jonwvara 

Thanks to a helpful forum member, I just learned that Norton Antivirus had rated the Red Clover Components site as unsafe, apparently through the use of some sort of algorithm. As far as I can tell, this had probably been going on at least since February.

In fact, there have never been any problems with the site. The aforementioned forum member went to the effort of informing Norton that their rating was in error, and they have corrected it.

This is pretty discouraging to me, since I had no idea that it was happening. All I knew is that sales and site visits had fallen sharply since January. If I used Norton on my own computer, I suppose it would have warned me about visiting my own site, thereby tipping me off to the problem. But since my antivirus program comes from another vendor, I remained in not-so-blissful ignorance for months.

I am outing myself as shockingly ignorant of the ways of e-commerce, I suppose, but there it is.

What am I not doing that I should be doing to prevent this kind of stuff from happening? Does anyone have any suggestions that could reasonably be enacted by a luddite like me?

Velo Mule

It is working for me. I'm using Chrome for web browsing and Windows Security for the Anti-virus software. Nice pictures of cranksets. There is one of these tripleizers in my future for shure. I just have to complete more projects to get there.

gugie 

Got a grandkid with computer skills? I'm an engineer, and I typically offload computer issues at home to one of my kids.

bikingshearer 

What Gugie said ^^^.

And while I'm at it, I'll take the opportunity to give a big shout out to Jon and Red Clover. Great products, great person behind them. He made a mistake on my order and fixed it immediately upon my contacting him. No muss, no fuss. It's easy to give good customer service when things go right. A better measure is how a person/operation responds when something goes wrong. Jon passes that test with flying colors.

Oh, and the triplizers are great. I put one of the Stronglight compatables on my brother-in-law's early 1970s Gitane TdF - it looks like it was intended to be there and works great. Same for the Campy NR version on my Eroica bike. Top drawer stuff.

Bottom line: buy from Jon and Red Clover with confidence. This is the type of operation you can feel good about doing business with.

merziac

@jonwvara

Glad you got it sorted, works ok for me where many of the links here sketchy so hang in there and keep up the good work.

It would seem that your security may have a blind spot as most do. Maybe find a techie grand kid or the like.

Maybe ask members here to do a periodic test with the one you were talking about at the top of the list.

bamboobike4

I have to use IE, Edge, and Chrome at work.
We just got the software fix for using Edge on an IE-only site.
Other than the annoying "news" on their home pages, they're OK.

From time to time, I get warnings about sites that were OK yesterday.
Not sure I consider the warnings credible any more, like many things.

It's almost easier to just surf by pad or phone. The streamlining is welcome.
Until I get my cataracts fixed, though, it's a fading prospect.

gugie 

Red Clover will be well represented at Eroica. Finally built up my Raleigh International for the assault up Cypress.


24-32 granny. If that don't make it up Cypress, I give up forever

jethin

Also just weighing in to say that Jon is a stand up guy. In a pinch he helped me get my bike back on the road some years ago, which was much aopreciated.

Andy_K 

Sounds like a hardware problem to me.

gaucho777 

jonwvara I've been very happy with my Red Clover triplizer, purchased a couple months ago for another bike headed to Eroica. Excellent quality and smooth transaction via the https://www.redclovercomponents.com website.

smontanaro 

jonwvara, I'm glad to hear your site is "working" again. I hope the orders start flooding in. (Alas, I live in the Chicago area, so have little need for triplizers, or I would probably have bought one by now.)

Me too, though I'm a (retired) software engineer. I have been my extended family's "computer guy" for years, but more and more I find myself asking one of my two computer pro sons for help (DevOps & computer support). More often for the pickles I get myself into than problems my wife or in-laws have, but still. Makes a guy feel old.

(Skip veers off-topic to whine a bit because he's not had enough coffee yet...) I know this is a first world problem, but speaking of computers, in another thread I tried to use the common "shrug" emoticon:



but was informed by the forum software that I had used some invalid characters in my message. It then tossed out my message. Couldn't return to my compose window to "fix" the problem. Last time I checked were living in 2022. Haven't the IB (or whoever) people not heard of Unicode? If the forum software was open source, I'm confident this wouldn't have been an issue. (Just checked at discuss.python.org. Works fine there...)

ehcoplex

I'll add to the chorus- the Red Clover triplizer is a lifesaver for (increasingly) vintage knees on a vintage bike!


* I know the FD is too high in this photo!

jonwvara 

Heck, now I'm kind of embarrassed. Believe it or not, I didn't start this thread to collect public accolades. Really. I was wondering if perhaps there was some sort of public database through which one could enter the address of a web site, and find out if it had been rated as unsafe by any of the various providers of security software. My hypothesis was that such a thing might exist, probably because I know so little about the way things really work.

That's not to say that accolates aren't fun. I'm glad people are enjoying their triplizers, because I sure enjoy mine.

Darth Lefty 

Apropos of 144 bcd, is this the only way to get a new 42t? Triplized even if not needed? I’ve found them for track bikes but they’re 1/8” teeth and who knows about offset

jonwvara 

42-tooth 144 rings come up on ebay all the time. Prices for used ones with lots of remaining life are pretty reasonable, and even NOS examples seem not to fetch extravagant prices.

Those rare 41-tooth rings are another story, though....

smontanaro 

Looks like TA has 144BCD 41t & 42t rings on their website for about €50:

https://specialites-ta.com/23-campag...%5C/5+branches

droppedandlost 

I just ran a check on your site and it came back all green. You can check for yourself at the website below:
Name: redclovercomponents.com
Address: 199.34.228.66

https://ip-check.net/check-blacklist.php

jonwvara 

Thank you! I was hoping for something like that!

droppedandlost 

and your triplizers are excellent as well (there's a 28t hiding back there)

smontanaro 

While that's certainly useful, it won't catch problems with proprietary tools like Norton Antivirus, and (for better or worse) the bulk of most antivirus programs are probably such proprietary tools running on Windows machines.

tricky 

@jonwvara Don't be hard on yourself. I work with teams that implement enterprise level solutions. Technology is so complex that even professional technology practitioners get caught out like this. The lost revenue sucks, but could of been much much worse!

There are a few reputation checking options online. The one dropped and lost posted looks good. Regularly check that site but also load your site in all the common browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari) so that you aren't caught out if a browser decides to flag your site as unsafe.

jonwvara 

What's that, a 47-42-28? I use the same half-step-and-granny setup on my TdF, and like it a lot.

droppedandlost 

45-42-28 with a 13-26 6sp, been a near perfect range for me

top506

Years and years ago I mentioned to Jon that there were a lot more 144 BCD cranks out there than 122.........
I've used both and they are great!

Top

jonwvara 

I remember that well. I'm very fond--possibly overly fond--of Stronglight stuff. I have several bikes with Stronglight 93 cranksets, but only one 144 Campagnolo crank. The Campy crank hasn't actually been on a bike in years, and now hangs on a nail driven into a ceiling joist in my shop. Since my original goal was just to to lower the gearing on my own bikes, I started with the 122 triplizer. After talking to you, I borrowed an original (and long-discontinued) TA triplizer from Pastor Bob and modified the design very slightly for the version I make now. (Not sure if the "I make" in the previous sentence is perfectly accurate, since the actual machining is done by a local CNC shop.)

Anyway, thanks to both you and Bob for your early and timely help.