techguy

The nobby nics, have better traction and are better in the mud, also check out the Conti Mountain Kings, also great all round tyres.

The Trek/Fisher adapters bolted onto existing holes made specifically for those frames, its not impossible but like manbearpig says it can be risky...

9 out of 10 times the conversion can be re-used.

The gossamer crankset is compatible with a Shimano BB.

This story has to be challenged since the facts are not as you present them here and can be misconstrued that the course in question and its courseware are not up to scratch. You say you learnt more of the "finer points" of wheelbuilding somewhere else, not from the Yellow Saddle Wheelbuilding course. This is not surprising since you hardly attended the course. Fact is, due to niggling quality problems at the Jhb bike workshop where you were employed at the time, your employer approached me and asked that I provide training. He nominated you and your workshop manager to attend the course and paid the full fee. However, neither of you attended the critical first day where the theory and calculations are discussed and practiced. Upon reporting to your employer about your no-show on day 1, the two of you made a token appearance the next day, where we laced, tensioned and trued wheels. Neither of you brought wheel components to build. Neither of you opened your book or participated in that day's proceedings in any way. Both of you left early. Your employer was bitterly disappointed with this but shrugged it off with "a horse cannot be made to drink" and apologised to me, as if he had to. I am not surprised that you had to learn some of the finer points elsewhere. Coming to a class halfway through, with an attitude that it is a waste of a Sunday since you already know everything, is not what learning is about. That particular class produced one of the finest wheelbuilders I've come across. He attended both days, presented me with a completed product for evaluation (like the rest of his classmates) and made it his business to understand the formulas and theory in the book. But, some horses cannot be made to drink. Yes it has to be challenged. your reporting us to our employer at the time is BS as we were instructed that we still had to work on the Saturday, we were not given the time off to attend the first day. As I recall we were only told that we were attending the course on the friday. I never claim to know everything I am always open to correction and will openly say so. As I said in my previous post, I am still learning. We were not instructed to bring any product by yourself, in fact there was no communication to us to inform us as to what to bring, so that point is invalid. If someone is booked on a course surely you should send a mail or phone the people attending and tell them what to bring and what to expect? Fact is that even though we attended (didn't attend) the course our employer still has his wheels built by someone else previously mentioned in this thread, I beg the question Why?

I have (had) Brandt's book, I gave it away...too much maths and k@k I've never had a wheel come back to me because its been built badly, I've done your course JB, but I found that Doug Patterson tought me a lot more in terms of the finer points. I learnt how to build wheels 15 yrs ago and I'm still learning. Probably no-one knows him except Doug but Ian Stewart tought me as well as Peirre Gouws...

they use the same pads, the link is for both...

Tying and soldering may be archaic but a lot of top euro pros still use traditional wheels with tied and soldered spokes for the spring classics... Gert Schraner still prides himself on his wheels that the top pros use...What he has forgotten about wheel building the rest of the world still has to learn..

The Ball Bearing disc brakes are mechanical ie operated with a cable. The organic pads are less noisy but don't last too well especiallt in the wet Sintered pads make more noise, Debateable wether they brake better or worse but last a lot longer.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=4783

Without building a 3kg wheelset in a 29er? stiff? Pick one. the one way you could do it is by tying and soldering the spokes at the point they cross. that makes the effective diameter of the hub flange bigger without adding too much weight.

ALL Shimano is compatible with all other models. it is only the new 7900 Dura Ace that you have to run the FD with the shifters as there is no trim operation on the shifter so they have made the cage of the FD wider to accomodate this.

It Depends on how big the hole is...it can work well enough to justify it...

Looks like you.ve ridden over a stone thats caused the hollows, seen it on my Mountain kings, I doubt very much that Conti will warranty those tyres with that amount of wear...

Common sense is a good substitute...

Like the Sram ones they should be left alone, as once you open them they should be replaced. The difference with the 7900 chain is its unidirectional so it should be fitted in a certain direction.

Very vaugue description of the fault. In my experience the only fault I know of with these cranks is the splines in the driveside cranks wear and they cannot be tightened.

No one landed on the moon, it was filmed in a studio, its a conspiracy! Look I'm not saying progress is bad, not at all in fact I'm all for it, thinking up something new. not to brag and I cannot prove it but I thought long ago of intergrating the brake caliper into the fork, when I was still in school 15yrs ago...as trek has now done...

Nothing to hide with these brakes, If you have read the tech doc then just follow that, as for bleeding keep the hose upright when cutting, and when fitted push some fluid up from the caliper and hey presto job done, If you have done 100's of cars then it should be the same principle...

Squirt is good but a mission to clean off.

Agreed that it is evolution etc and you can fit Srm's and powertaps and Garmins etc, but the current stuff is still below the limits...

What I don't understand as well is the new Cervelo a sub 700g frame? why? you'll have to build it with Tiagra to get it to the weight limit, yes it is great that they can make a frame that light but why build the worlds lightest bike only to add weight to make it legal to race?

Guess I misunderstood your statement, what I meant was if a bike is banned then it must be outside the boundries that have been set out, and if we live in fear of a bike getting banned then lets not push boundries, Think about it the Shiv now has more plublicity than the Trek... I know Lance is pedantic, so is Malcom Lange and thats why they win races...

The rest of my statement says developed for us , whereas WD40 hasn't been developed for the cycling industry, and its not bad for your chain its just not the best...

Why push the Boundries? Well then lets go back to riding steel frames with down tube shifters...Lance (love him or hate him) didn't win 7 tours by not pushing the boundries. Specialized CLAIMS they worked with the UCI, maybe the prototypes that the UCI saw were within the rules but the production bikes have a mm mor carbon on it somewhere and that pushed outside the limits.