Can you use MTB brake pads on a racer?

[TheMgt]

Paul Boyd wrote:
> lardyninja said the following on 05/12/2006 14:01:
>
>> Erm... bearing in mind that you rely on these four bits of plastic to
>> stop your bike and to prevent you from becoming roadkill, are you
>> really gonna trust that the stuff you buy on ebay is authentic rather
>> than some backstreet knock-off?
>
> That to me sounds like another "let's knock eBay" attitude picked up
> from the media. Have you ever had fake brake blocks from eBay? Have
> you ever heard of anyone buying fake blocks off eBay? Is there even a
> market for fake blocks?

What are fake brake blocks anyway? Are they made of cheese or something?

 

[Pete Biggs]

lardyninja wrote:
> Paul Boyd wrote:
>> lardyninja said the following on 05/12/2006 14:01:
>> That to me sounds like another "let's knock eBay" attitude picked up
>> from the media.
>
> Would you buy a vital piece of safety equipment from ebay just to save
> a few quid?

I have done many times if half the components on a bike count as "vital
pieces of safety equipment".

I find the average eBay seller to be just as trustworthy as the average bike
shop. Bike shops are full of plenty of cheapo stuff as well - exactly the
same stuff as found on eBay.

> I use ebay to buy stuff that I don't rely on to save my
> life because my life is worth more than a few quid to me. Whether you
> think there is a market for knocked off brake blocks or not does not
> mean that it doesn't exist.

Compared to mass-market products that counterfeiters do target -- like
sunglasses, designer shoes, perfumes, fancy razor blades -- quality brake
blocks is a tiny market with tiny profit margins, so obviously no one is
going to bother.

> These blocks may well have been legit but
> why risk it?

What are you risking? Please explain in what ways they're going to fail.

> I bought some 'designer' sunglasses from ebay but they
> were to be used as props so I didn't really care that they were fake.
> I really do care whether my brake blocks are real or not.

What's an unreal brake block? It's not going to be a pretend brake block
made in someone's kitchen. That would be more expensive than buying proper
ones.

At worst (and this probably never happens) it'll be a cheap make with the
name faked. I've used many cheap blocks over the years. They're not
dangerous. They just perform slightly less well than the best ones.

~PB

 

[Pete Biggs]

Mark W wrote:
> AP wrote:
>> Almost all the good-looking brake pads on ebay say they're for
>> mountain bikes. They look longer than I'm used to, and have Allen
>> key fittings. Can I fit these to my old 10 gear racer, or will they
>> not fit/cause my brakes to self-destruct? Thanks.
>
> I've wondered about this (not the Ebay bit, but the mountain bike
> blocks on a racer). I use an old racer for the station hack and quite
> frankly the braking is p*** poor compared to the trekking thing I'm
> bundling around on for leisure. Wondered if the enlarged friction area
> would result in more effect at the wheel. If I recall 'O' Level
> Physics correctly the friction force is proportional to the force
> applied perpendicular to the two surfaces, and has nothing to do with
> area, so theory says no ... but does practice ?

Practice says no as well, in my experience. Also, larger/longer blocks are
harder to line up with the rim, unless they're curved.

~PB

 

[Alan Paterson]

Thanks. That's really interesting. 'the friction force is proportional to
the force
> > applied perpendicular to the two surfaces, and has nothing to do with
> > area,'. Of course. Makes perfect sense. Completely counter-intuitive, to
me at least (even with my o level physics, make of that what you will) but
when you state it like that: of course. Bigger pads does not equal better
braking. Another poster put me on to a good deal on the right ones on ebay,
and i learned something new. All is well. Thanks.
"Pete Biggs" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...
> Mark W wrote:
> > AP wrote:
> >> Almost all the good-looking brake pads on ebay say they're for
> >> mountain bikes. They look longer than I'm used to, and have Allen
> >> key fittings. Can I fit these to my old 10 gear racer, or will they
> >> not fit/cause my brakes to self-destruct? Thanks.
> >
> > I've wondered about this (not the Ebay bit, but the mountain bike
> > blocks on a racer). I use an old racer for the station hack and quite
> > frankly the braking is p*** poor compared to the trekking thing I'm
> > bundling around on for leisure. Wondered if the enlarged friction area
> > would result in more effect at the wheel. If I recall 'O' Level
> > Physics correctly the friction force is proportional to the force
> > applied perpendicular to the two surfaces, and has nothing to do with
> > area, so theory says no ... but does practice ?
>
> Practice says no as well, in my experience. Also, larger/longer blocks
are
> harder to line up with the rim, unless they're curved.
>
> ~PB
>
>

 

[Rob Morley]

In article <[email protected]>
lardyninja <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Paul Boyd wrote:
> > lardyninja said the following on 05/12/2006 14:01:
> > That to me sounds like another "let's knock eBay" attitude picked up
> > from the media.
>
>
> Would you buy a vital piece of safety equipment from ebay just to save
> a few quid?

Let's see, I bought a bike that needed some work doing, so then I bought
brake blocks and cables and bars and stem and saddle and seatpost and
cassette and chains and pedals, then I bought another bike and forks and
cassette and some tubes and grips and saddle and seatpost. But I doubt
that any of that stuff matters, because the car I bought with a long MOT
and some tax for £120 (that passed the next MOT too) must have killed me
already.
Very dangerous place, eBay ... if you're a total idiot.

 

[Rob Morley]

In article <[email protected]>
AP <[email protected]> wrote:
> Yes indeed...it is amazing. One of the fasconating things about ebay - watch
> herd mentality in all its glory. How many times have I seen people still
> gamely bidding a price further and further up, when the exact same item is
> listed from a different seller at a Buy it Now price way below the pace set
> by the frenzy. Verily there's nowt so strange as folk.

Bidding frenzy is a strange phenomenon - I've seen identical items from
the same seller that ended within minutes of each other, where one has
sparked a bidding war between two or three bidders while the other item
received few or no bids.

 

[Paul Boyd]

Rob Morley said the following on 06/12/2006 03:57:

> Bidding frenzy is a strange phenomenon - I've seen identical items from
> the same seller that ended within minutes of each other, where one has
> sparked a bidding war between two or three bidders while the other item
> received few or no bids.

Isn't that great? I've been one of those that dropped off the bidding
on the 'frenzy' item and sat there desperately hoping no-one else has
noticed the other identical item!

I'm sure there's a lot of people who just don't want to be beaten, so
keep going higher and higher.

Bid once, bid late, bid your max.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

 

[Tony Raven]

Paul Boyd wrote on 06/12/2006 08:09 +0100:
>
> Bid once, bid late, bid your max.
>

Lodge your max bid through an autobid programme such as AuctionStealer,
go away until the auction is over. It will autobid for you seconds
before the auction ends. Come back to see how much below your maximum
you paid if you managed to win. No chance of getting carried away and
no need to sit there bidding either.

--
Tony

"...has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least
wildly inaccurate..."
Douglas Adams; The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

 

[Paul Boyd]

Tony Raven said the following on 06/12/2006 08:21:

> Lodge your max bid through an autobid programme such as AuctionStealer,
> go away until the auction is over. It will autobid for you seconds
> before the auction ends. Come back to see how much below your maximum
> you paid if you managed to win. No chance of getting carried away and
> no need to sit there bidding either.

Yeah, but that's no fun! The two-window snipe with a stopwatch to hand
still gets the adrenalin going My best time was a 1 second snipe -
shame I didn't bid enough though :-(

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

 

[Pete Biggs]

Paul Boyd wrote:
> Tony Raven said the following on 06/12/2006 08:21:
>
>> Lodge your max bid through an autobid programme such as
>> AuctionStealer, go away until the auction is over. It will autobid
>> for you seconds before the auction ends. Come back to see how much
>> below your maximum you paid if you managed to win. No chance of
>> getting carried away and no need to sit there bidding either.
>
> Yeah, but that's no fun! The two-window snipe with a stopwatch to
> hand still gets the adrenalin going My best time was a 1 second
> snipe - shame I didn't bid enough though :-(

Imagine doing that with an item you really wanted and something went wrong
with your timing/computer/connection. That'd be fun

www.vrane.com hasn't let me down yet.

~PB

 

[Paul Boyd]

Pete Biggs said the following on 06/12/2006 08:43:

> Imagine doing that with an item you really wanted and something went wrong
> with your timing/computer/connection. That'd be fun

Apart from not bidding enough sometimes, it hasn't happened since I
sussed how to do it, but I do adjust to suit the connection. That's why
the adrenalin is going! It's also why I use two windows - one has the
bid confirmation button ready to press and the other is used to refresh
the (text only) bids page. I don't refresh within a minute of the end
of the auction, which is where I use the watch previously set to count
down to the actual auction end, not the time it says it ends. It's the
page refreshing that can temporarily hang up the connection to eBay's
servers causing the bid to miss.

My best win was an Alps printer from the States where the bidding was
going reactively, but in small lumps, with two main bidders going
against each other. I won it on a 5 second snipe (playing it safe) to
give them no chance to react to my bid.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

 

[dkahn400]

Tosspot wrote:

> <gazes admiringly at the Centrimaster Truing Stand> At less than 300
> squids that one *was* a bargain! Still to be used though :-(

That looks similar in principle to the Preciray stand that I have at
home, having acquired it from Simon Daw of this parish. A bit more
Teutonic over-engineering perhaps. The Preciray definitely has a Gallic
character with springs that tend to boing out of place.

--
Dave...

 

[AP]

Happened just last week. A book I wanted was going every couple of days for
two or three quid, but for some reason, one copy - a first edition no less -
seemed to have snuck thru' unnoticed, and was stuck at its opening 99p with
no bids. I lost my connection just as I was about to snipe, and it closed
with no bids. Boo and, as they say, hoo.
"Pete Biggs" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...
> Paul Boyd wrote:
>> Tony Raven said the following on 06/12/2006 08:21:
>>
>>> Lodge your max bid through an autobid programme such as
>>> AuctionStealer, go away until the auction is over. It will autobid
>>> for you seconds before the auction ends. Come back to see how much
>>> below your maximum you paid if you managed to win. No chance of
>>> getting carried away and no need to sit there bidding either.
>>
>> Yeah, but that's no fun! The two-window snipe with a stopwatch to
>> hand still gets the adrenalin going My best time was a 1 second
>> snipe - shame I didn't bid enough though :-(
>
> Imagine doing that with an item you really wanted and something went wrong
> with your timing/computer/connection. That'd be fun
>
> www.vrane.com hasn't let me down yet.
>
> ~PB
>

 

[dkahn400]

Paul Boyd wrote:

> My best win was an Alps printer from the States where the bidding was
> going reactively, but in small lumps, with two main bidders going
> against each other. I won it on a 5 second snipe (playing it safe) to
> give them no chance to react to my bid.

This sniping discussion comes round from time to time. It greatly
upsets James Annan if he's watching, and he has real difficulties
understanding how, with the automatic proxy system, bidding as late as
possible can have any advantage over bidding early. His problem is that
his mind is just too rational, and he has difficulty grasping the
concept that most other people do not behave in a wholly rational way.
Sniping works by exploiting other bidders' irrational behaviour.

--
Dave...

 

[AP]

"...psssst - wanna buy some brake blocks?"
"TheMgt" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Paul Boyd wrote:
>> lardyninja said the following on 05/12/2006 14:01:
>>
>>> Erm... bearing in mind that you rely on these four bits of plastic to
>>> stop your bike and to prevent you from becoming roadkill, are you
>>> really gonna trust that the stuff you buy on ebay is authentic rather
>>> than some backstreet knock-off?
>>
>> That to me sounds like another "let's knock eBay" attitude picked up
>> from the media. Have you ever had fake brake blocks from eBay? Have
>> you ever heard of anyone buying fake blocks off eBay? Is there even a
>> market for fake blocks?
>
> What are fake brake blocks anyway? Are they made of cheese or something?

 

[Paul Boyd]

dkahn400 said the following on 06/12/2006 10:46:

> This sniping discussion comes round from time to time.

It crops up on the eBay discussion boards at least once or twice a week!
What gets me is when /sellers/ complain about sniping, and even
"threaten" to end an auction early to stop snipers. I've actually seen
that in auction descriptions myself. What?????

> Sniping works by exploiting other bidders' irrational behaviour.

Yup!

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

 

[Tosspot]

dkahn400 wrote:
> Tosspot wrote:
>
>
>><gazes admiringly at the Centrimaster Truing Stand> At less than 300
>>squids that one *was* a bargain! Still to be used though :-(
>
>
> That looks similar in principle to the Preciray stand that I have at
> home, having acquired it from Simon Daw of this parish. A bit more
> Teutonic over-engineering perhaps. The Preciray definitely has a Gallic
> character with springs that tend to boing out of place.

Streuth, HEath Robinson would have been proud of that one. What *does*
it do?

 

[Jim Higson]

Paul Boyd wrote:

> dkahn400 said the following on 06/12/2006 10:46:
>
>> This sniping discussion comes round from time to time.
>
> It crops up on the eBay discussion boards at least once or twice a week!
> What gets me is when /sellers/ complain about sniping, and even
> "threaten" to end an auction early to stop snipers. I've actually seen
> that in auction descriptions myself. What?????
>
> > Sniping works by exploiting other bidders' irrational behaviour.
>
> Yup!

Today's interesting non-cycling links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_escalation_of_commitment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction

--
Jim

 

[Ambrose Nankivell]

Jim Higson wrote:
> Paul Boyd wrote:
>
>> dkahn400 said the following on 06/12/2006 10:46:
>>
>>> This sniping discussion comes round from time to time.
>>
>> It crops up on the eBay discussion boards at least once or twice a
>> week! What gets me is when /sellers/ complain about sniping, and
>> even "threaten" to end an auction early to stop snipers. I've
>> actually seen that in auction descriptions myself. What?????
>>
>> > Sniping works by exploiting other bidders' irrational behaviour.
>>
>> Yup!
>
> Today's interesting non-cycling links:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_escalation_of_commitment
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction

But I prefer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_characters_who_wear_fingerless_gloves

I guess fingerless gloves are also useful in cycling. I only use some old
suede sheepskin BHS ones, though.
--
A

 

[Jim Higson]

Ambrose Nankivell wrote:

> Jim Higson wrote:
>> Paul Boyd wrote:
>>
>>> dkahn400 said the following on 06/12/2006 10:46:
>>>
>>>> This sniping discussion comes round from time to time.
>>>
>>> It crops up on the eBay discussion boards at least once or twice a
>>> week! What gets me is when /sellers/ complain about sniping, and
>>> even "threaten" to end an auction early to stop snipers. I've
>>> actually seen that in auction descriptions myself. What?????
>>>
>>> > Sniping works by exploiting other bidders' irrational behaviour.
>>>
>>> Yup!
>>
>> Today's interesting non-cycling links:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_escalation_of_commitment
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_auction
>
> But I prefer:
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_characters_who_wear_fingerless_gloves

You'd better vote to keep it quick then!