A random thread for cycling things that don't really warrant their own thread

[phantasmagoriana]

The other day, I got my last remaining set of rim brake wheels out to clean them up a bit before donating them to the local recycling place. However, I noticed not one, but two spokes had completely come away from the front wheel - on closer inspection, the hub had actually cracked across the two spoke holes.

Whilst I wasn't too bothered, as I don't need the wheel and wasn't going to ride it, I was rather concerned. The wheels have been sitting around doing nothing for 6 months, and were intact when I last rode them. I wonder whether the crack had actually started when I was riding around on that wheel?

[perpetual dan]

Saw someone riding in Lewes earlier with a front pannier and a tin of baked beans in each bottle cage. Was it one of you?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Oh look, it's another set of electric cycling indicators! And how innovative, for these you use your hands. Hang on....

Well never mind, Indik8a is a really kool name. Indyk is also Polish for turkey. Why does that seem appropriate?

https://www.indik8a.com

[Ham]

Oh my my. In so many ways

Vibrates while indicating, so you know it’s on without looking.

Where's the ROFL emoji when you want one

[phantasmagoriana]

 

On an unrelated note, I'm officially down to n=2. Hopefully, this should give me space in the bike room to set up the turbo (rather than it taking up the spare room). I'm going to try and resist the n+1 urge...

[Ham]

A good Friday read, Grayson Perry on cycling

https://www.cyclist.co.uk/news/7298/grayson-perry-on-cycling-chris-boardman-moutain-bike-racing-cycling-as-transport

[Ham]

Miss Ham's partner has my old Pompetamine, in single speed guise, which he enjoys, it's disc braked on drops (BB7). Friday night he was in the pub and decided to leave said steed locked, discretion being the better part and all that. On arrival to pick it up the next day, in his words "Something wasn't right". It took the LBS to point out to him that someone had nicked his front wheel - so far, so not surprising, but had replaced the disc wheel with a non-disc one. Weird.

[Cudzoziemiec]

A considerate thief? Sort of. 

[Tim Hall]

I saw three youths today with Sadiq Cycles.  So far, so normal.  They were in Three Bridges, Sussex, some 25 miles from London's famous London, so either they're looking at a lot of hire fees or the bikes were nicked.

[Kim]

I saw three youths today with Sadiq Cycles.  So far, so normal.  They were in Three Bridges, Sussex, some 25 miles from London's famous London, so either they're looking at a lot of hire fees or the bikes were nicked.

How do they nick them?  I assume they're not mugging legitimate users.  Can the bikes be liberated from the docks with simple tools or applied ultra-violence?  I suppose you must get people failing to re-dock them properly now and then.

[Tim Hall]

I saw three youths today with Sadiq Cycles.  So far, so normal.  They were in Three Bridges, Sussex, some 25 miles from London's famous London, so either they're looking at a lot of hire fees or the bikes were nicked.

How do they nick them?  I assume they're not mugging legitimate users.  Can the bikes be liberated from the docks with simple tools or applied ultra-violence?  I suppose you must get people failing to re-dock them properly now and then.

The Evening Standard suggests shoulder surfing a legitimate user when the release code is issued is one way. Then there's this in the Telegraph:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11405649/Serco-employee-stole-54-Boris-bikes-worth-50k.html
Summary: Serco bike fettler has a key to release damaged bikes from the dock. Key gets put to nefarious use, bike fettler ends up with 54 bikes.

[grams]

The ticket you get to undock them has a simple code (digits 123 only) in massive writing on it. It’s very easy for someone shoulder surfing to memorise it and stick it in before a dozy tourist picks a bike and enters it.

I’m sure there are also plenty liberated from tourists who’ve stopped to take pictures or whatever.

On preview: what Tim says. When the fettlers are moving bikes around there are stacks of unlocked bikes setting on their truck that it’d be easy to wander off with.

[Kim]

The ticket you get to undock them has a simple code (digits 123 only) in massive writing on it. It’s very easy for someone shoulder surfing to memorise it and stick it in before a dozy tourist picks a bike and enters it.

Hm, you could probably position yourself at a busy dock away from the Boris computer and brute-force codes until you happen to stumble on one that's currently active.  Fighting with the docks isn't particularly suspicious behaviour.

[Tim Hall]

The ticket you get to undock them has a simple code (digits 123 only) in massive writing on it. It’s very easy for someone shoulder surfing to memorise it and stick it in before a dozy tourist picks a bike and enters it.

Hm, you could probably position yourself at a busy dock away from the Boris computer and brute-force codes until you happen to stumble on one that's currently active.  Fighting with the docks isn't particularly suspicious behaviour.

It's 4 digit number consisting of 1, 2 or 3, so umm, 3^4 = 81 permutations. Is that right?  The code is valid for 10 minutes from issuing, so that's a rate of one code every 7.4 seconds.  Your chances of getting a hit increase with the number of active codes at that station.

[Kim]

The code's valid until the legitimate user finds a bike with a working seatpost clamp in a dock with undamaged membrane switches, so probably much less than 10 minutes.  But that doesn't really matter if there's a constant supply of new users (and neither does exhaustively searching the code space^[1], for that matter).

I'd say certainly possible, but not something you'd rely on for quick getaways.


_{[1] There's a rule of thumb that says you should never underestimate the mathematical ability of oikery if there's profit in it.}

[mzjo]

Friday 1/11 I went circuit checking in a 6 hour downpour. Everything got soaked very thoroughly, including the bar tape. Wind on the film to 11/11 when I converted this bike to 650B wheels which meant a change of brakes (we are talking very old school calipers). The rear brake didn't want to work properly, brake cable seized. Stripping the accessible bits and lubing traced the problem to the bars and the lever (which is an old school brake lever aero style with cables under the bar tape? None of this STI stuff!.
Well the brake works but a bit half-heartedly. Oh pxxxx. Only thing to do is going to be unwrap the bars and clean/replace the cable as necessary. Oh the joys of hidden cabling.

There are those who would say with discs this sort of thing doesn't happen. Not an option on this frame but if I had discs they would probably be cable so that changes nothing. Perhaps this is a good argument for road hydraulics but until manufacturers are offering the levers without STI (or equivalent) I am not interested. Can't use STI, causes too much pain in my arthritic thumb!

Does anyone have any experience of water seeping through cable outer under bartape? Or does it only come through the lever (in which the cable nipple faces forwards)? PITA having to retape the bars just as a result of riding in the rain (big argument for having old school flappy cables).


 

[ian]

The code's valid until the legitimate user finds a bike with a working seatpost clamp in a dock with undamaged membrane switches, so probably much less than 10 minutes.  But that doesn't really matter if there's a constant supply of new users (and neither does exhaustively searching the code space^[1], for that matter).

I'd say certainly possible, but not something you'd rely on for quick getaways.


_{[1] There's a rule of thumb that says you should never underestimate the mathematical ability of oikery if there's profit in it.}

It's nothing so clever, the usual MO is that a group of them work down a rack, giving each bike a yank, looking for any bike that hasn't been properly docked, and once they find one, ride off on it.

[Kim]

It's nothing so clever, the usual MO is that a group of them work down a rack, giving each bike a yank, looking for any bike that hasn't been properly docked, and once they find one, ride off on it.

I suppose you must get people failing to re-dock them properly now and then.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Friday 1/11 I went circuit checking in a 6 hour downpour. Everything got soaked very thoroughly, including the bar tape. Wind on the film to 11/11 when I converted this bike to 650B wheels which meant a change of brakes (we are talking very old school calipers). The rear brake didn't want to work properly, brake cable seized. Stripping the accessible bits and lubing traced the problem to the bars and the lever (which is an old school brake lever aero style with cables under the bar tape? None of this STI stuff!.
Well the brake works but a bit half-heartedly. Oh pxxxx. Only thing to do is going to be unwrap the bars and clean/replace the cable as necessary. Oh the joys of hidden cabling.

There are those who would say with discs this sort of thing doesn't happen. Not an option on this frame but if I had discs they would probably be cable so that changes nothing. Perhaps this is a good argument for road hydraulics but until manufacturers are offering the levers without STI (or equivalent) I am not interested. Can't use STI, causes too much pain in my arthritic thumb!

Does anyone have any experience of water seeping through cable outer under bartape? Or does it only come through the lever (in which the cable nipple faces forwards)? PITA having to retape the bars just as a result of riding in the rain (big argument for having old school flappy cables).

Can't help with the cable seepage problem, though perhaps it implies a crack in the housing somewhere under the bar tape? But interesting – in a bad way  –  that STI causes you pain in your thumb. Are you thinking of the old type where you had a thumb lever on the inside of the hoods for changing up (or was it down?) or is this a consequence of having your hands on the hoods more? Or something else?

[ian]

It's nothing so clever, the usual MO is that a group of them work down a rack, giving each bike a yank, looking for any bike that hasn't been properly docked, and once they find one, ride off on it.

I suppose you must get people failing to re-dock them properly now and then.

Rule of least resistance, innit. You see gangs of them going at it. There are enough racks around for it be a reliable stratagem. It's not that unusual to see permanently hired bikes in front gardens, it's practically de riguer – I noted – in Edmonton the other week.

Best one I ever saw had been – cunningly – entirely spray painted silver. Because. No. One. Will. Ever. Notice. How to make a Santander bike look indisputably stolen in one easy step.

[bludger]

I saw three youths today with Sadiq Cycles.  So far, so normal.  They were in Three Bridges, Sussex, some 25 miles from London's famous London, so either they're looking at a lot of hire fees or the bikes were nicked.

I know people from my uni who've cycled from Bloomsbury to Epping Forest and back on them, coupled with using a train it's not impossible.

[Kim]

Friday 1/11 I went circuit checking in a 6 hour downpour. Everything got soaked very thoroughly, including the bar tape. Wind on the film to 11/11 when I converted this bike to 650B wheels which meant a change of brakes (we are talking very old school calipers). The rear brake didn't want to work properly, brake cable seized. Stripping the accessible bits and lubing traced the problem to the bars and the lever (which is an old school brake lever aero style with cables under the bar tape? None of this STI stuff!.
Well the brake works but a bit half-heartedly. Oh pxxxx. Only thing to do is going to be unwrap the bars and clean/replace the cable as necessary. Oh the joys of hidden cabling.

There are those who would say with discs this sort of thing doesn't happen. Not an option on this frame but if I had discs they would probably be cable so that changes nothing. Perhaps this is a good argument for road hydraulics but until manufacturers are offering the levers without STI (or equivalent) I am not interested. Can't use STI, causes too much pain in my arthritic thumb!

Does anyone have any experience of water seeping through cable outer under bartape? Or does it only come through the lever (in which the cable nipple faces forwards)? PITA having to retape the bars just as a result of riding in the rain (big argument for having old school flappy cables).

Can't help with the cable seepage problem, though perhaps it implies a crack in the housing somewhere under the bar tape? But interesting – in a bad way  –  that STI causes you pain in your thumb. Are you thinking of the old type where you had a thumb lever on the inside of the hoods for changing up (or was it down?) or is this a consequence of having your hands on the hoods more? Or something else?

I don't like road levers, so didn't realise they suffered this problem.  Water getting into the cables is a standard problem on USS recumbents, where you typically have MTB brake levers (and various flavours of shifters) mounted vertically with the cable exiting downwards.  I've found that covering the cable-fitting slot in the front of the lever with tape greatly reduces the amount of water that gets in (as does covering the bars with something if leaving the bike out in the rain).

I can't imagine water seeping through the side of a cable outer, unless it's damaged.  Which I'd expect to happen on an exposed loop of cable that can snag on things, not the bit that's safely taped to the bars.  If it gets in somewhere it will propagate along the whole cable though, and it's not always obvious when an outer has been damaged.

If your levers are particularly prone to this, you could perhaps fit an oiler port (or suitable in-line cable adjuster) to facilitate squirting GT85 or similar through the cable to drive out the water.  I've found this extends the useful life somewhat, but (particularly for gears) is no substitute for a fresh cable.

The other thought is to use that stuff that Shimano supply with bar-end shifters to provide a channel under the bar tape, in the hope that it will allow you to pull through some fresh outers without disturbing the tape.  (It works for me with foam grips^[1], but my bars are nearly straight, not sure how it would handle a 90 degree bend.)  I've no idea what it's called, but it's the white stuff in this picture:





_{[1] When the grip outlives the cable.}

[mzjo]

Friday 1/11 I went circuit checking in a 6 hour downpour. Everything got soaked very thoroughly, including the bar tape. Wind on the film to 11/11 when I converted this bike to 650B wheels which meant a change of brakes (we are talking very old school calipers). The rear brake didn't want to work properly, brake cable seized. Stripping the accessible bits and lubing traced the problem to the bars and the lever (which is an old school brake lever aero style with cables under the bar tape? None of this STI stuff!.
Well the brake works but a bit half-heartedly. Oh pxxxx. Only thing to do is going to be unwrap the bars and clean/replace the cable as necessary. Oh the joys of hidden cabling.

There are those who would say with discs this sort of thing doesn't happen. Not an option on this frame but if I had discs they would probably be cable so that changes nothing. Perhaps this is a good argument for road hydraulics but until manufacturers are offering the levers without STI (or equivalent) I am not interested. Can't use STI, causes too much pain in my arthritic thumb!

Does anyone have any experience of water seeping through cable outer under bartape? Or does it only come through the lever (in which the cable nipple faces forwards)? PITA having to retape the bars just as a result of riding in the rain (big argument for having old school flappy cables).

Can't help with the cable seepage problem, though perhaps it implies a crack in the housing somewhere under the bar tape? But interesting – in a bad way  –  that STI causes you pain in your thumb. Are you thinking of the old type where you had a thumb lever on the inside of the hoods for changing up (or was it down?) or is this a consequence of having your hands on the hoods more? Or something else?

It is "something else"    It is in fact a semi-permanent pain at the base of the thumb. The STI levers that I have are admittedly fairly old but quite sweet to use except that twisting or pushing with my hand to push the lever out (must be changing down I think) puts the load on the thumb and is very painful. Liveable with for 20kms, out of the question for anywhere further. The trigger shifter on the Alfine poses the same problem but in a much lesser degree. I can live with it but I wouldn't replace the trigger with the same thing in case of breakdown. The next shifter will be a twist grip, if I can get one. The Gitane and the Vitus are both using dt levers, indexed on the Gitane, friction on the Vitus. I work the dt levers with the palm of my hand.

Friday 1/11 I went circuit checking in a 6 hour downpour. Everything got soaked very thoroughly, including the bar tape. Wind on the film to 11/11 when I converted this bike to 650B wheels which meant a change of brakes (we are talking very old school calipers). The rear brake didn't want to work properly, brake cable seized. Stripping the accessible bits and lubing traced the problem to the bars and the lever (which is an old school brake lever aero style with cables under the bar tape? None of this STI stuff!.
Well the brake works but a bit half-heartedly. Oh pxxxx. Only thing to do is going to be unwrap the bars and clean/replace the cable as necessary. Oh the joys of hidden cabling.

There are those who would say with discs this sort of thing doesn't happen. Not an option on this frame but if I had discs they would probably be cable so that changes nothing. Perhaps this is a good argument for road hydraulics but until manufacturers are offering the levers without STI (or equivalent) I am not interested. Can't use STI, causes too much pain in my arthritic thumb!

Does anyone have any experience of water seeping through cable outer under bartape? Or does it only come through the lever (in which the cable nipple faces forwards)? PITA having to retape the bars just as a result of riding in the rain (big argument for having old school flappy cables).

Can't help with the cable seepage problem, though perhaps it implies a crack in the housing somewhere under the bar tape? But interesting – in a bad way  –  that STI causes you pain in your thumb. Are you thinking of the old type where you had a thumb lever on the inside of the hoods for changing up (or was it down?) or is this a consequence of having your hands on the hoods more? Or something else?

I don't like road levers, so didn't realise they suffered this problem.  Water getting into the cables is a standard problem on USS recumbents, where you typically have MTB brake levers (and various flavours of shifters) mounted vertically with the cable exiting downwards.  I've found that covering the cable-fitting slot in the front of the lever with tape greatly reduces the amount of water that gets in (as does covering the bars with something if leaving the bike out in the rain).

I can't imagine water seeping through the side of a cable outer, unless it's damaged.  Which I'd expect to happen on an exposed loop of cable that can snag on things, not the bit that's safely taped to the bars.  If it gets in somewhere it will propagate along the whole cable though, and it's not always obvious when an outer has been damaged.

If your levers are particularly prone to this, you could perhaps fit an oiler port (or suitable in-line cable adjuster) to facilitate squirting GT85 or similar through the cable to drive out the water.  I've found this extends the useful life somewhat, but (particularly for gears) is no substitute for a fresh cable.

The other thought is to use that stuff that Shimano supply with bar-end shifters to provide a channel under the bar tape, in the hope that it will allow you to pull through some fresh outers without disturbing the tape.  (It works for me with foam grips^[1], but my bars are nearly straight, not sure how it would handle a 90 degree bend.)  I've no idea what it's called, but it's the white stuff in this picture:





_{[1] When the grip outlives the cable.}

I have come to the conclusion that it is getting in through the front of the lever under braking. There is a sizeable forward facing gap with the nipple of the cable staring out straight in front. It could get in where the cable goes into the frame and seep back into the cable (cable enters frame from underneath) but much more likely through the lever. Something that would be easily cured with a decent (very large) cycle cape that would go right round the bars and over the levers (but I don't have one  )

[Kim]

Condom over the lever^[1]?   


_{[1] Suggestion ©2011 Charlotte OTP}

[Cudzoziemiec]

I'm not sure what sort of STI levers you have that require the lever to be pushed outwards. I only know ones where both levers push inwards, but clearly there are various types I'm not familiar with. In terms of twist grips, I had a SRAM twistgrip for several years on a flat-barred bike and it had two problems: when new it was crisp and easy to use but over time, the internal gubbins wore away and it became rather imprecise in action; and more significantly for you, it did put load on the joint of the thumb and palm. I'd have thought down-tube levers, or maybe bar ends, would be better in your case. But it sounds worth experimenting with different shifting systems to find what works for you.