's bikes also can extend back to where the child can reach them.

A child as young as 2 1/2 can stoke a tandem with a kidback attachment, although only for relatively short rides. With time, growth and experience, your stokid will gradually be able to happily complete longer and longer rides.

A subsequent search for "kidback" showed, among others, a link to Rodriguez Bicycles, which sells tandems and these adaptors. There may be other companies selling them. This is just the first site I found, and I didn't search further. Note that per the FAQ, we strongly prefer not to make specific product recommendations. Also, kidback may have been Rodriguez's brand name, and a more general term may be "child stoker kit" or "child stoker adaptor". I would assume that many tandem manufacturers will offer these kits; Burley, when it offered tandems, seems to have done so (as described on Rodriguez Bicycles' site), Precision Tandems does (and the link goes to an installation guide), and Santana Tandems does also.
I see the question got at least one close vote, but sometimes, knowing what to Google for is not trivial, especially if you lack other specialized bicycle terminology.

Technical notes:
The stoker adapters clamp around your stoker seat tube, and they contain a bottom bracket inside. I don't know tandem terminology, but you do run a short length of chain from the child's crank to the actual stoker crank. Below is a photo of the actual stoker crank, taken from Ray Dobbins:

In purchasing one of these, you'd need to match the clamp's diameter to your seat tube diameter. It's probably worth reminding users to adhere to torque specifications here. The Precision Tandems link above shows the possible consequences. For steel tandems, particularly with thicker tubing, I'd assume it's harder to over-torque the clamp. I'd be more careful with lightweight racing tandems. Unfortunately, I have not come across suggested torque specifications. You could start with the torque specs for seatpost clamps, probably 4-8 Nm (but check if your tandem has a different spec). Given the expected power output of a small child, something in this range should be enough to secure the clamp.
I'm not sure what lengths kids' cranks come in, but I'm sure it's safe to assume a child stoker adapter kit would come with a crankset of appropriate length. Santana Tandems (link above) gives you a 125mm crankset. An alternative is that you can purchase crank shorteners and use an adult-sized crank. I'd assume a kit would come with a length of chain, but if you're buying a second hand kit, you might need to get a chain of more appropriate length to your setup.


TRP spyre mounts wider than rear disc mount positions

That bike has rear flat mount. If there's room for a post mount caliper plus adapter, which from looking at some pictures I doubt there is, the rear post mount adapter of the right size is your part, something like:

If there's no room then you need a flat mount caliper instead.


Can someone tell me what year this Elgin Sears Roebuck bike is and what model?

It looks a lot like this 1941 Elgin Pilot Deluxe Special

Bent seat tube, fork support, style of chainguard, fenders, seat, chainring, rear dropouts

Similar wishbone seat stays, seat post
The originally posted bike is missing the rack and does not have the kickstand - the the rear dropout is a similar shape and looks like it would have supported the pictured kickstand.
The handlebars, grips and trim paint are different - possibly older or newer style than the original post


How do I estimate how long it will take me to ride my commute?

Unfortunately, there is no single answer to this question. In my experience, every route is unique, and will have variables that increase or decrease the transit time for a particular commute.

Traffic, seasonal weather, time of day for the commute, rider's fitness, and your bicycle's condition will all play a role in determining the time for a given route.

If you are regular cyclist, and have an idea what your average speed is on a fitness ride, using that as a basis to gauge how long a route will take is a good start.

When I ride a route for the first time, I gauge the time by average speed, and then if there is a deadline for me to be at the destination (i.e. I have to be there and ready for work at 9 a.m.) I take my fitness time, and double it. That ensures that I have enough time to arrive, even with problems I don't foresee. Then I add 15-20 minutes, to allow myself time to clean up and be presentable for work.

The next step is to ride the route. If you are especially cautious, then informing your coworkers/employer that you are trying a new route to work and might be late, if you have unforeseen issues, is not a bad idea. Doing a test ride when you don't have a critical deadline, meeting, or even doing it the first time on your day off, is even better.

You will get used to traffic patterns, weather issues, and normal delays. Even once you are certain of the normal time a route will take, it is a good idea to allow a bit of leeway for a flat tire, or an unforeseen circumstance.

I know that the answer you want is something along the line of x kilometers or miles will take y minutes, but that is not possible to gauge for you. What we can offer, is ways to learn the time for your route, without causing damage to your life or your job.

I hope that is helpful.


Replacing Raleigh record ace forks circa 1978

I've worked on two bikes with crash damage, and helped bring them back to rideable.

Please post some clear and well-lit pictures of your bike.  We also need to know how the crash happened - was it a straight head on or a side impact?

I'd start by removing the fork from the frame.  You'll need to pop the quill stem out first but will not need to strip the bars, (yet).  Note all the ball bearings in the headset are possibly loose so anticipate they will drop. They may be in a retainer, but don't count on it.   Remove the front brake caliper and any mudguard too.

Clean the fork with hot soapy water and scrub off any oil and dirt.  When dried, example it closely for cracks or damage.

Get a straight edge, like a steel ruler, and check that the steerer tube is straight in all directions.  Eyeball down the steerer tube and the two tines should not go backward at all, not in the slightest.  They may be straight down for the upper part of the run, but never ever backward.

Take your bare fork to somewhere with a very flat and level surface.  The kitchen benchtop is a good candidate, but do cover the bench in newspaper or similar.   Lay the fork on the bench so the dropouts are down and it rises up in the middle, then the steerer end is on the bench too.  Use that steel ruler to accurately measure how high it is off the bench.  They should be equal measurements on both sides.

You can also put your steel rule vertically between fork and bench.  It should touch the fork at the same place on both tines, and be at 90 degrees to the steerer.  This is more of an optical test than a measured test.

why? If the fork is damaged and twisted, it will show up here.  Fork damage really should be a replacement with an un-crashed fork.

A serious head on crash will often make the front tyre touch the underside of the down tube, leaving rubber witness marks.

Often the wheel will survive a serious frontal impact that distorts the fork or frame.  So for you to have already needed a replacement wheel suggests it was a heck of a crash, or possibly more forces were exerted than straight-on, or it was a cheap/weak/worn wheel to start with.

More briefly now, cos I suspect your fork is knackered.  Bur for completeness.

Check the bearing surfaces in the headset now the fork is out.  After cleaning all the grease off they should be silvery chromed and shiny with zero dents.  An impact can shock the ball bearings to dent the races on one or other side, which leads to poor turning, and a definite "seating" feeling as the dents act as detents.  The fix here is a replacement headset.
Check the frame on the head tube and the downtube approximately 50mm / 2 inches aft of the head tube OR where the lugs end if it is a lugged frame.  A bike with a front collision often suffers a ring of rust at this point, because its the most elastic point of those tubes, and is the foremost bit unaffected by the heat of welding.

Here's a (newer) bike that's been in a crash, and the frame is severely bent in the two places suggested (plus a third just forward of the seat cluster!)  Steel bikes will rust here after frontal crash damage.

Examine the whole bike frame.  Take your time and explore all the tubes, and where they enter lugs.  Get the wheels out of the way and look at the inside too.  Use some hand force or light leverage to push things.  Not too much - you're trying to expose any cracks not bend the frame.  Perhaps combine this step with a good clean too.
Time for that ruler again.  Get some string and set up the bike like this:

You want to measure left and right displacements all over the frame - you're looking for what's not even.

That last picture came from https://www.sheldonbrown.com/steel-frame-repair.html and there's a far better writeup there of stuff to explore.  So go read that site too.

So my last chunk will be about why you should consider shelving the bike.

Bikes are cheap - Be in the right place and time and you can score a nice used bike for low cost, or a kerb freebie for nothing.    Consider salvaging all the good parts off your Raleigh and then hang the old frame up as wall art.

Personal story - I rode a 1981 Raleigh Arena for a couple years, and it was a learning experience.  I repaired seat stay damage and rode it for 3,440 km.  However it was always twitchy at speed, and downhills were limited to about 55 km/h.  I changed to a slightly deeper-section wheel and then it got Utterly Terrifying, where downhills generated oscillations in the rear at about 35 km/h.  I could even generate the same on a flat road with a good tailwind.   In the end I bought a used Cannondale frame+fork and moved all the components over.  Everything transferred fine and I've now got 800 KM on that.  The old Raleigh is in the shed, waiting to be hung in a mancave someday.

More photos of that bike at https://criggie.org.nz/pictures/?gallery=bikes/raleigh_arena

I get the sentimental nature of the bike too - its easy to get attached to Ol'Faithful.   But consider it a retirement, not an abandonment.


Should I stick with my Stolen (brand) BMX or should I build my own bike?

Gianis.

I'm an old man, but I used to ride BMX street and flatland years (decades) ago.

Because of their very specific geometry, Flatland frames are not great for anything but doing tricks.  If you need a general purpose bike for transportation and whatnot, stick with your Stolen (brand) BMX.

For those wondering, "Stolen" is the name of a BMX equipment manufacturer.
http://www.stolenbmx.com/


How can I tell if my bike can ride down stairs without damaging it?

There's no real way to be completely sure but to try it. Anything else is merely a guess and no one can be 100% sure of the answer: suppose there's a tiny crack somewhere no-one knows of and it just happens to receive enough stress while riding the stairs then you might get damage. But such things are impossible to predict.

Moreover there are many other factors to consider but you don't specify any of those. What kind of stairs? 15 stairs where each step is 1.5m deep and 5cm high (yes that exists, architects invent all kinds of things) is like riding down 15 seperate tiny curbs with hardly any impact. But 15 stairs with steps of 20cm deep and 15cm high is already something else. Still, you don't specify how you plan to ride them nor what your skills are. If you ride them fast, lifting the front wheel so you barely touch them, most impact will be when landing them, on the back wheel. Which might or might not break, depending on rim/spoke/build quality. Or you could ride them very slow like going 1km/h while constantly braking and gently rolling down eacht step so there's hardly any impact at all. I wouldn't expect any damage there but you need some balance skills for that. Or you could just ride down at a speed of 20km/h both wheels at the same time. Then the geometry of the stairs vs the geometry of your bike plays a role in how gentle the ride will be. If you're lucky each wheel happens to land on each step 'nose' exactly and you won't even notice it's stairs as it will be like riding down a normal slope. If you're out of luck (usually, in my experience) it will be rougher. I'd still advise you to lift the front wheel to clear the the last couple of steps as it makes for a softer landing back to flat.

tldr; there's more to consider than just the bike

  is there a general rule of thumb that I can use for my future bikes

No hard rule, but: if the bike is rated for terrain which roughly matches the stairs you're aiming for, then it should handle those stairs. A 10000$ downhill machine should be able to deal with any 15 stairs with no problem as it's made to deal which much stronger impacts. I wouldn't take a 200$ BSO down stairs though.

Your particular bike seems to be some hybrid targetting 'cross' whatever that may be, but it doesn't exactly seem to be targetting rougher terrain. I don't have any experience with the brand nor quality so I have no idea how solid it is. From the looks and specs, and if it's in good conditions I'd take the risk and ride it down the stairs no problem but that's just me, don't take my word for it. Or maybe try with stairs of like 5 steps first: should there be damage, it will be less. As said before: ultimately the only way to know for sure is to try it.


I would always repair a bike unless its crash damaged.

Since it sounds like you ride then put away the wet/dirty bike, this has been more of a gradual decline rather than sudden damage.

Remove the wheels from the bike, and remove the tubes/tyres/rim tape.
Fill a container with warm soapy water - pick a container you can put 60 degrees of rim into.
Clean your rim with a dish brush or perhaps light steel wool - may need to soak each bit then scrub.  Clean rim around and between spoke nipples too.  Also clean up the spokes while you're there.  Avoid getting a lot of water in the axle bearings.
Then true your wheel using the bike as a frame.  This will require a spoke key - its very hard to do without the right tool.  Aim is to get the wheel flat.   Then refit the tyre and tube and remount in bike.
Finally tweak and adjust the brakes.

If you are looking for an excuse to buy a new bike and can afford it, then go for it.  No need to seek justification from random people on the internet.


Understanding science of speed difference between two bikes

There is a myriad of factors that can effect how 'fast' a bike is. By 'fast' I mean both maximum speed and acceleration. When riders talk about a bike being 'fast' they usually means it accelerates well. You don't state it explicitly but because you have Deore and Acera drivetrains I guess you have mountain bikes. Acceleration and climbing ability is much more important on an MTB than straight line speed.

Acceleration is force/mass. More force, less mass means more acceleration. The Acera bike although similar to the Deore bike probably has downgraded components, frame and wheels and weighs more. If you think about it an Deore  level bike from the same manufacturer should be designed to be faster than a Acera bike - that's why the Deore bike can cost more.

Anything that soaks up energy will reduce the amount of force applied to the pedals that makes it to the contact patch between the rear tire and the ground:

Drivetrain losses - friction in the chain, wheel bearings, bottom bracket bearings. Chain friction is dependent on wear, how clean and lubed it as and also the angle it has to run at.
Rolling resistance of the tires and wheels. This caused by the tire deforming and is heavily dependent on tire size, pressure and construction.
Suspension losses - if pedaling causes the suspension to bob up and down energy is lost. That's why forks and rear shocks have lockouts
Anything else that flexes - frame, wheels, crank.


Looks like a Vivente Como road bike circa 2007-2010 (judging by discussion forum posts and ad listings), converted to flat bars and some stickers/paint removed from frame. The crankset looks like FC-3550, which might be aftermarket too, since it seems to have been released somewhere 2013, several years after Como estimated production years (or maybe bike shop sold an old frame like that, who knows). Vivente website does not list this bike as a previous model, but then again the list goes from 2018 to 2012. If you Google for images, there are bikes called "Vivente Como" with partially matching paint job (see bottom tube), fork and logo on it and RD hanger.


Chain crunching after degrease and lubrication

If the sound started suddenly after you cleaned the drivetrain very likely something got misadjusted or knocked out of alignment. Any issues with chain wear would show up gradually, also 200k is nowhere near enough mileage to put significant wear on the drivetrain.

Issues with changing chainrings indicates the front derailleur got knocked out of alignment. That's easy to do accidentally. It's likely you are getting some bad chain-rub on the front derailleur cage If you can hold the bike of the ground, on a work-stand for instance, manually turn the cranks and work the shifters you should be able to figure out if the sound is coming from the front or rear derailleur area.

If you have a through axle rear hub you can't misalign the wheel in the frame. If you have a quick release hub it's definitely possible to not get it in the dropouts properly, so check that. Stand the bike up vertically, loosen the quick release, make sure the axle is seated in both dropouts and tighten the release again.

I'd run through a complete front derailleur adjustment process to get rid of the chain-rub and make sure the adjustment is correct. Park Tool has a great page with videos that includes triple chainring derailleur adjustment. Thay have a rear derailleur page as well if you feel the rear derailleur needs a tune up also.


It largerly depends on how you are marking the route in Google Earth and how you actually ride it. There are a couple of factors that introduce small diferencies when measuring distances and their effects are multiplied over distance, so the longer the route, the bigger the difference.

The straight line effect

For example, if I plan my route drawing a line over the map, but I only mark some points, Google will draw a straight line between two consecutive points. Remember that the shortest path between two points is a stright line, any other path will be longer. But when you actually ride the route you hardly ride straight lines, you ride curves. Each curve will add a little more than each line segment in your map, so, when adding all these diferencies up, the result is a longer actual ride than the planned line.

When following or marking a route using some sort of GPS based solution, you have to account also for the "sampling frequency" of the device. For example, lets say you take a minute to travel around a roundabout. If your GPS device also "samples" your position every minute, it will likely mark your position twice in the same spot, so it will record 0 traled distance. This will affect you more in the more curvy trails and routes, specially if you ride at higher speeds. GPS based solutions also work calculating the distance from two consecutive points and adding up with the next pair, and so on. (Yes, it asumes a straight line between points). The higher the sampling fequency the more acurate the distance will be recorded, but also battery consumption will be higher and if files are a concern, they will also be bigger.

This also occurs in the vertical dimension. For example if you side over a small hill first going up a few meters, then going down over an otherwise straight path, but you marked only the beginning and ending point, most likely the software wont take the hill into account, measuring the distance as the straight line between the points.

The curved line effect

There are also another factor that comes into play: We all know that most bike odometers work by counting wheel revolutions. But many of us do not mentally acount for many wheel turns that are not actually accounting for travel distance. Lets say, you lift up the bike and let the wheel spin, or when you get to a resting point and do a few empty loops while waiting for other riders, etc...

Something else is that, in curves, the front wheel actually travels a longer distance than the rear, and you, actually travel a distance that is in between. For example, lets say you ride trhoug a puddle that makes both your tires very wet, an then on a dry surface you ride a really tight U-turn. Now see the path marked by your tires. The fron one must have drawn a bigger semicircle than the rear one. If you want to be sure, measure them with flexible metric tape ;) This seems too little, but over a long route, every tight corner you ride, actually adds up to the distance "seen" from the front tire.

The longer the route, the more this will affect your predicted route distance versus actual ridden distance. But also, the more curvy routes are the ones more severely affected.

To improve the distance acuracy of the planned route, use shorter line segments along curved parts of the trail, i.e. put the points close together.

Note: I have always doubted about wether Google really takes into account ground level when measuring distance over traced paths, I don't know if it includes altitude of the ground at the marked point or if it assumes all points are at the same height. If it asumes same height, calculated line length is less than the actual path.


The wheel nuts on the ends of the axle may have been a bit loose allowing the axle to shift a bit in the frame. Try loosening both nuts with a spanner, centre the wheel carefully, then tighten the nuts again (need to be good and tight). Then re-check that the wheel is running correctly.


From later comments - those loop-type attachments are only rated for attaching accessories like lights and so-forth.

These are NOT handlebars

They are intended to be used like this

If you want higher bars, then raise your bars with a higher stem.  The dirty-hack described in JonR's excellent answer remains a workaround at best.

Always consider how you're going to get to the brakes in an emergency.


How Can A Faster Rider Aid A Slower Rider On A Long Ride?

Novices I've ridden with are surprised and pleased that I ride behind them.

They set the pace
I can watch what they're doing
I can ride close (enough to talk) without being too close (i.e. without colliding)
I can recommend which gear they change and when
I keep car traffic off their tail (e.g. by my using arm-signals to the car to say "slow down" or "please overtake", and by riding closer to the centre line than the bike in front of me does, etc.)


Do cassettes and chains need to be replaced at the same time?

You may need to change your cassette with your chain due to damage, but only if your bike has missed out on some previous maintenance. If you ride one chain beyond the point of wear, it will damage both cassette and chain rings to different degrees.

Your chain is a consumable component on your bike.

For most people, 1200-1500 kilometers on a chain is a safe distance to ride it before it stretches enough to damage the cassette or chain rings.

If you treat changing your chain like changing the oil in your car, and just do it based on mileage, regardless of the actual wear on the chain, then you can continue to use the same cassette through (on average) 5 chain swaps.

The chain rings, at least a good quality set, are thicker metal, with a larger diameter, so they don't wear as quickly.  Usually, I get 10 chain swaps before I need to change the chain rings.  But they will eventually need to be changed as well.

I hope that helps.


Shimano R500 or Alex ALX-295 - Which Are Better?

Spokes on any wheels can break ... really comes down to how well they are built, the weight they have to carry, i.e., carrying more weight than they are designed for and the type of riding they are exposed to.

The Shimano WH-R500 wheels are lower specification wheels and I suspect the Alex ALX-295 are much the same.  That said I believe the Shimano wheels are about 100 grams lighter than the Alex rims.

Personally if you are happy on the Shimano wheels you could swap them over, or if you prefer say have the Alex rims checked for trueness at a decent bike shop, but I suspect either way you are not going to change much if at all the bike's overall handling characteristics or "rideability" with changing these wheels around.

In the past I rode with Shimano WH RS 10 rims on a Giant CRX 1. These wheels would be similar to the WH-R500 and I did a good job of breaking spokes and cracking the rims until I got a wheel properly built.


How to cope with being rattled by the wake of a fast car?

It sounds like an unpleasant road to ride on, I'm sure you would use a different route if one was available.

If you can feel the slipstream, to the extent that it moves your bike around, things are passing to close. Paradoxically you may find that by riding further from the curb, passing vehicles will leave you more room.

People tend to leave as much room between themselves and you as you give yourself between you and the curb. More importantly if you ride hard against the curb, you are out of the area that drivers are paying attentions to, you become part of the background, invisible, cars will pass without having to move over, the car behind them wont see you, or notice the car in front move to pass you and so on.

All this may sound odd, its fairly mainstream Vehiclular Cycling, . If you are in the UK there's an excellent book Cyclecraft


Nope. The RD-5800 is the previous generation 105 level derailleur that works with 11 speed shifters and cassette.

You need a derailleur intended specifically for 7 speeds. The only 7 speed models Shimano makes are in the Tourney range.

Apparently, at least for 7-9 speeds, Shimano road derailleurs are compatible with 7-9 speed shifters as the combination of shifter cable pull and derailleur ratio will index the cage correctly. This does not work for 11 speed though.


Should I worry about rain getting inside my frame?

It depends on the frame material what effect the water inside the frame will have. A lot of frames have a small hole drilled at the bottom of the bottom bracket casing. If there is no hole there you can drill one yourself. I have done this on aluminium frames before and it is very easy. Use a 4mm drill bit and drill through till you cut into the bottom bracket void. There will be a gap internally between the frame casing and the actual bottom bracket. A hole this small in the centre of the bottom bracket casing will not affect the strength of the frame but will allow water to drain. I have found frames fill up with water even with the seat post in place if ridden in the wet, so putting a cork in the seat post hole probably won't make much difference.


Options to move the school rucksack during the trip

I've always commuted to school (and subsequently to work) by bike, and my method was: none of the methods mentioned in the question.  I'm from The Netherlands, and grew well into adulthood (and lived in other countries) before I realised that arriving to school like this is not the norm in most of the world.

I had permanently attached to my rack a set of heavy-duty luggage straps, then I would attach my backpack to this.  I think the straps were actually attached at the axle, so it would have required some tools to remove it.  My backpack was usually secure from falling, although it occasionally did fall or topple to the side, then I would stop to reattach it.  From memory, I think that happened less than once a month in a 20 km/day round trip commute.  I did not own any panniers at the time.  I have fallen off my bike once during around nine years of commuting to school by bike, while turning on an untreated icy surface, the luggage did not add to injury.

Later I got some Dutch-style panniers that I also left permanently on my bike.  I would put my school backpack inside one side of the panniers, and take out some books to put loose on the other side to balance the weight.

Most of my classmates simply cycled with their rather heavy backpacks.  At the time there was a fashion to have the backpack extremely low, with extremely long shoulder straps.  Some kids would have backpacks hanging as low as their knees.  I remember seeing kids with their backpacks so low, that the backpack would actually rest on the rear luggage rack as they were cycling.

I think a pannier/backpack-combination is both a poor pannier and a poor backpack, and when it's heavy it makes for an imbalance bike too, unless you can somehow convert a single backpack into /two/ panniers?