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The Uncomfortable Truth About Non-steel Rigid Forks (carbon and alloy)
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends Time for some more fork talk. I will be honest. I am not the biggest fan of non-steel rigid forks, but since you asked for a post on the subject, I prepared one. Today, I will talk about carbon and alloy forks with zero mercy for either of them. The…
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Thursday Magic: The “Fake” 7-speed Hub
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends Today, I will tell you about the “fake” 7-speed hub I discovered while working on some ancient MTB. First, you need to know is that there are two types of 7-speed hubs – a “dedicated one” and a “fake” one. The first is short and works only with 7-speed cassettes…
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Octalink Died But SQ Taper Didn’t (and won’t)
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you probably know that I am a big fan of square taper BBs, especially the old-school models that you can service with a set of cone wrenches. In this post, I will tell you why Octalink, the successor of square taper…
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Downtube Shifters’ Upgradability Path
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends A while back, I made a post praising downtube shifters. I stand by my statements, but at the same time, it’s possible that some rookies out there have old bikes and would like to upgrade to something more modern like STI type brifters. The good news – it’s possible. The…
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Pulling From The Center (rim brakes talk)
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends I am back with another post focusing on rim brakes. This piece will shed light on center-pull and cantilevers (a.k.a. cantis). Center-pulls are old-school rim brakes found on many retro bikes. Just like calipers, they attach to the frame and fork via bolts. The brake cable pulls a straddle wire…
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Memories: How I Installed a Full Front Fender + a Mudflap On a Hardtail
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends Today, I will go back in time and present you a “mod” that I did to my hardtail 5-6 years ago. At the time, I was commuting with that bike. Nowadays I use a retro road bike as I prefer rigid machines for that purpose. One of my first lessons…
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Carbon Frame Architecture
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends This post is dedicated to carbon frame assembly/architecture. There are three main ways to assemble a carbon bike: a/ via gluing (most common) b/via lugs c/ via molding Today, I will compare a/ and b/. For financial reasons, most carbon frames today are built by gluing together a few separate…
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The Poor Man’s Path To That Full Suspension Feeling
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends I am about to say something that could annoy some seasoned riders, but my site is focused on the rookies out there. A while back a customer told me that he was thinking about getting a full suspension bike. When I asked why, he said – “For comfort.” Then I…
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When You Don’t Have Grips…
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends Time for a short tip today. If you ever find yourself in a situation when you don’t have the right grips for your bike, consider using drop bar tape either temporarily (until that China package arrives) or permanently if you like the feeling. This practice is not common, but it’s…
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Crazy (or maybe genius) Fixed-gear Talk
from Rookie’s keyboard, Hello, friends The reality is that sometimes bike shop clients aren’t the only people with crazy ideas. Sometimes even experienced bike mechanics will have unexpected whims that could later be classified as shocking. Today, I will expose one of them. Not that long ago, a guy in the shop (who btw is…