mack_turtle

I have a cyclocross bike that has space for a 35mm tire in the back. It's a blast to ride everywhere, but it's extremely limited on anything other than the smoothest dirt because the rocks shred tires. I have had to walk home more than once for this reason. Lesson learned the hard way, and I mostly ride it on roads now. This is a "budget" steel frame that went out of production four years ago, so I am not afraid of any reprocussions on the warranty that does not exist. Short of buying a new frame, what would be involved in modifying the chainstays to take a 42mm+ tire? Who around here is equipped to do such a thing? Probably not worth the trouble, but I can't justify a new frame for such a petty concern.

I adopted an old Hard Rock that I'd like to rebuild to the bare minimum as a beater/ grocery bike. Needs: 26" tires, preferably slicks. Toobs too 3x7 Shimano shifters. The twisters that were on it were shot. Might do a singlespeed, 1x7, or 3x1 build if I can. Canti or v-brakes and levers I think I can make the rest of it work with parts I already have. Whatcha got?

Geez, I visited Montreal once. There was a "major heat wave" where the temperature approached 90 in July. I saw old ladies riding in wool skirts up a fking mountain in heels on 3-speed cruiser bikes. Texans are weak.

I moved away from ATL in 2013, just when they were starting on the Beltline in earnest. I went back to visit five years later and DAMN! That Ponce City Market and stuff along the Beltline blew up! I don't expect WC trail infrastructure to do that. It's a totally different animal, but it's a powerful tool to remake a city wherever it goes.

I inherited this beat to hell Specialized. I plan to use it as a beater for neighborhood rides. Needs: 26" tires and tubes Brake(s) Brake lever(s) Everything else is salvageable for my needs, I hope. SLR brakes with cracked spring housing are probably not worth finding new parts, right? Whatcha got?

Check with ATX Bikes for Giant. They have a big event coming up in late October that might include rentals. If anyone else has one, it would be Bicycle Sport Shop on S. Lamar.

I see it now. I just saw the PDF map at first. I wish that map was a little more specific. Looks like it will go right past my office.

Where is this trail supposed to go as you travel east out of the park? I live seeing longer routes that can be done away from traffic but cover a lot of distance.

Stan's hubs have a bad reputation. Maybe they have gotten better, but if you're going to go to all that trouble, buy something from a reputable hub manufacturer- Hope, Hadley, King, I9, Onyx, etc.

I would not try to clamp a 148 frame onto a 142 axle, but that single mm is negligible.

1+ for gluing a traditional tube patch inside. Even better, get a car tire radial patch.

Wait, your bike has SRAM garbage and you're not upgrading to Shimano?

Honestly, that's what I would have done with it. Cash!

Agreed, that WI Eno Eccentric hub is a bit wacky. I used on briefly and it was fine though. An EBB can also change geo considerably.

I had a ROS 9 with Niner's infamous EBB for a while. It worked just fine for me. RA has a vintage bike he wants to convert. There are a tiny amount of EBBs that would work, but would require a different crankset. The other option is a White Eno eccentric hub. Might be able to find one used cheap. Easy to set up with rim brakes. I've heard of filing a notch on the axle to creat an eccentricity that might help too.

I'll stir fry you in my Wok

Use this to see what gear combo will be closest to a "magic gear". https://eehouse.org/fixin/fixmeup.php

You can use old cassette spacers, BB spacers, or even segments of carefully cut PVC pipe for spacers. I have a handful of spacers to donate if you need them. I am sure YBP has 80 linear feet of such spacers kicking around. I might still have a steel 16t cog that will work so long as you don't put it on an aluminum freehub. Aluminum freehubs are soft and require a wide-base cog like that Surly or they dig into the freehub. If you have a steel freehub, those hold up better with cheap, thin cogs.

Freehub + single speed cog + spacers = single speed hub. I have a Hadley hub on mine that could take a regular cassette but it's only seen more than one gear a few times. For a freewheel hub, the freewheel will be set very far inboard of the ideal chainline. I would not want to space the freewheel out by more than a few mm because it needs to engage the treads on the hub as much as possible. It might be possible to space the chainring in to match, but that's not ideal. There will be a huge space between the drive side dropout and the freewheel too. To resolve that, you can remove the axle and rearrange the spacers on the axle so the freewheel lines up better with the chainring. However, that will throw off the wheel dish, making the tire sit very off-center in the frame. It might be possible to correct this with spoke tension, but most likely the DS spokes will be far too short and the NDS spokes far too long. The best cheap fix for that is to completely unlace the wheel and rebuild it with the spokes on the opposite sides of the hub. I've done this. It's time-consuming but worth it if you're a tightwad like me.

What's the crankset on that bike? Are the shifters integrated on the brake levers? How original do you want to keep this?

Aluminum versus steel means nothing without specifics. If you're going to buy a frame specifically for this project, I'd get some with with track ends or sliders so you don't have to mess with a tensioner. There are a lot of used frames on the market with this feature.

The first one will not work. That is a thread-on cog for a track hub. Surly cogs are my go-to. Cog/ring combo is important. Most people on 29ers around here are running something like 32/20, give or take a few teeth. You can run a higher gear like 32/16 if you're converting an old 26er bike. If this is a pavement-oriented bike, you can go much higher. I use a 38/16 combo on my CX bike with 700x35 tires.

Use a single-specific chainring and cog. Don't repurpose a single cassette cog or middle ring designed for shifting. It will fall off at the worst possible time. Use whatever chain. 8-9 speed chains are great. Anything to do with half-links is a last resort. Surly, DMR, Paul, YESS, Blackspire, various generic options, etc tensioners all work about the same. I had good luck with a DMR model, no bouncing!

Bottom-bracket gearboxes are the future. We're going to laugh out heads off at how long people have tolerated derailers.