FAQ Location and Weekly posting for Rec.Bicycles.*

Mike Iglesias

Last updated: February 24, 2001

Weekly Posting for Rec.Bicycles.*

This is the weekly posting to Rec.Bicycles.*. In it, you will find information on how to get a copy
of the FAQ (in case you missed it when it was posted to rec.bicycles.misc/news.answers) and some
tips on nettiquette when posting articles to rec.bicycles.*.

The FAQ was last updated on February 26, 2002.

Mike Iglesias iglesias@draco.acs.uci.edu

Gopher and Web access to rec.bicycles archives and FAQ
------------------------------------------------------

I've made the rec.bicycles ftp archives available via gopher and the Web, and have split the FAQ
up into individual files for easier access via gopher. The FAQ is available via the Web as
listed below.

You can access the FAQ and archives via the Web using these URLs:

<http://draco.acs.uci.edu/rbfaq/>
<http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/bicycles-faq/top.html>

To connect to the gopher server, use the hostname draco.acs.uci.edu and port 1071. Please don't ask
me how to use gopher or how to configure your gopher client; I don't know how to use all the
available gopher clients, nor do I have access to them. Please talk to your local gopher gurus.

Again, please ask your local gurus for information on how to use Web clients.

Posting Guidelines
------------------

The rec.bicycles subgroups are described below - please try to post your article to the appropriate
group. The newsgroups were designed to minimize cross posting, so please take the time to think
about the most appropriate newsgroup and post your article there. Most postings to rec.bicycles
should not be cross-posted to groups outside of rec.*.

rec.bicycles: DO NOT USE THIS NEWSGROUP - it should have been dropped
from news servers, having been replaced by rec.bicycles.misc.

rec.bicycles.marketplace: Bicycles, components, ancillary equipment and services wanted or for sale,
reviews of such things, places to buy them, and evaluations of these sources. Not for discussion of
general engineering, maintenance, or repair -- see rec.bicycles.tech.

rec.bicycles.tech: Techniques of engineering, construction, maintenance and repair of bicycles and
ancillary equipment. Not for products or services offered or wanted -- see rec.bicycles.marketplace.

rec.bicycles.rides: Discussions of tours and training or commuting routes. Not for disussion of
general riding techniques -- see rec.bicycles.misc. Not for products or services offered or wanted
-- see rec.bicycles.marketplace.

rec.bicycles.soc: Social issues, cycling transportation advocacy, laws, conduct of riders and
drivers; road hazards such as potholes, dogs, and sociopaths. Not for products or services offered
or wanted -- see rec.bicycles.marketplace.

rec.bicycles.racing: Race results, racing techniques, rules, and organizations. Not racing equipment
-- see rec.bicycles.marketplace or rec.bicycles.tech.

rec.bicycles.misc: General riding techniques, rider physiology, injuries and treatment, diets, and
other cycling topics. Not for products or services offered or wanted -- see
rec.bicycles.marketplace.

rec.bicycles.off-road: This group is moderated. Discussion of riding on unimproved roads, gravel,
dirt, grass, sand, single track or 4x4 roads. Also discussion of environmental issues related to
mountain biking, trail issues, backcountry travel, how to handle conditions (technically and
evo-sensitively), off-road magazines and other media.

Nettiquette
-----------

Here are some tips to remember when posting to rec.bicycles.*:

* Check your line lengths. Most readers use 80 column terminals, and articles with longer line
lengths are hard to read. 72 characters per line is a good length, since it allows others to
quote you without running over 80 characters.

* Trim down your quotes. Delete parts of the article that you are not responding to. Less to read
from previous posts is better. And please don't include the signature of the article you are
responding to.

* If you are asking a basic question, please check the FAQ first. If the FAQ is has expired on
your system, see the "Archives" section below for information on how to get a copy.

* If someone posts a question about something that was resolved recently, please answer the poster
via email. Rehashing something that was just discussed is a waste of bandwidth unless you have
something new to add.

* Please don't flame someone if their posting should have been restricted to a certain region (for
example, california only). Most people are not the news admin on their system, so publicly
flaming them does no good. A nicely worded email message to them that there may be a problem
would allow them to notify their news admin. Please remember that it may be some other site
somewhere along the line that is leaking articles out of its region and the poster may not have
any way to solve the problem.

* Along the above lines, please try to restrict your postings to your site/region/state/whatever.
People in Australia may not want to see bike-for-sale ads from the U.S., for example.

* Make your subject line informative about the content of your article.

* If you are following up an article to create a new article, please remember to delete the
"References:" line in the header. This will help the readers who use a threaded news reader;
otherwise your new topic will be mixed in with an old one.

* Please don't flame others. We're a somewhat opinionated group, and there are many diverse
personalities here. This is especially true in the never-ending helmet wars.

* Speaking of helmet wars, let's try to stay away from them. Most everything that could be said
pro and con for wearing helmets has been said at least once in rec.bicycles. There is some
evidence that wearing a helmet can help prevent head injuries. There are people that wear a
helmet all the time, people that wear a helmet some of the time, and people who will never wear
one. Everyone has their own reasons for their decision, and most will not change it in the
middle of a flaming helmet war. Questions on types of helmets, what ones are coolest
(temperature and otherwise), etc are always welcome.

Archives

I've made available via anonymous ftp a copy of the current FAQ and a few other items on
draco.acs.uci.edu (128.200.34.12). This is the workstation on my desk, so I'd appreciate it if
people would restrict their use to 7pm-7am Pacific time. The files are in pub/rec.bicycles.

For those without Internet access, you can use the ftpmail server at gatekeeper.dec.com to get
copies of items in the archives. I really don't have time to email copies of files to people who
can't get at them easily. To use the ftpmail server, send an email message containing the line

help

in the body of the message to ftpmail@gatekeeper.dec.com. You'll get a help file back with more
information on how to use the ftpmail server.

Here is an example of what to put in the body of a message to to get the README file:

connect draco.acs.uci.edu chdir pub/rec.bicycles get README

Here's what's available at this time:

README for Rec.Bicycles Anonymous FTP area

arnie.light Arnie Berger's (arnie.berger@amd.com) "Ultimate bike light"

bike_gear.sea.hqx Lawrence Hare's (ldh@duck.svl.cdc.com) copy of a Hypercard stack to calculate
gearing. Lawrence says there is a newer version on major bbs systems.

bike.lockers David H. Wolfskill's (david@dhw68k.cts.com) summary of bike locker vendors.

bike.painting Sam Henry's (shenry@rice.edu) collection of articles on how to paint a bike.

bike_power.* Ken Roberts program to calculate power output and power consumption. See bike_power.doc
for more info. updated by Mark Grennan (markg@okcforum.oknorm.edu)

biking_log.* Phil Etheridge's (P.Etheridge@massey.ac.nz) hypercard stack riding diary. It keeps
track of dates, distance, time, average speed, etc., and keeps running weekly, monthly, and yearly
totals. See biking_log.read_me for more information.

CA-veh-code A directory containing the California vehicle code sections that pertain to bicycles and
gopher bookmarks. See the README in that directory for more information.

camera.tour Vivian Aldridge's (viviana@tamri.com) collection of articles on cameras to take on a
bike tour.

competitive.nutrition Roger Marquis' (marquis@roble.com) article from the Feb 91 Velo News on
nutrition and cycling.

computer.calibrate computer.install Sheldon Brown's (CaptBike@sheldonbrown.com) universal bike
computer calibration chart and installation suggestions.

cyclesense Larry Watanabe's (watanabe@asimov.cs.uiuc.edu) copy of the "Cycle Sense for Motorists"
ready to run thru LaTeX.

faq.* The current Frequently Asked Questions posting

first.century Pamela Blalock's (pamelab@pcdocs.com) tips on training for your first century ride.

frame.build Terry Zmrhal's (terryz@microsoft.com) writeup of
a frame building class he took.

gear.c Larry Watanabe's (watanabe@asimov.cs.uiuc.edu) program to print gear inch tables.

glossary Alan Bloom's (alanb@sr.hp.com) glossary of bicycle terms.

lab.info Erin O'Brien's (bikeleague@aol.com) article on the
League of American Bicyclists.

lights Tom Reingold's (tr@samadams.princeton.edu) collection of articles on bike lights.

lights2 More articles from rec.bicycles.* on lights.

mtb.faq Vince Cheng's (vccheng@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca) MTB FAQ.

pam.bmb* Pamela Blalock's (pamelab@pcdocs.com) report on her Boston-Montreal-Boston rides.

pam.pactour* Pamela Blalock's (pamelab@pcdocs.com) writeup of her PAC tours across the country.

pbp.info Pamela Blalock's (pamelab@pcdocs.com) information
on her Paris-Brest-Paris ride.

pictures Bicycling gif pictures.

prof.sched Roland Stahl's (stahl@ipi.uni-hannover.de) list of scheduled professional races in many
countries.

pwm.regulator Willie Hunt's (willie@cs.indiana.edu) design notes on a pulse width modulated voltage
regulator. Originally designed for caving, this design is adaptable to bike lighting. The author has
parts available in kit form.

ride.index Chris Hull's/Bill Bushnell's (bushnell@lmsc.lockheed.com) explanation of a way to "index"
rides and compare the difficulty of different rides.

ridelg22.* Found on AOL by Gary Thurman (thurmag@csos.orst.edu), a ride diary program. The .exe file
a self-extracting archive for PCs.

spike.bike Bob Fishell's (fish@ih4ess.ih.lucent.com) Spike Bike series. They are numbered in the
order that Bob posted them to rec.bicycles. All the Spike Bike stories are "Copyright 1989 by Robert
Fishell, all rights reserved."

spokelen11.bas Roger Marquis' (marquis@roble.com) spoke length calculator, written in Microsoft
Quickbasic.

spokelen.c Andy Tucker's (tucker@Neon.Stanford.EDU) port of
Roger Marquis' spokelen11.bas to C.

spokelen.hqx Eric Topp's topp@roses.stanford.edu's Hypercard stack that computes spoke lengths.

studded.tires (Name removed by request) compilation of messages on studded tires, including how to
make your own.

tandem.boxes Arnie Berger's (arnie.berger@amd.com) notes on how he built a box to transport his
tandem to Europe and back. It's taken from a longer travelogue on his trip - if you want more
information, contact him at the above address.

tech.supp.phone Joshua Putnam's (josh@Happy-Man.com) list of technical support numbers for various
manufacturers. This list used to be in the FAQ but now is too long to include there.

trailers A summary posting of messages about bike trailers. Good stuff if you're thinking of buying
a trailer.

wheelbuild.txt Sheldon Brown's (CaptBike@sheldonbrown.com) instructions on how to build a wheel.

wheels.*.hqx R. Scott Truesdell's (truesdel@ics.uci.edu) Hypercard stack to calculate spoke lengths.
See wheels.readme for more info.

wintertips Pete Hickey's (pete@panda1.uottawa.ca) notes about how to cycle in the winter.

wintertips.pam Pamela Blalock's (pamelab@pcdocs.com) winter cycling tips.