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Real men will roll Yoshida grips onto their steel handlebars, and then get callouses from doing standing starts on said bars.
You heard it first here....
:-))))))
Scherrit.

Sigh, the Italians.....
The same folks who stick with "self-loosening" right BB cups...
S.

Horses for courses, as far as I'm concerned, V's are best if if your handlebar shape (i.e. flat bars) let you use brake levers with the correct cable pull. Canti's if you need brakes that work with drop bar levers. Don't muck with leverage adjusters (travel agents etc) if you don't have to.....

Also:
V brakes with pads and concave/convex washers are easy-peasy to set up.

V bakes don't stick out as much as canti's which may snag your panniers etc

Canti's with unthreaded studs on the pads can be a bit fiddly- so no toe-in possible without bending (erm, cold setting). Getting the cable linkage set up for optimal leverage can be a bit fiddly. Of course you may see this as an opportunity to bias the braking the way you like it.
YMMV,
Scherrit.

Aluminium spokes are the dark side, Hippy....

I have some nice spokes for you which I carved out of stilton?
S.

I don' like it 'cause it's not stretchy..... so it tend to slither around after a few months- the cheap and cheerful PRO works OK for me, or the prologo is good, too.

I do like the fizik gel inserts to go under the tape, tho'
S.

Deranged or epileptic rat stuck in front spokes? Off balance London pigeon?
S.

yup, I have a set of ally rollers- that what you're looking for? Purchased at world master's track 3 years ago and used once. Decided that I need a larger diameter set of rollers, seeing as I only use them for warmups. Come and try them if you like?
Cheers,
Scherrit.

Ed,
even PRO do a round (classic) shape of bar:
look on the ultimate pursuits/ madison site.
Scribble me if you get stuck- they're only 38-ish quid.
S.

In my experience super glue works quite well for glueing the split sides of the cut together, you'll need to squeeze the edges together, tho' Seems to last quite well. Only worth doing if the tyre has life in it, innit?

For gap filling copydexx is good, or some other potions recco above.

All of this presumes that no cords have been cut and that the casing is still the right shape when inflated, if not (and you're very poor and not too risk averse)- I have stitched tubular casings together in the non-wearing area and then used a very thin (silk or cotton) "boot" (tyre patch). Not necessary for actual wage earners to take on this amount of risk, tho'
S.

Question- is the carbon loadbearing (eg) zipp) or just a fairing (eg some HED rims)? If just a fairing then you'll be fine just re-epoxy-ing it.
S.

Slightly out of the left field, I heard that a few national track teams were running ceramicised 105 BB's instead of the DA octalink set-up.

I have no great enthusiasm for octalink, having seen a few on MTB's and track bikes work their way loose (not sure how much muppet factor was involved of course....) and D/A cranks are still available in square taper (might need a mortgage!)

As a counterpoint, the 9speed octalink on my roadie bike has been fine, of course, so hard to say if it really is a bad technology, I think the failures were mostly associated with reverse torque (usually mtb riders hammering downhill, freewheeling with full weight on horizontal cranks.
YMMV,
Scherrit.

Gizmond, I like the Dura-ace ones but they are rather pricy! silvery, not balck, tho'
S.

It is indeed very very interesting, what makes me rather sad is that I have to race over 20-40s so I get to do 20-40s efforts in training, which hurt rather a lot.....

I'm still waiting for the miraculous discovery that gentle pootling rides in the countryside improve my sprinting......
Damn shame!
S.

Standard practice (on a roadie set up) in my workshop is to do the cassette at the same time as the chain if the chain is ~ 1% worn. Below that you MAY get a new chain to work on an worn cassette but not reliably.

One notable exception is my mtb drive train where I run a cheap 9 speed chain and throw it away about 3 times before replacing the cassette- running in mud seems extra bad for the chain but not quite as bad for the cassette teeth.

I like KMC chains, I've broken a coupla SRAM 9 speed joining links doing starts on my roadie bike, not a pleasant experience!

The other maintenance erm "strategy"approach is to run everything until it falls apart....

your mileage may vary.....
Scherrit.

Ceramics much much much better at lightening the old wallet. Worth about a watt or two in lower rolling resistance I think.....
S.

I found Schraner's book next to useless and with some unsupported/unsupportable stuff in it. Roger Musson's book is very useful and sane, I think. The Jobst book is good as well.
my 2p,
Scherrit.

3/32 seem to be a little uncommon, wheels manufacturing are represented by Madison here in the UK and they have most sizes available in 25 grade- but NOT 3/32 as far as I can see.

Most freewheels are so poorly sealed against dirt, water etc that mucking about with a better grade of bearing is a bit of the old "polishing a turd" routine. Not to diss your efforts, I'm excessively inclined to save mechanical devices by machining new bits for them myself.....
Good luck,
Scherrit.

Tight chain might indeed have toasted your BB, look on the positive side, it might have been your knee making grinding noises, that'd be much worse?

I used to love my chain super tight on the track, then my coach pointed out that it needs to be just tight enough to not jump off, too tight and it's eating power, or your BB (especially if cheapish rings/cogs have a radical tight spot)
Good luck with the dignosis!
Scherrit.

This is the standard ref for tapers, all DA is JIS, I think?
->>>>>
http://www.businesscycles.com/tr-refspec.htm

Get some lovely knurled DA studs which won't fall out every time you change a ring......
Cheers,
S.

4 bolt?
We may be able to help.
Scherrit.

sorry late to answer, gizmond you have to use the older PT with a dust cover that goes on with 2 bolts. then you need a special axle and a surly fixxer to replace the freehub body, and some fool (e.g. me) has to re- space the hub to 120mm by means of filing down the ally spacer {which has a magnet glued INTO it} on the non- drive side.
Simples!

They do not last forever, and saris will not fix the old hubs anymore, the occasional reverse torque seems to kill them- the torx screws holding the torque tube in the hub (under the batteries) back out under reverse torque. They usually survive a few re-assemblies and I've tried using loctite...

Still, the old hub are cheapish on eBay as most people now know that they are not supported- what we need is some whizz kid to work out how to fix them.....
Cheers,
Scherrit.

I have special spokes hand-rolled on the thighs of a virgin for you, Sir.
Scherrit.

Happy to help, give us a call, we are quite backed up at the moment, so delivery on wheels especially if you're needing anything unusual will be ~2 weeks.
Cheers,
Scherrit.
www.thebikewhisperer.co.uk

One lonely voice here for the conti 4 seasons, love 'em and sell lots and lot of them to triathletes and long mileage riders with no comebacks. schwalbe marathon plus/slick etc family if you really don't like fixing flats and like to making extra 50W to keep up to your mates..... it's always a compromise.....

My wife uses conti 400o's in 650 on her roadie bikes, no problems with flats.
Cheers,
Scherrit.

Yup,
saved me hours of "fun".....