the future is now! thanks, John!

IOT equivalent of bike stuff.  Love it.

You guys are shooting for the moon; I'll be happy when battery indicators don't lie.

@Jules I use Shakira brand batteries for that exact reason. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUT5rEU6pqM

Getting fed up with my cobbled together 7spd drivetrain on my fake CX/babyseat bike and thinking of converting to 1x10 or 11.  I'm thinking a 40t chainring up front with like a 11-32 would cover most gearing needs?

get an xd driver hub and you can go down to 10 tooth!

i recently bought a hub straight from taiwan (aliexpress.com) and due to the language barrier they sent me "SRAM 11 speed" meaning XD driver.  turns out it's capable of receiving the top of the line 1x cassettes!

i guess that's not responsive to your question, sorry...

i also ordered replacement titanium spindles for my speedplays.  so if you see me crash in an explosion of pedal fire, that's why

Ha, thanks for the digression Brendan.

Doing some gear calculations a 42x11-36t looks like a solid combo.

40 w 11-32 is pretty standard nowdays and is what I would suggest.

fwiw I am usually riding/racing 40x11-28, but putting together a new set of tubs w/ 40x11-32

eloy said:

putting together a new set of tubs w/ 40x11-32

new wheels?  do share?  what is the plan?  

speaking of wheels...i am currently also getting new wheels.  it's wheelie exciting.  i'm building a road rim brake and a cyclocross/commuter disc brake set.  

set 1 is Bitex straight pull hubs with Kinlin XT31R rims.  going lower spoke count, 20/21.

set 2 is Novatec D771/772SB hubs, american classic 101 rims, 32/32 for when i load down the panniers.

the bitex hubs are really cool.  i have had bitex hubs from bikehubstore.com MBT170 (aka Bitex MTR10?) going fine on my disc brake cross wheelset for a year or two.  these hubs and rim combo are interesting and i'm excited to test them out.  rear will be "triplet lacing"--half as many spokes on non-drive side.  a lot of factory wheels you see have this now.  it makes the tension more even which is one way to ensure longer life of the wheel.  i have an off-center rear rim, which also helps even out tension, so this rear wheel should exhibit the rare characteristic of having nearly identical spoke tension on both sides.  experienced wheelbuilders tell me this rim is quite strong and people who weigh 50 pounds more than me have been successfully riding 16/21 sets.

the novatec hubs are an experiment.  i bought directly them from shanghai on aliexpress.com.  $84 for a set (!) of hubs (compare to $250+ for just a rear hub if you buy a cool name brand hub made in USA/switzerland).  free shipping! many of you probably have novatec hubs on your bikes but with other branding on them.  they are a major oem.  took about a month to get here and when it did, the language barrier meant she shipped me an xd driver instead of sram 11 speed (she thinks "sram 11 speed" means "SRAM's MTB 11 speed XD driver body".  allegedly she's shipping me the sram 11 speed road body.

i feel comfortable going with these sets i'm going because i'm not presently convinced that there's something magical to expensive hubs.  the DT swiss hubset i have is, though reliable, unimpressive.  i feel that the wheel has a lot of side to side play and relatively low spoke tension on the non-drive side.  this is despite me cranking up the tension right to the limit (and frankly, over) what the manufacturer recommends for that rim.  but hey, maybe both these new sets will self-destruct in short order and i'll realize you get what you pay for!

the armchair quarterback in me is also on some level not convinced that modern manufacturing and engineering have much trouble producing a reliable bicycle hub.  a hub is an aluminum tube filled with prefab cartridge bearings pressed into a couple precisely-machined surfaces.  computer parts seem much more precise and expensive to design and manufacture yet they are made cheaply and reliably on a massive scale.  it strikes me that perhaps a significant portion of the price tag of a chris king hub goes to funding their apparently impressive cafeteria and commuter subsidy programs for portland-area employees.  i want a shower and cafeteria credits at my work!  i shove my bike in a closet and have to walk to the nearest gym...

one major cost in hubs is bearings.  it does seem that these novatec hubs came with ridiculous ungooglable bearings i've never heard of before.  "amigo."  perhaps deviously designed to mimic the malaysian bearing company "amico."  a taiwanese manufacturer sent its hubs to mainland china to be pressed with spanish-language bearings so they could be shipped to me for free by someone named "Helin" on a website, aliexpress.com, that's named after a character from a french collection of translations of stories from Syria or perhaps Greek Cyprus.  that's globalization.  let's hope it works.

Brendan you are the Odysseus of online bike part shopping. #chapeau

I've had my fair share of fancy wheels with fancy hubs...I've also had 4 sets of Neuvation/Neugent wheels...Over the last 8 years I've had maybe 2 broken spokes and one gimpy rear hub, which was replaced with an entirely new rear wheel by John Neugent.  Never had to replace bearings in a Neugent wheel & think they are Novatec hubs rebadged.  

https://www.wheelsfar.com/road-wheels/clincher/24cm-23mm-width/38mm-x-25mm-dt-350-clincher-wheelset.html

$628 for a dt350 hub is not bad

twoyacks said:

I've had my fair share of fancy wheels with fancy hubs...I've also had 4 sets of Neuvation/Neugent wheels...Over the last 8 years I've had maybe 2 broken spokes and one gimpy rear hub, which was replaced with an entirely new rear wheel by John Neugent.  Never had to replace bearings in a Neugent wheel & think they are Novatec hubs rebadged.  

Yackattack, how you haven't trashed every single hub bearing, cassette, rim, and spoke that has ever graced your bicycle is nearly beyond belief.  TGFPneumaticTires.

I am ruthless with my equipment....Keyser Soze ruthless....but I  always leave some alive...to tell the tale....

according to fedex, a part I ordered yesterday at 4 PM from Taiwan is going to arrive by tomorrow at 10:30 AM?  wtf

<insert spaceballs ludicrous/plaid speed gif>

@Brendan Rigby - are you saying it should get to you sooner? Otherwise, it's feasible that something you ordered on Sunday afternoon NY time (which is Monday morning Taiwan time) and ships that afternoon, can get here by Tuesday (NY time) via a direct 14 hour flight to NY.

i'm saying that to order something that's 7,700 miles away and have it within less than 48 hours is insanely fast.  shipping was $7.50.

This was no expedited shipping? That is cheap for how soon you get it. I can't even get a sim card from Illinois within 5 business days.

Getting a track frame...current frame has a 56 top tube with a 70 stem...Orderd a track frame with a 55 top tube....next size up was a 56.5...I put the #'s into this spreadsheet for a comparison between the old frame "Spooky" and the new frame "All-City"...but what does it all mean?  Is the All-City with a 55 top tube correct?  Or do I need a larger track frame?

If you already ordered it, then I guess we'll find out

The big shift between these frames is the bottom bracket drop and head tube length

Obvs, using a longer stem -- 9-11/12 should help -- you'll need to account for a missing 3.5 CM in the head tube. How low is your stem in the road bike, is it slammed? if yes, then you are gonna kill with that track frame.

As the track bike has a higher bottom bracket, I would guess you probably ordered the correct size.

not slammed...can always get a different size through Redbeard...just hearing a lot of conflicting opinions...some people think I need a 53..."you should be on a 53 tt with a 100-110 stem."
yikes

then there is this...."Kyle Helson So your road bike is 33 mm higher and 15 mm shorter than the track bike. So you'll need spacers and a 55 mm stem or so."

The reach/stack does suggest something like that -- a 6cm or 7cm stem (similar to what you have now) and about 3mm more on spacers (now you have about 25mm)

A smaller top tube (53) would also deliver a lower head tube, so that probably wouldn't work.

An important consideration is that you want the track bike to fit you correctly, but your position shouldn't be exactly as your road bike. Other than the head tube size, it seems you *probably* ordered the correct size. 

Thank you Eloy

Brendan Rigby said:

i feel comfortable going with these sets i'm going because i'm not presently convinced that there's something magical to expensive hubs.  the DT swiss hubset i have is, though reliable, unimpressive.  i feel that the wheel has a lot of side to side play and relatively low spoke tension on the non-drive side.  this is despite me cranking up the tension right to the limit (and frankly, over) what the manufacturer recommends for that rim.  but hey, maybe both these new sets will self-destruct in short order and i'll realize you get what you pay for!

the armchair quarterback in me is also on some level not convinced that modern manufacturing and engineering have much trouble producing a reliable bicycle hub.  a hub is an aluminum tube filled with prefab cartridge bearings pressed into a couple precisely-machined surfaces. 

Brendan,
     I understand what you mean.

     Front hubs in particular should be easy.  Rear hubs are a bit more complicated.  

     I don't know if they're that more complicated.  And I don't know how easy or hard it is to get solid quality control on hubs.  I figure that the basic designs get copied, and things like flange diameter, spacing, and angles are easy enough to replicate.  I'd even guess slight imperfections are ok.  Where it gets harder, I'd think, is getting the bores right for the bearings (are they parallel to each other and round) and the roundness of the axle.  Harder still, I'd proffer, is getting all the pieces in the pawl mechanism exactly the right size.  Small, stamped metal bits strike me as harder to get consistent when you're keeping the price down.       

All the same, here's a comparison for you.  Matchbox/Hotwheels toy cars vs. generic.  They all come from China.  For the relatively small premium of M/H, the cars are noticeably higher quality.  In particular the wheels.  They spin so much better.  Either the molding of the plastic wheels is better or the roundness of the axles is greater, or both, but one look and one spin and you know the difference.

I don't know if it's the case with hubs, but I wonder.  Yes, I spent on a single Chris King rear hub, but unlike Yack, I have worn out cassette mechanisms in four hubs.  I've replaced bearings on several hubs.  I have a Ritchey rear hub that needed to have bearings replaced every year when I was using it as my daily wheel.  On the plus side, my Mavic 501 front hub from 1990, which has seen nearly daily use since then, is on its third set of bearings.  My 'cross clincher front hub is a Campagnolo Record from the 1980s.  There is something to be said for products that don't wear out easily, though I might have gone for a cheaper hub I felt was cheap enough that I could wear it out, buy a second and still be under the Chris King price.

While I'd start on stock bearings, replacing them should be easy, and better bearings probably roll a good bit better, and for not much money (skip ceramics, until you've replaced everything else you can replace).  Of course, if you're not racing them, the extra resistance could be a good thing.

BTW, Chris King's cafeteria and work policies are nice, but they also claim to have better environmental policies in terms of production.  https://www.chrisking.com/why/environmental/  

here are some new american-made hubs from interbike, they look promising...just wish they were cheaper!  but they don't have king-style expensive proprietary bearings, so that's good.  http://www.bikerumor.com/2016/10/03/ib16-wheels-manufacturing-reinvents-rear-hub-pushes-axle-bearings-limit/

what can I say...hubs LOVE me...cept those $439 dollar Alchemy Orc's with 5 rear bearings

twoyacks said:

what can I say...hubs LOVE me...cept those $439 dollar Alchemy Orc's with 5 rear bearings

i believe alchemy worked with Wheels to design the hubs i linked to, ha!

also I think those Orcs were recalled?  not sure...

@jim_nelson what is that dynamo front hub in your lovely waterford i saw at redbeard earlier today?