I am super confused; are you trading frames because the sizes are different?

They may be trading just to trade. Mucky has that oddball copper-plated Kilo.

oksir

Yes. He wants to size down, I want to size up.


I kinda dig it a lot.

kinda late, but
For a given head tube angle and wheel size, trail and rake are inversely related.

So more rake, equals less trail, equals twitchier handling?

yeah, less trail = quicker response

think of it like balancing a pencil on your finger, versus a hockey stick.
hockey stick has more 'trail', so it's not sensitive to 'steering' input.
the pencil has less, so it's more sensitive.

good picture
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...TrailDIAG2.jpg

Can you recommend a stand similar to this.

http://i40.tinypic.com/6f5lax.jpg

Here.

scrod:
i am selling at 3TTT quill stem on ebay.
this is stupid of me but im not sure what the clamp diameter is...
using digital calipers, measuring the stem's clamp, its like 25.82....i was thinking at first its a 26.0 clamp...but then i was thinking the clamp compresses down once the bolt gets tightened, and maybe its actually a 25.4 clamp...

what do you think?

I'm fairly certain a lot of older 3T quills have an oddball 25.8 clamp.

edit: an eBay search turned up a bunch listed as 25.8-26.0

25.8? weird. i posted them as 26.0, just figured my calipers were off a tiny hair or something...

would it be bad to use them with 25.4 bars? do you think its fine to have them listed as 26.0? would they work with 26.0 bars? i dont really have any spare bars around to test...

noone has bidded yet...i could easily revise the listing tho.

ill answer my own question from sheldon brownizzle:
"26.0 mm is the Italian national standard. Because Italian handlebar and stem brands are so popular, even many bars from other countries have adopted this size, and many people consider it to be a de facto "road" standard. Most expensive drop bars and stems are this size, or the slightly smaller 25.8 mm variant (those are interchangeable.)"


/notscrod

See here.

edit: Sheldon saves the day.

It can't be said enough, but he is missed everyday.

yah i should have remembered, when it doubt, sheldon brown.

Scrod:

My friend's V-brakes on her bike have been needing constant readjustment (re-centering). I feel like the brakes shouldn't have to be adjusted so frequently. Do you have any ideas on what the problem might be? (I don't have specific details, but I can try to get them for you).

Thanks!

It's hard to say without seeing the bike. Some V brakes just suck.

Do you have any suggestions as to things I should try to adjust? Or is it just something a mechanic he knows what he's doing should look at?

The springs may be starting to crap out. If you remove the brake arms from the posts, there should be three holes in which the spring can be inserted (typically, it's in the middle hole). Try putting it in the bottom hole, causing the brakes to have a little more 'snap' and usually hold side to side adjustment better.

Sounds like a plan. Thanks for the help!

Hi, for the next thirty seconds pretend i'm scrod:
also clean the **** out of the brake canti stud posts, and clean the insides of the brake arm mounts... even a speck of dirt in there will put a ton more tension on the spring. if the springs have set screws to adjust tension, try putting them at half tension and bending the spring arms that attach at the top of the canti arms slightly between your thumb and forefinger. also, get new pads so there is as much cable as possible between the two.

V brakes are so much easier to work on than actual cantis.

Did you eat thirteen sandwiches in one sitting? No? Well, this is ruining my immersion. :(

Scrod I went out for a ride last night and inspecting the bike I saw that 2 chainring bolts were missing, both ends of the bolts. Is this common? The crank in question is a Sugino RD2, thankfully I had an Omnium laying around so I changed it :)

Also can you recommend me good replacement chainring bolts?