FWIW, my rival stuff on my cross bike has been beat to hell and keeps working. The SRAM neutral mechanic suggested getting one of those compressed air containers (for cleaning electronics etc.) and blowing it clean and said it will work like new.

William, you should send a tweet out to Lance Armsrtrong. He bought a big piece of SRAM just before he announced the comeback 2.0. Of course Astana and RadioShack used SRAM. Of course sales spiked when people saw Lance on SRAM. Of course he instantly profited from his investment. Of course the comeback was all about raising global cancer awareness. Of course Lance got huge appearance fees when he raced in the Giro and in Australia...wait, what was I originally talking about???

Chris: you just made actualol

I ♥ shifters.

back to the bike fit conversation:

http://gizmodo.com/5924940/the-ocd-science-behind-a-perfect-fitting-bike

Any thoughts about a 2008 Raleigh Prestiege?  There's one for a very nice price that I'm looking at.  Full carbon frame with a mix of Ultegra and Dura-Ace.  Basically would be the nicest piece of equipment I've ever owned, but don't know anyone who rides one.

why do you need a new bike?

Tito,

caad8

I will always be a CAAD (and a cad, too, if you ask some ex-gf's).

My folks moved last year from Poughkeepsie (last stop on the Hudson line of Metro-North = bikes cool) to Germantown (Rhinecliff stop on Amtrak = bikes not cool) and schlepping the bike has become a colossal pain in the fundament.  I've basically made my whole family hate me on various visits by this point, because the riding up there is spectacular and I usually insist on having my bike.

The plan now is to get a new road bike by the end of the summer and bring the C'dale up to the folks and leave it there.  Since Grace will be living p/t up there this year, she'll also get use of a road bike when she's there.  Voila.

So - any thoughts about the Raleigh?

oh . . . to have the same bike size as your wife!

Yeah it's pretty sweet.  We also wear the same shirt size - we share button-downs, f'real!  Kinky!

ok

whaa?!  I wanted to talk bikes - you made it about Emasculated Little Man's Syndrome (ELMS).

racking my brain to turn that acronym into ELMO

Emasculated Little Man's (dis)-Order

I just wanted to ask what's peoples take on a good aero front wheel for the velodrome? I was looking into HED H3 (or H3D) wheels, but Im not sure if they really live up to their hype and are just all flash no substance like aerospokes. Not looking to buy a mavic iO though haha just something way more affordable.

Because of how mellow the banking is at Kissena, and the fact it's outdoors, I just use my front road race wheel with a bolt on skewer. It's a 90mm carbon tubie. What do you have on your road bike?

BBRight & BB30

Second tech question of the day: 

H3 isn't the fastest aero wheel out there, but it is pretty aero across most yaw angles.  Vertical and lateral stiffness is pretty good as well.  Vertical stiffness might work against you at the Kissena velodrome, but put on a 23 or 25mm tire and it will work out.

DON'T USE THAT PRESS-FIT CRAP, Jules.  It ain't smooth as butter. It wiggles.

Second tech question of the day: 

do the new SRAM 2012 chainrings demand a 2012 SRAM front gruppo or can they be run just fine with a 2011 or older SRAM front derailleur?

I've done a little research on this, and from what I gather SRAM's compatibility shit for the 2012 gruppo are all hype and no substance. you can basically run any mix match of front der / rings.

BBRight & BB30

What is the real deal here?  Can I run a BB30 crank on a BBright bottom bracket (like my Cervelo R3?)

I called Quarq and they sent me the attached PDF detailing how it was possible.  Just wanted to sanity check this with the collective wisdom of the team

some bb30 cranks. the sram quarq has a slightly longer axle then a normal bb30 crank, say a hollowgram for example. they do this so they use a preload ring instead of a wavy washer. removing that preload ring frees up enough room on the nds of the spindle to work on a bbright frame.

@mattie davitt

I actually dont have a road bike yet (I WANT ONE SO BAD!) i have a track bike and i have mavic open pros on it with dura ace hubs. I love those wheels but since all this talk about carbon aero wheels has been going around, i felt like maybe I should look into getting some new wheels for the track

Aaron, dude - we haven't met, but I just want to say that most of the time, the money would be better spent on a couch or training plan, or anything else that helps to improve YOUR engine before you start buying new stuff.

Aaron,
I would second what William says. You're better off with an smaller upgrade of tires and tubes, and you'll see a huge performance gain, without having to find a place to store a second set of wheels.

William a couch is nice, but I don't know how much performance gain a sofa will give you. Especially when you take it to the drive thru.

You have GOT to get a good couch.  Very important for recovery and pre-race visualization.

@ Aaron, the rubinos are totally fine.

@ Ryan - they screwed up a truing a year ago. I had to take it to NYC Velo.

I blew a spoke a few weeks ago and Ride replaced it an re-trued. So far, so good. Fingers crossed.

P.S. when a bike shop says something like "well it had to be done this way because" I'm a little skeptical. I think it means they don't have the time / energy / skill to do it perfectly. Or the right way.

That is what NYC Velo ended up doing with the wheel ride couldn't get true. They took all the tension off the spokes and started more or less from scratch. It's been perfect every since. But I'm sure it was a lot harder than just turning a few spoke nipples.

I once had a wheel that gave no end of trouble. I was constantly tinkering and replacing pieces of the freehub in an attempt to get rid of an annoying noise. Eric dubbed it my 'Emma wheel' named after my teenage daughter (don't mention this to my wife). I finally delegated it to cross where I couldn't hear - or no longer cared about - the annoying noise. After a season or two, the rim blew apart and it sits in a pile of other dead wheels in the basement. Reason for my story is to convince you that your wheel is hopeless. Overtensioning a spoke is a last gasp effort to save a dead wheel and was bound to fail. Lucky it did so in your house rather than on the road. Save the hub for a rebuild. The rim is toast. RB was in an awkward spot. No customer wants to hear that their rim is toast. Some other bike shop will always be happy to take your money and claim to fix it.