Tag: wheels
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Don’t Overthink Cruiser Tires
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends Yesterday a dude came in with some cruiser bike from the previous century and asked me for “special tires”. I required further clarification, and he told me that a friend of his (probably some guy on reddit) had told him that cruisers need ultra-special tires. That ain’t really true. Cruiser…
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An Essential Peculiarity of Fixed-gear Hubs
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends Another day, another fixed-gear article. Today, I will present to you basic information regarding fixed-gear hubs that every mechanic and fixie-maniac has to know to avoid crucial mistakes. Yesterday, I saw a guy try to install a freewheel on a fixie hub. Anyone who knows a little something about bikes…
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Why I Prefer Wheels With More Spokes (strength over grams)
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends I have a confession to make. I am not a weight weenie. I don’t care about saving some 50 grams via weird hacks and expensive components. And I certaintly don’t like wheels with a minimal number of spokes. Why? My riding is rarely if every limited by the weight of…
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Legends Never Die
from Rookie’s keyboard Hello, friends Yesterday I spent the day working in a village (long story how I ended up there). On my way to the local store I saw a fairly old man (he still had a lot of energy in him) pedaling a retro 26″ MTB. What surprised me was that the bike…
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The 26-inch Wheel Swap (another afternoon as a bike mechanic)
from Rookie’s keyboard Hello, friends You probably don’t know this, but I’ve been spending a few hours each week working as a bike mechanic at the local bike shop (my main job is in a warehouse). And I routinely get into somewhat weird situations. I’m surprised how many people have very unexpected issues and requests.…
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One Thing You Should Never Forget About Tubeless Tires
from Rookie’s keyboard Hello, friends Today’s post is dedicated to tubeless tires and one peculiarity about them that riders often forget – the fact they can operate with regular inner tubes just fine. Many cyclists with a tubeless setup frequently bring a spare inner tube in their gear for instances when the tire is too…
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A Must-Know Presta Valve Characteristics and a Genius Hack
from Rookie’s keyboard Hello, friends Today, I will share with you a few important characteristics of presta tubes and a hack that you may find helpful in extreme situations. Presta valves /French valves/ are strategically made slimmer than Schrader (auto valve) and Dunlop so that they can work with the narrow, deep, aerodynamic rims seen…
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Aero Spokes Can Go To Hell (as far as I’m concerned)
from Rookie’s keyboard Hello, friends I have a confession to make – I think that Aero Spokes (ASs) are simply not worth the investment/trouble. You can call me a hater if you want, but this is how I see things. Standard spokes are just fine for 99.9% of the population. But let’s not be too…
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On “Internal Flat Tires” and Rim Tape Substitutes
From Rookie’s Keyboard Hello, friends I decided to dedicate my weekend topic to a slightly unpopular biking issue known as “internal flat tires”. What does this even mean? Normally, flats are caused by a sharp object piercing the tire and the inner tube. What if I tell you that flat tires could also be an…
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Can 4 Extra Spokes Really Make That Much of a Difference? (of course)
From Rookie’s Keyboard, Hello, friends It’s time for another post. To be honest, I never thought I’d like blogging/online writing as much as I do. I find that it helps me concentrate better. The topic of today will be spoke count and more specifically 28 and 32-spoke wheels. The difference between the two isn’t huge…