Category Archives: rant

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Smart Wheels – Dumb Wheels

I finally had figured out a real advantage to a super-light carbon-fiber bike. When it breaks and you have to carry it home, at least you’ll have less weight to carry on your shoulder.

Had a guy come in a bit ago wanting a wheel set that could get him down Mt Evans and home with a broken spoke. Got him 36° Mavics. They do learn.

With fewer spokes, spoke tension must vary less. Blade spokes tell stories: the last mechanic and the customer didn’t turn them all sorts of directions.

Spokes most often break from not enough tension, on any wheel.

Do you offer health benefits to staff?

  • Yes, to full-time employees only
  • No, can’t afford it
  • Thinking about enrolling in the insurance exchange marketplace for small businesses
  • Don’t need to. Most employees are still on parents’ insurance.

Weekly Survey – Bicycle Retailer

Depressing. Don’t know if they intended black humor or just recognized a sad reality.

The idea that a significant amount of transportation will be done by politically correct people who have been enticed by false promises of safety to ride on slow and dangerous bike paths deserves all the jeering it receives. Basing the national cycling program on such a pathetic hypothesis is a scientific disgrace. — John Forester

SunTour Superbe (2100

On this particular example every single bolt head and allen key socket has been chewed as if by some crazed, chrome-eating beaver. This illustrates a rule known to all bicycle mechanics – that ace racing cyclists think they are ace bicycle mechanics but, in fact, athletic prowess and mechanical sympathy are mutually exclusive.

Next time you observe an accomplished cycling star eschewing a ring spanner in favour of the open-ended variety, using a screwdriver as a chisel or tightening a nut with a pair of pliers, remember all those adverts you see claiming that this or that product was developed using the expertise of that or this professional racing team – and thank your lucky stars that the claim is only so much marketing bullshit. — Michael Sweatman