[quote=littletinyfish]
Sometimes pedals aren’t marked with L or R. Sometimes they’re marked in weird places. Sometimes they are just poorly printed.
So here’s a secret to stem the frustration: hash marks always indicate the left pedal. Sometimes there’re a lot, or just a couple, or sometimes it’s a ring around the spindle, but it always indicates left.[/quote]
You can also just look at the direction of the threads.
Yeah threads are the first and only thing I look at.
yeah I have seen a couple really cheap stock throwaways with the wrong markings on them
Right side higher = right thread
Left higher = left thread
^ That is some useful shit right there. Obvious, but just never thought of it before.
Anyone have a quick way to remember which side of an english BB is reverse threaded? I have to look it up every time.
The drive side. The way I always think about it turn towards the rear axle = tighten and turn towards the front axle = loosen.
Aka opposite of the pedals
opposite of pedals then. I can remember that.
English BB threading is opposite of whatever the pedal threading on that side of the bike is. Maybe not helpful, but that’s how I remember.
Edit: VT got them fast fingers.
That too.
Opposite of pedals is a great way to remember that. Damn. I wish I knew that reminder years ago.
Oh no
Strip out a bb?
Ohh yeah
Ima combine the pedal hash mark with the bb-opposite-of-pedals idea and never forget how this shit goes again.
I don’t swap pedals or bbs often enough to have commited this to memory before. This business about towards the front or back of the bike to either tighen or loosen something never seems to stick in my brain.
Pervy mnemonic is tight in the front, loose in the caboose.
The threads go up and to the x__
Means this is the x_ side pedal.
Back to grip chat, for non-lock on rubber grips a very small spray of WD-40 works the best. The grips will be stuck like glue to the bar within 10 minutes and only rotate once you get them super wet.
Probably not news to most of you, but I use this all the time (No I did not learn it from Urban Velo).
Its such a useful trick. I have an old 3TTT quill stem that has a 2.5mm grub screw behind the main bolt which screws in to spread the clamp, really neat, not sure if it was something that a lot of high end stems did.
At some point they started threading the lower or outside bolt hole so you could use a flat hard object to open the clamp. The grub screw is superfluous.
Speaking of batrape, I just realized something that makes wrapping bars with cloth tape a lot easier. This might be obvious, but for starters don’t remove all of the adhesive backing(duh) but THEN, because cloth tape rolls are hella long cut TWO small lengths to cover each of the brake lever/hood clamp things. Cloth tape loves to fold over itself and get stuck together and this enables you to keep your distance from the fold zone while still covering errthing. Does that make sense?
These things. Use two on each.
The trick with handlebar tape is to start from the center of the roll and pull out, keeping the rest of the tape wrapped in the roll while you work. This method works best with gel tapes.
If you have to leave the tape mid-wrap job, there is only one tool to keep it in place.
Cutting the wrap is two pieces is nearly a must-do for wrapping Campagnolo Ergo shifter bodies, but it works well and provides a clean look for other bikes, as well.
