What do these bike terms mean? - Total cycling novice.

Hi,

I am wondering if anyone can enlighten me to what the following things are. Also if you have any
information about performance or reliability - let me know

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1:An "Alloy cross rigid" Frame.

2:Rigid Cromo Fork

3:Shimano Tiagra with Rapid Fire - Gears

4:Alloy 52/42/30x175mm Chain

5:Alloy 'V' type Brakes

6:700c alloy double wall rims with quick release front & rear hub - Wheels

7:Adjustable 'comfort' stem.
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Thanks,

Gary.

 

On Sat, 04 Jan 2003 17:45:11 +0000, Gary did issue forth:

> 1:An "Alloy cross rigid" Frame.

Alloy always refers to an aluminium alloy where bikes are concerned. Rigid is as opposed to
suspended, so there's no suspension in the frame itself.

> 2:Rigid Cromo Fork

The fork is the bit that your front wheel goes into. Cromo is short for Chrome Molybdenum, which is
the type of steel they've used for making this fork. Again, rigid means that there's no suspension.

> 3:Shimano Tiagra with Rapid Fire - Gears

RapidFire is a type of gear shifter. On a rapidfire shifter you have two leavers, one to push the
chain into a larger ring and another to let it drop down to a smaller one. Tiagra is one of
Shimano's product lines. It's not the best, but it's not the worst stuff out there either.

> 4:Alloy 52/42/30x175mm Chain

I'm guessing this is supposed to read "Chainset". This is the set of three chainrings (cogs) at the
front with the cranks attached. 52/52/30 refers to the number of teeth on each chainring, the 175mm
refers to the length of the crank arm.

> 5:Alloy 'V' type Brakes

V-brakes are probably the most common type of rim brake out there these days. They're quite powerful
and easy to maintain.

> 6:700c alloy double wall rims with quick release front & rear hub - Wheels

700c is the size of the wheel. If you ever buy tubes or tyres, be sure to ask for 700c for that
wheel. Double wall refers to the construction of the rim. Quick release is the little lever thing
that you flip to drop the wheels out.

> 7:Adjustable 'comfort' stem.

The stem is the thing that joins onto the top of your forks to allow you to attach your handlebars
to them. Adjustable stems allow you to alter the height of the bars by undoing a bolt.

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