Bicycle Technology

Are you trading in your purple huffy bike?

^^^^^^ are you in the market for it?

SJG

This is your dream bike:

youtu.be

This thread is a parody of itself

Remember the old 70's 10 speeds ran 52-42 in front and 28-14 in back, AIK 2.47 gearing range. With toe clips / modern lock in cleats, more than enough range for most things ( 98% of situations including heavy touring, ridden steepest grades in CA with LESS range).

And I have never liked any of the indexed shifting derailleur systems. Stupid gimmicks for sponsored pro racers who get heavy boxes of new parts given to them regularly, sold to a public who never learned how to use friction shifters.

Shimano Internal Gear Hubs:

8 speed for disk brake, 3.07 gear range bike.shimano.com

11 speed for disk brake, 4.09 gear range ( never ever would I need a broader range than this, even for longbike loaded up heavy ) bike.shimano.com

I'm only interested in cable pull disc brakes, not hydraulic.

Also I think German Rolloff? and USA SRAM?

SJG

Peter Frampton Do You Feel Like We Do (2019, quite interesting) youtube.com

Creedence Clearwater Revival - I Heard It Through The Grapevine youtube.com

Amy Winehouse/Paul Weller - I heard it through the grapevine.Hootynanny 2006. youtube.com

shaft drive bicycles: glendalecycles.com

SJG

Shaft Drive Bicycle youtube.com

nice cable pull disk brakes, which I like. The the hydraulic disk brakes which I do not like.

cyclingweekly.com

biomega.com

biomega.com

They tend to make a lot of belt drive bikes. Not sure about shaft drive today.

SJG

TJ Street tuscl.net

Wes Montgomery - Round Midnight youtube.com

Bill Evans youtube.com

So this bike here: youtube.com

Has a SRAM cable controller for the gear hub. So maybe it has a SRAM gear hub? Is there as SRAM shaft drive system, besides Shimano?

SJG

SRAM sram.com

I am not seeing anything like an internal gear hub in their offering.

But then I let google look and it finds: sheldonbrown.com

SJG

Okay, so ^^^^ is from the Sheldon Brown Blog, 2015, and it is an 8 speed internal SRAM gear hub.

sheldonbrown.com

SJG

Shimano bike.shimano.com

11 speed Alfine gear hub, 4 to 1 gear range, way more than enough! bike.shimano.com

1,665 g

Gear rations actually go both down and up, about 1/2 to 1 to about 2 to 1.

gravelbike.com

Hydraulic brakes may be the new hotness, but many road and gravel riders still prefer the simplicity and reliability of cable-operated disc brakes. And in 2016, mechanical disc brake fans have more choices than ever.

SJG

Shimano CX77 Shimano’s CX75 was one of the earlier road-compatible mechanical disc brakes. Due to performance-related issues, the company recalled the CX75 and replaced it with the improved CX77 ($69.99 MSRP). Shimano classifies the CX77 as a non-series component, meaning it’s compatible with a wide range of levers/shifters (and the brake’s grey finish looks good with both silver or black groupsets). Like the Paul Klamper, the CX77 features a single movable piston. While the CX77 may lack niceties such as tool-free pad and cable adjusters, it was the lightest caliper tested at 151 grams.

cx77-min

Setting up the CX77 is straightforward, but requires a lot of different tools. You’ll need a 5 mm hex key for the caliper and cable mounting bolts, a 3 mm hex key for the inner pad adjuster, a 2.5 mm hex key to adjust the outboard pad, and a small flat-blade screwdriver for the pad retainer. To further complicate things, the outer pad adjuster lacks any detents, and accessing the bolt can be difficult on some frames. The CX77’s stock resin pads proved quiet in dry and dusty conditions, but rain or snow would leave them squealing. Thankfully, Shimano’s XT (M785) and XTR (M985) brakes use the same G-series pads, so alternatives are available from third-party manufacturers.

As you might expect, the CX77 calipers worked great with Shimano’s levers. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that the CX77s performed equally well with SRAM’s Rival levers. The SRAM/CX77 combination didn’t allow for quite as much pad/rotor clearance, but that was only noticeable in muddy conditions, or with out-of-true rotors. SIngle-piston brakes sometimes get a bad rap for having a harsh, on/off feel that’s difficult to modulate, but that’s not the case with the CX77. They didn’t have the road-like feel of a dual-piston caliper, but the single-piston Shimano calipers offered solid braking without the tendency to unexpectedly lock the wheel.

TRP Spyre If you’ve ridden a cantilever-brake-equipped bike in the past ten years there’s a good chance that those brakes were made by Tektro/TRP. That’s not to say that TRP is sleeping on disc brakes for road and gravel, though. The company now offers no less than five mechanical road disc brakes in addition to one hybrid model and two hydraulic systems. The basic 159-gram Spyre model that I tested may lack the carbon bits found on its pricier siblings, but it shares the same dual-sided actuation and adjustments. Like Shimano, TRP experienced some issues with early Spyres, which resulted in a recall of approximately 2,000 calipers in 2013.

spyre-min

Although the Spyres may lack tool-free pad adjusters, setting up the brakes is incredibly easy and requires only 3 mm and 5 mm hex keys. Attach the caliper with the mounting bolts finger tight, install the cable, pull and hold the lever, and tighten the mounting bolts. Thanks to the brakes’ dual-piston design, the calipers basically align themselves. The pad contact points can be fine tuned with a 3 mm hex key, but the inner and outer adjusters lack detents or indexing. Further fine tuning can be performed via the built-in barrel adjuster.

With their strong return springs, the Spyres have an extremely snappy feel at the lever. While this may not matter in dry, warm weather, it can be a real asset in gritty conditions. While I prefer the ergonomics of SRAM’s levers, I found that the Sypres performed best with the Shimano 5800 levers. The latter produce slightly more cable travel, which enables more clearance between the pads and rotor. Paired with either lever, though, the Spyres disprove the myth that road disc brakes lack modulation and control. Once bedded in, the mechanical TRP stoppers performed much like the company’s dual-pivot caliper brakes (which is very high praise).

Summary All three of the above brakes offer viable alternatives to hydraulic setups. Because mechanical systems lack the automatic pad adjustment found on hydraulic brakes, they require a little more maintenance and attention to detail during installation and setup. Don’t underestimate the importance of cables and housings for mechanical disc brakes (or any cable-operated brake, for that matter). You’ll definitely want die-drawn or coated cables and compressionless housing (I used Jagwire’s excellent Road Pro XL kit). And as always, the late Sheldon Brown offers some very sage advice on the subject. Rotor and pad choice can also affect performance. Don’t be afraid to try different pad compounds or rotor sizes to dial in modulation and stopping power.

gravelbike.com

SJG

You can copy / paste like a mfer

^^^^ That's kind of how the World Wide Web is, so big, always growing. Need to save the good stuff you find.

SJG

ESS JAY GEE

Why Dutch Bikes are Better (and why you should want one) youtube.com

SJG

TJ Street tuscl.net

Remember that one time SJGs streamers on his handlebars got stuck in the spokes on his wheels and he flew over the handlebars?!!!?!?!?

Fucking idiot.