Re: [RBW] Re: 46-30 crank on an unloaded road bike

2017-01-03 Thread Deacon Patrick
Ah. Thanks, Steve. I'm too much of a Fred to be a Fred on Zwift. Grin.

With abandon,
Patrick

On Tuesday, January 3, 2017 at 4:31:44 PM UTC-7, Steve Palincsar wrote:
>
>
>
> On 01/03/2017 06:15 PM, Deacon Patrick wrote: 
> > I've no idea what Zwift is. 
>
> http://zwift.com/ 
>
> some kind of trainer-cycling with an online component that one article 
> spoke of as "gamification" 
>
>
>
>
>
>

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Re: [RBW] Re: 46-30 crank on an unloaded road bike

2017-01-03 Thread Steve Palincsar



On 01/03/2017 06:15 PM, Deacon Patrick wrote:

I've no idea what Zwift is.


http://zwift.com/

some kind of trainer-cycling with an online component that one article 
spoke of as "gamification"






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Re: [RBW] Re: 46-30 crank on an unloaded road bike

2017-01-03 Thread Steve Palincsar

Yes, that's what I said.


On 01/02/2017 11:04 PM, ted wrote:

Steve writes:
"... I had a 104" top gear on my 1972 P-15 Paramount as originally 
delivered.  I found it way too high.  I changed the freewheel (had no 
choice, really: the shop destroyed the Regina Oro when trying to 
remove it for the first service) to one with a 15T that brought the 
top gear down to a 97" and found that it made a huge difference: top 
gear was now usable.  It made as profound a change in the usefulness 
of the bike as switching the granny to a Merz 31.  That was a 27 x 1 
1/4" wheel, 54T big ring.  Make of that what you will. ..."


Of which I make
Steve believes a 27x1-1/4" wheel has an effective radius of 27"
That he found the 54-14 104" top gear on his 1972 P-15 Paramount too 
high for his liking.
That the ~7% smaller 97" gear he got by replacing his 14-xx freewheel 
with a 15-xx one suited him much better.


On Monday, January 2, 2017 at 7:29:29 PM UTC-8, Steve Palincsar wrote:

On 01/02/2017 06:37 PM, ted wrote:


John wrote: "46-11 = 113GI, pretty high for all but pros". When I
see the term "pro" there I think of somebody who makes a living
racing a bicycle. I was never a pro, never even really
competitive as a middle aged local cat 4 racer wana be, but I did
find a 116" gear (53-12 with 700c 23mm tires) useful on group
rides with a local racing oriented group. So I think John
seriously over stated how high a 46-11 gear is. It wouldn't
surprise me if competitive local cat 3 racers (a long way from
pro caliber) found a 50-11 combination (yielding ~120GI) useful.



Use cases for 50x11 (or gears that high in general):

- tandems
- sprinting at the finish of a race
- very strong riders riding fast in a pace line
- pedaling while going down several mile long hills

Making your living riding has nothing to do with it.





Veering onto antique standards, John wrote: "... from 52-14
130BCD days"
I had no idea 130BCD cranks with 52t big rings and 14-xx
freewheels (emphasis on the 130BCD) were ever a common thing. I
take it thats what 70's Schwinns had.


1970s Paramounts had Campagnolo Record cranks.  144mm BCD, I think.



Learn something new every day.
I always thought the Campi 144BCD was standard back then and that
the 130BCD standard emerged much later to allow the 39t small
ring (as opposed to the previously prevalent 42) of the 53/39
cranks that were ubiquitous on "racing" bikes before 50/34 110BCD
"compact cranks" came on the scene. By that time I believe
cassettes typically started at 13, 12, or even 11 teeth. So I
didn't think there was ever a time when 52-14 top gears and
130BCD cranks went together. Not that that is of any importance,
just saying thats what I thought.

If anybody is still reading, I apologize for the impending
snarkyness but it seems I can't help myself.


Work on it.


John recommends 98-100 inches which is 99" plus or minus 1". He
also says 2" is insignificant, and says 103" is too high. I find
all that rather inconsistent. If 3" too many is too much, I
wouldn't think 2" is insignificant. Does the transition from
insignificance to excess occur in a delta of <1%? If 2" is
insignificant, why not 97 to 101"? If the target is 99" why all
the talk about a magic and recommended 100" value that he seems
to treat more like an upper bound than an actual target?


All snarkiness aside, I had a 104" top gear on my 1972 P-15
Paramount as originally delivered.  I found it way too high.  I
changed the freewheel (had no choice, really: the shop destroyed
the Regina Oro when trying to remove it for the first service) to
one with a 15T that brought the top gear down to a 97" and found
that it made a huge difference: top gear was now usable.  It made
as profound a change in the usefulness of the bike as switching
the granny to a Merz 31.  That was a 27 x 1 1/4" wheel, 54T big
ring.  Make of that what you will.   And back then, I lived in the
Catskills, where we did have some big long mountains to ride down,
unlike now where most of my "downhills" are stream-cut gorges no
more than 150' deep and 0.3 - 0.6 mi.

These days, everything of mine is in the 96 - 99" range (except
the Moulton, which is in the mid-80s).




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Re: [RBW] Re: 46-30 crank on an unloaded road bike

2017-01-03 Thread Steve Palincsar
I know one can readily replace a 1st position 12 with a 1st position 13 
tooth sprocket - I've been doing it for the past 15 years - but I'm not 
100% certain you can as easily replace an 11 with a 12.  I've asked that 
question on the forums and have received equivocal answers; perhaps some 
can be and some cannot. But even there, it all depends on what's next in 
sequence.  If the 2nd position sprocket is a 12 then replacing the 11 
with a 12 makes no sense.   Although this is a standard way to customize 
9 speed cassettes, nor does removing the 2nd position sprocket in order 
to add a larger one at the end because with the 10 speed Shimano 
cassette design you can't slip a flat sprocket behind the 10th.


As to which is easier, customizing cassettes or chain rings: long term 
if you can get exactly the gearing you want by using a standard cassette 
and changing the chain rings, provided the front shifts OK then this is 
by far the simpler in the long run.  In the short run, of course, 
changing chain rings is much more expensive and complicated than 
swapping cassettes.  What's more, standard cassettes shift better than 
modified ones.



On 01/02/2017 11:54 PM, ted wrote:

Garth,
I suppose, sure. Though really its the gear (ratio of chainring over 
cog) that you don't want, so you can blame it on either the cog or the 
ring. Are you configuring rings around a cog you don't want, or cogs 
around a ring you don't want? I suppose either point of view is 
equally valid. Whether or not reconfiguring off the shelf cassettes is 
simpler than picking chainrings is probably a matter on which 
reasonable people might disagree. Also cassettes seem to wear out more 
frequently than cranks/chainrings, so if you choose the route of 
reconfiguring cassettes you may have to deal with the matter more 
frequently.


On Monday, January 2, 2017 at 8:19:28 PM UTC-8, Garth wrote:

While I am not familiar with every type of casette, but are not
the smallest/lock ring cogs individual and easily replaced with a
12 or whatever on most cassettes ?  Ceratainly a bit more simple
than trying to configure rings around a cog/cogs you do not want
or need. I would rather have gears I could actually use on the top
end myself .




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Re: [RBW] Re: 46-30 crank on an unloaded road bike

2017-01-02 Thread ted
Steve writes:
"... I had a 104" top gear on my 1972 P-15 Paramount as originally 
delivered.  I found it way too high.  I changed the freewheel (had no 
choice, really: the shop destroyed the Regina Oro when trying to remove it 
for the first service) to one with a 15T that brought the top gear down to 
a 97" and found that it made a huge difference: top gear was now usable.  
It made as profound a change in the usefulness of the bike as switching the 
granny to a Merz 31.  That was a 27 x 1 1/4" wheel, 54T big ring.  Make of 
that what you will. ..."

Of which I make
Steve believes a 27x1-1/4" wheel has an effective radius of 27"
That he found the 54-14 104" top gear on his 1972 P-15 Paramount too high 
for his liking.
That the ~7% smaller 97" gear he got by replacing his 14-xx freewheel with 
a 15-xx one suited him much better.

On Monday, January 2, 2017 at 7:29:29 PM UTC-8, Steve Palincsar wrote:
>
> On 01/02/2017 06:37 PM, ted wrote:
>
>
> John wrote: "46-11 = 113GI, pretty high for all but pros". When I see the 
> term "pro" there I think of somebody who makes a living racing a bicycle. I 
> was never a pro, never even really competitive as a middle aged local cat 4 
> racer wana be, but I did find a 116" gear (53-12 with 700c 23mm tires) 
> useful on group rides with a local racing oriented group. So I think John 
> seriously over stated how high a 46-11 gear is. It wouldn't surprise me if 
> competitive local cat 3 racers (a long way from pro caliber) found a 50-11 
> combination (yielding ~120GI) useful.
>
>
> Use cases for 50x11 (or gears that high in general):
>
> - tandems
> - sprinting at the finish of a race
> - very strong riders riding fast in a pace line
> - pedaling while going down several mile long hills
>
> Making your living riding has nothing to do with it.
>
>
>
>
> Veering onto antique standards, John wrote: "... from 52-14 130BCD days"
> I had no idea 130BCD cranks with 52t big rings and 14-xx 
> freewheels (emphasis on the 130BCD) were ever a common thing. I take it 
> thats what 70's Schwinns had.
>
>
> 1970s Paramounts had Campagnolo Record cranks.  144mm BCD, I think.
>
>
> Learn something new every day.
> I always thought the Campi 144BCD was standard back then and that the 
> 130BCD standard emerged much later to allow the 39t small ring (as opposed 
> to the previously prevalent 42) of the 53/39 cranks that were ubiquitous on 
> "racing" bikes before 50/34 110BCD "compact cranks" came on the scene. By 
> that time I believe cassettes typically started at 13, 12, or even 11 
> teeth. So I didn't think there was ever a time when 52-14 top gears and 
> 130BCD cranks went together. Not that that is of any importance, just 
> saying thats what I thought.
>
> If anybody is still reading, I apologize for the impending snarkyness but 
> it seems I can't help myself.
>
>
> Work on it.
>
> John recommends 98-100 inches which is 99" plus or minus 1". He also says 
> 2" is insignificant, and says 103" is too high. I find all that rather 
> inconsistent. If 3" too many is too much, I wouldn't think 2" is 
> insignificant. Does the transition from insignificance to excess occur in a 
> delta of <1%? If 2" is insignificant, why not 97 to 101"? If the target is 
> 99" why all the talk about a magic and recommended 100" value that he seems 
> to treat more like an upper bound than an actual target?
>
>
> All snarkiness aside, I had a 104" top gear on my 1972 P-15 Paramount as 
> originally delivered.  I found it way too high.  I changed the freewheel 
> (had no choice, really: the shop destroyed the Regina Oro when trying to 
> remove it for the first service) to one with a 15T that brought the top 
> gear down to a 97" and found that it made a huge difference: top gear was 
> now usable.  It made as profound a change in the usefulness of the bike as 
> switching the granny to a Merz 31.  That was a 27 x 1 1/4" wheel, 54T big 
> ring.  Make of that what you will.   And back then, I lived in the 
> Catskills, where we did have some big long mountains to ride down, unlike 
> now where most of my "downhills" are stream-cut gorges no more than 150' 
> deep and 0.3 - 0.6 mi.
>
> These days, everything of mine is in the 96 - 99" range (except the 
> Moulton, which is in the mid-80s).   
>

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Re: [RBW] Re: 46-30 crank on an unloaded road bike

2017-01-02 Thread Steve Palincsar

On 01/02/2017 06:37 PM, ted wrote:


John wrote: "46-11 = 113GI, pretty high for all but pros". When I see 
the term "pro" there I think of somebody who makes a living racing a 
bicycle. I was never a pro, never even really competitive as a middle 
aged local cat 4 racer wana be, but I did find a 116" gear (53-12 with 
700c 23mm tires) useful on group rides with a local racing oriented 
group. So I think John seriously over stated how high a 46-11 gear is. 
It wouldn't surprise me if competitive local cat 3 racers (a long way 
from pro caliber) found a 50-11 combination (yielding ~120GI) useful.




Use cases for 50x11 (or gears that high in general):

- tandems
- sprinting at the finish of a race
- very strong riders riding fast in a pace line
- pedaling while going down several mile long hills

Making your living riding has nothing to do with it.





Veering onto antique standards, John wrote: "... from 52-14 130BCD days"
I had no idea 130BCD cranks with 52t big rings and 14-xx 
freewheels (emphasis on the 130BCD) were ever a common thing. I take 
it thats what 70's Schwinns had.


1970s Paramounts had Campagnolo Record cranks.  144mm BCD, I think.



Learn something new every day.
I always thought the Campi 144BCD was standard back then and that the 
130BCD standard emerged much later to allow the 39t small ring (as 
opposed to the previously prevalent 42) of the 53/39 cranks that were 
ubiquitous on "racing" bikes before 50/34 110BCD "compact cranks" came 
on the scene. By that time I believe cassettes typically started at 
13, 12, or even 11 teeth. So I didn't think there was ever a time when 
52-14 top gears and 130BCD cranks went together. Not that that is of 
any importance, just saying thats what I thought.


If anybody is still reading, I apologize for the impending snarkyness 
but it seems I can't help myself.


Work on it.

John recommends 98-100 inches which is 99" plus or minus 1". He also 
says 2" is insignificant, and says 103" is too high. I find all that 
rather inconsistent. If 3" too many is too much, I wouldn't think 2" 
is insignificant. Does the transition from insignificance to excess 
occur in a delta of <1%? If 2" is insignificant, why not 97 to 101"? 
If the target is 99" why all the talk about a magic and recommended 
100" value that he seems to treat more like an upper bound than an 
actual target?


All snarkiness aside, I had a 104" top gear on my 1972 P-15 Paramount as 
originally delivered.  I found it way too high.  I changed the freewheel 
(had no choice, really: the shop destroyed the Regina Oro when trying to 
remove it for the first service) to one with a 15T that brought the top 
gear down to a 97" and found that it made a huge difference: top gear 
was now usable.  It made as profound a change in the usefulness of the 
bike as switching the granny to a Merz 31.  That was a 27 x 1 1/4" 
wheel, 54T big ring. Make of that what you will.   And back then, I 
lived in the Catskills, where we did have some big long mountains to 
ride down, unlike now where most of my "downhills" are stream-cut gorges 
no more than 150' deep and 0.3 - 0.6 mi.


These days, everything of mine is in the 96 - 99" range (except the 
Moulton, which is in the mid-80s).


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