Universal-ly [censored]

Ah yes, Universal, that brings back memories. First bike I managed to snap
a stem on !

Jon Senior said:

The other day I was presented with a Universal "Blowout" bike (Can you
imagine a better name?). It was bought by a colleague for a friend who
visits him occasionally and likes to have a bike to ride around on.

He asked if I could take a look at the gears as the bloke who'd set it
up didn't seem to have got them working.

At first glance it has gripshifters but wait... they just keep clicking
lots, far more than there are gears. Both sides are effectively
friction. I didn't think anyone would do friction rear in this day and age.

Check the "gear" cables, I'd bet Colnago to Concept they're running
through nice flexy brake outer. Needless to say this does nothing for
the shifting. Bitter experience also suggests they'll be bone dry, and
probably kinked at least once.

(why, yes, I *am* fed up with trying to repair these things, how *did*
you guess?)

Quoted message said:

So I started my standard once over of the bike which naturally included
the brakes. I was somewhat surprised to find that with the front brake
on full as hard as I could get it (And with the lever still not touching
the bars) I could "push through" the front wheel by rolling the bike
forward. Ah... V-brake arms of cheese. These have no been replaced with
my old Tektro Vs. I was never overly impressed with the Tektros, but
they do at least stop the bike.

Tomorrow I attempt to work out what bloke X has done to the gears. There
should be a law against bikes this [censored]!

I'd vote for that law :-)

Marvin said:

Check the "gear" cables, I'd bet Colnago to Concept they're running
through nice flexy brake outer. Needless to say this does nothing for
the shifting. Bitter experience also suggests they'll be bone dry, and
probably kinked at least once.

Far more likely that bloke X attached them with no real understanding of
where the shifter should be. I'm guessing on a vast amount of slack.

Quoted message said:

(why, yes, I *am* fed up with trying to repair these things, how *did*
you guess?)

Thankfully, I've managed to avoid most of them so far. The responsible
party had also managed to thread the lock ring for one of the brake
adjusters onto the brake outer and the wrong side of the adjuster.

My other rant is:

When is someone going to start manufacturing a front V brake for the
British market where the arms are swapped over, thus removing the need
for the 135 degree feed tube.

Jon

Jon:

Quoted message said:

When is someone going to start manufacturing a front V brake for the
British market where the arms are swapped over, thus removing the need
for the 135 degree feed tube.

Whatdoyoumean, British market? RH/Front is Euro standard now, isn't
it? Germany's always had them, remember the days of the "German
Brakes! Whoo! Sliiiide!"? Well, the front was the RH (and only) lever.

Jon Senior said:

When is someone going to start manufacturing a front V brake for the
British market where the arms are swapped over, thus removing the need
for the 135 degree feed tube.

Take advantage of the fact that everyone has the brakes the wrong way
round. If you put the front lever on the LH side where it *should* be in
the UK, then the routing works fine.

Bring on the brake physics jihad... ;-)

--
Mark.
http://tranchant.plus.com/

Jon Senior said:

sothach said:

Whatdoyoumean, British market? RH/Front is Euro standard now, isn't
it? Germany's always had them, remember the days of the "German
Brakes! Whoo! Sliiiide!"? Well, the front was the RH (and only) lever.

Generally, no it's not. All the continental bikes I've seen and ridden
(Limited to France admittedly), have had LH-Front set ups.

To be perfectly honest I have no idea which side any of my bikes have
the front brake (except the one which has only one lever). They are
probably set up to minimise cable distortion, which could mean either
handedness.

...d

sothach said:

Whatdoyoumean, British market? RH/Front is Euro standard now, isn't
it? Germany's always had them, remember the days of the "German
Brakes! Whoo! Sliiiide!"? Well, the front was the RH (and only) lever.

Generally, no it's not. All the continental bikes I've seen and ridden
(Limited to France admittedly), have had LH-Front set ups.

Jon

Quoted message said:

From the Thoughts of Sheldon Brown:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html#bikeculture

Mark Tranchant said:

Take advantage of the fact that everyone has the brakes the wrong way
round. If you put the front lever on the LH side where it *should* be in
the UK, then the routing works fine.

Bring on the brake physics jihad... ;-)

I personally prefer having my right hand control the front brake as I am
right handed and have better control over my primary brake that way. Why
do you think the front should be on the LH side in the UK?

Jon

Jon Senior said:

I personally prefer having my right hand control the front brake as I am
right handed and have better control over my primary brake that way. Why
do you think the front should be on the LH side in the UK?

More effective braking whilst signalling for right turns.

Yes, I know one shouldn't make emergency stops whilst signalling, but I
still prefer them this way around. I, too, am right-handed, but don't
have any problems operating brakes with appropriate sensitivity.

--
Mark.
http://tranchant.plus.com/

Mark Tranchant said:

Jon Senior wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I personally prefer having my right hand control the front brake as I am
right handed and have better control over my primary brake that way. Why
do you think the front should be on the LH side in the UK?

Quoted message said:

More effective braking whilst signalling for right turns.

Quoted message said:

Yes, I know one shouldn't make emergency stops whilst signalling, but I
still prefer them this way around. I, too, am right-handed, but don't
have any problems operating brakes with appropriate sensitivity.

You can cycle in a reasonably straight line while riding with the
right arm stuck and applying the maximum braking force as you can get
out of a *rear* brake? I'm seriously impressed!

Either that, or this argument about more effective one-armed braking
is bollocks. I don't know which, because I'm far too old and scared to
risk the injuries I might suffer trying the dangerous experiments
required to decide.

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

Jon Senior jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOT_co_DOT_uk said:

sothach said:

Whatdoyoumean, British market? RH/Front is Euro standard now, isn't
it? Germany's always had them, remember the days of the "German
Brakes! Whoo! Sliiiide!"? Well, the front was the RH (and only)
lever.

Generally, no it's not. All the continental bikes I've seen and ridden
(Limited to France admittedly), have had LH-Front set ups.

Germany is thus too. I have minutes of fun on the odd occasions when I have
been obliged to borrow one or another of TWFKAML's bicycles...

XTR V-brakes can be fairly easily converted to left-side cable entry, and
there's the Odyssey A-brake, which can be set up either way without recouse
to power tools.

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Give the anarchist a cigarette.

Dave Larrington said:

Jon Senior <jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOT_co_DOT_uk> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Generally, no it's not. All the continental bikes I've seen and ridden
(Limited to France admittedly), have had LH-Front set ups.

Germany is thus too. I have minutes of fun on the odd occasions when I have
been obliged to borrow one or another of TWFKAML's bicycles...

Na, Germany is deeply RH-Front, TWFKAML must have been smuggling bikes
over the Rhein... The DIN standard for bicycles doesn't beat about the
busch:

Bremshebel: Der auf das Vorderrad wirkende Handbremshebel muß am
Lenker
/rechts montiert sein. Die Hebelenden sind kugel- oder
tropfenförmig.

"Brake lever: The, on the front wheeling working, hand brake lever
must be
mounted on the right of the handlebars. The lever ends are ball- or

drop-shaped."

Quoted message said:

XTR V-brakes can be fairly easily converted to left-side cable entry, and
there's the Odyssey A-brake, which can be set up either way without recouse
to power tools.

I got some of them on the front on the MTB, took a few goes to get them
on, I kept bending the spring, but once you've done it once, its easy
enough (read the instruction? me? nooo!).

Jon Senior said:

Marvin said:

Check the "gear" cables, I'd bet Colnago to Concept they're running
through nice flexy brake outer. Needless to say this does nothing for
the shifting. Bitter experience also suggests they'll be bone dry, and
probably kinked at least once.

Far more likely that bloke X attached them with no real understanding of
where the shifter should be. I'm guessing on a vast amount of slack.

Quoted message said:

(why, yes, I *am* fed up with trying to repair these things, how *did*
you guess?)

Thankfully, I've managed to avoid most of them so far. The responsible
party had also managed to thread the lock ring for one of the brake
adjusters onto the brake outer and the wrong side of the adjuster.

My other rant is:

When is someone going to start manufacturing a front V brake for the
British market where the arms are swapped over, thus removing the need
for the 135 degree feed tube.

Jon

Be a devil Jon, swap the cables over so that the front is operated by
the left hand lever. My bikes are like this and have been for years.

Chris Malcolm said:

Mark Tranchant <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

More effective braking whilst signalling for right turns.

....

Quoted message said:

You can cycle in a reasonably straight line while riding with the
right arm stuck and applying the maximum braking force as you can get
out of a *rear* brake? I'm seriously impressed!

Yeah, that's the usual counter-argument.

The answer is no, probably not, but on wet slippy roads I seem to be
able to get much more safe retardation from my front brake than my rear
even with one arm stuck out.

I use 28mm Conti UltraGatorSkins at 120psi, so I'm not best set up for
traction anyway, and being fairly light, the rear wheel tends to break
away very easily.

One particular right turn on my commute home is the deciding factor:
usually a diesel swamp, adverse camber, white lines, heavy traffic.
Bizarre as it may seem, I'm more comfortable front-braking than
rear-braking there.

It's just the arrangement with which I'm happiest.

Quoted message said:

Either that, or this argument about more effective one-armed braking
is bollocks.

Entirely possible, but it's always good for an argument.

--
Mark.
http://tranchant.plus.com/

Dave Larrington said:

XTR V-brakes can be fairly easily converted to left-side cable entry, and
there's the Odyssey A-brake, which can be set up either way without recouse
to power tools.

IF you're going for XTR you might as well just go hydralic disk and save the
bother 🙂

--
Arthur Clune

Mark Tranchant said:

Quoted message said:

More effective braking whilst signalling for right turns.

Yes, I know one shouldn't make emergency stops whilst signalling, but I
still prefer them this way around. I, too, am right-handed, but don't
have any problems operating brakes with appropriate sensitivity.

Chris Malcolm said:

You can cycle in a reasonably straight line while riding with the
right arm stuck and applying the maximum braking force as you can get
out of a *rear* brake? I'm seriously impressed!

You might try it. I've found that I can do this with no problem as
long as I don't apply the brake too suddenly.

After I wrote my http://sheldonbrown.com/brakturn article, some of the
objections that were raised induced me to try the experiment of braking
fairly hard with the front brake whilst riding one-handed.

As it turns out, this is quite easy. What happens is that the bike
responds to the asymmetry by _leaning_ to the side of the braking hand,
but keeping it going straight is not at all difficult.

Quoted message said:

Either that, or this argument about more effective one-armed braking
is bollocks. I don't know which, because I'm far too old and scared to
risk the injuries I might suffer trying the dangerous experiments
required to decide.

Nothing scary about it. Try first with gentle braking, then gradually
increase the brtaking force. You will likely be as surprised as I was
at how easy this is to do.

Sheldon "Stop!" Brown
Newtonville, Massachusetts
+----------------------------------------+
| All theory, dear friend, is grey, |
| but the golden tree of actual life |
| springs ever green. --Goethe |
+----------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

Quoted message said:

Mark Tranchant said:

Quoted message said:

More effective braking whilst signalling for right turns.

Yes, I know one shouldn't make emergency stops whilst signalling, but I
still prefer them this way around. I, too, am right-handed, but don't
have any problems operating brakes with appropriate sensitivity.

Chris Malcolm said:

You can cycle in a reasonably straight line while riding with the
right arm stuck and applying the maximum braking force as you can get
out of a *rear* brake? I'm seriously impressed!

You might try it. I've found that I can do this with no problem as
long as I don't apply the brake too suddenly.

Indeed.. I can do it too. It requires a lot of concentration to keep a
straight line as the decelleration coupled with the grip on the
handlebars can cause the bike to veer somewhat.

Very useful skill for big roundabouts/junctions..

...d

Arthur Clune said:

IF you're going for XTR you might as well just go hydralic disk and
save the bother 🙂

That, though, would have required replacing the bike (which was what I did
eventually...). The availability of suspension forks able to accomodate
both disc brakes and a 369 wheel is unlikely to be good.

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of
the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and
credulity encourages.