Fogey doesn't get threadless headsets

[Bluto]

[email protected] wrote:

> > http://www.culty.de/CULTY_1.JPG
>
> that contraption should not be mistaken as a trike that would satisfy anyone interested in high
> performance and safety. Rear steer and a high centroid combined with anything more spirited than
> walking speed will crack those kids' heads like coconuts.

It's even weirder than you think, which is good. The front of that trike can lean WRT the rear end.
That might not make the thing any easier to ride, but it does permit higher speeds with a measure
of safety.

I have seen a photo of the same dude (with the same kids and a couple of cases of beer in the cargo
holds) traversing a grass slope of 30% or so. The rear wheels were rotated to a ridiculous angle,
but everything attached to the front of the trike was upright.

I understand there's something of a learning curve for that machine.

Chalo Colina

 

[Gary Young]

[email protected] (Jon Isaacs) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> >By using this retrofit method, you can observe the time-honored (and to hear quill stem advocates
> >tell it, important) practice of changing your handlebar height 3 or 4 times per ride or even
> >more, even while using a threadless headset.
> >
> >Chalo Colina
>
<snip>
>
> In my view the fact that the headset needs to be adjusted each time the handlebar height is
> changed makes about as much sense and requiring the BB to be adjusted each time the seat height is
> adjusted. (I hope Shimano, >Campagnolo and the rest are not reading this thread <g>)

Yes, but I think one lesson from Chalo's post is that threaded stems don't necessarily require you
to readjust the headset every time you change the height of the stem. Can't you just use a lockring
to hold the adjustment and then adjust spacers to your heart's content? I suppose you would have to
change the design of the top-cap, but that seems to be something that could easily be jury-rigged or
that someone might manufacturer if there is demand.

Or you could take Chalo's proposal all the way and use a quill stem.

I propose an addition to the list of advantages of threadless stems -- they're more versatile.

 

[Terry Morse]

Benjamin Lewis wrote:

> How much fine tuning do people tend to do with handlebar height?

Not much. After being off the bike for several weeks recently (due to an injury), I put the bars at
about saddle height for a couple of weeks. Once my back and arms got comfortable with that position,
and I started to feel cramped, I lowered it back down about 2 inches. Barring another accident, I
probably won't mess with the height adjustment again.
--
terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://www.terrymorse.com/bike/

 

[Benjamin Lewis]

Jon Isaacs wrote:

>> How much fine tuning do people tend to do with handlebar height?
>
> I play around with some. I generally run about 3 to 6 inches of drop, depending on the bike and
> application.

By what amount do you change the height of your bars before you notice the difference? If you could
only adjust in discrete steps, with a minimum adjustment of k mm, what would be the maximum k you
would be satisfied with?

--
Benjamin Lewis

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
- Mark Twain

 

[Bluto]

[email protected] (Qui si parla Campagnolo) wrote:

> chump-<< you can still avail yourself of the superior strength and stiffness of a threadless
> headset.
>
> geeeezzz...apples and apples please-not with carbon steerers...

Right. If you compare apples to apples, threadless is stiffer and stronger. But threaded steerers
only come in apple flavor, whereas threadless ones come in orange and pickle flavors too.

Chalo Colina

 

[Pete Biggs]

Benjamin Lewis wrote:

> By what amount do you change the height of your bars before you notice the difference?

2 to 3mm. I find this makes a difference to how comfortable my hands feel. 4 or 5mm starts to
noticeably affect the whole position.

> If you could only adjust in discrete steps, with a minimum adjustment of k mm, what would be the
> maximum k you would be satisfied with?

2mm.

Although it's physically more difficult to alter height with threadless, it is at least easier to
keep track of bar height. No need to make marks or take measurements, just add up the spacers.

~PB

 

[Bluto]

[email protected] (Gary Young) wrote:

> Do you need to use a quill stem? Couldn't you get adjustibility just by using the clamp collar to
> hold the headset adjustment and then slide a threadless stem up and down the steerer tube? This
> wouldn't work if it were necessary for some reason to have spacers underneath the stem. Is it?

Actually, the tidiest way to do it would be with a clamp collar at the bottom of a pile of spacers
plus the stem. By pulling off the top cap and rearranging the "shim stack", you could get the extent
of the adjustability without disturbing the bearing adjustment, while keeping the ability to
reestablish headset preload if that should become necessary.

Mostly I was pointing up the silliness of giving up mechanical benefits in order to preserve an
adjustment option not likely to be exercised at all between disassemblies.

A clamp collar used in lieu of a spacer would allow the headset to maintain adjustment more securely
through such occurrences as the bars getting cocked in a crash.

I use industrial clamp collars as seat post clamps sometimes.

Chalo Colina

 

[Jim]

The Pomeranian <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...

>
> This is kind of like the "friction option" of bar-end shifters in case one falls down and the
> crash impact bends the r-der and/or hanger, and the result is bolloxed indexing. I've always had
> the friction option. In tens of thousands of miles, I've never needed this option. It is a good
> idea that I suspect isn't at all important in practice. Most crashes that mess the r-der or hanger
> will probably result in bike ride termination, and not because of the hanger or r-der damage.
>

If I were you, I'd keep that friction option. Just last summer I had a crash that bent my r-der
hanger (and the dropout) significantly. I was in the middle of a 120 mile
reunion-with-college-friends ride that I had driven over a thousand miles to do, and I was damned
if I was going to sag it the rest of the way. I had a 12" Crescent wrench in the sag wagon toolbox,
which I used to get things back in to some semblance of working order, and rode the rest of the way
with three or four rear sprockets accessible. Since I had only friction shifters to begin with,
that was not an issue. Discovered later that I had a broken rear axle, too, which wasn't surprising
given the dropout tweak. The point is, you can still ride a pretty beat-up bike, if you want, or
had, to. -Jim