Recently and stupidly lost my beloved 16-year old Trek 520 to a thief, who is I hope riding it to Costa Rica instead of selling it to support some less healthy habit.

I've tried to interpret this as an opportunity, and reentered the market, which has changed remarkably in 16 years. I just obtained a 2008 Raleigh One Way, which is already beloved. It reminds me a great deal of both my 520 ( the same beautiful green and the Brooks saddle ) and its predecessor, a similarly set up Dawes touring bike.

Question - has any other owner tried removing the little curved stainless steel panels with the name of the bike from both sides of the top tube? I find them the one detraction from the bike's overall appearance. They seem to be stuck on with some kind of adhesive, but I haven't wanted to risk damaging the finish underneath.

Thanks!

i'm just going to say that it's there for a reason. it's so your bars don't ding your frame. that being said, i can't answer your question.

Apparently, it's some kind of double-sided tape. Just take a hair dryer to it and peel it off. I believe this was discussed a bit in another thread about the Rush Hour. I'm going to pick mine up at the LBS in a few hours so I'll investigate a bit, although I actually kinda like it.

i take back my comment, then.

You can also "debadge" by using dental floss. It works well for removing the emblems on a car too.

Steve

I plan on attempting this operation in the next couple of days. I'll report back. Hmm hair dryer and dental floss.

Hair dryer did the trick. I wouldn't mind the shiny panels if they were placed better, like not in the middle of the top tube, but closer to the head or seat tube. It just looks ridiculous where it is now.

On a slightly unrelated note, my Rush Hour came with an 18 tooth cog in the back, instead of the 15 as advertised. Not that I'm disappointed, actually quite the opposite. But I did find it weird.

Wow, I never checked out my cog or chainring. I just assumed it was the indicated size.

I love the way you turned this into a positive opportunity. Whenever I have lost bikes to thieves I've been way too busy spewing bile and ranting about bloody revenge to be philosophical.

Good work.

Thanks very much! - I'll let you know how this goes for me too.

- SS

I think that the Raleigh One-Way is probably the most practical bike on the market. Raleigh even told us that they're considering horizontal dropouts for 2009, though I doubt they'll follow through with that.

^^ from just a once over, it looks like it has track fork ends. Why would you want them to change to horizontal drops? I REALLY like this bike but something about the geometry just doesn't agree with me.

Because horizontal dropouts offer better functionality than track ends.

i really like a functional bike like this. i like the option of cantilever brakes and fenders. the geometry of the one way seems closer to a cross-check. i would also like something more aggressive. i was thinking of a surly steamroller and brazing some canti bosses and fender eyelets on.

maybe just cause i have commuted w/ and w/o fenders for a long time, but surly's decision to omit fender eyelets from the steamroller seems pretty stupid. why advertise clearance for beefy tires (implying good commuting or semi-offroad bike) and not have fender eyelets. Cause it makes it 'pure'?! your clothes aren't going to look very pure after you ride in even a light drizzle.

just put clip on fenders on, or use p-clamps? bull****! clipons don't offer very good coverage and p-clamps are always shifting.

and this from a company bases in minnesota?! i was born in minnesota, not much fender-free riding to be done up there.

i guess that's the end of my fender rant.

i guess there isn't much a market for bikes for people who want geometry on the aggressive side, but are style unconscious enough to want fenders. oh grant peterson...why won't they listen. hehehe.

oh yeah, and they should offer the one way in a sturmey-archer 3-speed version. i guess that would make it a three-way. any objections to that?

Well I ripped off the metal collar with no problems. I put on a 44t chainring and a new set of Powergrips. Badass.

Word. Every new street single speed/fixed gear bike should have nice, long, forward-facing horizontal dropouts, so that you can get the wheels on and off more easily, and so that if you run a fender, you don't have to take the fender off every time you get a flat tire. Track ends look better, but just aren't as practical for those purposes. For track purposes, of course, track ends are just fine.

Aside from the ease of wheel removal, a bike with horizontal dropouts can more easily be converted to take gears if you ever want to. Just add a derailer hanger.

The steamroller not having fender eyelets has bugged me since the first time I saw it.. It can be fixed up front by getting a cross check fork (although I'm sure the rake is slightly different). But why try to make it look "pure" if you're going to have 2cm of space between the tire and the fork crown? I always thought that someone got halfway to making a really great and practical bike and maybe ran out of money or something.

Although, for the price of brazing canti studs (and repainting and all) and some descent brakes, you could get a set of Paul Racer centerpulls. That would look sweet.

Aside from the Steamroller not having eyelets, what's up with the Cross-Check not having an integrated rear brake hanger? They say "adding a permanent cable stop to the seat stays ... wouldn't be used by v-brake or fixie riders," which makes no sense at all. People without a rear brake already have deal with two giant cantilever pegs, and I'm sure that the few dozen V-brake riders out there would get over it. Sorry, this is totally OT.

Rear wheel removal with fenders doesn't have to be that bad...Just use a pair of the plastic retainers as used on the FRONT fender. If you have to remove the rear wheel, just pull the struts out of the retainers to give more clearance when sliding the axle aft. The fender is flexy enough to allow relatively easy wheel removal.

what are these plastic retainers you speak of? i don't have 'em on my front fender.

SKS fenders have them

P-clips on a steamroller have been working fine for me for a year now. Though I have been thinking of having eyelets and rear brake cable stops brazed on, just make things cleaner.

The plastic clips serve as a safety feature, allowing a "quick disconnect", in case something gets caught/lodged between the tire and the fender. Minimizes the chance for a sudden quick stop followed by a short flight over the handlebars...

This is true, but with horizontal dropouts, you don't have to do any of that. There just seems to be an obsession with fork ends right now, even if they're not right for a lot of the riding that people do. I can't really think of any disadvantage horizontal dropouts would give to a rider aside from not being able to use a chain tensioner.

There are even chain tensioners that work with horizontal dropouts. People love fork ends because they're too often under the mistaken impression that they're riding track bikes, when they're really just riding road bikes with fork ends.