kehoe@reed.UUCP (Dave Kehoe) (10/12/85)
This newsgroup is getting so busy! I hardly have time to argue with everyone :-). 1) Lights. I have a 12 mile commute, in the dark on my way home. Streetlights are sparse in SW Portland, and one streetlight and then a long ride through a cemetary don't have any streetlights. I've come up with what I feel safe with, but does anyone have anything better? I've got *lots* of reflectors, including reflective tape on my Zzipper fairing (last week a motorcyclist yelled as he went by, "Great reflector -- I saw you from two blocks away!"); a Soubitez bottom-bracket generator, a halogen headlight, regular tailight, and a switch to turn off the taillight for my ride through the cemetary; a Belt Beacon; a bright yellow Gore-Tex jacket and white Bell helmet. The only lights better (i.e. more expensive) are Ed Kearney's: $140 for a recharghable battery pack, flourescent front lights (two), and a flashing orange rear warning light, just like the highway department uses. The battery pack is available seperatly for $80, and the lights don't look much better than what I've got. What do you use? 2) Turbo R's: I've had mine for 2 weeks, 200 miles, one rainstorm. First of all, *all* new tires slip. The manufacturers spray silicon into the molds to get the tires out, so new tires are coated with silicon. It takes about 200 miles to wear off the coating. Also, all tires slip during the first half-hour of a heavy rainstorm, especially this time of year. Oil builds up in the ashphalt during dry weather, and then a heavy rain brings the oil to the surface, and then the rain washed it away. So there's a half-hour at beginnings of rain storms, especially after a long dry spell, when roads are treacherous. My Turbo R's slipped twice: once on wet leaves on the steepest part of a very steep hill, once on the painted plastic stop line while starting from a stop light on a steep hill (both times the rear wheel slipped). Any tires would have slipped there. The Turbo R's held fine through all my fast corners. As was noted earlier, bicycle and motorcycle tires don't hydroplane like car tires because the circular cross section pushes water away. The Continental Twins on my motorcycle (the best wet weather tires available) won't hydroplane until one reaches a speed on 120mph in 6 inches of standing water. Bicycle tires should be even better, due to their higher pressures (as I understand, traction in water is weight of vehicle*air pressure in the tire, so higher air pressure in a smaller area = better traction. By the way, in that same rainstorm I took my motorcycle out and slipped twice, once cornering on a plastic stop line and once cornering on a combination of gravel and wet leaves. My conclusion is that one slips not because of one's tires but because of a poor road surface -- manhole covers, plastic stop lines, wet leaves -- and that no tires will hold on a treacherous surface. In terms of rolling resistance, I haven't noticed any improvement over Turbos. On my stopwatch my times to work have actually been slower, but that may be because of traffic, weather, how I feel, etc. The article I read about "baldie" tires compared their improvement in speed in terms of "feet per mile" -- i.e. after a mile you'd be a few feet ahead of your competitor. "Baldies" won't take the place of good training. 3) Frames. Gary Klein may not have invented welded aluminum bicycle frames, but he did invent the heat-treating process that gives his frames the unmitigated title of THE BEST. Lightest, stiffest, strongest, and most comfortable. The only patented bicycle frame. Flame all you want, but his frames are the best. For those of you who aren't familiar with his frames, I'll post an article describing in detail his frames. Cannondale makes an inexpensive carbon-copy of Klein's frame, over which they're fighting a patent battle. By the way, Cannondale's heat treating process was developed by an engineer formerly with the Electric Boat division of GE (?), who got tired of building nuclear submarines. I really don't know anything else about Cannondale, so I apologize for saying that they're "the best". Perhaps they're not as good as Klein's frames. My point was to get the bicycle- buying user to try riding a Cannondale before making a decision about what to buy. Reynolds 531 is not a chromium-molybenum steel. It's a maganese-molybdenum steel. I have two 531 frames I love them both. The differences between different steel tubings (Columbus, Reynolds, Tange) is in the weight of their gauges, not in how the alloys perform. And I think that older frames may feel mushy not because the steel fatigues but because the brazed joints loosen up. There's no question that the "screwed & glued" aluminum frames loosen up after 10K miles. Graftex frames came with a warrantee that allowed you to send it back to the factory every year to be re-glued! The glue used in Alan and Vitus frames is epoxy. By the way, last weekend I saw an Alan fork snap off just above the fork crown, in a race. That's the second one I've seen break there. Alan's steerer tube is threaded (threads are stress-risers) and then "screwed & glued" into the cast aluminum fork crown. No wonder they snap off. 4) Nike Velo shoes: I like them, mostly. They pinch my toes, but so do Italien shoes. They have no grip on the pedals at all, unlike my Nike Tailwind waffle soled running shoes. But they're stiff and fine for walking. They're fine for commuting. But I like my Adidas Super Eddy Merkx shoes for serious riding (designed by Eddy himself!). I can't walk two steps in 'em, but they're fast. -- "Why my thoughts are my own, when they are in, but when they are out they are another's." -- Susanna Martin, executed for witchcraft. Dave Kehoe tektronix!reed!kehoe (503) 230-9454 (h) 684-3314 (w)
tinker@utah-cs.UUCP (Pete Tinker) (10/16/85)
In reference to the query about lighting systems: I've been using Ed Kearney's lighting system for about a year now (his basic system). Yes, it's quite expensive. I bought mine after a very serious accident in '83 in which a driver hit me from behind while I was stopped at a red light. A lawsuit is pending, but I decided that it was to my benefit not to leave even the smallest doubt about whether a driver could see me. Additionally, my eyesight is rather poor, especially at night, and I need lights that let me see the road, instead of just making me visible to drivers. My appreciation for his lights is almost without reservation. Without having seen them in action, you can't imagine how bright the headlamps are, or how large the rear light is. I recall that these lights were sort of "off the scale" in Bicycling Magazine's tests last year. I can actually see where I am going. I have used Belt Beacons and Wonder lights (the kind on the handlebar mount and the leg lamp) and halogen headlamps with the Sanyo generator. They are not nearly as effective. I was especially disappointed with the Sanyo generator system. Belt Beacons do not flash often enough. My feeling is, if you want good lighting, so will have to pay for it. My system is expensive and rather heavy (say, six pounds). It's also the only one that really works. I had "adequate" lighting when I was hit in '83, and I state emphatically that "adequate" is not good enough. If you value your life and are concerned that other users on the road take you seriously, get the best lighting system you can. It's much cheaper than hospitalization, lost wages, missed opportunities, enjoyment of life, future earnings, fear of cycling again, disfigurement, permanent disability, hassles with police and lawyers, wrecked bicycles, smashed helmets (yes, my Biker was actually *smashed* by the impact -- that's another soapbox: WEAR A HELMET), and other exciting life experiences. Additionally, stop being so macho. If you're riding at night, chances are you're commuting, so stop acting like you're training for the Tour. My current bicycle is a Specialized Expedition, which is heavy enough, with rear and lowrider Blackburn racks, fenders, rear mirror, and my Kearney lights. It's not light, but I don't need a light bike. I need one which gets me anywhere I want to go, carrying all that I need in safety. If you can't put up with the weight of a proper lighting system, stay off the roads at night. -oete tinker -- -pete tinker@utah-20.arpa