Okay, dude riding the grey GT (who smoked my front wheel tonight) ... if you're on here, fess up. I checked my wheel and it's got a nice you-shaped gouge in the rim but it doesn't look like the rim is bent - it's just out of true and I'll fix it up this weekend. No harm, no foul.

Tip: Make sure no one's already riding the line you want to be on before you cut left!

what the hell?

Meh?

How did this happen?

i hear the market is huge for non-drive side cranks! i'm suprised there are thieves out there with crank pullers. why would someone take the time to steal that?

saw a guy riding a swobo fixed today on college. nice and simple frame, looked like good quality dtopouts but didn't get a good look at it. any idea who makes those frames for them?

Because they can. I had a guy in this morning who'd had his barrel adjusters stolen from his brake levers. Cheapo brake levers at that. The funny thing is that it wasn't the first time someone had come in with that particular problem.

Keith-thanks for the help this morning. A trip to crappytire, 2 m10 nuts, a tube of super glue gel and some ingenuity has solved the problem until the americans finish their holiday and get back to the warranty dept.

One guy came in and said that someobody had bolt cuttered his rear wheel spokes to get at the hub + cranks.

Meaning the theif had to be carrying

1) 15mm wrench
2) 8 mm hex
3) Crank puller
4) bolt cutter

Really sucked to be that guy. Even proper lockup technique sometimes just isn't enough.

no kidding - good thief there; way to ruin the most expensive component on a bike to steal a cheap one!

It was really nothing spectacular. I think a cab or something was pulling over to let people out. Once it started to pull over I moved over to the left side of the moving cars because I figured people would get out and block the road. Dude in front of me kept going and then skidded (brakeless)/cut left between cars when people did in fact block the road on their way to the curb. I wasn't willing to go into the oncoming lane so I just hit the brakes and hoped for the best. Almost stopped in time and caught his rear wheel across my front.

When I see someone riding brakeless, one thing goes through my head: "Trouble"
Sorry to hear about your wheel.

**** happens. I can fix it so it's no biggie.

Oddly enough it was my second mishap of the day - I completely bailed as I arrived at Humber. There's a dirt service road leading from the Humber trail up to the back end of one of the parking lots on campus ... I was riding up it w/ slicks and sitting down to keep the rear wheel from going. I picked a ****ty line at one point and dropped in and out of a big erroded rut. That was all it took to pop my front wheel right up into the air and send me toppling over sideways, at which point I got a nice bloody "bear claw" wound from my chainring. Of course I ended up walking into class (guest speaker day) late, filthy and bleeding.

Edit: Hahaha, I just stabbed myself in the ass with a cactus. That's it, I'm done for the day. Someone put me in my protective bubble.

Wasn't me on the GT, I was riding around on an old Eaton's Glider today. It's olive-green with a 3-speed Sturmey Archer hub (from 1972!), chrome fenders, neato book-rack-claw-thingy on the back, and it is fun to ride but noisy and slow. And I am addicted to ringing the bell...I am going too slow for anyone to be in my way but it is fun to ring.

On that note, I overheard a guy saying he had his QR skewers stolen while his bike was locked up.

Really?

To all the "fixie" newbies (and this means those who have not been riding track bikes in an urban environment for 10+ years) keep your un-experienced, knee-jerk comments to yourselves. When I see sketchy, hipster, trend followers on their off the peg bikes, I think the same thing. Some of us have been doing quite well, enjoying safely riding our bikes, before most of you even knew what a fixed gear is. If you want to be judgmental, go to the safety thread with this crap......really.

Zing!

I think kergin was describin exactly what you're talking about - brakeless trend followers on off the peg bikes And not a general blanket statement per se

Although to be honest I hardly see even one bike on my commute down till I get south of St. Clair which is really disappointing. The one roadie I passed the other morning thought I was trying to show off and decided to repeatedly attack to drop me

Maybe I smelled or something.

Also: Quantum solace!

*evil laugh* it was MEEEEE *evil laugh Milano style*

Keith,

- we replaced the front brake pads
- we replaced the missing spacers in the headset stack

- the ratchet in the front shifter is going (gone?) and shifting to the big ring is not possible
- the derailleur hanger is really soft and has a crack developing
- the rear tire has a soft spot on the sidewall

... just wanted to let you know before the bike gets ridden by Sara.

I think most of the 10+ year vets on track bikes are normally found in the core during weekdays. For the rest of us who are out and about in other areas of the city, experienced fixed riders are few and far between. *ducks to avoid Keith-Rage*

No worries....I have a shifter, and tire for it and will grab a new hanger from the shop next week. Keep it as long as you want and giv'r!

Its not safety crap, and I know you and other experienced riders can and do use brakeless fixed gear bikes, but those guys are, as stated, few and far between, and concentrated within the core M-F. When I see brakeless riding on Harbord or Bloor, or other areas of the city, "trouble" is what goes through my head. Also, "trouble" isn't meant to indicate the rider is one way or the other; its meant in the general sense to encompass danger to themselves and others.

FWIW, I've also seen equally dumb sh1t pulled by people riding beach cruisers and utility bikes.

There's a safety thread?

[Another dumb question that I feel I will get torn up for if I asked in the main forums]

What does the NJS certification mean?

Is it that all parts with the NJS logo are within a certain tolerance? or built a certain way?


I am only asking because I see it everywhere and tend to pay no attention to it, and was wondering if I should. I tried to search but I couldn't find anything (even on google, mind you computers hate me)

[/stupid question]

Dude... there's a whole safety SECTION: https://www.bikeforums.net/advocacy-safety/