General Cycling Discussion - What are these? Few trivial questions

A logo of.....
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab31/trekrider54/L1010191.jpg
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab31/trekrider54/L1010187.jpg
The silver cable in the middle pic connects to this contraption
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab31/trekrider54/L1010186.jpg
I think this type of tire is slowing me down on pavement,would you agree?
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab31/trekrider54/L1010189.jpg

You are deforming a lot of rubber and churning up the air with those tires. A suspension fork can eat up power too if it bobs when you pedal.

Wild guess: that sure looks like a shift indicator based on the fact that there are 3X8 choices. Is it broken?

Green = go really fast in high
Red D = Drive (?)
Orange = mountainous low gear
How do I live without that display panel?

Those tires are like what Lance used this year in the TDF - no wonder he struggled................

Warning: Several of my biases will surge to the fore here.
I don't know what the silver cable is. I probably would if I could look at the bike, but from that close-up picture, which resembles nothing on any of my bikes, who knows?
The dial-y thing is a gear indicator. I've never seen any value in a dial telling you what gear you're in--it's either right, and you stay in it, or it's wrong, and you shift out of it. Knowing which one it is doesn't do much for you.
The tires are definitely slowing you down in comparison to lighter, smoother road rubber, but tires are always a compromise. They might be just what you need if you ever go on dirt roads. They'd be less likely to flat, give better traction on some surfaces and probably be more comfortable than "roadier" tires.

Wow... Folks would need an indicator to tell them that higher gears were good for going fast, and lower ones for climbing up hills?
Who'd-a-thunk?

this is a very neat little gizmo! I can't believe I never saw one before. this is like shifting for dummies.

http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab31/trekrider54/L1010186.jpg

is that some kind of stylised Trek headbadge?

Wow... Folks would need an indicator to tell them that higher gears were good for going fast, and lower ones for climbing up hills?
Who'd-a-thunk?

actually some do. I was out riding with my reluctant daughter the other day, and I was leasurely cruising on my 42x something on the 8 spd IGH and she was alwasy behind. aside from not being a good rider, I noticed she was in the little ring the entire mostly flat 15mile ride.

Many of my rides are spent in the small ring of a compact double (50/34) on flats.

I am a slug, but at 60 RPM, the gear charts say I will be going 15 mph, which is as fast as I typically ride on the flats. It is potentially cross chained, but I also usually maintain 70+ rpm, so I am rarely in the little-little combination.

It's a fun-meter. Spend too much time redlined and you break the fun-meter. Then you can't have any more fun. A redline descent is steep, rocky, twisty, and lots of fun - till you break the fun-meter. Then, the fun is over.

I do not know why the red is in the middle.

this is like shifting for dummies.


:roflmao2::roflmao2:

I was thinking a jamis badge

Trek?
Check out this link, line 12 of the pictures. http://wpedia.goo.ne.jp/enwiki/Head_badge

Here it is again, 4th from the right. http://mysticcyclecentre.com/services

Shimano Dual SIS is an indexed shifting system for front and rear, The C201 is a twist-grip shifter that is no longer produced from what I can tell.

The first one is an 80's trek logo - recumbent maybe.

Warning: Several of my biases will surge to the fore here.
I don't know what the silver cable is. I probably would if I could look at the bike, but from that close-up picture, which resembles nothing on any of my bikes, who knows?
The dial-y thing is a gear indicator. I've never seen any value in a dial telling you what gear you're in--it's either right, and you stay in it, or it's wrong, and you shift out of it. Knowing which one it is doesn't do much for you.

As the OP said, the silver cable connects to the gear display. It's a secondary cable from the shifter that drives the display, nothing else.

As to the usefulness... well, it wouldn't benefit me. However, I was talking to my favorite bike shop owner and she commented that there's a certain class of rider that you can't educate about things mechanical. You can't teach them to shift by feel, you can't teach them to not shift while backpedaling, you can't convince them that there's no such thing as an ultra-light flatproof tire, etc. etc. If you want to keep them riding, you have to give them as many foolproof tools as you can.

this is a very neat little gizmo! I can't believe I never saw one before. this is like shifting for dummies.


I know someone who could use something like that ... a coworker and his wife bought bicycles this past weekend. From the story he told after the weekend, it sounds like this is the first time she has ridden a bicycle since probably sometime in the 1950s or 1960s. She ended up falling off the bicycle three times because she couldn't figure out the shifting and kept throwing the chain.

OP, where did you get it? It really does look like a "Shifting For Dummies" tool which could be useful for this lady.

http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab31/trekrider54/DSCN0180.jpg

Good oberservations guys,the logo is from 2001,i guess that's how they made those gear indicator before they relocated them near the handle,i think i will replace those tires to gain lil speed,they are fine on loose dirt and such but 99% of my ride are on pavement,thanks for every answers and comments/jokes.

The first one is a Trek head tube badge, but not from the '80s. When Trek replaced my cracked 1990 1500 frame with a new one around 2000 or so, that's the head tube badge that came on the new "ZX" replacement frame, so I'd put it about 10 years old give or take. It's a dorky little design, certainly not their best look, plus there's almost no surface area to it, so mine's just barely hanging on by a thread of adhesive.

Edit: I guess I should have read all the way to the end of the thread before replying, eh? ;)