Ti is the best spork material.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3adfe6fa5.jpeg

Now I guess I have to get one of those to go with the Litespeed. I'll put it on the list, behind the Ti bottle cages with Ti bolts, the Ti stem and seatpost, the saddle with Ti rails, the Ti bottom bracket, pedals with Ti spindles... What else? Oh, yeah! Ti watch!

(I was thinking about bottle cages, but I could by 3 stainless steel King cages for the price of one Ti cage. Then it turned out that the 7410 crankset came with Ti crank bolts, so I figured that was all the Ti I need.)

Wearing one today! Love how light the weight is.

You'd be astonished how light most of my watches are.

Also how small, though this was very much an average sized watch when it was made, which was only a year or so after I was made.​​​​​​​

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5fd8edf2cb.jpg

Yep. I know how light yours are!

Mine lean the other way. Today's myti:

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a0a49cce14.jpg
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​​​​​​​Coaxial escapement! Nice!

I used to have an automatic Benz Micro (makers of phono cartridges) branded Ti watch. I think that I had a problem with one of the stems and stuffed it in a box somewhere. I'm sure I'll come across it one of these years.

My wife has a Cartier auto that I gave her a few years ago. It has recently ceased to function. Afraid to find out what it will cost to repair. I bought it gray market, and it was a very not crazy priced watch (alu 105 tier), but she loves it. Hopefully the local horologist can fix it. If not, I'm not sure what I'll do.

I noticed the red patch and wondered about it.

Today’s walk was tame and only included the Cobb estate, plus some of the roads just south and east of it.

is it a bad thing when you roll the rear wheel backwards and the cranks move?

No. If they didn't, your freehub wouldn't be engaging.

If you do have a local independent watchmaker, be nice to them. They're a dying breed. The Swiss have spent a decade or more trying to drive them to extinction.

A lot of the vintage watches I've bought over the last decade plus were ones that 'broke' and then got tossed in a drawer, till someone either moves or dies and they get pulled out and put up on Ebay. Often, it's just that they need service.

I thought you were just filling in for VV

Speaking of whom......?

what he said, unless you went out and got a bmx bike with a freecoaster hub. if that's the case then your hub isn't working as advertised

i miss riding across a strip of fire ******ant on one of my regular routes near here. It was pretty much perpendicular to the road and just 20' wide or so, pretty cool to ride across!

Hahaha!!! I might have to take up arms with datlas

There is one in Fort Worth who is really good. Just need to get there.

My other ti:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d2b31a8541.jpg

Yeah, I don't remember exactly what the issue was, but I seem to recall that I couldn't set the time. Maybe the stem spun ineffectually, or maybe the crown broke off altogether - I'll have to see whenever I stumble across it again.

What's involved? Cleaning and lube? What would typically be charged for a service?

Depends. Automatic service is often $600-1,000. And up.

Some movements don’t get serviced, but just replaced if you send the watch back to the manufacturer.

Clean and lube, yeah, but it involves taking it completely apart to the smallest bits before cleaning. Cleaning itself involves hand-cleaning the jewels to remove any residue of old oils. After a trip through the cleaning machine, each part is inspected (pros will use a microscope) and then you might test each wheel in place by itself to see that is spins freely. If not, you have to figure that out and fix it before you proceed. Next you assemble it, doing a number of tests along the way, and also oiling, which means tiny amounts of just the right oils in just the right places. Once assembled and running, they'll put it on a timing machine and test in 6 orientations, and if it runs more than about 10 seconds/day different at the most, they'll diagnose and fix THAT before proceeding. It's also checked for amplitude, meaning how far the balance swings at full wind. Once the amplitude and timing in positions is good, THEN you can regulate the rate of the watch.

THEN you can put the dial and hands on, and hope that doesn't change how the movement runs. THEN you can re-case it, and test it some more. Check the timing over several days, and maybe let it run all the way down to see how long it runs - modern watches should run at least 30 hours on a full wind. Any less, and there's something wrong and you have to go back through it.

The lowest price for all that is about $150 for a manual wind watch with no complications, and assuming nothing needs replacing. More complicated, more money. I wouldn't expect the Cartier automatic mentioned above to cost less than $300.

BITD, our fathers and grandfathers took their watches to be serviced every year or two, but modern lubricants have stretched that to 5 or more years. But it was always a significant percentage of the cost of the watch to get it serviced.

I did a couple blog entries on this in my old watch blog. Sorry for the longwinded explanation, but I spent a number of years on watchmaking forums and the pros there drill into us hobbyists what constitutes Best Practices.

If you shop around, you can find better, but that's vanishing more and more every year.

That COULD BE something as trivial as a screw in the setting works not being tightened down enough. My Dad used to pull the stems out of watches, and I think he thought that was fatal, but really, there are only two pieces that might break and both of them are trivial to replace.

BUT a watchmaker will generally not be willing to fix just one thing and will insist on a full service.