20
votes
Accepted
How maintenance-free can a commuter bike be?
The best is probably to look at the so called Dutch bikes - or the bikes offered by subscription services, that are usually designed to lower maintenance requirements and maximise utility - often at ...
- 16.1k
17
votes
What freewheel mechanism designs are used in bicycles?
Standard Pawl and Ratchet Design
This design is by far the most common on bicycle freehubs, and as such the least expensive to employ.
Mechanism
In it's simplest form, this design consists of a ...
- 1,981
17
votes
How maintenance-free can a commuter bike be?
The two ‘key’ things for a commuter bike to reduce maintenance are to use an internal gear hub, and to use a belt drive.
An IGH has the distinct advantage of everything being encapsulated in a way ...
- 1,051
12
votes
Why are almost all bicycle tyres cross-ply/bias ply and not radial construction?
Radial bicycle tires are very rare. The reason is that the lateral stiffness is much lower than for cross-ply tires. Imagine that you press the sidewall of a tire by your thumb. With a cross-ply ...
- 1,291
12
votes
What freewheel mechanism designs are used in bicycles?
American Classic Cam Plate Design
The full name is "Six Pawl Cam Actuated Engagement System." This design is one of the more complicated ones, but according to American Classic provides a ...
- 1,981
11
votes
What freewheel mechanism designs are used in bicycles?
Star Ratchet and variations
This design in it's simplest form is used by DT Swiss. This design incorporates easily replaceable ratchet plates that offer the added benefit of every engagement point ...
- 1,981
9
votes
What freewheel mechanism designs are used in bicycles?
Sprag Clutch
The sprag clutch has existed in industrial applications for some time: being used in motorcycles, helicopters, airplanes, automotive transmissions, and others. As far as I know, Onyx is ...
- 1,981
7
votes
combining technologies and speeds: shifter and rear derailleur (index, friction)
This probably won't work. If it does, it means you've found a lucky combination of parts and also gotten lucky setting the cable tension.
You are correct that the derailleur's cable pull ratio will be ...
- 28.5k
6
votes
Do half link chains work on any bike and what is their purpose?
As mentioned in another answer, the main purpose of half link chains is to have more control over the chain length and hence the wheelbase of your bike (assuming you have rear facing or slideable drop-...
- 61
6
votes
Accepted
Do half link chains work on any bike and what is their purpose?
From the internet:
"Half Link BMX chains were designed to help dial in the chain length on frames with short dropouts and small gearing, making sure your rear wheel is exactly where you want it. Dan'...
- 1,381
5
votes
DIY computational fluid dynamics for aerodynamics?
Has anyone experimented with using consumer 3D software to do CFD-like aerodynamics simulations? - Yes
Could there be any worthwhile insights gained from this? Yes
However, you should not view work ...
- 463
5
votes
How maintenance-free can a commuter bike be?
At least for E bikes, one likely possible change would be to increase the diameter of chainwheel and sprockets, as the smallest 10 and 12 tooth sprockets wear unproportionally fast. Or make these two ...
- 7,232
5
votes
combining technologies and speeds: shifter and rear derailleur (index, friction)
Just to clarify what Adam wrote:
The OP is correct that an indexed shifter will pull a fixed1 amount of cable per click. That's usually called the cable pull or similar.
The derailleur has an ...
- 28.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Why are almost all bicycle tyres cross-ply/bias ply and not radial construction?
As far as I can tell, the biggest factor influencing bicycle tires has to do with the 4th bullet point you mentioned, sidewall stiffness, combined with using inner tubes instead of just being a ...
- 2,795
3
votes
Accepted
"bent" by design frame
A cyclo-cross bike that had been quite successful in world cup and UCI championship races has a similar feature, IE a top tube bent up. Cyclo-cross is very stressful for the materiel. In this specific ...
- 9,474
3
votes
DIY computational fluid dynamics for aerodynamics?
The Stac Zero Virtual Wind Tunnel has been developed and released since this question was originally asked. I saw an analysis on someone who has tested in both wind tunnels and on velodromes. The ...
- 13.8k
3
votes
What is a good camera arrangement for city riding?
I have been down this route several times.
Camera on the handlebars - works well, the view is low though and its a but less likely to see over things that the rider can see over. Tts a little wobbly ...
- 120k
3
votes
How maintenance-free can a commuter bike be?
Fellow 12/12 cycling commuter here. Based on my experience I'd say, in order of priority:
Internal hub gear.
Rear derailleurs are a pain in the backside IMO. Need regular adjusting and cleaning. I ...
- 159
2
votes
Effects of jockey wheel sizes & types
Main gain is less friction when using ceramic ones and less friction on the transmission when using up to 15T pullies. This translates into couple of watts after a big number of km's.
If you are into ...
- 133
2
votes
Bicycle innovations in the pipeline?
Here you can read about the evolution of the bicycle helmets. This does not really look like "they are the same as 25 years ago", including materials, construction, minor things like straps, ...
2
votes
When did Square Taper Bottom Brackets retire from racing?
"First alternative" is a little tricky because if you looked hard enough you could potentially find a pro riding Sweet Wings cranks in the early 90s, which use a spindle and bottom bracket design ...
- 80.1k
2
votes
Accepted
A bike-share system's website told me: "The subscriber is valid but the account is disabled." Why? (It turns out that my credit card had expired.)
It turns out that I saw the message because my old credit card had expired, and I had not entered the replacement credit card's details into the website.
When your credit card expires, your account is ...
2
votes
How can I combine Garmin recorded track data with FitBit heart rate data?
The GPX files produced by GPS devices are just XML so can fairly easily be edited by computer programs (and simple edits like removing sections where your GPS glitched out can even be done “by hand” ...
- 16.9k
2
votes
How maintenance-free can a commuter bike be?
My experience with long time commuting results in the following list of priorities:
Top priority: Puncture resistant tires. Good ones. Invest here, they are worth every cent. Once you have those, you ...
1
vote
Gear change recording
I have been using an Android app called Urban Biker that displays/records ride data that includes gear changes that are very accurate by automatically calculating from speed and cadence.
- 73
1
vote
Gear change recording
No such product exists for mechanical groupsets yet. As for Di2, you just need the little Bluetooth transmitter to communicate with your head unit. This will record the number of shifts, as well as ...
- 4,175
1
vote
When did Square Taper Bottom Brackets retire from racing?
The best that I can find is a page on the Wayback Machine, that shows a prototype of the Dura Ace 7700 groupset (first to have the splined cranksets) being given to several teams and individuals for ...
- 3,263
1
vote
Are there any bluetooth speed sensor with data logging ability?
Garmin Speed Sensor 2. Stores up to 300 hrs of ride data locally and then uploads then next time it pairs with a device.
- 11
1
vote
Why exactly did Boardman manage a further distance than Wiggins?
Superman is probably close in aero advantage to Wiggin's position, but I would think Superman lets the rider put out more power. With Superman, Obree and Boardman are able to engage their core more. ...
- 11
1
vote
Problems with Edge 510 Cadence/Speed Sensor
I had to switch bikes for a major climb and transferred the ANT and sensors to my other bike. After that nothing worked. The 510 found no sensors to pair with. I tried searching for other ...
- 11
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