Cycling UK Forum

stoobs wrote:Who agrees with me?

You replied while I was working on mine! Yes I'm with you here.

Carbon Nano Tubes at $1000 / kg

Andwags, you may wish to take a little more care with your comments. At the cost above making the bar out of pure nano tubes would cost £63 (£505 * 0.125).

Assuming 15% resin ref, and the resin 100% nano tubes (far from the truth as seen on the SEM on my last post) the cost per bar drops to £9.

At a guess based on the picture shown the percentage of nanotubes by volume in the resin will be less that 5%. This drops the cost per bar down to 50p.

This 125g bar retails for £66 on Wiggle.

Please correct me if i'm far of in any of my estimates.

andwags wrote:Please, who's going to go to the expense to prove it's a lie.

Are they visible under optical or electron microscope? Is section and polish back all that would be needed to check for there presence? That's not particularly expensive.

Edit:- You need about 40-50k magnification SEM as bellow:

SEM Nanotubes

If we really are being duped like this then I guess it's an issue that needs to be put to trading standards or even the CTC legal bods if their knowledgeable in that area ASAP.

I think LBS excel, or at least should aim to excel where the internet stores can't. These are stuff like service, fitting of parts (irrespective of where they come from), general advice (ie building up a familiarity with regular customers and warmly greeting new ones), and bike sales and fitting. Unless you are really knowledgeable (and in which case are quite likely to have loads of tools etc so little reason to goto the LBS) buying a bike and being confident it will fit and ride as you like just based on measurements from the manufacturer is really hit and miss online.

Edit again, I've been corrected, my tyres where around 30, think I have a slow to find!

Can't tell, will have to get back to you on that one. Covered with clouds and raining at the moment.

Sorry missed the bit about the presta valve, there are hand pumps like this one that have a gauge on too, would have got one like that if I was paying more attention when I bought my hand pump last year! I'm not vouching for track pump, or hand pump as I don't own them, just using them as an example.

How weird! What time where you there? I was on the track between 11:40 and 13:20 ish. I was taking it easy on the technical stuff after a spill on the first set of jumps. Having looked at my tyres again I think the pressures may have been a little higher, perhaps more like 25. As far as I can figure on that sort of track in slippery or soggy conditions people tend to run tyres as soft as possible, but not soft enough to get pinch flats on the bumpy rocks. The ideal setting for you will depends on lots, like riding style and rider weight.

You may want to try a car parts shop for the pressure gauge. the only problem with these will be you'll have to pump up a bit, disconnect your pump, then connect the pressure gauge to check the pressure, and then maybe put more air in. If you've only got a hand pump it may be worth considering getting a track pump (one that stands on the floor with a t-piece like handle for both hands, like this one), most of these have pressure gauges, and it's a lot quicker to pump up the tyres with. You can however get the mini pumps with pressure gauges too.

Beakyboy wrote:Incidentally Boink when you bonked did you have an elevated heart rate?

I often ride with the heart rate monitor going. Normally when I'm getting close to no energy I find that my HR is lower than it normally would be on the same ride, and I just don't seem to have the strength or stamina to spin the cranks at the same rate, or get back up to speed.

james01 wrote:May I remind readers of a system which can shift effortlessly over all the cogs from top to bottom (& vice versa) in one single movement. It's called the downtube friction lever.

I think that may well have resulted in broken teeth, nose, or worse, and more bruises and grazes if I was using that while negotiating the trails yesterday! Not to mention the more concentration required to get it into gear correctly without chain rub. I far prefer (as I assume most do!) the indexed system!

Did the llandegla black route yesterday and really enjoyed it. It's been a long time (12 years...?!!) since I've been off road but I was able to cope with the black route, although I didn't jump the jumps (after coming a cropper on the first set!) I rode them. There's also some challenging short climbs which certinally made me sweat!

Just ran the llandegla black route yesterday with my tyres at 20psi. Plenty of grip, but did suffer one pinch flat, but that was after landing slightly sideways and rolling the tyres after a jump.

stoobs wrote:I'm not disagreeing with you here, but rapidfire levers can be used to jump 3 gears in one push, and let out one at a time regardless of whether the mech is high or low-normal.

I was referring to the direction in which it can grab three, or let go of one. Before I could drop (go to a lower ratio) 3 at a time and only rise (go to a taller ratio) one at a time, now it is the other way around which I prefer. As far as I'm aware the shifter units can't be converted to work either way around, or at least they aren't designed with that in mind.

Edit (again - not with it today!):- Mine are Deore Shifters that came with my '05 bike. I think some of the newer levers can multi drop (this may be the expensive XTR jobbies), and the lever on the thumb side can be used to push into a new gear, or drop gears.

I've got a rapid rise on mine, which when there is no cable tension naturally returns to the lowest (...ratio, most teeth) cog on the cassette. I run the rapid fire shifters. While it did take me some time to get used to it, I do prefer t this way. I can jump 2 or three gears up into a harder ratio when recovering from a hill or going down hill, and let go of one gear at a time when going back down the cassette. Changes down the cassette into an easier ratio is very quick as it's achieved by the return spring on the mech, whereas going into a harder ratio is achieved by your thumb.

An like you said it seems to make more sense, big lever forward on either side means a bigger effort is required giving a taller ratio, smaller lever backwards drops the ratio.

Edit: I'm running the long cage version of the Shimano M770XT, and as much as the new arrangement might be logical, and easier to explain to new riders it will take a bit of getting used too!

I've had both very prompt replies to email inquiries in the last half of '07, but this year they have taken a long time to reply to emails. Having said that I have had no problems with the parts I have received from them.

I did ask the guy who replied to one of my inquiries whether they where having issues with their website or telephones and he said it was just an issue of volume of customers in comparison to the number of staff.