Fifty Plus (50+) - Jerseys And Junk................

Two questions..........

First, does anyone have a source for cheap unadorned jerseys? Riding in the rain is
much nore comfortable in a jersey vs. a 'T' shirt. Also, I don't care to be a riding billboard for
companies so I try to find plain, bright (but not yellow) jerseys.

Second, can I put a touring or MB BB and crankset on my Trek 1200? When I ask at any lbs
they tend to glance awkardly at the floor and say anything is possible.


LastPlace

I have seen them in Performance and Nashbar catalogs. I use them too.

Anything is possible. Cheap bicycle jerseys--Nashbar is hard to beat when they have a sale. For generic, moisture wicking t-shirts, there have been a couple of threads recently with a link to a manufacturer that seems promising. Scroll back a couple of pages and look for 'jerseys' in the thread title.

Bottom bracket and crank conversion--can be done. The problem is chainline alignment; front ring alignment to freewheel. Not all cranksets mount in the same place, there is offset (if you look at different bikes cranksets you see that on some the crank arms a straight, some pretty straight, some curved outward--you like these technical terms?), in and out. Because of this offset, it is necessary to match a bottom bracket to the crank offset AND your bike.

Bottom brackets have numbers attached to them which are the length of the shaft--103, 111, 127, etc. You have to determine which length you need to keep the chain aligned. When putting a different crankset on a bike for the first time, while there are good guidelines (see Sheldon Browns fantastic article on this) and simple math is involved; I have found the process to be pretty much trial and error.

Many bike shops have problems with this: most don't stock a variety of bb's and if they do a conversion, they may wind up having to order one or more that don't get used (and may never be used) that wind up in inventory effectively killing any profit from the job. Cheap bb's run a shop $12-$15; expensive ones can run close to a hundred. Second, most customers aren't satisfied with an "$45 an hour--however long it takes--and we have no idea" answer to "How much is this going to cost and how long is it going to take?" The customer isn't happy with this and the shop isn't happy. Then, if the customer finds that the final product doesn't measure up to their expectations...it's just not a win-win situation.

I have done several, and am about to do another this week on an old Falcon Eddy Merckx I've been saving. I bought a box of used bb's from a bike shop a while back--take offs, worn out ones--I do trial fittings, then order a new one when I'm satisfied that I'm close.

John in Oregon

I have an 11-34 cassette on my old Bianchi with triple in front. It even made the bike a Campy / Shimano mutation, and it works fine. That 30 front - 34 rear combination is a real granny. I don't use it much anymore, except on my trainer (OCR 2 comp now), but it sure helps on a couple of 15% grades we have here in Quincy, CA.

Not jerseys but inexpensive, bright colored wicking t-shirts....Alert Shirt (http://www.alertshirt.com/)

Two questions..........

First, does anyone have a source for cheap unadorned jerseys? Riding in the rain is
much nore comfortable in a jersey vs. a 'T' shirt. Also, I don't care to be a riding billboard for
companies so I try to find plain, bright (but not yellow) jerseys.

Second, can I put a touring or MB BB and crankset on my Trek 1200? When I ask at any lbs
they tend to glance awkardly at the floor and say anything is possible.


LastPlace

Glad to see that you have found the joys of Proper cycling Clothing- but Cheap stuff is not always a bargain. Here in the Uk there are lots of makes that do a plain jesey- other than a "Team" jersey- couple spring to mind as Giordano and Brio. Only problem is finding one that fits and this is not easily done by mail order. I like to try on before I part with the ££££'s as I still buy shirts that have a short back or tight arms or some thing else that makes them uncomfortable, out of the Bargain Box.


On the Crank change- anything is possible but what cranks are fitted to the bike and what are you wanting to have on the bike? Each Type of crank will have a set width of Bottom Bracket. Take a Shimano LX and this requires a 113mm bottom bracket- To align with the rear cassette. This is not set in Stone so can be changed. For example I run a Tandem that is a bit out of the norm for Anything on a normal bike. It has Sugino Cranks front and rear. And as it was set up had a 118mm bottom bracket. Unfortunately It went one weekend and I put in a 115mm to get me out of trouble. No problems and it is still there. Then on my Bianchi it had a cheap Crankset initially. I decided to get an LX crankset and then found that a 128mm bottom bracket was fitted with the old Crankset. The crankset sat so far out that I had problems getting the front derailler to change into the big ring. Got the proper width bottom bracket and no problem. Except I didn't as I wanted a better grade bottom bracket and could not get it in 113- Finished up using a 108 and no problems at all.

stapfam,

Perhaps I asked the wrong question. My goal is much lower
gearing and assumed I would have to change the BB to add new rings up front.

If it is possible to just change the rings I could use some advice on that, but
you raised the issue of the front deraliur which I had not thought of before.

Thanks,
LastPlace

Assuming you have a standard 130mm bolt circle, I think 39 (maybe 38) teeth is as small as you can go. Sugino makes (and Rivendell sells, www.rivbike.com) a crank called the XD2, with 110/74mm diameter BCD. I've had a triple one on my Atlantis, geared 46-36-26, for three years, and it's been great. You'll need a new bottom bracket (or maybe just a spindle, if you can find anybody who still sells them separately), but I can't imagine that installation will be much of a problem. You may have chainline issues, but I've seen similar swaps done several times and the worst I can imagine happening is that you'll have a couple of gear combinations that will put the chain at a severe angle. It's easy to ride around that just by keeping it in mind.
You may need a new rear derailleur, too, to take up the slack when the chain drops down to the small ring. At least for me, though, an old slow guy in the mountains, it was WELL worth the trouble and cost. Rivendell was good about advising me, too, so if your shop can't help and you don't want to go look for one that will, give them a try.

38T is the smallest 130mm chainring. How low do you want to go? With a long-cage rear derailleur, you can have up to 34T on the freewheel, without resorting to a triple chainring and therefore without changing cranks or bottom brackets.

To make the job easier for your front derailleur, consider an outer chainring of 48 or even 46T, instead of the stock 53.

I like the Nashbar cheap jobs for $20 sleeveless. My more expensive garb is an UnderArmor brand, which works well also. Everything must be in bright colors for me to want to wear it.

I consider HiViz to be a primary color.

Check out Pricepoint for some classic plain jerseys. $22.98. These are long sleeves, but they also have short sleeves available.

http://www.pricepoint.com/detail/12167-530_PNTLJ1-1-Clothing-9-Jerseys/Long-Sleeve/Price-Point-Classic-Jersey.htm

try Kucharik. I actually don't have any of their jerseys, but I have shorts and a jacket and I've been impressed by good quality with little poseur factor. Website is factory direct from L.A. My LBS stocks them

http://www.kucharik.com/index.html

In reference to the BB question......Most (if not all) modern road bikes have a 68 mm diameter BB while mountain bikes usually have a 73 mm diameter BB.....
Have you considered just replacing your rear cassette with larger (lower grear) sprocket like 13 - 28 or
13 - 32? Make sure your rear derailer has sufficient deflection capacity for larger (low) gearing before increasing casstte ratios.