Messages

31

Gear Talk / Are there counterfeit DT spokes?

« on: August 22, 2019, 10:15:13 am »

I dug a wheel out of a recycle bin that had 4 broken spokes. I didn't look closely at the spokes but it looked like they were cut. I disassembled the wheel and used the spokes of a new wheel. Since then I have broken 4 spokes all of them failed in the middle. I now believe the spokes I thought were cut also broke in the middle. These are the only DT spokes I have ever broke so either the quality has gone way down or they are counterfeit. Spokes that break in the middle always have an inclusion. I bought some DT Alpine spokes several years ago. Afterwards I learned they had made a change in the design of the spokes that made them easier for machines to build the wheels. The shaft between the elbow and head was lengthened. This resulted in the heads popping off of the spokes. All of the information is on the tandem list over at Hobbes. Several tandem wheel builders will no longer use these spokes. After that stunt and a failure of DT to fix the problem I would not be surprised if DT has downgraded their quality. I have been unable to reach DT. https://flic.kr/p/2gC4GDL

32

Gear Talk / Re: Building a 45 spoke wheel.

« on: August 22, 2019, 10:02:34 am »

Santana and my self came up with formulas to calculate wheel strength based on the amount of dish these wheels have. Dish is a very old word used on wagon wheels that means the rim is not centered over the hub. Engels Coach Shop is still building these wheels. Dish was designed into these wheels though I can't find out why. The strongest wheels have zerodish. The next strongest wheels have equal spoke tension achieved by using different gauge spokes or by using more spokes on one side. The worlds greatest tourist Ian Hibell said you must use components you can get parts for. He started out with 32 spokes front and 40 spokes rear with Campagnolo hubs. Eventually 40 spoke rims became impossible to find. My 45 spoke wheels are as strong as a 54 spoke wheel of equal dish. They can be made from a standard 36 spoke wheel with a large flange hub. You can buy these wheels any where and modify them on the road which I have proved can be done. Once 48 spoke wheels become more common I will switch. 

33

Gear Talk / Re: Building a 45 spoke wheel.

« on: July 29, 2019, 08:23:06 am »

After 2 years there have been no failures of the hubs. I have broken several spokes with an R on the heads however I believe these are just bad spokes. Each of the two hubs has accumulated 4000 miles with around 165 pounds weight on the rear wheel. For more weird ideas check my flickr account under zerodish.

34

General Discussion / Motorists view cyclists as sub human.

« on: March 27, 2019, 09:08:06 am »

Read the article then we will discuss it.  https://phys.org/news/2019-03-offcyclists-human-drivers.html

35

Gear Talk / Re: Bike tour headlight recommendation needed

« on: March 25, 2019, 09:01:57 am »

I use a regular flashlight. Get a light with a narrow beam if you can. Flashlights with a slide focus are impossible to make waterproof. Get a flashlight holder if you want to mount it on the handlebars. You may want to consider a power bank flashlight which you can not only recharge with a usb cable but you can discharge into your phone.

36

General Discussion / I hit a rogue wave.

« on: March 22, 2019, 08:48:43 am »

For thousands of years sailors have reported a massive wave that comes out of nowhere on a calm day and capsizes their ship. Now days governments deploy buoys that measure wave height among other things and have proved these waves are real. Wave height is simply a matter of probability. The higher the wave the less probability it occurs. Recently I was traveling at around 20 mph on a road with newly patched pot holes. In addition there were crumbling pavement at the edges of the road and a downpour had washed mud into the road. Of course I hit the brakes but I didn't think the road was especially dangerous. This combination of rough pavement and the heavy traffic that would not allow me to use the full lane caused me to lose control and I slid into a deep pot hole full of water and crashed. As you know I have toured 100000 miles. It was only a matter of time before this happened. I bent a 4130 steel mountain bike fork and put a slight wrinkle in a 37 mm 4130 steel down tube. I replaced the fork since I'm on tour and am looking for a new bicycle. https://flic.kr/p/2dJbDdF

37

Gear Talk / Re: Best tires for touring the US

« on: January 28, 2019, 07:38:03 pm »

After more than 100000 miles I have found that tires wider than 38mm always fail at the side wall and tires narrower than 38mm fail from glass cuts through the tread. So 38mm tires are the longest lasting. Walmart Kmart Target and Academy all carry Bell Sports and a few other brands that are all made by the same company that have Kevlar belts fold and are sold folded though the bead is actually steel.  These tires are OK if you have the room for them in your frame.

38

Gear Talk / Re: Four chain ring set up

« on: January 28, 2019, 07:22:31 pm »

What is going to happen with your setup is is the chain will shift from the 22 to the 42 and never hit the 30. Frank Berto discovered this problem in the 70's. Try and make the smallest cog and the second smallest cog as close as possible to each other. I use a 2mm spacer in my setups. Also if you place 2 chainrings on a single bold puts more stress on the bolt and it is possible to shear them. Here are a few I have tried. https://flic.kr/p/WxWrEf https://flic.kr/p/bCuNDq https://flic.kr/p/bCuDZh

39

Routes / Re: Cumberland Gap closed to cyclists.

« on: November 08, 2017, 07:14:23 pm »

I filed a complaint with the office of inspector general, web site below. The thing is I do check out my routes ahead of time. Illegal route blockages are never listed on the maps. I have cycled past around 20 of these signs and chewed out the police who have bothered me. The police are backing down because they believe I know what I'm talking about. Other police department tell me they are aware of the problem and don't enforce the law. A partial list is interstate 5 on the northern California border. Interstate 75 on the northern New Mexico border. Interstate 15 through Salt Lake city. Got a nice apology from the governor on that one. Interstate 72 on the western Illinois border. Highway 90 tunnel under the Mobile river. Interstate 20 in St Claire Alabama. Interstate 69 in Bloomington Indiana. Interstate 49 around Springdale Arkansas. Interstate 64 in Illinois can't remember the county. A few others can be found on flickr under the user name bicycle hazard. https://www.oig.dot.gov/hotline

40

Routes / Cumberland Gap closed to cyclists.

« on: October 26, 2017, 08:15:59 am »

I tried this several days ago and ran into one of those interstate style signs. They have destroyed the road and built a tunnel. I went around by highway 74. Stay off this road it is the most dangerous one I have been on after more than 100000 miles. There is no shoulder and in many cases there is no road. The pavement is missing 2 feet chunks where it has simply fallen down the mountain. In addition the pavement has subsided which keeps turning your wheel off the road. If you get too fatigued to maintain a straight line you will fall down the mountain and no one will be able to see you. Now the ban is the clearest violation of Title 23 section 109m that I have ever seen. However we may not need to use this to get the highway rebuilt. The official highway department fluff piece on the road says the old 2 mile section of 25E was killing 5 people a year. If the tunnel is closed and traffic tries to divert through highway 74 there will be 5 deaths within the first hour and 5 emergency personal deaths before it is over. The roads will be jammed and the injured will have to be lifted out by helicopter. So this is also the clearest case of criminal incompetence as it pertains to motorized traffic by the federal highway department that I have ever seen.  I know nothing about the routes east of Cumberland Gap. 

41

Gear Talk / Re: Building a 45 spoke wheel.

« on: June 01, 2017, 07:59:31 pm »

Now that I'm running my wheel I am building a second one using my old hub. It has 3 cross spokes and it turns out there is room to put the radial spokes on the outside of the flange. This should give you even tension on all of the crossed spokes with the radial spokes slightly under tensioned. Insert a 3mm Allen wrench where you plan to drill the holes if it clears the cogs the spokes should clear.

42

Gear Talk / Re: Has anyone found a source for Titanium bike tools?

« on: May 24, 2017, 07:41:53 am »

Bondhuh and others make hollow hex key wrenches. These are called security bits or tamper resistant bits.

43

Gear Talk / Re: Building a 45 spoke wheel.

« on: May 21, 2017, 08:31:09 pm »

Probably just a cosmic ray I corrected the original post  and also there is this the failed first attempt. https://flic.kr/p/TLnB5t

44

Gear Talk / Building a 45 spoke wheel.

« on: May 20, 2017, 07:44:03 pm »

I have drilled 9 additional holes in a large flange hub and built a wheel with it. Photo link below There is a standard engineering practice for this sort of thing developed by the bridge industry. The holes must be 2 hole diameters away from the edge and 3 hole diameters away from each other. So even with a large flange hub we are way beyond what would be allowed on a bridge or an aircraft. This is why radial spoked wheels break the flange. On the other hand it may be possible to drill 50 percent more holes in a large flange hub and have comparable stress to a small flange hub without the additional holes. The additional spokes are radial with an offset equivalent to a 1 cross. They do touch the other spokes so the offset is 2 mm less than the other inside spokes. This allows me to calculate the strength gain. The tension of the left hand spokes went from .66 times the tension of the right hand spokes to .92 times after retruing the wheel. This indicates the amount of weight the wheel can support before the bottom spoke goes to 0 tension is 40 percent greater. The amount of force the wheel can withstand applied from the side before the wheel buckles on the gear side is also increased by 40 percent. I was not sure this pattern would work. You can't put a spoke on the rim seam so it has to be offset by 1 spoke. This put a bit of shear stress on the seam where it is always harder to true the wheel. However it went together well. Testing will continue until failure or I wear out the rim around 10000 miles. https://flic.kr/p/TLkrge

45

General Discussion / Re: Montana Highway bicycling access threatened in Montana Legislature

« on: January 22, 2017, 06:37:12 pm »

I just threatened the bozo with arrest. First of all read title 23 section 109m US code link below. Second of all read the postal clause of the US constitution. Postal workers still use horses and bicycles interfering with the delivery of the mail is a felony and federal offense. Last of all dig out the case of the Swartzentruber Amish vs the state of Ky. A federal judge ruled preventing horses and wagons from using the roads is a violation of the religious freedom clause of the US constitution. Some Amish sects and generally all Mennonite sect allow bicycles. They will have to bring this before a court for a ruling. It will hinge on the finding if banning bicycles poses an undue hardship for traveling to church. I have emails from both the governor of Utah and INDOT that agree with my interpretation of the law. Notice I was cycling on the interstate in those states. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/23/109