Your latest bike purchase?

[Crickey7]

I’ve always considered wheelbuilding to be a mysterious art, done with pentagrams, mummified monkey paws and the ghost of Orville Wright.

[hozn]

@Crickey7 92400 wrote:

I’ve always considered wheelbuilding to be a mysterious art, done with pentagrams, mummified monkey paws and the ghost of Orville Wright.

No, it’s really pretty easy (and it is math, not art) — though the quality of the wheels definitely get better with practice. I suspect people describe it as an art because the math/science is complicated to understand and because there are some tradeoffs that have to be made that seem to benefit from intuition. (I suspect this is actually an example where a simple formula would actually be better than intuition.)

[cyclingfool]

@Crickey7 92400 wrote:

I’ve always considered wheelbuilding to be a mysterious art, done with pentagrams, mummified monkey paws and the ghost of Orville Wright.

You forgot the incense, the ritual, pagan sacrifices to the wheel gods, and the powdered goats’ horns.

Actually, hozn is dead on. Despite being well into clydesdale territory and almost always carrying either a couple loaded panniers or a trailer, the wheels now on my bike, which are the first ones I’ve built myself, have lasted me going on 4,000 miles so far w/ only a couple loose spokes and minor retruing needed along the way, both likely the result of the fact that I didn’t get enough tension in on the initial build. It’s actually the most solid wheelset I’ve ever had, so I must have done something right.

It wasn’t brain science or rocket surgery, either. I’ve just done a fair amount of reading online, like Sheldon Brown’s handy page on wheelbuilding and another couple sites.

[ronwalf]

@mcfarton 92398 wrote:

My 14$ work stand

Where’d you get the clamp from?

[mcfarton]

I cheated. A great friend gave it to me. It was broken but 2 dollars in hardware made it work for this. The other 12 bucks was for a drill bit long enough for the 6×6.

I am really happy with it. Park tools wanted 250 for a wall mount stand.
The best part is that is a park tools clamp.

[JeremyCannon]

It Finally Came
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[ShawnoftheDread]

Chicks dig shiny vintage crank sets.

[lordofthemark]

Light and Motion Urban 350 bike light. What do y’all think of it? I haven’t taken it out of the package yet, so its probably not too late to return it to spokes, but I would really like to start using it this week.

[Supermau]

I picked up Performance brand work stand for $120. No more flipping the bike over! I’ve bought a ton of stuff since May when I pulled my old MTB out of the shed and started riding again, including a Trek FX 7.3 for commuting and fitness rides. I began commuting on my MTB outfitted with slicks but it still got tiresome. I’m working my way up to an endurance road bike, maybe next year.

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[bluerider]

The Urban 550 I have is nice and very reliable. If you think the 350 has enough power for you, go for it.

[KWL]

I’ve had a L&M Urban 500 for a couple of years. It’s been great. Good light pattern in a small package. The battery time works fine for my commute, especially with the USB charger port providing a way to recharge it at work. I did leave the port cover off in a blinding rain storm which was not good for the light. It recovered nicely after allowing it to dry out with the cover off for a couple of days. I gave my son a L&M 550 headlight & taillight set for Christmas. That is a v. nice taillight. Also with a USB port. If the 350 is enough light for you, I’d keep it.

[Terpfan]

I don’t know about the L&M Urban 550, but I’ve used their 200 for a few years and never had a problem (it looks like the price for the 550 is now the price the 200 used to be–they have come down a ton in pricing!). Sometimes if I want lots of light, I use both of the ones I own. The only issue I ever had was a total swamping rain storm did kill one of them. I contacted them and they offered to fix it for free given I was a repeat customer (usually they will only do under warranty).

The one thing I will point out is to not automatically assume that it’s broken if you hit it once and it doesn’t come on. There is a way to basically lock the light so you don’t accidentally turn it on. It involves holding the button down for a few seconds longer. Anyway, for a week I thought I broke mine and was kind of pissed until I read about this in some obscure forum. Sure enough, it magically fixed it.

Adding on to the broader thread, bought a Ridley Fenix 7005. Moving from my hybrid into the wonderful world of road bikes. But at least the N is now 2 instead of 1 meaning when a bike is in for a tuneup, I don’t have to give up on riding to work. Score.

[dkel]

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Front rack!

[creadinger]

To get ready for winter, I just ordered:

A set of 700 x 33 knobby tires
A set of silver SKS fenders for my Surly. If I like them I’ll probably get another set for my weekend/touring bike.
Another set of Gatorskins because the Armadillos I have failed the endurance test miserably. The front tire’s sidewall ripped open. The rear one has had a couple of minor punctures… meanwhile the Gatorskins are still trucking along with zero punctures and about twice the mileage.

[dkel]

@creadinger 94219 wrote:

To get ready for winter, I just ordered:

A set of 700 x 33 knobby tires

I’ve been thinking hard about ordering some Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded tires. I have a good alternate route to work on relatively quiet streets, though, and since streets tend to get plowed, that makes riding frozen MUPs unnecessary. I also have some nice knobby 41s that would probably be pretty good on those same winter streets. But taking the trail on studded tires, without constantly obsessing about conditions, would be simpler. What to do?? The good thing is that any of those tires will fit under my huge VO fenders. 😎

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