At least I would make sure that you don't have a lot of spacers between the head tube and your stem. There is a maximum (40 cm I think) for carbon steerers. This limits the torque applied to the steerer as you lean on your handlebars.

You could also just ride no-handed.

I would say send the fork back before you crash on your face taking a bunch of teammates who were on your wheel down with you.

stokes, 40cm?  That has to be off by close to an order of magnitude.  I think it's more like 5cm.

JP: new quarq's on the market offering right and left side measurements? Give us the scoop!

Jules,

Mark Clifford said:

"A voluntary recall of the front forks on all models of its 2012 Tarmac SL4..."

The steer tube on my 2011 Tarmac SL2 cracked. I didn't know until I was in the field sprint at Floyd, in the drops, and all of a sudden a crazy speed wobble started to happen. I had to RELAX real quick to insure that I didn't eat shit. Luckily, I rode it out, but that was some serious bullshit.

Get another fork.

I'm not sure if the SL4 is any different, but I was able to use an older (Jermaine Burrowes'!) Tarmac fork on my SL2 as a replacement. I was told that, as they updated the Tarmac frames, Specialized didn't change the fork.

Just dropped off my frame at Bicycle Habitat. Not a particularly encouraging start in that A) the guy that helped me knew very little of the recall and Specialized haven't yet shipped any of the recall packages to vendors. Pretty annoying but perhaps I have been saved from a messy fork-related death. So, you know, perspective.

... perhaps I have been saved from a messy fork-related death. So, you know, perspective.

This.

@Mark: Bike Habitat are good peoples. I'm sure they will take care of you. 

josephmueller said:

@Mark: Bike Habitat are good peoples. I'm sure they will take care of you. 

I am Tito and I approve this message.

Mark,

The 'people' in this case are called Dave Vollbach. I see him hanging out in the high-end annex, which is a few doors north of the main store.

I'm sorry to report that I have a horror story about when Habitat ordered a replacement derailleur hanger for my Trek X01. It seemed simple, but ended up being a comedy of errors and confusion. I think this was not due to lack of diligence, but just par for the course in the bike industry, which changes their specs about every other year. You need to make contingency plans as the season is nigh.

Mark - I'll just reiterate what Stokes said; warranty issues should be brought to Dave.  However, it sounds like you went to BH in Brooklyn and we don't have any Kissenas there.

Keep in mind, y'all, that a bike shop deals with thousands of different products and customers and it's not realistic to expect that every employee is gonna be up on your particular manufacturing problem.  What you can, and should, expect is that the employee will give you their full attention, bring your issue to someone more knowledgable if they don't know, write up a work order for your problem with lots of notes, and follow up with you in a timely manner.

Was one of the big fork recalls (Trek?) from a few years ago boiled down to a lot of "home mechanics" not following torque specs, but nonetheless resulting in the recall of thousands of forks due to only 4 or 5 failures?

Lesson: if you don't know what you're doing, take it to a good shop (even though they screw up stuff all the time too).

I have had nothing but good experiences at Bicycle Habitat.  On this occasion I don't think it was the fault of the store at all -- more that Specialized had not properly distributed the relevant recall materials.

I was thinking of taking it to Vollbach but yeah -- it was a pain to get it across the Manhattan store (and is he even back at work yet?)  The guy at the Park Slope location (I forget his name) was helpful once he figured out the situation.  I'll stay on top of them.

At least I have my old road / commuter to see me through.  If it gets too ridiculous I'll maybe look to just buy a new fork and then sell the original.

A Enve fork on a Tarmac may look very cool by the way.

Apparently you can only put an OEM fork on the SL4.  Specialized has monopolized that choice it would seem.

specialized tapered forks are proprietary. they drop the crown race and keep the taper longer ostensibly to make it stiffer. for a temp fix , a tapered allez fork would work.

Jules I read some of this on my lunch break today.... It does not sound very good for a $700 meter....I have a computrainer for intervals...a cycleops powercal looks like a much better deal for just averaging ride power...$75 with our discount....I have neither the time nor patience to train seriously with power...hr, perceived effort and a ballpark wattage number is all I needs

.

Yaks; I submit it takes *less* time to train with power because your efforts are more efficient, but I agree that it doesn't sound good (yet) for Stages.  Pity that.  FWIW I think you can get an actual powertap for 750 now with our discount, or much less used.

I've had a powertap before...great product.  I have 3 sets of wheels...trainer wheels, training ride wheels and race wheels.  I use them all.  Looking for something other than a hub based meter.  I will likely roll with a powercal for awhile...maybe stages fixes their meter and it becomes more accurate.  I admit...meter or no meter...my speed on the bike is going to be watt (pun intended) it is going to be.  I can do great intervals on the computrainer anyway.  It is much easier...just set a wattage...stare at the #...maintain....repeat....

Silly question but..  I am swapping the cog on my track wheel. The current one is a little greasy. 

Run-off should suffice.

But grease the threads

Caesar, clean the cog teeth on the one you're swapping out.  Also wipe the chain as clean as you can.

First, let me say, I'm no old-school grouch, and was not only an early adopter of carbon fiber bikes when Yacks wasnt the only one calling them "plastic" bikes, but I also have one of the early generations of PowerTap hubs. With that said... Christ...power meters are dumb. Or at least their websites are dumb and confusing. It's like shopping for mattresses and I'm kind of hating it. Taking PT out of the equation, let's consider my options for crank-based tools. Quarq is supposed to be the affordable one...so let's start there. You have the Elsa 10R that will run you $2045 for a BB30 model (I'm getting a Cannonwhale), but that does not include a head unit. Okay, because I'm jealous of all you Strava weenies, I head over to the Garmin site and discover the cheapest ANT compatible head unit will run $250...but that does not a speed sensor or HR strap that apparently craps out if you are too salty or sweaty or something. Add $120 for those prices, sold separately, because, why would you sell a $250 cycling computer and include the strap or thing that makes it a cycling computer...the speed sensor? Okay, now we're at $2420. Roughly the same as the MSRP of a CAAD 10 with Ultegra. But are we really? I see there's a special "quarq for Cannondale" link. I love me some alliteration, so let's hop on over there. Apparently I can have it three ways. With no actual cranks (which is double awesome...crank based power meter for sale with...NO CRANKS!) for $1800. Or with NO CRANKS and chain rings (because I've always found the most efficient way to pedal is through telekenisis) for FREE or something other because no price is listed. Or a super deluxe model with tomatoe and French fries for $2800. Add in my cycling computer with optional speed sensor and intermittently working chest strap? $3170. Okay this is starting to feel like some straight-up steak-house ala carte-NYC Tapas restaurant BULLSHIT, Let me check out SRM...they're old-school German, and the Wagners and Voights in my family would approve. Ahhh, yes...here we go, their Power meters come with actual cranks and chain rings. Sweet. Because my Jedi powers are as weak as that dumb-ass "mediclorine" explanation in the new Star Wars movies, and I will actually need cranks and chain rings to make my bike go. Wait a minute...how in the world is it possible that I could have the same power meter for either $2000 or $4000 depending on which cranks I order?!?! And say I go with the cheapest, the "wireless Professional" and add my creamed spinach and chorizo monitoring straps I'm looking at like $2400 which is about the same price as the more "affordable" Quarq set up if I went with the cheapest Garmin head unit and "accessories." At least SRM sells a "system" that includes the entire meal for $2700 to $4500. It was my understanding that SRM has the advantage on technology and craftsmanship, but lost out on price big time. My math SAT scores sucked, but I'm not seeing a huge difference here. I'm sure I'm being stupid in some way...but I am confused and annoyed and tired. And I can't believe I stayed up after my boy got me up with his crying to type this on an iPad instead of trying to sleep before my shift at work.

<CR> doesn't work so well on an iPad.