Would 30 gears be a mistake?

[AlanW]

I'm trying to write a constructive post but AlanW's gif in the above post is putting me... err.. boobies

Don't look left then..

 

[Brock]

What you need to do with a new bike Pt I.

Get the rear mech cable unhitched, completely remove the cable tension adjuster and give it a splash of Waxoil before putting it back in.

Apply Waxoil to all other gear and brake adjuster threads.

Squirt the Waxoil on your fingers and massage it around every spoke nipple, covering the thread AND pushing it between nipple and rim eyelet.

Smear Waxoil on EVERY cable. These go rusty V quickly with no protection. Push the Waxoil up the cable outers.

Place a dab of Waxoil on other threaded parts like clamp bolts, V brake Hex heads, Brake springs etc.

Thanks for the advice, sounds reasonable to me, although I fear you may have a bit of a Waxoil fetish.

I don't think the cables will rust though, do you mean the outers? In my experience decent quality cables don't suffer from rust at all. The rear mech loop might get sluggish with grime intake though, and I reckon the Waxoil might help prevent that. It's out of character for me to do anything so forward thinking and sensible though. I'd probably just end up waiting for mine to crud up then pay for super shimano teflon coated MTB cables with those rubber sleeve thingies to prevent grit ingress. They work superbly.

 

[Brock]

Don't look left then..

Stop it!

 

[Brock]

I think 47 is your limit on the trucker, isn't it?

And Brock, you've seen the Surly Pugsley, right? Fun looking bike, that...

I'm not sure I equate balloon tyres with fun, unless I had a bike purely for cycling across cabbage fields and swamps... How fun?

 

[MacB]

I'm not sure I equate balloon tyres with fun, unless I had a bike purely for cycling across cabbage fields and swamps... How fun?

I'll let you know, but a lot of comment on the web seems to indicate that tyres like the Schwalbe Big Apple or Marathon Supreme give a surprising turn of speed. This is at 50mm, at 60mm they don't seem so keen.

 

[stevew]

Got 50mm BAs on my utility bike that gets quite a lot of miles on it. There are great as they seem to roll as well as any other tyre I've tried and the big plus is the comfort. I'm running them at 45psi rear and 30 psi front.

I'm thinking of trying out the Big Apple 50mm ones, I fancy a wide ride

 

[John the Monkey]

I'm not sure I equate balloon tyres with fun, unless I had a bike purely for cycling across cabbage fields and swamps... How fun?

Phase 1: Fit the huge tyres.
Phase 2: Err....
Phase 3: FUN!

Simples.