I've glued hundreds of tubulars and learned the craft from some of the best mechanics in the sport including a former wrench with the Motorola team and a former Mavic Service Course mechanic. These days tubulars are really only used in cyclocross, track and at the very top level of the sport.

There are some very distinct downsides:

Safety. Improperly glued tubulars can roll off in a corner. This is not to be taken lightly. Even top pros have rolled tubulars (Joseba Beloki famously went down hard in the 2003 Tour de France, effectively ending his career) On a long descent dragging your brakes can heat up the rim enough to soften the glue resulting in a rolled tire.
Expense. A decent tubular costs significantly more than a good clincher.
Repair. You can't patch a tubular during a ride. You pretty much have to replace the entire tire. This means you need to carry at least one spare tire per ride (and hope you don't get more than one flat!) This BTW pretty much negates any weight savings which are trivial to begin with.
Hassle. Mounting tubulars is a multi-day process, especially if you're mounting them on bare rims for the first time. Getting the tire onto the rim is significantly more difficult than mounting even the toughest clincher.

Now, all that said if you're going to move forward I strongly suggest using mastik instead of tape. Tape isn't that much less messy and the bond seems to be less consistent then a good gluing job.

Park Tool has as good a guide as any on mounting tubulars as anyone: http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/tubular-tire-gluing

A few other tips:

Do NOT use 3M Fast Tack! Some people swear by the stuff. I've personally seen several tires roll from using it. This is especially true with Continental tubulars. Fast Tack actually dissolves the glue that holds the base tape to the tubular casing. Someone a few years back did a study on tubular cements and Fast Tack did very poorly (http://kuktl.dept.ku.edu/bicycle/Cusa1.pdf) Stick to Continental or Vittoria.
Mount the tires to a clean rim, inflate them to high pressure (120+ psi) and let them sit for a while (as in several days). This will make it much easier to mount them.
People will tell you to put a foot in the tubular and then pull up until you hear a popping sound. They claim this is stretching the tire to make it fit easier. These people are idiots. The popping your hearing is the base tape detaching from the casing or threads in the casing tearing. Don't do this!


I just got a western flyer bike... want some background information?

If you email photos to the National Bicycle History Archive of America (oldbike@aol.com) and ask nicely, they may be able to identify the vintage of your bike, provide original pricing and possibly even a current appraisal.  They have a large collection of of old catalogs and claim to have identified over 1 million bicycles since 1977.

Before sending them a note, please read their Frequently Asked Questions to improve the chances they'll be able and willing to identify your bike.

If you do get a positive ID, please update your question to let us know what it is.  Good luck!


I run my own company, and therefore had ready access to this scheme since I was both the employer and the employee, but I actually decided against it altogether.

Now, this was a couple of years ago, so you'll need to check whether what I say still applies, but this is what I found:

You have a twelve-month agreement where essentially the company buys the bike, and you then pay £x per month to lease the bike off them. The "x" covers the cost of the bike, but there is a tax saving to be had.

But I think you need to look at what happens at the end of the twelve month period. My understanding is that the company, not the individual, actually owns the bike. So in order for "you" to end up owning the bike, you'd need to buy it from your company (i.e. more expense). And when I looked at it, HMRC (the UK Tax authority) were making noises about the company having to sell the bike at a "fair market price". In other words, its not reasonable to take a £1000 bike, then to say that after a year it is only worth £10, or some ridiculously small amount.

Now, as I say, this was a couple of years ago. At the time I decided that the scheme was a bit half-baked, and to steer clear of it.

But I think what I'd be looking for now is to see some clarity on what happens at the end of the twelve months, how much you would need to pay to actually make the bike yours. Whether there were now concrete guidelines in place, or whether it was all as woolly as it was when I looked.

I think if looking at the different providers, that would be my defining criterion.

Sorry, I know this probably doesn't directly answer your question, but hopefully it'll give you some idea of one line of questions to ask the different providers in order to allow you to make your own decision.


How to remove a stuck SRAM AXS (Dub) crankset

I just went through the same thing. In the end, after stripping the bolt with a standard p-handle hex wrench and a pipe for leverage (with another pipe over the opposing crank for counterforce), I was able to get the bolt off with a spiral bolt extractor and an Irwin Hanson adjustable tap socket. I used a 24' breaker bar on the socket side and a 36" pipe over the opposing crank (pedal removed) for counterforce. It shredded the bolt, but better an $18 bolt than a $400 crankset. Next time I'm going to try Finish Line Extreme Flouro rather than grease. I'll report how it goes.


Why front derailleur is rubbing crank arm?

Pic 1 shows that the outside plate of the FD is unnecessarily far out. It should just be a hair away from the chain when in big front and rear small. You'll have to adjust the limit screw quarter turn by quarter turn, so that the chain climbs on the big ring and does not rub against the outer plate. Also the outer plate should be parallel to the big ring.

On some bikes this adjustment can be a fiddly process requiring lots of patience. Also on YouTube check the videos from several pages like GCN or Park Tool.


Is it alright to put a 25mm tube in a 23mm tyre?

Generally inner tubes will fit a range of tyre sizes, for example 18-28mm. Because both 23mm and 25mm are standard road tyre sizes and close together, you're unlikely to have an inner tube that won't fit 23mm.

Ideally if you can identify the inner tube, you can check on the manufacturers or retailers website.

Failing that, give it a go. Fit the inner tube, and tyre and inflate as normal. If the inner tube is too fat, it will force the tyre away from the rim as it inflates, so after inflation check round the rim on both sides that the tyre is seated properly.


Shimano LP25 Sealed Cartridge Bottom Bracket

I was attempting to insert the fixed flange onto the spindle incorrectly, the result of a poor diagram made when disassembling the bracket. If anyone else finds this post and needs help reassembling a similar sealed cartridge bottom bracket, here are step-by-step instructions. I wiped down the components before taking the pictures for clarity.

Insert seal (notched side down) and pack large bearings onto spindle cone.

Drop fixed flange onto spindle and pack small bearings.

Insert cone, lock washer and hex nut onto spindle.

Reseal fixed flange (notched side up)


How much better are aerodynamics between a vintage road bike and a top of the line aerobike?

The bike's proportion of total air drag is roughly 20% (for a road bike, more for a TT bike as the rider assumes a more aero position), with the rider accounting for the balance.

So assuming exactly the same bike fit and rider position, then even if the new bike halved the drag coefficient of the old bike, it would mean a drop of only ~10% in your total coefficient of drag.

A 10% reduction in CdA, while a decent improvement, would result in ~ 3.4% increase in speed on flat terrain.

So a bike with 50% the drag coefficient of another results in ~ 3.4% speed gain.

If the aero differences of the bikes are less, then of course the potential speed differences will be quite small. What is significant of course depends on how much a given speed gain matters to you.

And just to set an upper limit to speed gain from changing bikes (same bike position), if the bike had zero drag (impossible of course) then you'll still only attain a ~ 7-8% increase in speed. That's the approximate theoretical upper limit.

If the new bike fit is aerodynamically worse than on your current bike then you may even go slower!

So while a nice aero road bike, assuming same bike position, will result in some speed gain, the bigger bang for buck is attaining a more aerodynamic position on the bike. As others have commented, this is often done with the use of aerobars fitted to the front of the bike to enable the rider to attain a much more aerodynamic bike position.

Of course you can do both and have fun trying!


What could be preventing my bicycle from shifting gears?

not sure if these may be the problem but you can get it checked.

Make sure your cables are still in good condition.
Make sure your hanger are not bend.
Make sure your derailleur is not bend as well.

I have a mountain bike with 9 speed and it refuse to change to the largest cog and after taking it to the bike shop, we found out that the cables were too old and after replacing it and adjusting the tension, it worked out fine. Hope it helps.


Cold causing squeak in disc brake system?

From my experience, different brakes work in different condition. Some might scream like mad in certain weather. My brakes scream when its raining while my friends bike's brakes scream everyday everytime. If this is not the case with your brakes, give it some time to break in or check if there is any oil substance on the contact surface.

Hope it helps !


derailleur P-screw/B-screw does absolutely nothing

If the derailleur is old, the internal spring which is meant to swing the derailleur out away from the cassette might be worn to the point that it is no longer able to keep the derailleur far enough out. You might be able to replace the b limit screw with a longer screw in order to make it work.


Tadpole-style trikes with one wheel in back are quite easy to electrify.

You can either use a rear hub motor or a bottom bracket motor. Given the high startup torque requirements with rickshaws and thus the desirability of low gearing and a range of gears, I’d recommend a bottom bracket motor such as a Bafang BB - the only concern is if there’s enough clearance to mount the bottom bracket motor around that frame. This allows you to have a pretty good range of gears using a rear derailleur or internal geared hub such as a Rohloff on back.

You can reprogram a BB motor controller so that max assist is limited to 250 watts or max assist speed is limited to 30 kph or whatever your local laws are. Proving that your assist is limited in such a fashion to a constable that is trying to write you a ticket is another matter.

Hub motors that have two or more gears are available but their long term reliability is still unknown — and even with gears, hub motors unfortunately don’t have great starting torque.


How to reassemble a completely disassembled brake caliper?

Here's a version of you picture with labels on the parts I'm probably not using the correct names but these will work for this purpose.

I'm assuming you know where each part generally fits but are having trouble getting the caliper to function correctly when assembled.

The caliper basically works by rotating the plunger. The ball bearings fit into the detents in the main body and plunger (marked by red circles). When the plunger rotates the balls ride up out of the detents on little ramps forcing the plunger to move through the body and press the pad against the rotor.

I think you probably went wrong in getting the ball bearings in the right place. When you put the balls in they should sit in the detents in the body, and the plunger should sit on the balls so that the balls are in the plunger detents. You should apply some grease to the moving parts and this will help stick the balls in place during reassembly. Be careful to keep grease away from where it could get on the pad though.

The spring serves to rotate the lever and retract the pads when there is no pull from the brake cable. There is a little spur of wire at each end of the spring that fits into a hole in the lever and main body (marked with red squares). Make sure the spurs are engaged in the holes. It's not clear which way around the spring goes from the picture but it should clear to you when you put it in place.

I'm not sure what 'part X' is. Perhaps a seal? Hopefully you remember how that fits.


What accessories do I have to add to my bike so that I may commute during rainy weather?

Adding mud-flaps to both fenders will greatly reduce spraying water on to your bottom bracket, feet and bicyclists riding behind you.
Mud-flaps can be made easily & cheaply by cutting a part of plastic bottles for milk /water/soda-pop and screwing them on to end of mud-guard/fenders (ensure there is enough clearance between screw and tire).
Plastic fenders offering full coverage will avoid spraying water and dirt; besides the plastic one's usually are  lighter and cheaper than their metal counter parts. These are also corrosion resistant.
Using wet weather chain lubricant will help to some extent, however this doesn't replace the need for cleaning your drive train and re-lubing it. This type of lubricant will help you to space out cleaning a little further. A clean drive train will last longer.


Is there a front derailer type that can be mounted on a frame without braze on or fitting on the seat tube, or clamping?

'E type' is a front derailleur attachment standard. Some frames provide an E type mounting point directly, some require a 'back plate' that provides the mount point that is clamped by the bb cup.

As far as I can tell, some back plates are clamped by the cup and have no other provision to prevent rotation. There is not very much fore or aft force on the derailleur so presumably this is not a problem. Other back plates have an additional hole that matches a threaded hole on the frame, so that an anti-rotation bolt can be fitted.


Could road rims be damaged by using v-brakes?

Not true--the pad/rim contact force should be more or less independent of the brake design (assuming the pad/rim friction coefficients are about the same, as they will be if the pads are of similar material).

V-brakes tend to require more cable pull to actuate than other types, which does make them incompatible with road brake levers. No problem with the wheels, though.


Take a look at your riding position.  When I was much younger (about 10-12 years ago) I used a messenger pack all the time while in an aggressive riding position (e.g., track bike / road bike) . In that position I found your lower back supports most the weight of the bag.  In a more upright position it pulls on your shoulder more.  As a test, try walking around for a while with one... it sucks.

If you prefer a more upright riding position (no judgement!) then a messenger bag may simply not be the right fit -- sorry pun intended, my bad.


How long have your cables been on the bike?

The cable may have frayed causing this problem. Also, check if your derailleur is in working condition. This might be a result of a stiff derailleur spring which causes the problem you are facing.

Get a new cable, rear mech and cable housing and your shifting will shift nicely.


Cube stereo 150 race "do not clamp" warning

I believe that you should not clamp anywhere on a carbon-tubed bicycle. As @whatsisname discussed in this Stack Exchange post, carbon fiber can be made very strong, but if you want it to resist clamping forces, you have to specifically design it to do so. That would add weight. All our fancy carbon frames are designed to be strong in some directions only, and they are not designed to withstand clamping forces. For that matter, the tubing on aluminum frames is very thin, and I believe the general recommendation is not to clamp aluminum frame tubes either. One best practice would be get a cheap alloy seatpost and clamp that. Some discussion here from a Trek dealer in Chicago. They point out that clamps really concentrate the clamping force in a few places on the tube. So, you could be exerting more clamping force on the frame than you perceive.

Park Tools has a pro mechanic stand that clamps bikes through the front axle. If you go to the page for their home mechanic stand, the picture clearly shows them clamping a bike by its seatpost. They also suggest that you can clamp a dropper post with some precautions. The link goes to a YouTube video, and their synopsis of the issue starts at 11:00. The link should play from that time, but you can replay that video from the start if you are interested in an engineering discussion of clamping forces on seatposts.

If you search the internet, I think you'll find some people who say they've clamped their carbon frames gently without issue. They may well be right! However, the issue is that they may have caused invisible damage inside the carbon. Raoul Luescher, who repairs carbon bikes for a living, discusses that issue in this YouTube video. His discussion is not specific to clamping, but he makes the point that you can cause delamination (fancy term for a fracture) in a carbon bike from something as simple as letting it fall over at a coffee stop. Importantly, you can have a delamination that's not visible from the outside of the tube. It's possible that the delamination will propagate (i.e. get worse) over time, and then fail unexpectedly. He specifically said in the video that he gets a number of failures while "just riding along". His point is that well-made carbon fiber won't fail like this; there has to be a flaw (e.g. manufacturing process left voids, which propagated over time) or invisible damage.

Please note: this does not mean you have killed your fancy carbon frame. It merely means that clamping your frame, even lightly, is not safe in the long run.

Side note: An extremely expensive but flexible adapter solution for your stand is Silca's Hirobel, further discussed here. This supports a frame from below the top tube using rubber wheels, and it places rubber straps around the top tube. This is probably not worth it for most people. I am including this link for fun. And who knows, you might decide it's worth it in terms of hassle saved.


Can I put standard drop brakes on a MASI drop handlebar?

The handlebars on the Masi Uno look like track-style handlebars, which were designed for the aerodynamic needs of track racing (in a closed, running-track-like loop in a velodrome) over the practical needs of a road bike. The important thing to note is that track bikes usually don't have brakes (see this article for why, with a fun sneak peek of "It's the Olympics; if the riders wanted to slow down, they wouldn't be there."), and their handlebar design reflects that. As Rider_X said, you could certainly put them on, but they might be uncomfortable depending on the size of your hands.

I would suggest adding interrupter levers for safety, and then potentially adding cross levers/mountain bike style levers on the very ends of the handlebars, where it's most flat. Here are some pictures illustrating the concept done on mustache handlebars:

If your goal was to be able to add brifters (integrated brake levers/shift levers), my suggested configuration might get awkward to use and you'd be better off just attaching them as you would on a road drop bar, and hope that the reach isn't too far. If you have large hands, this shouldn't be a problem.


Looking for a commuter bike, What should I look for?

To combine both comments and give you some advice in one go:

Go to a bike shop in your area and get some advice on a bicycle, give them your price range, usually you get good advice, and it won't be much more expensive than the cheapest one you can find online.
Check out the answers to this question about equipment for commuters.
I'd go for a mountain bike with wider road tires, or maybe road tires with some extra knobs on sides of the running area to provide grip when off-road, but the optimum depends on the road/off-road balance.
If the roads are indeed narrow and traffic is fast, then you really shouldn't get any excess weight on your handlebars such as a basket. This makes steering much slower and inaccurate. Get a rear-rack and some panniers.
An internally geared hub lowers maintenance, but especially the cheaper ones are much less sturdy, and depending on how hilly your commute is and the amount of money you are willing to spend they might not have enough gear range.
If you are mostly on-road don't get suspension. It adds weight and reduces durability and cycling efficiency.


Why is my electric bike 'clanking' under load?

That crank is unusual and therefore it is hard to give you advice.

It shouldn't be the bearings because they don't usually make a big noise, but
rather make the crank harder to move around (you can perfectly feel bad bearings if you try moving it with your hand and feel resistance/side-to-side movement).

Can you install the crank without the clutch mechanism, or simply install another crank, and test if the noise goes away? My bet is it will :)

If the noise goes away, the best is to contact Giant support or a representative and see what they can do for you (send you new pieces, help troubleshooting, etc). If they can't do anything for you, at least ask them to advise on a solution, or to suggest a list of cranks that are compatible with the electric system, in case a normal crank does not work.

While testing keep in mind this can be a malfunction piece which might fail to perform at the worst possible moment, so take it easy. Good luck.


Changing out suspension forks for non suspension forks

Yes.  This can be done.

There are some important considerations that you should make, however, before the change.  Frames are generally built with a particular amount of travel in mind.  The frame geometry is "optimized" for a fork of that travel.  Adding one with less or more travel can change the geometry, handling, and feel of the bike.  Many rigid fork manufacturers these days make various versions of a fork meant to replace a suspension fork of specific travel and keep frame geometry the same, or as close as possible.  Additionally, the fork will need to have whatever axle spacing and brake setup that you have on the current suspension fork.

All of that before installation, which will generally require some specialized tools to cut the steer tube to the proper/same length and then clean up the cut.   You'll possibly also need some headset parts if the old ones can't be removed from the old fork without damage.  Lastly you'll need to do a headset and brake adjusts after the fork installation.  All of those tasks are relatively simple, but best left to someone who has done it before, or supervised by someone who has done it before.


When should cyclists use pedestrian facilities?

In most cases it's a matter of common sense and good judgement.

If the pavement between the road and the bike racks is quiet and you're not going to impede anyone, cycle it. Same for the bike path not directly accessed from the road.

Your 3rd point, though is the crux of many discussions and we should be careful in how to answer it here. My perspective, although it's not clear whether this is the (UK) legal situation, but just how I 'morally' feel, is that if you approach the junction on a bike you shouldn't confuse the situation by morphing into a pedestrian and pushing your bike through the junction, then remounting your bike. While this might seem expedient it is reinforcing the view of other road users that you're somehow less than a proper road user, if you can use other facilities, then you should all the time, says that argument.

Certainly there are some intersections where it might be safer to do so, but the law (and cyclists' reputations) are often contrary to safety. It's a tricky question and common sense is often not to the fore in confrontations.

I try to avoid any use of the pavement unless it is explicitly marked as shared use, but where it's not clear, to try to not do things that would blatantly and needlessly annoy others. After all, cyclists in many locales have a bad reputation for selfish behaviour, I'd rather not add to it.


Restoring an old xUSSR bicycle for commuting... Feasible? Silly?

The exact model is Start Shosse from Kharkiv Bicycle factory (ХВЗ Старт-шоссе) Wikipedia link about factory.

This particular bike was a dream of many soviet youngsters, but in reality it is not anything special, as Soviet Olympic team rode on Colnago bikes.

It is quite popular trend here (in Latvia, ex USSR member country) to make a fixed gear bike from that cheap frame. Other parts are not of very good quality and sometimes it is very hard to find fitting spares from other manufacturer.

There is no special reason to keep that frame, as other vintage frames could be a better choice, but there is nothing wrong with it either.


Does it make you safer to use lights during the day?

According to Safety effects of permanent running lights for bicycles: A controlled experiment. (Madsen JC1, Andersen T, Lahrmann HS.) they give about a 19% reduction in crash rates. There's a copy of the paper in Scribd as pdf. Every reference I've been able to find appears to refer to this one study.

  The incidence rate, including all recorded bicycle accidents with personal injury to the participating cyclist, is 19% lower for cyclists with permanent running lights mounted; indicating that the permanent bicycle running light significantly improves traffic safety for cyclists

Wikipedia has a few articles, starting with daytime running lights (reports largely positive results) and bicycle lighting which gives a link in Danish that appears to refer to the Odense study above but claims 32% reduction.

  Daytime running lights improve cyclist safety significantly A large-scale experiments with daytime running lights on bicycles among 4,000 cyclists in Odense shows 32% reduction in cyclist accidents. The result is so striking that Councilman

Wikipedia Daytime Running Lights links to Google books copy of OECD, International Transport Forum (2013), Cycling, Health and Safety, but I can't copy'n'paste out of it so here's an image:

A BicycleForums anecdote resulted in a largely positive discussion, and there's this rant that concludes they're essential. The Australasian College of Road Safety amongst others is strongly support of them for motor vehicles so it's fair to assume bicycle riders would gain something from the practice.

FWIW I'm convinced. I have dynamo lights on my commuter bike that I never turn off (they have standlights so they go off a few minutes after I stop moving).


My front deraileur needs adjustment after every ride

Sounds like you are getting slack during the ride.
This will happen with new cables but if you get it every ride something then else is going on.

My thought is that your barrel adjuster is not holding.
Does it look like this?

The barrel adjuster should have a lock nut or something to hold it in place.
Mark the position with tape or a marker and see if it moves during the ride.

The M 191 is a lower end Shimano but you should certainly expect much better performance than this.

And congratulations with getting up to 20-25 miles a day.


Do 8 Speed Shimano Gears Actually Work Properly?

All my four bikes with deraileurs use shimano 8-gear cassettes. Although I have never had a 9 or 10 geared bike (I think it is too many gears, no need for that), I could say it works properly or not depending on many factors, mostly these:

If the cassette is worn, shifting gets worse, because the engagement points are not the same anymore;
If the deraileur has lateral play, same way: shifting gets a little less precise, although I would say this is not the worst problem, see ahead;
If HANGER IS BENT, then no matter what you do, shifting is terrible, as @user2839 said. If you set the upper gears to be right, the lower ones will be offset, and vice-versa.
Finally, if cable is not running smoothly inside the housings, there will be problems too.

But I would never put the blame on the cassette being 8-speed.

Hope it helps!


How can I maximize the lifetime of my cleats

You can get special covers for your cleats that make it easier to walk and extend their useful life.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000UDBLQO


No. it won't shift correctly - SRAM must be used with appropriate SRAM levers, Shimano with compatible Shimano levers, Campagnolo with compatible Campagnolo levers.
Each manufacturer has their own ratio for cable recovery to derailleur movement, each company has their own strategy for coping with the fact that the angular movement of the chain sprocket-to-sprocket across the range of the cassette has to vary slightly.
Shimano and SRAM manage the latter mostly in the lever, Campagnolo split the management across the lever and the cassette spacing, which contrary to most internet chatter is not the same as Shimano / SRAM and nor is it constant.


What substance do they use to grease bottom bracket, crank, pedal bolts etc?

For the bottom bracket and most bicycle components , generally it is just a multi-purpose bicycle grease, on bottom brackets anti-seize should be used if it is a titanium frame or mismatched metal that are known to seize or bond to one another, but can be used in other frames as well. I have also heard of people using teflon tape that is made for pipes etc. Although for most applications including pedals, headset, crank and so on a general use grease is perfectly fine.

The following are all common and a lot comes down to personal preference.


While my initial attempt with lightly deflated tires was not a success (I could only bike 100 m before being exhausted) my second attempt went much better.
Based on your helpful answers, comments and suggestions I deflated my rear tire to 1.5 bar, and my front tire to 2 bar and rode at the waterline without much problems at an average speed of 20 km/h.
I was there 1.5 hours after low tide, but there was still plenty of compact sand. Also, it didn't really matter if I was riding on the wet sand at the edge of the water, or a few meters further inland on the drier compact sand, both required approximately the same perceived effort.
Loosened sand (e.g. after dogs have played there) and swathes of shells/seaweed required more effort, so I tried to avoid those.
For context: I use Continental Grand Prix 4 Season 700x32c tires, weigh around 80 kg and am not superfit, but can sustain 25-30 km/h on the road.
Conclusion
Based on my experience: yes, you can ride on the beach with 32c tires if:

You deflate your tires significantly (to 1.5 - 2 bar)
Ride during low tide on the compact sand


From Stan's NoTubes FAQs on wheels and rims:

  Why is my cassette digging into my freehub body?

  Stan's freehubs are made lightweight using aluminum like many other brands.
  We recommend using cassettes with a rigid alloy
  carrier (XTR, XT, XO, etc. - Figure 1) for the largest sprockets.
  Cassettes with individual cogs (Figure 2) may mark the
  alloy freehub, though marks are only cosmetic and will not affect the
  performance of the hub.

From your picture it appears the freehub takes the hit from the individual sprocket.
Need the cassette to act as a unit and spread the load across all sprockets.
Tighten down more or look for cassette that has more of a body across the sprockets (rigid alloy carrier).

See how the rigid body (left) shares the force across not just the sprockets but also between the sprockets.


What do I need to know about fitting new wheels on a bike?

There are a number of factors to consider when buying a new wheel set:

Wheel size, there are many different wheel sizes to choose from, modern road bikes are generally 700c and mountain bikes 26, 27.5 or 29inch. There's also a number of legacy, children's and specialty sizes.
Rim width, rim width determines how wide a tire you can run and is determined by seat stay and chain stay clearance. If you have a road bike you may be able to fit wider cross tires if you were so inclined.
Axle width, the width of the rear drop outs, generally 135mm on road bikes but older bikes may be less, 135 or 142 for mountain bikes. Front widths on mountain bikes are either 100 or 110.
Cassette size, you need a hub (unless using a free wheel) that is spaced for the cassette you'll be using. There are 7, 8/9/10 and 11 speed free hubs. A 7 speed cassette will fit an 8 speed hub with a spacer.
Cassette type, shimano and sram require a compatible hub, campy requires a different compatible hub.
Brake type, rim brakes need a specific rim, disc brakes and coaster brakes require a specific hub.
Axle diameter, on Mountain bikes there's 9mm QR and 15mm and 20mm thru axle on the front and 10mm QR, 10mm bolt up or 12mm thru axle on the rear.

Everything thing else such as material, number of spokes or valve type is user preference.


I think you're confusing a fixed gear with a single speed.

A single speed bike can have a fixed gear (the cranks must (things the pedals are attached to) turn whenever the rear wheel turns), or a freewheel (you can coast, i.e. not have the cranks turn when the rear wheel turns). Luckily, a lot of fixed gear bikes have so called flip-flop hubs, where one side is fixed gear and the other side has a single speed freewheel.

For a single speed freewheeling setup, you can take any frame, put on a single speed wheel and if it doesn't have horizontal dropouts (or eccentric hubs), attach a chain tensioner to it. For a fixed gear setup, you need horizontal dropouts or an eccentric hub since you'll snap a chain tensioner in a fixed gear setup while braking.

Generally, the economical ways to do a fixed gear are starting with an old road bike (say 80s, which has horizontal dropouts) and putting a flip flop hub wheel or fixed gear wheel in, and adjusting the chainline, or buying a bike which is already fixed gear (or has a flip flop hub). Since fixies have become fashionable these days, the latter is usually the  easier option.

Building a bike from a frame and components is possible, but you need to check compatibility and sizing and everything on your own, which judging by the wording of the question, you do not have.

I would recommend getting an already assembled single speed bike with a flip-flop hub. That way, if you find you don't like fixie-ness, you can flip the wheel and get a usable single speed with freewheel. You can also have two gear combinations (though a bit hard to switch between them given that you have to swap the wheel) this way. You can also probably walk into one of many bike shops in the NYC area and figure out a single speed which fits you well easily this way. I would also recommend having a front and rear brake installed on the bike, even if it is fixed gear only -- it may not look "cool", but it can easily save your life in NYC.

Also, these links from Sheldon are essential reading, especially if you go the build your own route.


I have a bicycle frame that is not stamped and I can't figure out how to identify the brand of it

By checking in the database of stolen bikes my guess is that it is a Raleigh something. A picture would help, though, to confirm this guess.

On top of the reason of the questions being closed will probably help you answering yourself your question.


This to be done with caution and patience. I recently did it using a long 3/8" carriage bolt that I purchased from the hardware store. I placed a washer on the bolt screwed on two nuts then another washer. Install the bolt in the axle notch of the forks. slowly move the nuts outward gradually spreading the fork. I did it slowly over several hours although I don't know if it is really necessary. You will want to go 3mm-4mm wider than needed as the fork will spring back a little when the bolt is removed. You must also be aware that the old style forks do not have the recessed seat ( known by some as lawyer lips) to retain the skewer if it comes loose.


Correct position of hands on flat handlebars

Could be the position of yours hands, which you can adjust yourself, but is more likely a combination of the over all bike fit. Things such as seat position, handlebar height and a variety of other things all play a part in how much pressure your hands exert onto the handlebars. Riding a bike that is too large can have your body leaning to much on the bars and exerting too much force on your hands and wrists.

Depending on what grip you currently use you might try changing them to something a bit softer such as some of the silicone variety, ESI or similar for example. Sometime gel padded gloves can help but I would venture to guess that it is a bit more complex and probably related to the over all fit of the bike.

If you ride often numbness is definitely something you should take seriously and if it is worth the money and you do ride often, you may think about having a proper fit done at a shop or at very least take your bike in and explain the problem and get their opinion.

Also, make sure you are not gripping the bike too hard, sounds silly but it is possible, your grip should be firm but semi relaxed, not holding on for dear life sort of grip.

Lastly, the angle of your wrists can also be a factor, depending on what type of shifters/brake lever you have you might try adjusting them downward or upward to try and find a more comfortable and natural position.


Rear disk brakes stopped working in Trek DS 2

The liquid in the top photo is hydraulic fluid.

You probably unscrewed the bleed port screw at some point and now your system has less fluid than it needs and also air.

Seek a tutorial using your preferred search engine "bleed tektro brakes" on how to bleed your brakes and follow it.

When you have done that you need to check two more things.

There's no fluid on the pads.
There's no fluid on the rotors.

You'll know either of these things if after a successful  bleed theres no braking power/friction even with the brakes jammed on hard.

Clean rotors with isopropyl alcohol (not meths or petrol) and clean paper towels. Really bad contamination might require sanding the rotor with fine grain sandpaper too. Try isopropyl first.

Contaminated pads should be replaced or if you cant afford to there's a hack which you really shouldn't do.

Dont do this. High likelihood of destroying pads anyway

Ventilate well. Wear something over your eyes.
Place pads metal side down on a cold stove top element and then turn on the element.
Wait for the element to heat up and the fluid will start burning off too.
Once the fluid has burnt off (smoke stops) remove pads from element immediately with a tool. This will be in the order of less than 60 seconds.
If a pad gets too hot it will crack and need to be thrown away. Don't turn the element on too hot.
Allow pads to cool naturally. Clean pads with isopropyl.


My suspicions is that the change relates to wearing through one material type into another, but it would be nice to get confirmation from people who know more.

Another hypothesis is that as the pin-to-link mating surfaces wear, they create an increasing gap for the entry of dirt.  Once dirt gets between the parts, wear accelerates due to a "wet sanding" action. At first smaller particles are able to enter, then larger ones as the clearance increases.

Eventual displacement of the fairly heavy-bodied factory lubricant might be a factor.

Exaggerated diagrams of the idea follow. Here is the state of a new chain: the pin is firmly pressed into the link with no clearance:

The arrows indicate the direction on of the stress under load. Then as the link and pin wear, there must appear a gap opposite to the where the load presses the parts together:

The "game changes" at this point. Of course the dirt works its way around the pin as the linkage rotates, and passes through sections of the drive cycle where it is not under load.


Do I need to get a replacement bike for this broken chainring?

Those notches are used when shifting gears, as you move the derailleur, the chain moves and catches on a notch and switches from one chainring to another adjusting the gearing.

You do not need a replacement bicycle, this is a nice bike and with proper maintenance (keeping the drive train clean and lubed) should last a long time.


Depends totally on your hub.

If its currently a through-axle, then the fork has to support the same diameter.

If its currently a QR, take the wheel off, remove QR and see if there are inserts that can be popped off to show a larger hole.  If no, you'll need a new hub.  If yes, you need the two adapters, which might be hard to find.

A new wheel might be more cost efficient than a new hub+wheel rebuild.

Also, the warranty conditions on your fork may preclude the use of any adapters - best check that too.


105 R7000 front derailleur with 105 5800 crankset

Shimano lists the FD-R7000 front derailleur as compatible with the FC-5800 crankset in their products compatibility information, but the R7000 crankset wont be compatible with the old derailleur.


What initial improvements can I make to a Schwinn Sidewinder?

$50 - $100 isn't going to get you much in parts, especially any that would be an "upgrade" from your current setup. If you're riding your bike often, it's possible that you'll spend an amount approaching that this year on new tubes and/or tires when you get a flat or wear your tires out.

My suggestion would be to ride this bike and enjoy it. You'll get your exercise and it'll give you time to research bikes and save for one that will fuel your desire for more advanced riding down the road when you gain your fitness. Visit some bike shops in your area and talk with the staff there to find a bike that is in your range of needs and budget. Test ride lots of bikes to find one that fits properly.

You don't need the "fastest" or most modern/expensive bike if you just want exercise. You just need something that is safe and functions for your needs. The best upgrade you can give your bike is the motor (yourself).


Never use a hammer.

In order to check the inside of the frame, visual inspection most times FAIL, because the problem is caused by tiny bumps or misalignments that are not easily seen with naked eye and even felt with fingertips.

I would recommend that you take another seatpost (an old one you can take/borrow on a local bike shop) and try to insert more aggressively. You should polish the seatpost first someway (steel wool, for example).

You force it inside a bit, then take it out. Probably, there would be some marks on the seatpost surface, suggesting if there is some irregularity inside the frame. Most common are bending around the vertical cut around the clamping nut, or deformation caused by welding the tubes around that region too deep (to the point of almost melting the inside of the tube.

The seatpost tube of the frame might be not-straight, which would be a manufacturing defect.

In the end, you could polish/sand/grind inside the frame to make the seatpost go down easier, but since seatposts that don't go down so easy come out very hard afterwards, and your post has a carbon surface, taking the frame to the bike shop to check if it needs replacement or special service (with machining tools to improve surface quality and alignment) could be necessary.


Replaced left crank arm but still comes loose?

A loose crank arm can damage both the bottom bracket and the crank arms. In your case, since you've run the crank arm til it fell off the bike, it is likely you ruined the bottom bracket. If your crank arm is loose, immediately stop and tighten it.

You will need to likely get a new bottom bracket and possibly yet another new crank arm. Replacing a bottom bracket requires a special tool (bottom bracket tool) and a compatible bottom bracket (which will typically be marked on the bottom bracket itself). You may want to leave this job to a bike shop.


Yes, you can reuse them.

Just be careful removing the old ones, clean them up and then swap on the new ones.


Pain in my front shoulder muscle - suggestions? (Hybrid cycle)

DISCLAIMER: This is by no means a definitive answer, but one of the options you may want to look into. Also as this borders on a medical advice, this is only meant to give a kind of guidance, not a prescription.

So one way to deal with pains caused by a substantial amount of cycling is to get your bike fitted, i.e. measured to see if your seat post is high/low enough for you, your cranks are of correct length and so on.

In your case you may be leaning too much (or indeed not enough!), which could strain your back and/or shoulders, so it could be the case you need your stem shortened (or otherwise lengthened!).

I had my stem shortened from 100mm to 90mm due to me leaning too much and getting quite a lot of pain in my shoulder blades. However I've had my bike professionally fitted.


How to prevent brake quick release from opening on rough roads?

Presumably the QR lever originally had enough friction to stay closed but has worked loose or a plastic washer or bushing that provided the friction has degraded. Obviously keeping a brake functioning is a high priority

Probably the simplest solution is to use a bit of tape to hold the lever closed, but tape may come off. Maybe you could use a small zip tie or the type of wire used to stop bolts coming loose.


The best way to deal with/prevent punctures on tubular tyres

You could try adding sealant to your tubular tire.

Tufo Tire Sealant, Stans's No-tubes (and other tubeless sealants) can be used to deal with small punctures. Most recommend not using the sealant as a preventative measure, but more so as an after the fact solution to quickly fix punctures on the road.

However, Tufo Standard tire sealant says that it can be used as a preventative measure, but I can't speak for this. I've heard that it could affect ride quality, so it may be best used in a roadside emergency.


Does Bike or Rider Weight / Groupset affect cruising speed on the flat

The short answer to your question is, "yes, weight does affect cruising speed on the flat, but not by much."

The longer answer to your question is a special case of one of the answers given to this bicycles.stackexchange question: "How can one estimate drag for a bicycle?" There you can find the equation for power given speed, disaggregated into the components for aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance, acceleration, and climbing (or descending). In your case, you are only interested in the components of drag that are affected by a change in mass.

You have asked about "on the flat" so we can ignore the climbing or descending component.

You have asked about "cruising speed" so we can ignore the acceleration component.

If you look at the drag equation, mass does not enter into the aerodynamic component.

The only component of drag, then, that is affected by mass is the rolling resistance component. Rolling drag force is Crr * m * g where Crr is the coefficient of rolling resistance, m is the total mass, and g is the gravitational "constant", probably about 9.8 m/sec^2 in your location. For "normal" road tires on a standard surface, the Crr will typically be in the range of .004 to .007; heavy tires on rough roads will tend toward the upper part of that range, racing tires on a good surface will tend toward the bottom part of that range. In this case, let's say the Crr of your tires on that road is right in the middle of that range at .0055, and that the all-inclusive weight of you and your bicycle and all of your equipment is a total of 110 kg. Then the rolling drag will be .0055 * 110 * 9.8 = 5.9 Newtons. For each kg that you decrease the total all-inclusive mass, the rolling drag will decrease by .0055 * 1 * 9.8 = .0539 Newtons.

Power is force * speed, so for constant power output the change in speed due to decreased mass will simply be power/change in force.

So, suppose your "cruising" power was 300 watts, your total mass was 110 kg, your CdA was 0.3 m^2 (which is low for a commuter bike setup), and the Crr was .005. We can then calculate your speed as around 10.9 m/s (or 39.2 km/h). If you were to decrease your mass by 10kg, roughly 10% of your total mass, your speed would increase by about 1%, to 11.0 m/s, or 39.6 km/h.


What maintenance does a front suspension fork need?

The fork is "right" if it has the right "sag", that is, if it lowers a bit when you get on the bike. The right sag is no less than 10%, no more than 25% of total travel, for a regular bike (non-downhill, non-special-purpose);
Basically three "areas" must be addressed on maintenance:

Cleaning the inside, for removal of old oil/grease, water, mud, grime, rust, etc.
Caring for the damping elements, which could be elastomer, coil, air chamber, open oil bath, etc. That would vary a lot depending on the type;
Lubing the telescopic parts, which are responsible for the movement of the fork. Depending on the type (open oil bath, for example) the damping oil and the stanchion-lubing oil is the same, so it is serviced together.

This is called "preload", and probably increases or decreases the compression of a coil spring or elastomer. That is for the adjustment of "sag" according to your weight, being equivalent to say that it lets the fork "harder" or "softer".

As far as I know, the brand of your fork is on the cheap end of the quality spectrum, so it's possible that it doesn't work perfectly, or at least not as perfectly as higher-end models. I'd say that, if it "works", meaning if it saves your body (hands mostly) from shaking over bumps, then keep it, even if it has too much sag, or some play, or is not so light. But if it "gives up" working too soon (say, you go over bumps and it barely moves, or you feel the bumps hard on your hands), than it is well worth to change it for a better model.

If you decide you'll keep it and service it yourself, I'd recommend purchasing some grease/oil (check which you'll need for your specific model) that's made specifically for bike suspension. A lot of lubricants I've inadvertedly used in the past contained some sort of adhesive (to stick to the metal surfaces and protect them), and the lubrication became gluey as soon as the bike hit some dusty path. On the other hand, fluids intended for suspensions or hydraulic systems tend to expel impurities and keep flowing nice over time.

EDIT: I've found some photos and reviews online, of your fork (search words: "sync 266 fork"). By that (plastic upper caps, dust "accordions" around the telescopes) and by the reviews description (mtbr.com), I'd say it is a low-end fork, thus without any hydraulic valves inside, most probably elastomer or coil spring. You should be able to disassemble it at home "no-fear".

Hope this helps!


Just keep on doing what you're doing.

To get good at anything, the easiest way is to keep doing that thing.

As an aside, I find I descend a lot quicker when I'm wearing a cap with the peak down. I think that having the peak in my field of view forces me to keep my head up.


How to adjust hydraulic disk brake lever reach during bleeding?

You cannot reduce the amount of fluid in the working part of hydraulic brakes. The reason is that hydraulic brake systems automatically draw fluid from the reservoir to compensate for brake pad wear and gradual advancement of the caliper pistons.

The way this works is when the levers are at their 'at rest' position the  reservoir is connected to the rest of the system allowing fluid to be drawn in. The first part of the travel of the piston connected to the lever cuts off the reservoir and allows the caliper pistons to be pushed out to apply the pads against the rotor. This is also why you can push the caliper pistons back in when replacing pads.


Gear to protect against hand injury in a crash

Thankfully I never ride without gloves. The light weight gloves with padded leather in the  palms is all you need - they are cheap, comfortable and effective - what more could you ask for. I had a crash after my bike was tampered with and the front wheel fell off. I am a programmer, and although I emptied the company first aid kit of dressings, and could not walk properly or bend my elbow for days, I could still type. Had I not been wearing gloves, I would have been off work for weeks.

As I see it, if you damage the leather enough to make the gloves unserviceable, and walk away - keep walking - straight to you lottery shop. Leather is tough and slide - in my case the gloves, which took the full impact of my fall, had no visible damage - unlike my shoulder, elbow and hip....

Wearing big heavy gloves might protect you hands, but downhill riders and motorcyclists that wear these also wear full face helmets and body armour - unless you do the same you will come off and although your hands will be fine, the rest of you won't be.

Any bone damage is a problem - if you don't want it, don't fall off. You can learn to fall to minimize injury - downhiller riders are the masters of this, question is - can you be bothered as the only real way to learn is to do it.... You could wear body armour but its no guarantee.....

Edit:
Since writing this many years ago, I have taken up Martial Arts with my children (I am over 50). The techniques taught have helped enormously in a couple Mountain biking falls I have had, including one where I went 'over the bars'.


What thread does the b-screw on a shimano rd-6400/6401 have?

I have in front of me an RD-6500, Ultegra 9s rear derailleur. The B-screw is an M4 x .75 pitch x 12mm length. Looking at a couple older shimano derailleur's, it appears that the B-screw is also an M4.
Shimano's website has various technical documents, some of which are "exploded view" diagrams of the parts that make up the part. At the bottom is the list of the parts, and when it's a fastener, they often give the size and length of it. However, the exploded view of the RD-6400 does not have the size of the B adjust bolt. Here is the EV of the RD-6500 which does list the B-screw as an M4 x 10mm.


How to create a bicycle that rolls backwards when you pedal forward?

I refer to a bike throughout, though I suspect you're actually going for something with more than two wheels, and likely more than one rider.

Multi speed bike gear systems generally can't be driven backwards. This means that if you really want gears, the chain that drives the rear cassette or hub gears must move forwards. Fixed gears are designed to be driven backwards for braking.

You could easily choose to go for fixed gears on a machine like this, in which case your figure of eight chain would work, but you'd want a chain tensioner with guides in the slack side, so the chain doesn't touch itself at the cross.

If you really want a range of gears the best thing would probably be to install a geared hub the wrong way round. This would need a left side chain, but you should be able to achieve that with tandem or BMX components (tandem parts are more likely to be compatible with other types of bike).

This approach would leave the bike as effectively a front wheel drive, rear steer machine, which would be very unstable. You might be better off driving the bike as normal (rear wheel drive, front steering) and turning the rider round. This would be (conceptually) as simple as clamping a saddle onto the top tube and putting your figure of eight chain in place as above, but would work with normal derailleur gears as the chain would be pulling correctly. A single chainring and a couple of idler sprockets with guides would be a good idea to maintain reasonable angles in the vertical plane.

For a little inspiration you might want to read up on the retro direct drive. This had one gear ratio pedalling normally and another driven (still forwards) by back pedalling, and the bike could still freewheel fowards.

Your point about intermediate gears is easily dealt with by making both gears on any intermediate axle the same size.


What to do If your pedal are squeaking and are not straight?

A 3-piece crank:

A 1-piece crank:

Which do you have??


I had this problem with a pair of Race Face Cadence cranks (road version).  I think Race Face does this to force you into buying their chain rings.  I am sure there is some "engineering" argument why their rings are more compatible with their cranks, but frankly their rings are only so-so (my opinion).  So far every brand I have tried has this conflict as they use a square profile on the ring/crank interface, not a square with rounded corners.

To get around this simply Dremel or file off the offending material on the chain ring so it fits flush on the cranks.  Then pedal off (or glide downhill in you case) into the sunset with a smile on your face.  I have done this with a some FSA rings and have put 5000 km into them with no ill effects.

Take my anecdotal experience for what it is worth.


How to determine if my rear axle is bent?

To my mind, a 'feeling like a small pebble' suggests something in the hub itself, perhaps a failing bearing. To test for bearing damage, hold the axle in two hands and spin on he wheel. See if you get a regular catching feeling that would suggest a damaged bearing or bearing surface.


Is it bad for the bike to pedal backwards?

There are a couple of things you should consider:

Your bike isn't going to care. You aren't going to loosen pedals or cranks spinning in reverse, because you're not applying any load, so there is no force in which to cause precession or fretting.

You are getting no benefit (health-wise) from doing so. It might be better not to even bother.


I mistakenly put WD40 for my disc brakes and now pads not anchoring as well as before. Any solution?

Disc brake pads are very sensitive to contamination. You can clean the disc rotors with rubbing alcohol, but that's about it. Anything else will contaminate the pads.
You may not be able to restore the pads. The easiest and surest thing would be to replace the pads.
If you want to try to restore the pads, get some "drywall sanding screen", remove the old pads, use the screen to remove the contaminated layer from the pads, and reinstall them.
Make sure to clean the rotors with rubbing alcohol before reinstalling the cleaned pads/installing new pads so no contaminant gets onto the restored/new pads.


Ferrule to mount hydraulic disc brake hose to frame

BikeParts.com/problemsolvers has an adapter that converts cable stops into hose clamps the part# BPC317673.


What is the meaning of multiple front derailleur clamp measurements?

Those are the seat tube diameters that the derailleur will fit onto. Bicycle seat tubes vary in size for a range of reasons (which is also why we have different size seatposts).

In this case it looks as though one derailleur is giving you a list of three sizes that work, the other is giving a range. I suspect they're equivalent, since the maximum and minimum are the same - I'd be surprised if either of them won't fit any tube between those sizes.

What matters, obviously, if that you buy one that will fit the seat tube of your bike. So either of the ones you've found should work.


What's the story of Shimano PD-T780 Deore XT Pedals?

Shimano often doesn't market or stock components targeted at the Euro trekking market in North America, including these pedals, many cranks belonging to their MTB groups with slightly upsized chainrings, generator hubs, etc. They're on Shimano's Cycling Europe site. Distributors and large retailers can generally get any of it specially brought in if they want.


How to make coaster brake work backwards, or disable?

There is a probably very useless potential discussion here about which internal parts of the hub would have to be remade to do this, i.e. if you machined a reverse-threaded driver to take the place of the original one, what is the next thing that would go wrong after that. Barring those kinds of considerations, there is no way of doing this because you're reversing the motion of the driver and thus there's no way of getting it to drive the shell.
Do it with left drive BMX parts.


Bottom Bracket - Drive Side is Stuck, what to do please?

What's your frame made from?  If its carbon, might be time for the LBS.  If its steel then start with easing oil for a couple of days followed by a leverage increase using your pipe.  The main danger is exerting too much force and stripping threads.

I'm assuming the cartridge is toast which is why you're removing it.  If its a beater steel frame, you might get some motion using heat on the outside of the BB, which should enlarge it fractionally, but will adversely affect your paint and any nearby plastics.  And it can set fire to the easing oil or grease, so keep a multi-purpose extinguisher or bucket of sand handy.

When you do get it out, remember to grease (if steel) or whatever coating is appropriate for alumninium/carbon.


You have various options, mostly depending on your local regulation, facilities and length of your parking time:

Bike lockers
Bike stalls
Trees, poles or rails (ironically in the picture the bike is locked to a signal pole telling that bikes parked outside the allowed spaces will be removed)
Bike parking spaces
Building facade
Car parking space

The last two are less recommendable, as

your bike won't be linked to something hard to move (a thief can simply load it on a pickup and remove the lock with calm in a quieter place)
it might be unlawful or impeding others (pedestrians, drivers)
it might not be appreciated (I have seen bikes thrown in the bushes when left in the car space, and 3) understandably really pisses off car drivers)

I am leaving out naive or dumb other parkings

which are possible but, well, do not praise your smartness (I have seen people locking their bike to a stranger's one)


It looks like both the Hangar and the attachment from the rear mech to the hangar are bent?
You could try to straighten yourself with pliers or a small wrench but I would suggest a visit to the LBS who will use a Hangar Alignment Tool

http://www.parktool.com/product/derailleur-hanger-alignment-gauge-dag-2-2?category=Frame%20&%20Fork

With a bent hangar you will never have smooth, crisp shifting at all.
That chain needs a degrease by the looks of the first photo. If it's an old chain, it may have "chain stretch" which will also affect shifting and start to ruin your cassette. Ask the LBS to check the chain length as well?


can you use a cycle path to bypass red lights?

The light controls the stop line (and, if there is one, the advance stop line).

I can't tell from the streetview image, or from streetview itself or the satellite view, whether the cycle path moves from the road to the footway before the stop line or not.

If it does - you don't have to cross the line, and the light doesn't affect you (so long as you follow the cycle path onto the footway).

If it doesn't, or if you choose to stay on the road, you'll be crossing the line and controlled by the light.


Why are non-folding tyres still manufactured?

The reason non-folding tires are manufactured is that people still buy non-folding tires. Companies will make what sells.
In the original post there is a comparison between two tires of the same model, one is folding and one is not. According to the post:

folding and non-folding tyres of the same model differ in price more than a few cents.

The question asked in the original post is really:
Why would someone choose a non-folding tire over a folding tire if the two tires are the same model and virtually the same price?
Someone would choose a non-folding tire over a folding tire of the same model and price is if they didn't need the ability to fold the tire and they felt that a non-folding tire is easier to install.


Could a slightly bent rear mech cable be the cause of poor shifting?

No, the 'bent cable' is not causing the problem.

As soon as the shifter pulls the cable the tension of the derailleur springs will straighten it out. It may be slightly bent when first installed but should straighten out in a short time.

The excessive slack you have in that cable indicates something is adjusted incorrectly. Presumably the derailleur is on the smallest sprocket and is resting on the high limit rather than being controlled by the cable and shifter. That would mean your indexing adjustment is off. I'd work through a rear derailleur setup process to fix that problem first. The Park Tool Rear Derailleur article and video is has a very clear step by step process.

If that does not improve your indexing, the next thing to look at is the derailleur hanger alignment.


Geometry between 50mm stem and a 65mm stem and riding experience

Changing from 50 to 65 (or the opposite) is definitely noticeable. And depending on your needs, switching may improve your riding.

Switching from 50 to 65 will mean more pressure on the front end. That means better cornering (the front end will not wash out easily) and more stability on the downhill. Some people also mention that it'll improve climbing on difficult terrain.

Switching from 65 to 50 will improve the agility of the bike. You'll be able to bunnyhop, manual and trick your bike easier and with less effort. You'll also have a slight advantage at very very steep technical downhill trails. It'll also make your cornering snapier but be careful of wash outs. A switch of this type is also paired with an increase in bar width.


How can I bleed my hydraulic disc brakes without buying a kit?

It depends on your brakes.

Some models need nothing more than a couple of short lengths of plastic hose, a cloths peg and syringe. Others need fittings to attach the hose(s) to the brakes, and you may or may not find something else to do the job in a hardware shop.

Kits are mostly relatively cheap and probably cost no more than individual bits purchased  from a shop. Some kits are expensive (Avid comes to mind) - probably because you have no choice and have to buy it for the proprietary bits needed to do the job.


Compatibility of 41mm x 107mm bottom bracket shell

Your frame is only compatible with bottom brackets that are connected with the frame using the press-fit interface of the right dimension (there are many standards - open or proprietary). Threaded bottom brackets are screwed into the frame and are not compatible with your frame.
What you have in your picture is a press-fit bottom bracket as well, not threaded and it may or may not creak. One cannot say in advance whether a press-fit bottom bracket will creak in your frame or not. It depends on the quality of the alignment of the bottom-bracket shell in your frame. The threaded sleeves inside of the bottom bracket ("thread-together BB" as Weiweg Ng commented) in your picture may or may not help with that, one cannot say in advance.
When it comes to the allowable cranksets, you just have to follow the specifications. The manufacturer always says to which bottom bracket shell width they can be used as discussed in Picking a crankset for a 107mm BB on a downhill bike . Cranksets like the Praxis downhill cranks or Shimano FC-820 or FC-825 (but these are 104 mm) might be applicable, provided you frame can accept the respective required BB (here BB107  Shimano SM-BB71-41C ). There should be more alternatives around.


Force needed for tire and rim (removing/inserting)

There is a small acceptable range of bead diameters for a given rim size, hence some tires are a little bit loose, some are tight.


Recommendations on best-value stock fixed gear model?

If your looking for a "beater" fixie that you don't have to worry about getting stolen and maintaining, it might be worth checking out Craigslist. I see fixies come up every couple days in my area.  IMO, its not worth spending the $ on a brand new bike to be your beater bike.

If you want something brand new, Redline makes some nice bikes that are usually a tad cheaper than the competition. They make the Urbis which I think is around $750 or so, which I think is close to the Steamroller in price, but has a disc brake (which I suppose might make it more attractive to thieves, but does add value for the price). No idea on weights though, since manufacturers rarely publish them.

What kind of budget are you looking at here ("too expensive" is a very relative term)?


Avoiding hydraulic brake system overfill when bleeding with worn pads

The problem you are encountering is likely because the pressure during the bleed process forces the pistons out slightly - this means that in effect you overfill the system.

You are best to push the pistons back fully with the old pads in place, then remove the old pads and replace with a bleed block.

You can buy specially designed bleed blocks, or you can see how to make your own here:http://www.epicbleedsolutions.com/blog/how-to-make-a-bleed-block/


How to store bikes inside a house or unit with limited internal space?

Friends of mine use a Two-Bike Gravity Stand, and are really happy with it.  It doesn't require any modifications to your apartment, and does a pretty good job at keeping the bikes out of the way.  For myself, I installed a pulley system, but that does involve drilling in the ceiling.


Campagnolo Athena 9 speed compatibility?

This page is incredibly useful for figuring this stuff out. Campy shifters with just about any front derailleur should be fine since they have micro trim.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Bicycles/Maintenance_and_Repair/Gear-changing_Dimensions#REAR_SHIFTING_TABLES


Why is carbon fiber inherently weak? Or is it?

Carbon fiber isn't necessarily a "weak" or "fragile" material. If you had a tube of the same diameter and thickness of typical CF as a typical steel frame tube, that CF tube would be extremely strong and durable.

Metals like steel and aluminum are isotropic materials. That means their mechanical properties are identical in all directions. If you have a cube of steel, it will respond the same way regardless which direction you pull or push on it.

Carbon fiber is a composite material. It consist of tons of little bundles of the fibers held together with an epoxy.

A block of steel is, well, like steel, but carbon fiber is like a big bundle of straws glued together. In one direction, it is extremely strong, but if you push or pull to the side, it will collapse. In that one dimension where it is strong, it is vastly stronger than steel. However, in other directions it's rather flimsy.

So, engineers have been able to exploit those properties in bicycle frames. In a bicycle frame, the vast, vast majority of the forces are primarly along a single dimension. They can make tubes thinner and lighter yet still retain the desired strength and stiffness.

So, there is no mechanical reason that you couldn't build a fully loaded touring bike or something like a Salsa Fargo with a carbon frame, and it could be just as tough and durable. And it would probably be lighter than a steel or aluminum frame. But the reason it isn't done is because of the market. Carbon fiber is an expensive material and difficult to work with, and its mechanical properties are best suited for when you demand very light applications.

When you build a steel framed bike, when you get the tubes sufficiently strong enough along their length, that because of steels isotropic properties, you get the lateral strength for free, the strength to resist things banging into it, withstanding crashes, etc.

In a carbon fiber frame, you don't get the strength in the other dimensions unless you choose to design it in. In carbon fiber bikes, where weight is a serious concern, the engineering decision has been made to not make the frames strong in those areas. They could do so, but they choose not to because its not necessary for the bikes intended purpose.

When you build a heavy loaded bike, you lose a lot of the carbon fibers advantages, and so it would be far more economical to use steel or aluminum.  Especially when throwing a couple filled water bottles in your pannier nearly exceeds the weight savings.


Get a tandem. Wherever your relationship is going, it'll get there faster, and together, on a tandem.


Taps are useful for cleaning threads, and much better than forcing a screw down the hole (though that can sometime be enough).

Derailleur mounting bolts are an unusual size, but assuming you've got a removable hanger that should be held on by a normal metric screw (M6).  Metric M5 screws are common for bottle cages, mudguards etc.

Normally you'd put a few drops of oil on the tap for actually cutting a thread.  When cleaning a thread, grease can be better as you'll pick up more of the muck with it (and leave the threads nicely greased).  If you've got a full set of taps, a second cut tap or even plug tap is enough for cleaning threads, and easier to start without cross-threading than a taper tap.


why does the lemond revolution turbo trainer quote its volume of air resistance in meter^2 and not per second cubed?

The answer is simple but the explanation behind the answer may be instructive. The simple answer is: the x-axis label should be read as (m/s)^2, not m/s^2.

The longer explanation is related to this bicycles.stackexchange answer. The power needed to ride at steady speed on a flat road under calm wind conditions is

Watts = Crr * kg * g * v + 0.5 * rho * CdA * v^3

where Crr is the coefficient of rolling resistance, kg is mass, g is the gravitational constant, rho is air density, CdA is the drag area (that is, the product of coefficient of aerodynamic drag, Cd, and frontal area, A), and v is the speed of the bicycle in meters/second. Watts are a Newton*meter/sec, so if you divide both sides of the power equation by the speed v (in meters/sec) you get the drag equation:

Watts/v = Newtons = Crr * kg * g + 0.5 * rho * CdA * v^2

Thus, if you know power and speed, you can plot v^2 on the x-axis against watts/v on the y-axis and you will get a straight line with intercept = (Crrkgg) and slope = (0.5*rho*CdA). This is what was done in the NY Velocity article describing the characteristics of the Lemond Revolution trainer, and is the "classic" way to estimate drag parameters of a bicycle from on-road field tests when you have a power meter. Other ways are described in the bicycles.stackexchange answer linked above.

Elsewhere, the "virtual" Crr and CdA of the Lemond Revolution were estimated using a related technique. Note that a graph is given where Newtons is plotted on the y-axis and speed^2 (that is, (m/s)^2) is plotted on the x-axis.


Kenda Kwest 100 psi tires (presta valve)

The puff you hear when you disconnect is mostly air remaining in the pump hose, not the tire.  The tube valves are very fast to reseal when you pop the pump off.

Most quality tires have a range of pressures. Some controversy exists on the "best" pressure to run, the current thinking has folks running about 5psi under the upper limit.  As someone earlier alluded, Sheldon Brown's website is a wealth of vetted information.  Bike shops tend to have the bike pumps that last and work the best.

Personal note, I like a gauge up where I can read it without magnification or stopping my pumping to squat down to read it.  Glad you're riding.


Should there be grease in my steel frame's tubes?

Some mechanic might have put a liberal amount of grease in the BB shell and also in the head-tube prior to assembly. Then copiously greased the seat-post as well. Grease has a tendency to migrate, especially in hot weather and move to the strangest places, the bike may have been stored upside down, head or tail-up.

Think of it as a gift from whoever put it there, the coating also prevented the tubes from rusting on the inside. Wipe off the excess before re-assembly and repack the BB and the headset with fresh grease. In no case would I use solvent to clean the insides of the frame.


Why are so many ramps on dropbars tilted downwards?

This is a function not just of the shape of the bars and brifters, but of how the bars are clamped into the stem, and how the brifters are clamped onto the bars, as well as various other factors to do with fit and grip.  There's a lot that can be adjusted without changing the bars.
Modern bars seem to have a tighter upper bend than many older bars, and often have a straight(ish) section in the drops.  The tighter upper bend makes for a more obvious flat region of the ramps, and setting this horizontally (by loosening the stem bolts and rotating the bars) is a good starting point which will minimise the region in which your hands can slip downwards - of course they could still slip forwards.  I've seen it angled significantly up or down.  Very slightly up might help though it wouldn't suit me.  Of course this changes the effective stack, at least when you're on the hoods.
My combination of Sora brifters on 2017 Genesis stock bars has no downward bit between ramp and brifter that I can measure wherever I put a spirit level. In fact because of the shape of the hoods, to get a flat top the ramps are tilted very slightly down. On these bars the upper bend is more than 90°and quite sharp.  For reference the clip-on aero bars are angled up about 6°

By clamping the brifters high on the drops you can further reduce the dip before the hoods, but you need to be careful here or the brake levers may become hard to reach from the drops.  You may have a reach adjustment to counteract this.
The specific issue with your hand sliding forwards/downwards may be improved by a number of things.  Perhaps your bartape is slippery, at least in combination with whatever gloves (if any) you use.  Suede-effect gloves are better than bare skin in the wet, so long as they fit well.  I've got my bars double-wrapped above the hoods with quite firm tape, almost rubbery on the surface, over the top of softer foam tape.  This may help but it may not.
How you grip the bars makes a difference too.  I have big flat hands so may have more options than you but here are some ideas:

When riding on the hoods I generally have 1-3 fingers behind the hook (top row). I can still cover the brakes with 2 fingers, though to have my ring finger in front of the hook (top right) requires the brakes to be well-adjusted. It's easy to move into a 3--4-finger braking position (bottom left) without even letting go of the brakes.  This is good for steep wet descents, maximum braking if the pads are getting worn, or just avoiding tired hands/forearms after hours of riding; this is a tourer and often laden.  What I rarely do is the bottom right.  It's quite a secure position, except that gripping too tight tends to squeeze my hands forwards especially in the wet.  I do often hold the bars this way when riding one-handed, e.g. eating with the other hand.


I'm a pasty white guy in the antipodes, and I burn like a sausage on flaming barbeque.

I much prefer cloth-based sunscreen. That adds cooling as well as sun protection, and doesn't leave a greasy residue that has to be washed off. Getting sunscreen to stay on areas that are hot, sweaty and being rubbed is not easy and rarely effective. My preference is not to ride when it's that hot and sunny, leave early or arrive late instead.

If I can't do that I wear long sleeves and a hat, with full coverage gloves as well. With a nice floppy hat and a hood or hat-flap it's only my face that's actually exposed [1]. I find this is cooler than being exposed and using suncreen, which in Australia can be handy (cycling when the air is much above body core temperature is unpleasant). For my face I do find I need something on my nose and occasionally lips, which is I dislike. But when I have to I use baby beach products, usually a stick. I figure anything designed to stay on an infant at the beach will work for me, and since I'm using a tiny amount of it occasionally the cost isn't really relevant.

I look for tradespeople's clothing because that usually works better than cycling clothes. It's generally fluorescent, hard-wearing and affordable as well as SPF 50+, plus it's designed to be worn by hot sweaty people. Also, you get pockets. Finding long pants in lightweight fluoro can be tricky, but they are made (at least in Oz).


How urgently do I need to replace my tire?

That’s really bad. Replace that tire immediately, before the next ride for sure.
When you can see the cloth skeleton of the tire, that means it’s finished. The cloth is nowhere near as abrasion resistant as the rubber, and you’ll soon rub through it. When that happens, the tire is likely to fail dramatically in something known as a “blowout”. This is a very sudden event that leads to a high risk of crashing. Don’t tell yourself that you’re skilled enough to ride it out, it’s just not worth the risk.
Furthermore, see how the side of the tire is fuzzy? That means the cloth on the sides is damaged. If it tears, again, your tire might explode and you will likely crash. Do not try to risk it.
Edit: Realize that it is not the tire which holds air. The tire itself is porous. From a pneumatics viewpoint, it only serves as the mechanical device resisting the 70+ psi outwards force from the air. Inside the tire, there is another rubber donut, which is an impermeable bladder known as your “inner tube”. This inner tube is not strong enough to hold that amount of pressure by itself. Henceforth, when you wear through enough of the outer tire, it will fail to be strong enough to resist that 70psi and subsequently tear. The weak inner tube will then expand through the tear and burst because it isn’t being contained by the tire anymore. Although it will become easier to puncture the tube as the tire wears down, it will not give you any major advance warning (you might hear cloth ripping and threads breaking, or you might not. Depends on your luck and the exact cause of tire failure. Hitting something like a sharp rock definitely will not give any warning) before it lets go altogether. Since it is only the inner tube which holds air, the tire will keep on going until it instantly rips apart.
Congratulations for riding so much you’ve worn a tire out though! That’s awesome!


SRAM Eagle XX1 Cassette creaking under torque, only after warming up

The most common cause of this with XD cassettes is simple under-torquing of the "lockring"/locking sleeve/whatever you want to call it. SRAM's number is 40Nm. The sleeve turns with quite a bit of resistance inside the rest of the casssette on XD cassettes, which can lead to not having it actually tightened on right as the friction is eating up torque before correct thread preload is established. You can run a bit of lube down around the sleeve to mitigate that.
If it's not that, and assuming this is some kind of fairly typical cartridge hub, if you're saying there's essentially no change after the steps you've already taken, here's what I would do:

Confirm you can't make the nosie occur when rocking the wheel back and fourth laterally as though to check for bearing play.
Confirm everything is in good condition, clean and properly lubricated with the dropout/hanger. Or just take the wheel out, poke the bare axle into the dropout, reef gently and corrobrate you can't generate any noise.
Corroborate the drive side main hub bearing is in good shape, externally clean and lightly greased, if you didn't already do that when replacing the freehub body.
With those things crossed off, and again presuming you mean to say there was zero change with a new freehub body, it becomes difficult for this to be anything but a movement that's occuring within the construction of the cassette itself. If there's no obvious problem, then what I would do next is take it off and give it a bath with whatever you have handy. If nothing else you can soak in boiling water and a squirt of dish soap, then air dry on a towel. You're not necessarily trying to fix it here, but cleaning it will probably change the noise enough to diagnose. If this route gives you anything, I would suspect a little it's the integral XD "lockring" component of the cassette, and could perhaps be fixed or mitigated by getting some lubrication worked into the interface between it and the rest of the cassette once its clean.


Replacing a chainring - what did I do wrong?

Consider that you should use either grease on the threads of your chainring bolts when installing chainring bolts, you want to be able to easily remove these later as chainrings do need to be replaced over time. Get some grease on the faces of the chainring and crank spider where they touch the chainring bolts. Some people are fine with blue loc-tite, but I prefer not to have to force it.

Don't just tighten them once and assume it's ok.  Go around the ring and tighten every other bolt until you've tightened them all. You can do a star pattern if you prefer, just don't tighten them simply in order around the ring.  Make a couple passes and incrementally increase tightness. You want to ensure they are tightened evenly, so that none of them are loose while others are over-tightened. Use a torque wrench if you're really worried about over-tighening.

Make sure you're using the appropriate length of chainring bolts (which doesn't seem like a problem from the photos).  Some bolts (actually the sleeve/nut) are made longer to go through the crank spider and 2 rings (or bash guard), while others are made shorter to go through the crank spider and a single ring.


Yes they have travel bicycles that can be broken down

They typically use S&S couplers
But compared to the time to break and assemble a rack is less tedious.

You also have folding bicycles
But the don't perform as well a regular bicycle

A break down bicycle is going to have better performance but takes longer for break down and assemble

Break down and folding bicycles are more expensive

On a regular frame you are not going to get much benefit from a full disassemble compared to just removing the wheels.  Beyond that lower the seat and maybe spin the bars 90 degrees or remove it.  A full disassemble and  assemble is hours of work and something I would want to do in a shop with a full set of tools.


Chainwheel compatibility with Shimano Alfine (single ring)

Shimano's 5-bolt road chainrings don't have special tabs or spacing, so you just need to match the BCD of the cranks and chainring. You should have no trouble there as they'll both be 130 bcd.


Does an SPD-SL AND SPD compatible pedal/shoe exist?

Maybe a better option than an SPD-SL pedal would be something like the PD-M324 from Shimano.

It's a dual sided pedal, one side flat, with no cleat required, and one side SPD. They don't make an SPD-SL version of it, though.

An SPD-SL pedal, because of the depth of the cleat retention area of the pedal doesn't really offer good, safe traction in trainers. of course it can be ridden that way, but it's not your safest way to go, even on gentle rides.


Yes, that is a crack, or at least looks to be with about as much certainty as a pic can provide. That's a relatively common place for cracks to occur, with the thick square-edged boss creating a stress riser on the thin tube.

That the line of it continues into the area where a shifter or cable stop would cover the paint adds to my doubt that it's a scratch in the paint.


Overhauling 1998 Campagnolo Chorus Ergolevers

I have managed to overhaul early 2000s Veloce and Mirage, which have the exact same mechanism down to spare part codes, using only the exploded view from the spare parts catalog.

The exploded view looks like an explosion of small parts, but in reality the parts can all be removed and added one at a time, like in the UltraShift video. The mechanisms work on similar principle, the main difference is that the Ergo is disassembled only from the back. If you are only overhauling the index mechanism, you don't need to remove the brake lever. Instead, you pull it back and it exposes a large hex head. Insert a hex key here and it supports the axle (EC-CH135) while you disassemble the rest. For replacing the downshift return spring (EC-RE137) you need to remove the brake lever.

No video, sorry.


Replace crankset or cassette for better road performance on an MTB?

Since you already have an 11 tooth smallest cog you're not going to be able to swap that for a smaller on. Well, you can get a 10T cassette but I don't recommend it, they're designed for small wheel bikes where the faster wear on that cog is just part of the deal.

Swapping to a road triple crankset should be do-able, and with any luck your front derailleur will work with the new one. A cheapish 30-39-50 is about $60 on ebay or amazon, so probably a bit over $US100 fitted if you go to a bike shop. But since you'll need extra chain to wrap around the bigger chainrings, best budget for a new chain and rear cassette (normally those get replaced together. See here and here for why) which will probably be another $100 or so. Call it $250, but ask for a quote because this is a pretty standard swap.

If you're unlucky you might need a different length bottom bracket ($50-ish), or a new front derailleur (plus gear cable, $100-ish). Those are things the bike shop probably won't know until they start fitting parts to your bike, so the only way you'll get a certain quote up front is if they decide to replace them regardless.

That will give you noticeably higher gears across the board, but obviously you lose the low gears (you'll effectively lose your smallest chainring and gain a much bigger one at the other end.

Or fit a slightly larger MTB triple. That will give you less gain in range but is more likely to work with your current derailleur and bottom bracket. You can easily get 28/38/48 sets, and the difference in the top gear between 48T and 50T is small. But that's the problem - you're going from 44 to 48 or 50T, and while either will be noticeable, it's not as much as you might think.

The difference is in how easy it is to go even bigger. On a road triple getting a 52/54T chainring is easy, but with an MTB crankset those chainrings get pricey if you can find them at all. We have a local manufacturer who CNC cuts chainrings, so we can get anything we like. I expect people like that are on the web as well, but you'd have to look (and try to buy local since you're fairly likely to want to swap them when they don't work on your bike because they're too big).

A completely different approach would be to fit fat slick tyres. Or even fat knobbly ones. If you're riding for fitness, the extra drag (and very slightly higher gearing) will be just what you want. Schwalbe make their "fat frank" tyres as big as your bike will take, or "Big Apple" out to 2.5". The big tyres will be noticeably harder to push along at the same speed. And remember, as the cops here keep telling us "the faster you go, the bigger the mess". Going fast just because you can, rather than because you have somewhere to go, doesn't make a lot of sense. I commute ~20km each way on a nice comfortable upright commuter bike that will go 30kph if I push. So I get fitter faster for the same distance ridden. And when I'm lazy I pull out my drop bar racer and do the same ride in 3/4 of the time (33% faster average speed). But I'm more likely to crash on that bike, and if I do it'll hurt more.


I'd get a new chain and use a chain tool next time.

The links have rivets in them which are hard to push out without a chain tool (and other tools can weaken the chain leading to failure, especially with a cockamamie way like you're trying). Given that a cheap chain tool is 10-15 dollars it's a worthy investment relative to the cost of a replacement chain.

In the second picture, the second vertical link from the top is a quick link. You push the plates together (perpendicular to the table) and then push them in opposite directions (parallel to the table in the direction of the chain).

You will need a chain tool anyway when you get your new chain in order to size it appropriately; this link will give you appropriate directions. And if you have to install a special rivet (e.g. Shimano) to close the chain, you'll need a tool (*).

(*) On lower speed chains / old days, people used to push the rivet out partially then re push it back in to close the chain. It is now recommended to use the special closing rivet or a quick link, depending on what the chain manufacturer suggests.


Installing modern Deraileurs in an Old type mountain bike Frame

Yes and yes. The "everybody else" hanger adapter does indeed fit all screw mounted derailleurs except Huret. The size, thread and location of the mounting hold are all copied from the first Campagnolo derailleurs. The only complication are direct mount derailleurs, which usually come with adapter for frames with standard mount and can be used with the claw mount adapter too.

Of course, you can still buy a modern-ish entry level derailleur with claw mount.


I solved a similar issue on my tandem. Measure the frame tubes. If you are lucky you may find one of them is the same size as a handlebar stem. In my case I bolted a 1 1/8" x 1 1/8" stem in an appropriate area for a foot rest. I then cut a straight (no sweep) 1 1/8"  handlebar to about 14" long and installed it in the stem, I then added handlebar grips so my stoker's feet won't slip off and to make mounting the bike easier. The stoker can pedal as long as they can, then take a rest without cranking.


Mountain bike crankset chainring compatibility

Any chainring that has the same bolt circle diameter (BCD) and the same number of bolts as your crank is compatible with your crank. The ever helpful Sheldon Brown has a page describing how to measure your BCD.  The way you do it is dependent on how many bolts you have so I won't go into the details here.

While a chainring may be compatible with your crank, there are other problems you can run into...

Depending on your chain, you may or may not be able to use a chainring that was designed for a different chain, e.g., a 9-speed chainring with an 8-speed chain. Many people do this with success while many others have problems. It's probably easiest to just get one that you're sure matches.

You also may have problems going bigger or smaller than your current chainring. Whether or not this is the case depends on your front derailleur and the width of your chainstays. Derailleurs have a minimum and maximum number of teeth they can accommodate. Check the specs on your derailleur to find out what these are. The chainstays are a bit more guesswork. Basically, the wider your chainstays, the smaller your biggest ring has to be. If you're dead set on a bigger ring, you can get a little wiggle room through spacers or a longer bottom bracket spindle but it's usually not enough to be worth the hassle.


Help to choose the right bike multipurpose bike

From your question above, i would only suggest the following (doesn't mean I don't know about the other bikes):

Folding bike - for work and city/cycle lane/fairly normal surfaces only. You can also get away with usual city road hazards such as potholes and cracks (but not too extreme), also good weight support (e.g. laptop, clothes, etc.). You might find it a bit weird to suddenly switch to a folding from a normal road/hybrid/MTB. But overall, it is really great as my gf bought a Tern C8 last month(she is 5'4") and even I find it nice to ride (I am 6'3"). You can also carry it on the train and even on the aeroplane if you want. Some folding bike tyres are quite sturdy compared to hybrids so the bumps and holes can be ignored a lot more. I would still give a trial ride if I was you in order to be sure about the comfort. THIS IS QUITE PRACTICAL if you are just living a professional life and city-side commute with occasional shopping bags (about 6 kgs) behind you.

MTB (Mountain Bikes) - If you want it to use on a rougher surface as well as in the cities. They are a bit heavy, but can take poundings like no other. You could even go over some road kerbs that are raised by appx. 3-4 inches. I apologise to be mean, but if you are not young enough to handle the bike weight, you might feel it difficult to go around the hills with these heavy bikes. But if you think you can, Go for this one. My suspicion based on UK prices is that you can probably get a very good MTB compared even when you double the price (if you are lucky, you might get one with suspension springs too, COOOL).

It is also possible to attach some rack or similar thing behind your MTB so that you can carry weight such as your laptop and clothes to work. I never saw anybody doing it for MTB, but that really does not mean you cannot.

Short answer is, if you are happy to sacrifice outdoor activity, folding bike is the answer. Otherwise, get an MTB, get rack, and voi la.

Bear in mind that no matter what bike you buy, there is a maximum weight for that. I would recommend staying about 6-7 Kgs under the prescribed weight by the manufacturer/seller. It was never an issue for me anyway as I carried shopping on my folding and hybrid, about 6-7 kgs of shopping.

I am really sorry but cannot guide you about the US price. If any other user finds this answer suitable, but want to edit it to put the price information, be my guest. Normally, I would put the UK prices but this would be confusing as you said yourself that the prices and the types of bike vary in the US shops.

Hope this helps. If you were interested in the brands at all:
Folding - Dahon, Tern, Raleigh, Brompton (around $800 sometimes due to the high demand)
MTB - Jamis, Trek, Pinnacle, Raleigh (Off-road series), Fuji, Bianchi

The choice is now yours, If you think I can give you more information please post follow-up comments :)


They are road pedals made by XLC parts.
https://www.xlc-parts.com/en/road/bike-parts/pedals/

At XLC you can choose between clip-in pedals based on the SPS or Look system.

You should be able work out which system that pedal is using from the part number and get the appropriate set of cleats.
Probably either Look Delta or Look Keo.


Vegetable oils tend to "polymerize", that is become sticky and solid.  Castor oil, for instance, is an excellent lubricant that was favored for racing autos and motorcycles for a long time.  The reason it never became popular for regular cars was that it also built up a lot of sticky, cruddy goo.   Racing engines are regularly torn down and rebuilt; no matter.
Not so your sedan.
The oils used in oil-based paints are usually vegetable-based as well; they tend to become quite solid after a while.

As I've noted before, lubes, especially chain lubes, seem to be a "thing" for serious cyclists.  Chain lube threads on dedicated bike forums tend to go on and on and on...
It's the engineering mentality at work.  "Maybe I can get 100 more miles out of my chain if I concoct my own special blend!"   Maybe...
Chain lubes are cheap.  They cost at most what, 10 bucks for a bottle sufficient for a year?
As well, chains are cheap.  Oh, you can spend a lot for super-deluxe items, but a good, well-made standard chain is under 20 bucks and will last most riders as long as they keep the bike if lubed and cleaned properly.

Related

"Best chain lubricant for road bikes?" Asks about the best lubricant out of conventional oils and lubricants
"Substitutes for chain lubricants" Asks about non-traditional substitutes for chain lubricant