Stupidly expensive small components

[classic33]

Both Campag and Shimano have a reputation to maintain with their high end products so on the upside you can be sure the quality is tops and therefore reliability and performance is assured.
I know you're posting from Scotland and I feel your pain . Imagine how it is for a Yorkshire man and their cry of ''Ow much!!'.

Less of that.

 

[Chislenko]

Reminds me of an experience some years back.

A bloke came in to buy some nuts, paid for them, gave him his receipt and he then proceeded to walk out leaving the nuts on the counter.

Obviously I had to shout after him

"Your nuts sir"

 

[ColinJ]

That's my thinking. A fixie just shows stretch really obviously.

Or a singlespeed bike... Mine hardly needs the chain tensioner with a new chain but after a few hours of hours of riding it definitely does! The lower photo below shows a partly worn chain (plenty of life left in it). The chain initially lengthens quite quickly, then the rate of 'stretch' slows down. I think that the slow stretch is due to wear but the initial lengthening is due to a different mechanism.

 

[southcoast]

Serrated or unserrated track nuts for chrome dropouts? Would serrated nuts mark the chrome finish? Would smooth ones be more liable to slip?

 

[GuyBoden]

Obviously, rear facing dropouts are a better design for single speeds, fixies and track cycles.

I can't understand why manufacturers don't use them on all single speeds, fixies and track cycles. it must be due to cost saving.

 

[ColinJ]

Obviously, rear facing dropouts are a better design for single speeds, fixies and track cycles.

I can't understand why manufacturers don't use them on all single speeds, fixies and track cycles. it must be due to cost saving.

View attachment 581680

My singlespeed bike was put together from spare parts so it didn't cost much. That means I feel ok about locking it up outside shops. I would love to buy a proper frame with rear-facing dropouts like that but then I'd start worrying about the bike being stolen. (I would be upset if the current one got pinched, but at least I would only be about £100 out of pocket.)

I would like to be able to do away with the chain tensioner so I am thinking of using my old steel Basso frame for a replacement singlespeed bike. It still has semi-forward facing dropouts but they are longer than those of my current Specialized frame and that would allow me to adjust the wheel position backwards and forwards by a few mm. I'd probably have to use a half-link in the chain too which could be removed once the chain had lengthened slightly too far.

 

[Hover Fly]

Obviously, rear facing dropouts are a better design for single speeds, fixies and track cycles.

I can't understand why manufacturers don't use them on all single speeds, fixies and track cycles. it must be due to cost saving.

View attachment 581680

Obviously forward facing dropouts are better on road bikes, making it much eeasier to take the wheel out, whether for a puncture, to turn a double-sided wheel round or whatever without struggling with the chain or mudguards.

That bike now has QR’s front and rear, no problems with the back wheel slipping.

 

[GuyBoden]

Obviously forward facing dropouts are better on road bikes, making it much eeasier to take the wheel out, whether for a puncture, to turn a double-sided wheel round or whatever without struggling with the chain or mudguards.
View attachment 581756
That bike now has QR’s front and rear, no problems with the back wheel slipping.

That's an extremely nice steel bike. Obviously, originally, it would have had a rear derailleur.

 

[Hover Fly]

No, I had it built for fixed, just left the mount for the rear derailleur on the dropout, but no braze-ons for levers or cable runs.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Imagine how it is for a Yorkshire man and their cry of ''Ow much!!'.

I use it often!!


On a similar vein, Tom Ritchey, the Californian bike builder (whose mid 90s P21*, I still lust after) came up the phrase

'Cheap, Light, Strong

Pick Two'


* I want one with all of the Ritchey kit; bars, stem, seat-pin, saddle, cantilevers, head-set, bottle-cages, pedals, rims, tyres, etc.....

EDIT @ 19:36

 

[Eric Olthwaite]

Obviously forward facing dropouts are better on road bikes, making it much eeasier to take the wheel out, whether for a puncture, to turn a double-sided wheel round or whatever without struggling with the chain or mudguards.
View attachment 581756
That bike now has QR’s front and rear, no problems with the back wheel slipping.

How tall are you???

 

[Hover Fly]

194cm

 

[Eric Olthwaite]

194cm

I had to type that into Google to convert it into real units. It said - very tall.

 

[keithmac]

This is the adjustment on my GTECH, Carbon Belt but would be good for chain as well (very similar to motorcycle design).

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I know you're posting from Scotland and I feel your pain . Imagine how it is for a Yorkshire man and their cry of ''Ow much!!'.

I've cried "Ow much!!!" many a time,usually with a choice expletive thrown in for good measure -and I've never even been the wrong side of Hadrians Wall and I wasn't born in Yorkshire. There's plenty of us sensible frugalists everywhere.