I like green. Why, though, do all green components have to be ridiculous bright green? I want an earthy baby-diarrhea green for my rims and crank. Sugino makes/made a set of track cranks that were anodized olive green. I my pants got entirely too tight when I found them. But I cannot afford them. A couple brands (Eightinch, etc) make a brownish green wheelset, but I've already got a decent one.
Am I an idiot for disassembling my rims just to paint them and rebuild them? Does anyone make affordable stuff in a color I would enjoy? Maybe I should buy some painted cranks and then re-paint those? Where exactly is Carmen Sandiego?
Why do I have this urge to make my FG personalized, even though I know everyone else couldn't give less of a crap about my color choices, just how I see most (stereotypical) "fixies" and want to punch a brick wall?

No, but they're not the greatest.

Wow.

I'm not sure what this means.

I've gone through 6 avid rotors during the past 2 years.

Let me rephrase in a way that I'm not drunk.

Do you like green?

Not really.

I'm about to order some spare tubes for my tour. For the sake of versatility I want to get the same tubes for both mine and Chris' bikes. My tires are 25 and 26, and his are 28. Should I get 23-25 or 25-30 tubes? (Not sure how much it matters that we'll have a full touring load and thus will not be inflating to max PSI)

Always get the smaller sized tubes if you need to share them across tire sizes. Tubes balloon up to the diameter of your thigh easily, but when they're too big for the tire, it's damn near impossible to get the tire to seat right because the tube is in the way.

BMX riders have been known to ride on 16" tubes stretched around their 20" wheels.

Thanks, Dan. That makes perfect sense.

scrod,
im trying to decide what fork to get for the 722 im gonna be getting soon.

i was thinking of the s805, because id try and make this bike much more of a weight weenie compared to my mammoth 24 pound scrambler i have now.

im curious as to how strong this/other carbon forks can be..
i ride in some hilly terrain that have some really craptastic bike paths with potholes and bumps galore, can i expect a good strength-weight ratio from a carbon fork if im hitting a lot of unavoidable bumps and holes?

the roads im stuck with dont have a lot of room to avoid potholes while simultaneously minding the little tweens in bmws whizzing by just a couple feet away

The S805 fork is plenty strong enough - but it weighs nearly as much as the S803 and is actually heavier than some steel forks on the market.

You're really not going to have to do much to make your Leader weigh less than your Scrambler. FWIW, my 58cm 722TS weighs 20ish.

Mine also weighs about that with pretty "meh" parts on it.

I couldnt seem to find its weight posted anywhere either so that definately helps in the decision making

Would i still be able to trust my life to a full carbon fork? Having my front end crap out on me on a descent with ******y drivers so close scares me about as much as eating the edge of a car door at 30 mph

The pros use full carbon forks in tours, they crash, and theyre fine. Im assuming us normal people will be ok

Carbon really isn't as fragile as a lot of people think it is, especially a fork. If you're that worried about it, just go with a steel fork. I haven't weighed my BK yet but it's a little lighter than my 722 and both have steel forks.

Is there an explanation for all the carbon horror stories, like "I stood up to mash up a hill and my frame cracked in half"?

Who knows? All I can say is that cheap carbon isn't good and good carbon isn't cheap.

I know a roadie who was in a pretty bad crash on a carbon frame - he was in a pace line and the dumbass in front of him slammed on his brakes because he dropped a water bottle and he smashed into him while three people directly behind him literally ran them both over. His seatstay cracked pretty badly but he had his frame repaired and is still riding it.

It just has a reputation that when it breaks, it shatters.

True. Not very forgiving, that crabon.

i keep thinking about all the roadies chuggin along with carbon everything and knowing theyre obviously fine,
i guess the images ive seen of broken carbon stuff just makes me paranoid
that and the fact that these roads here suck hard in some places, guess i just gotta trust my gear and htfu

worth a watch

I watched a guy on a Tarmac T bone a pickup truck doing about 20. He rode away. lucky man, but that's beside the point. Carbon is strong stuff.

Scrod,

From the other thread, can I call you Davy Jones?

what's the lever on the end of these bars?