Johan Bornman

I don't think those are successful. Maneuvering a bunch of frame parts without kinking the cables is neigh impossible. A 26" frame without its wheels is already pretty small, especially if you remove the bars and loosen the rear jockey from its anchor.

That puppy has to be collapsible otherwise it is a looooong Thule on a roofrack.

Get yourself a little dictionary. It is only English.

No I don't know of any. However, that price is outrageous. What are you trying to do, make a belt-drive bike? There are easier options, especially if you are working in steel.

Nice article. Good perspective on Phil's folly. I still like Phil, he just bet on the wrong horse. I haven't heard him publicly making a U-Turn on his "if that oke is drugged, I'll eat my hat" stance.

Quite a bit and enough to make a normal coupling without "teeth" move just enough to loosen the coupling. That type of toothed joint is called a Hirth joint. As for the S&S coupling selling only to bla bla bla. Give me the details and a mandate and I BS my way through their red tape and order one. Have they never heard of Yellow Saddle Framebuilding?

Yes.

Black rims?

Just to give a sense of scale, it is 1.2mm thick.

OK, it is the new Dura Ace Polywhassisname-coated cable. Moerava expensive. This is standard cable, well two types actually. The best of the two is the one with the flattened strands. The cheapie has round strands. Just compare it to the new Dura Ace super slick below. Quite a difference in looks. I can't figure out how the file-like serrations adds to the slickness, but it does.

Last is like free play, but backwards and forwards. Think of backlash when another car hits you from behind. First your next stays behind as your body moves forward and then it moves forward after a severe jerk. That is lash. Or, imagine a singlespeed fixie bike with just a bit of chain looseness. That movement between pedaling backwards and then suddenly forwards, where freeplay is taken up, is lash. If you only move forward, the freeplay is not noticeable and therefore there is no lash in that situation.

Sorry, I must have overlooked the obvious. Point one. No Point two: Yes (big time, making up for lost point one). Point three: Not if they know about design but, if they are a bit shallow and know what it costs, they will be moerse impressed.

Trolling doesn't suit you.

Red Rubber Grease. Find it at Builders in the car section. Herchell brank comes in tubes.

Mea Culpa

Interesting. But the website is so hipster it doesn't even give a location, nevermind an address.

Bizarre Complexity Last week we had the displeasure of having to replace a faulty hub on a new DT Swiss Tricon wheel. I am not a fan of DT Swiss and this design confirms to me that the company suffers from mad cow disease. Have a look a this hub and ponder its construction for a minute. It is a lefty hub but that has no bearing on the argument. It is constructer from three primary components, two flanges and one hub body. All three are milled from solid billet. The flanges are pinned via five grub screws onto the hub body and then bonded with epoxy. Each flange has 20 threaded holes. Five for the retaining pins and 15 for threaded spoke inserts. It is a 30 spoke wheel. Each spoke is threaded – Easton style – at both ends and inserts into the rim via an elaborate device that I’ll discuss separately later on, since it requires some mention of its own. What’s the problem, you may ask? Bizarre complexity. Firstly, the hub should have been forged (even machined if you really want to save money) from one piece of aluminium. This would have resulted in a strong flange that doesn’t require pins and glue. As it is, we had to replace this hub because the glue didn’t work and now there’s lash in the hub when you apply the brake. Secondly, the threaded spoke inserts are bizarre. DT could have drilled and threaded the hub flange like Easton does, and screwed the spokes directly into the flange. Instead, they created a complex insert that threads into the flange and the spoke threads into that. The required tool is a special female Torx driver with very, very little bite area. The inserts are anodised aluminium. It is a stupid design that was clearly done for marketing differentiation. It adds huge cost to the hub and zero benefits – zero. It looks over-engineered and contrived and reminds me of mag wheels on fast City Golfs with hundreds of hex screws turned in all over the place just for show. It is a pain to keep clean. It requires non-standard bladed spokes like those found on a time-trial bike. Speaking of the spokes – how stupid is it to paint spokes white on a mountainbike? The slightest chip shows up quickly and it does chip. Working on the spoke guarantees chipped paint. DT has surpassed itself in setting the standard for stupid, rubbish products once again. You woyuld have thought that their carbon suspension forks and rubbish 340-series hubs are as low as you can go, but no. Pardon the alliteration

Yes, but only if there is lash. If you just ride forward, then there will be no lash. However, all this is in degrees of severity and e-mail/postings won't determine that. Get a second opinion or play with various discs.

Flowta, find someone who can braze....assuming of course that it is a steel frame. It isn't particularly difficult and anyone who understands "dull red" and can handle a torch will be able to do the job. The only cautionary is if the coupler were to be installed in the middle of the top and down-tubes. Then he has to stick to very dull red - preferably silver-solder and not braze.

That's the standard retort nowadays. Yours is always the first - as if it is the first frame to crack ever. It annoys me no end.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that disc. Shimano's splined, centre-lock rings do that. It is a feature of the design (non-tapered spline) and doesn't come into play when you ride. When you ride, you only force the disc to the one extreme of the play and never reverse to complete the lash effect. Tightening it will not help. Stick to the recommended torque and go for a ride.

Where can I come for lessons? But, can you spark erode shapes in metal? I need some 8mm hex holes "drilled" in some mild steel. How would one do that?

Welcome to Santa Cruz and its unique problems. Those are angular contact bearings and disintegrate very easily. Ironically they don't have lateral strength of a deep groove bearing. I say ironic, since they're made for lateral loads...but that's another story. You must have a collect expander, just about nothing else will work. The welding trick works well if you have clearance but you have none....nowhere on the bike do you have clearance for such tricks anyway. You aint gonna tap that sucker, it is hard carbon steel.