retro grouch

[kenji]

so its been over ten years sence i worked on bikes professionaly...
im kind of curious to know whats out there new
im most cofortable building bikes with parts that are over 30 years old but lately im wondering if i might be missing something.
say like are there easy and genaric disc brakes that can be adapted to old school hubs?
are there any new bikes that are manufactured with 1nch o.d. diameter tubeing? ie department store bikes. do all bike have 1 1/8 threadless headsets now? if so why? are 24" X 3" tires avalable that would fit a 26 inch middle weight frames?
get my drift?

 

[Bendix]

so its been over ten years sence i worked on bikes professionaly...
im kind of curious to know whats out there new
im most cofortable building bikes with parts that are over 30 years old but lately im wondering if i might be missing something.
say like are there easy and genaric disc brakes that can be adapted to old school hubs?
are there any new bikes that are manufactured with 1nch o.d. diameter tubeing? ie department store bikes. do all bike have 1 1/8 threadless headsets now? if so why? are 24" X 3" tires avalable that would fit a 26 inch middle weight frames?
get my drift?

in the last decade-

road bikes have gotten lighter, more complicated, and more expensive.

mountain bikes have gotten heavier, more complicated, and more expensive.

even dime store disc equipped bikes come with disc specific hubs.

1 1/8 threadless isn't universal, but nearly. it's much cheaper for the manufacturers to lop off a plain piece of steerer tube than make/stock/spec many diferent lengths of threaded forks.

don't know about 1" tubing, but there wasn't much of that 10 (or 20) years ago either. oversized frames (first steel, and now aluminum) have ruled the roost for some time now.......maybe the walmart fixie bike?


you haven't missed much..... :wink:

 

[socal_jack]

In the MTB arena pretty much everything is way better than the gear in the 80s or 90s, and entry level are about same price(which is about what an 80s/90s bike would be now). I used to always have to screw around with derailleur adjustment, my SRAM stuff now is set and forget. Same for shifters, indexed shifters are sharp and near instant. No real increase in complexity that I've seen. Disc brakes work so much better than rim brakes in a wider range of conditions that I would never consider even a retro collector type bike with them, at least for mechanicals discs they are easier to adjust and maintain and I've never replaced a disc brake pad yet, for rims that was twice a year. All the bearings are sealed types now in hubs and bottom brackets, no more loose pack garbage and easy to R&R. I can go longer on maintenance and it all takes a beating better on virtually every component. Except for chains haven't broken a component in a long time.

 

[kenji]

In the MTB arena pretty much everything is way better than the gear in the 80s or 90s, and entry level are about same price(which is about what an 80s/90s bike would be now). I used to always have to screw around with derailleur adjustment, my SRAM stuff now is set and forget. Same for shifters, indexed shifters are sharp and near instant. No real increase in complexity that I've seen. Disc brakes work so much better than rim brakes in a wider range of conditions that I would never consider even a retro collector type bike with them, at least for mechanicals discs they are easier to adjust and maintain and I've never replaced a disc brake pad yet, for rims that was twice a year. All the bearings are sealed types now in hubs and bottom brackets, no more loose pack garbage and easy to R&R. I can go longer on maintenance and it all takes a beating better on virtually every component. Except for chains haven't broken a component in a long time.

entry level MTB back in the day was $350... as a assembler in a large shop i was making $10/ hr
i had to have a bike out of the box and on the floor in 15-20 min ready for inspection buy the manager. so much for new bikes. the fun part was reconditiong used bikes to sell to college kids. it gave me a chance to be creative.
if you were replacing pads on rim brakes twice a year, you are a active rider or a sissy skered to go fast. (that last catagory is more my deal)
if you bang that gear changer against a rock does it still index? derailleur shifters have been a staple product sence caveman days are you sure it will continue? how about internal hubs?
as far as adapting discs to retro bikes id say swaping hubs would be no less complicated than switiching to 700c rims because good tires are avalable for them not 27inchers. i say why not switch to discs at the same time and not have to run drop bolt brakes. as fo fixies,- im to old and too fat and i want to keep the knees ive got. no i think ill stay with my retro fat tire bikes for now.

 

[socal_jack]

It can still be done, looking at 2 under $350 in a Nashbar catalog I just got a few days back, both name brand but 26ers though I'd rather have a rigid fork than a low end suspension fork been thru that before. I was burning pads up coming down Mt Baldy Notch/San Antonio Falls fire road our version of Repack at the time, like 1600ft drop in a about ~3 miles IIRC, arms would go numb on a rigid fork from vibration. You can/could even bring your bike to the summit at 10,000+, make a day of it and come down the ski runs that really burned them.

I get a lot of rock smacks out here in SoCal, but so far the only thing that has taken out a rear derailleur was a chain break where the it kinked and drug thru the jockey wheels and bent the crap out of the rear derailleur(and bent the dropout) had to replace both, otherwise the gear handles rocks fine but gouged a bit. The only internal hubs I've used are Nexus-7 and they don't seem very hardy even for road use, I'd rather have a Formula/Origin8 single speed hub. Both my MTBs are 29ers (RIP9 and a GT Peace SS) totally sold on that format, so yeah 700c if you're gonna do it lots of good gear now.

entry level MTB back in the day was $350... as a assembler in a large shop i was making $10/ hr
i had to have a bike out of the box and on the floor in 15-20 min ready for inspection buy the manager. so much for new bikes. the fun part was reconditiong used bikes to sell to college kids. it gave me a chance to be creative.
if you were replacing pads on rim brakes twice a year, you are a active rider or a sissy skered to go fast. (that last catagory is more my deal)
if you bang that gear changer against a rock does it still index? derailleur shifters have been a staple product sence caveman days are you sure it will continue? how about internal hubs?
as far as adapting discs to retro bikes id say swaping hubs would be no less complicated than switiching to 700c rims because good tires are avalable for them not 27inchers. i say why not switch to discs at the same time and not have to run drop bolt brakes. as fo fixies,- im to old and too fat and i want to keep the knees ive got. no i think ill stay with my retro fat tire bikes for now.

 

[sensor]

like are there easy and genaric disc brakes that can be adapted to old school hubs?
are there any new bikes that are manufactured with 1nch o.d. diameter tubeing? ie department store bikes. do all bike have 1 1/8 threadless headsets now? if so why? are 24" X 3" tires avalable that would fit a 26 inch middle weight frames?
get my drift?

No idea about the disc brakes. I'm aworking class guy not rich so I couldn't say.
Lots of new bikes have 1" o.d. tubing.Anything made by Pacific(You know. The sorry excuse for the "Schwinn" name now.) will have 1" o.d. tubing(Although you can get enough at your local steel shop to build a frame from scratch for less than $40. You may even have tubing leftover.).
Most have 1 1/8" headtubes/headsets now. Most are threadless. You can use a threaded headset if you want. They are still made for 1 1/8" as well as 1".
24x3" tires in a middleweight frame? No. not even if you ran them on 1.75 rims. They would measure 2 3/4" on a skinny wheel.
No I don't get your drift......

 

[subadrew]

coolest new items on the market that I'd like on a cruiser/commuter are belt drive systems, 29" wheels, and 9+ speed internal hubs.

It's been 14 years since I was a bike mechanic and about 12 years since I stopped racing.

 

[kenji]

by 29 inch you mean 700c right?

 

[dragnusa]

by 29 inch you mean 700c right?

They have cruisers out now with 29 inch rims instead of the more normal 26 inch rim, wal mart has a genesis onyx with the 29s on it

 

[deorman]

Yes, 29" tires use 700c rims.

 

[gcrank1]

For some disc brake stuff see http://www.custommotoredbicycles.com, Lynn has lot of stuff for her conversions and she is happy to talk 'human powered' too.

 

[B607]

For me it's tires on the cruiser bikes. If you're not riding on Bontrager high pressure balloon tires, you're living in the stone age. Get a pair, and save half the energy you normally expend riding. They're that good. Gary

 

[kenji]

gary what rims are you runnning those high pressure tires?
anyone have them on schwinn S2 roms?