Johan Bornman

Cycling on the wrong side of the road is wrong and you're fooling yourself if you think it is safer. Further, you and pedestrians and joggers on the same path, causes problems for cyclist on the right side of the road. Meeting up is a conundrum. Who swerves and which way do you swerve. I for one, who cannot see behind me, refuse to swerve to the right. That would endanger my life. Therefore, I'll force you to swerve towards the centre of the road. Oncoming traffic (for you) is your problem, not mine. Stop it, it doesn't solve anything. However, I can swear I was taught in primary school that doing just that is the right thing to do. Can any 60s child anyone corroborate that?

It is due to metal fatigue. Metal fatigue happens in wheels that weren't built properly and were not stress relieved. Find someone who understands the term stress relieve and have them build you a durable wheel.

I've been eyeing those pedals but the pins scares the hell out of my shins. You say it isn't an issue ifyou use Five Tens? What makes them better than other shoes you've tried. I'm keen to get something like that for a long tour in March but really want something I can push, port and dance with too. That means flexible soles, not stiff boards. Would they do the trick?

This fork failed because someone threw a spear into the wheel as it was turning. The broken spokes tell the story. We need to see the other bike's wheels as well as a close-up of that crack, Take a nice photo with a proper macro camera, not a cellphone photo. I don't care how many terrapixels cellphone cameras have, their photos are not good enough for this sort of thing.

It looks like a crack. However, I'm not sure about the way it stops and then starts in an adjacent place - in the middle of the total crack that is. However, it is easy to determine. It looks like the underside of the front end. Wet the area and then with the help of a strong friend, manipulate the section to see if the crack "pumps" the water. If it doesn't chip away at the paint to see if it really goes into the alu or not.

Be kind to her, fit a 12-25 or even 13-25. There's nothing that puts a beginner off like a bike that feels too hard to operate.

That would only have happened if the brakes were topped up (probably during bleeding) with the pads half-used. The mechanic slightly underestimated the amount of pad left and thus added too much fluid. When you forced the pistons in, the excess fluid was pushed out. This isn't a big deal other than it may have caused a little hernia in one of the seals when the fluid was forced out of a sealed reservoir. Just look for black rubber peeping out from under a lid or bleed screw. Other than that, you're now assured that your brakes have the absolute correct volume of fluid in.

The quote of the month?

No options. You are stuck with pressfit. I have found that the BB shell sometimes ovalises from fretting between the BB cup and shell. This could of course also happen to the BB cup itself, so I suggest you measure them both to see which one changed shape. You'll need a micrometer as well as some ID measuring adapter for it. Not exactly something found in everybody's garage. However, if you have a vernier, that would be a good start in measuring the BB cup itself. I think there is merit in trying a new BB. Just try it. If it still creaks, you have a spare. Wear between soft and hard materials is often misunderstood. Under certain circumstances, the harder of the two materials wear and the harder of the two could be the frame. I observed this on a Trek Madone where the BB shell ovalised. Trek's response was an oversize bearing. On a GT where I found exactly the same, the importer's response was to replace the frame. I think we haven't seen the end of BB development yet and I don't see pressfit in my crystal ball.

Welcome to the crappy world of pressfit BBs. I responded to you a few days ago but someone is deleting my posts. I've lost about 4 over the last few days. Although I'm quite sure it is your BB that's creaking, have a go at the crank itself. Very seldom the crank spindle creaks where it is pressed into the right crank. Put the spindle in a vice and push/pull forcefully on the crank in all planes to see if that is the problem.

I miss your point. It is cheaper to mill from billet than to forge. Forging is stronger and therefore can be made lighter. You seem to perceive the benefits inside out.

Is it one of those that works with a 120v inverter. I.e. made for the US market?

Dankie maar niks gekry nie. johanatyellowsaddledotceeodotzeda

I am absolutely sure that we have more than enough braking force at present. And there is proof. Since traction on the front wheel is for all intends and purposes unlimited (you cannot skid your front wheel on a roadbike on dry asphalt), should you apply enough force (braking power if you wish), overturning momentum kicks in and you go over the bars. Therefore, the limiting factor is overturning momentum, not brake force. This is the very reason our bikes look like they do today. Highwheels overturned just too easily and the present day Rover Safety bike was invented. Although it overturned far less easily, that overturning momentum is still the limiting factor. If a motorbike or bicycle could skid its front wheel, motorcyclists and BMXers wouldn't have been able to do stoppies. You seem to feel that weight is an issue. It is not, or at least not for the average rider. On tandems where overturning momentum is not an issue, brake force comes to play and here poor rim brakes quickly show up, hence V-brakes with paralellogram designs or disc brakes make sense. Even on a tandem, skidding the front wheel is neigh impossible since traction is not a limiting factor when stopping a bike under ideal conditions.

You can't go on indefinitely increasing brake force. As it is, we have enough force to overcome the limiting factor - overturning momentum. Discs can't overcome that problem so it cannot be an improvement on that front. In my world rims fatigue at the spoke holes long before they wear through on the brake track. Wet weather stopping has been solved with improved brake pads from Koolstop.

You are right. Disc brakes are a necessary evil for moving over to carbon wheels. On aluminium rims we have no braking problems, not even in the wet now that we know that certain pads improve stopping distances significantly.

Thanks. Contact details?

I have a 6V 3W Alfine dynamo hub I want to use for a particular tour early in 2013 but I have no experience with fitting lights to these units. Can anyone point me in the right direction, preferably a local source?

Now that horrifies me.

They are pretty crappy brakes. Bleeding is seen as the panacea of all things Elixir however, it is a mere placebo that works for some people. You only have to bleed brakes if there is air in the system and this presents not as you describe. Air in the system will initially produce full travel in the lever until it hits the bars, with no feeling whatsoever. Then, after a few pumps, the brakes will harden up and even work. Then, after a few minutes standing, they're soft all over again. This is not what you describe. You describe a general mushiness and ambiguous feel. That's pure Avid for you. I think you can BS yourself a bit by adjusting the reach and bite point a bit.

Those are proprietary bearings with a very shady origin. Originally Trek had standards bearings in there and then the creaking started. Instead of doing a mass recall and changing their BB shell to accommodate real bearings, they decided to make everyone's life hell and invent something proprietary. The last one of those I saw was a standard bearing with a thin brass shim crimped onto it. This doesn't bode well for our industry. Specialized is the ultimate perpretator of proprietary stuff and I foresee trouble for Spez owners in South Africa. If you want to be proprieary, you better have your supply chain in order and this they don't. I advise people to stay away from products with proprietary parts - Spez, Trek, Ghost...the list is growing.

In addition to the length, coil diameter and wire section (thickness), you also need to know how many turns there are in the spring. Those four things determine how hard or soft the spring feels. It is pretty easy to make up a new spring and I'm sure there are some spring manufacturers in Cape Town. The problem lies in determining just how much softer you want it. Usually people estimate between 10 and 20% and that ends up being too much. Start with 6% or so.

Hmmmmm.

A bent derailer hanger typically presents differently. Shifting will get progressively worse from the bottom up. It sounds to me you have great shifting in the middle bunch and poor at the top and bottom. It has absoutely nothing to do with chainrings. Ignore that possibility. Further, the chances that your derailer is worn is nil. Those things (except if SRAM makes them) go on forever. I will look for the problem in: 1) Loose derailer/hanger. 2) Bent hanger (iin spite of my own reservations). 3) Cable problem, especially a kink or poor attachement at one of the stops. 4) Chain and jockey wheels contaminated with Squirt. The top jockey wheel, the guide pulley, must move freely, both rotational and axially. Just as a note, a worn chain and cassette will still shift perfectly. It has nothing to do with shifting, only engagement.

Hmmmm....but I bet you you have not had a single phone call from someone in Australia or NZ today? Neither have I. Something's up.