Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I first started working on bikes in 1969 when I was working on the Cycling Merit Badge in the Boy Scouts. Had to do 6 @ 25 mile rides and one 50 mile ride - all accomplished on a 2-speed Sting-Ray, but back to the point. My friend who was working on the merit badge with me - his father showed

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I certainly don't begrudge anyone taking business to a bike shop. But I have to insist bike mechanics can go from "don't know" to "know" via a handy phone and a search window. Or asking right dang here! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I take refuge in the 'maybe' part of that rule. I'm not a mechanic, I'm a hobbyist. My bike tinkering used to be largely due to having non-standard ideas for bike setup, and then it was due to being fairly poor, and now I just like it. You do need to surrender ego when you step off the edge

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Lately, I've been working on some BMX bikes; BMX bikes are so different from a "normal" bike. I personally think a hammer is not the appropriate tool for working on a bike, but it's absolutely essential when working on a BMX bike! LOL And sometimes they require a lot of hammer; which feels

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Yes, you can. I didn't figure out torque specs from some kid at the LBS telling me, I read and watched stuff online. Taking it to the LBS doesn't teach you how to do it yourself, and 50% of this forum is people teaching other people the things they don't know about bikes. -- You received

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

On 5/13/20 6:49 PM, Austin B. wrote: I generally only apply this approach when it comes to wheels and frame repair. My attempts to true a wheel only made it worse. Me too One of the easiest ways to ruin a wheel I've ever seen Austin On Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at 6:23:48 PM UTC-4, Steve

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Yes, but you can't learn stuff like the difference between too loose, just right and oh shit from a video. On 5/13/20 6:56 PM, Joe Bernard wrote: A good rule to bear in mind is if you don't know what you're doing you can read stuff and watch videos and learn. -- Steve Palincsar Alexandria,

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

A good rule to bear in mind is if you don't know what you're doing you can read stuff and watch videos and learn. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I generally only apply this approach when it comes to wheels and frame repair. My attempts to true a wheel only made it worse. Austin On Wednesday, May 13, 2020 at 6:23:48 PM UTC-4, Steve Palincsar wrote: > > A good rule to bear in mind is, if you don't know what you're doing maybe > you

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

A good rule to bear in mind is, if you don't know what you're doing maybe you should just let the LBS take care of it. On 5/13/20 2:54 PM, Joe Bernard wrote: The learning curve for cranks and bottom brackets can be quite steep and expensive. Especially back in my day when Google was a book or

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

As a conduit for the above-linked Google doc, and a collaborator on an iPhone app based on it, I much prefer the Silca app to either of those. This link goes to the Pro version: https://silca.cc/pages/sppc-form?submissionGuid=542af2ca-a32b-4a31-8609-9e93df4d4062 I imagine if they’re looking at

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

That's funny, one my usual reasons for a ride is to return library books (~16 mile round triip). When one of the kids comes along, we usually stop for Jeni's ice cream nearby. I miss this with the library shut down. It's not nearly the same just to ride there and ride back, without books. Eric

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Chances are your pump gauge may be off. My 20 year old Silca Pista's pressure gauge is purely ornamental. Back when I first saw that Berto chart I dismissed it as absurd, but it was the pump that was way off. Now I use an SKS pressure checker gizmo if I really want to know, but most of the

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I sort of take the results from the Silca tool as a Minimum. I guess I should have said that. I have gotten a pinch flat and dented rim on the front, but I hit the edge of that pothole hard. Earlier that same day I rode a trail down by the river with some short rocky portions no problem. But the

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Mas, did your son connect his Kindle to his library apps? Ebooks and audiobooks are often as pricy as print format, but you can’t beat getting your books from the library for free with a touch on your screen. Never having to pick up and drop off books is just amazing. Yes, if you are a reader

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Leah, a couple years ago, we got my son a Kindle, I was a bit perplexed because he already had a tablet!? Well, he reads a lot! And he wanted the Kindle because, they are allowed in school & regular tablets are not. Also, he was reading so many books that they were rapidly stacking up around

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I recently had a similar experience with the recommended pressures from the Silca tool - for Snoqualmie Pass tires and rocky fire roads - double pinch flat on a recent ride.cheers,Andrew On Friday, May 8, 2020, 04:20:07 AM GMT+10, Corwin wrote: I don't think I would trust the Silca

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Oh, I've either purchased or "checked out" ebooks from the library many times, so that's not an issue. I was just holding out on the price, even the steeply discounted eBook price on the particular volume in which I was interested. All I needed was the motivation to push me over the edge,

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Ack, I was half right. Which for me is an improvement! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

George, go get yourself your very first ebook! If you need tips and tricks or general help, you just go ahead and PM me. I can’t offer you a lick of bike advice, but what treasure I have, I give to thee. The format that I held out on the longest was the audiobook format. A lover of podcasts,

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Here's a thing I ought to have known by now: How to put my tools down all in one spot. I'm finishing the build on my custom and I can't tell you how many times two Allen wrenches and one small screwdriver have ended up in three different places. And not even the same three places! -- You

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

OK, I frequent an entirely different blog where the moderator has been advertising a special e-book price for a book that I've been wanting to read, but have resisted the cost (the hardback is 3-4 times the e-book special). This discussion has convinced me - I'm going to get it! On Thursday,

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Nonplussed: Unbothered Penultimate: The one just before last, i.e., "The driver is on the penultimate lap of the race, one more to go after this." These are my guesses, Leah would figure me out in a hot second if I cheated. I don't know how she would know but she WOULD SO KNOW. -- You

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Oh, yes, words. My favorite. This is where I put my plug in for e-books over paper books. I adore e-books, and right now they are enjoying their moment in the sun as paper books are difficult to come by with the closure of libraries, book stores, and the sloth shipping of stores that actually

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

And of course, for those who were children attending religious instruction, who could forget Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear? On 5/7/20 4:11 PM, Joe Bernard wrote: "Most of the unfortunate things I've misunderstood have been song lyrics. It's so funny to be listening to a song you've heard a

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

"Most of the unfortunate things I've misunderstood have been song lyrics. It's so funny to be listening to a song you've heard a thousand times and suddenly realize you've had it wrong for 40 years!" My thing is reading words wrong and never making the connection. The other day I saw

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Leah, I remember you posting your weight somewhere else here (or was it an email?) Anywhose, I got a pretty good idea of your weight and an idea about your tires width. Based on that I would say that 30ish PSI is a good starting point. Slightly more rear, less front. Once you get a good feel

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I don't think I would trust the Silca tool. Put in my weight and my bike's weight - conservatively over estimating both. The tool gave me pressures of 50 & 48psi for rear and front tires respectively. At those pressures, I have experienced frequent pinch flats. Namaste, Corwin On Wednesday,

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I seem to have a genius for installing things other than the way intended. A few years ago I got a VO long-setback seat post mailed to me for my Fargo/Brooks combination, and I managed to install it facing the wrong way. (There were only two way to install it, I got the wrong one...) The saddle

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I’d have never read it - you’re absolved. Sent from my iPhone > On May 6, 2020, at 7:39 PM, Joe Bernard wrote: > > I hope Leah hasn't bounced off her bike from my terribly misinformed tire > pressure recs. I should have used a chart. > > -- > You received this message because you are

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I hope Leah hasn't bounced off her bike from my terribly misinformed tire pressure recs. I should have used a chart. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

The charts above and Jan's data has been combined with some other testing and put in a tool here: https://info.silca.cc/silca-professional-pressure-calculator Enter your bike weight and tire size and it will give you a recommendation that is a good start. add or subtract ~ 10% for a feel you

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

❤️, Alex. You have made my day, too. Have the best one out there, preferably with your bear cubs on their tiny little bikes. Sent from my iPad > On May 6, 2020, at 5:02 AM, Alex Wirth- Owner, Yellow Haus Bicycles > <4824...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Leah threads are the best. Now I’m turning

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Oh, wow, you guys have, um, charts and EVERYTHING...all we could ever know about tire pressure. Gosh. Ok, well, while folks are poring over those, I have another anecdote that I’m meanly providing on my parents’ behalf. So, if you meet them in reality, you’ll pretend I never told you. In 2019

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Related to this article from Bicycle Quarterly, I also have had this handy Gdoc floating around for a while on Tire Pressure Set-up . I probably got it off this group some time back.

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

"Well let's see, Leah has been riding her bike all this time just fine without intervention from any "educating" her how she "ought to" ride her bike, and that her experience "could be better" somehow "if" she'd only listen to the so-called "wisdom". Hah hah all that totally ignores the

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

> > Just for the record and for clarification, and not at all to disagree: by > "bouncing" one can mean the ping pong ball sort of bouncing that comes from > excessively high pressure, where even small bumps cause the tire to hop, or > on the contrary, the bouncing that comes from pedaling on

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Just for the record and for clarification, and not at all to disagree: by "bouncing" one can mean the ping pong ball sort of bouncing that comes from excessively high pressure, where even small bumps cause the tire to hop, or on the contrary, the bouncing that comes from pedaling on a tire so soft

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I recall being very proud of my new, very chi-chi Grafton triple after I installed it in place of the usual Deore (original) or XT triple I had been using. The Shimanos required (IIRC) a 122-123 mm spindle, so I stuck the Grafton on that. Then I noticed that it would not shift properly to the

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

In the real spirit of the thread, tires aside, my things I should have known was hubris management. After my first few bike builds I went into my original Clem pretty overconfident in myself, and I probably could've saved a couple of years of frustration and failed adjustments if I'd been less

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

I'm with Patrick on the tire mattering a lot. I ride more the utility/brick side of tires than he does (and consequently have developed a habit of leaning towards higher inflations rather than lower), and the optimum balance between 'feels slow' and 'starts bouncing' can deviate notably from

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

Wait: Leah weighs *less* than 170? Boy Steve, you blew that one. Back to tire pressure: I recall how as a boy I first saw "Inflate to 70 psi" on the side of my cheap 27 X 1.25" gumwalls, and after pumping them to more or less that (probably per gas station gauge), how fast the bike felt, and

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

See, I can already add another post to this list of Dumb Things I Did and it hasn’t been 24 hours. Yesterday, when I found out about tire pressure, you know I went around with my floor pump and inflated ALL the tires of the bikes in the garage. Baby Bear weighs almost 60 pounds and his

Re: [RBW] Re: Admissions of Things You Ought to Have Known But Did Not: A Thread

50 - 55 mm is a HUGELY WIDE tire.  10mm wider than a 42mm.  If someone who is MASSIVELY heavier can ride a 42mm tire inflated to 50-55 psi in comfort, never getting pinch flats, there is simply no way no how that that same pressure in a tire 1 cm wider and a rider who is DRAMATICALLY lighter