ejw

Definitely yes on the first five 😎

davester

Sacrilege!

iab

Toe-in brakes
A rear brake
Gum hoods
Anything on a cable end
Directional tire tread
Finishing tape
Valve length

davester

Pulling up on the back stroke when not on a 20+% upslope..

SurferRosa

"Hands"? Plural?

ThermionicScott 

I feared that wouldn't come out clearly. What I meant was that you could always work the lever with your left hand, and the nut with your right hand, facing the end of the bike.

SurferRosa

I think one follows the other. I realize you can build great wheels and decline to do that one thing in lining up the hub label with the stem. But doing all the little tiny things like that -- and there are dozens of them in regard to building up a bike -- gives me far more confidence when flying down a descent with traffic.

SurferRosa

Gotcha. But I've never really done it that way. I use the left hand on the rear lever, which is parallel with the nds chainstay, pointed forward. I like to spend a little more time with the rear, getting it just right. Not too tight and definitely not too loose.

I do use my right hand on the front lever, which points up, following the curve of the ds fork. It's not nearly as tight as the rear. It's just secure. If I feel it requires too much tightening to keep the hub from feeling loose, then I need to readjust the hub.

Fortunately most of the hubs are Campy Record. Super easy to adjust, and they tend to stay that way.

sincos

Avoiding unicrown forks.

Well, OK, that does have a practical purpose -- it means not looking at something eye-gougingly ugly.

Andy_K 

Big ring on my cranksets...it serves absolutely no practical purpose, but I can't bring myself to leave it off. I replaced the big ring with a bash guard on my commuter for a while but it always bugged me

merziac

You just have to regularly find a proper hill to use it on.

I found a 53 to go with the 11 out back after spinning out on some of the downhills the first time I went to Crater Lake.

I had planned to change it and the 24t inner ring back out but we know how that goes.

Insidious C. 

1. Marriage
2. Owning more than three bikes.

Trakhak

Back in my twenties, in New Haven, I dated a smart Yalie girl who lived with some equally clever roommates. The first time I visited their apartment, I noticed that they kept a two-column "Cool"/"Uncool" list on their refrigerator door. I remarked on an item in one list that I thought arguably belonged in the other. She looked at me pityingly: 'They're both "Uncool" lists. Caring whether you're cool makes you uncool.'

Horizontal top tubes, lugs, gotta-be-steel, tan sidewalls, QR lever orientation, hub logo orientation, rim labels, etc., etc. Club rules! I trust that you guys (!) still painstakingly denude your golf shirts of the Izod label with a seam ripper.

The fact that the Velominati rules are meant to be taken ironically, like Celia's "Cool/Uncool" list, or at least with some self-awareness, as in Gugie's opening post, was clearly missed by many people replying here. Maybe this will help:

jdawginsc 

N + 1

SJX426 

I will be flamed by some but I insist on the right brake lever cabled to the front brake. For me it is practical as I have used my right hand for the front since I can remember. Since it is practical, I guess it should be mentioned!
I always end my bar tape finishing tape at the bottom of the handlebar and always wrap from back to font from the top.
Trim cables about an inch and a half from the clamp.
usually cap the ends of the cable with super glue, some times with a cap and sometime without. Try to color coordinate the cap if used.

microcord

Look on a ("road") tyre for indications that it should be mounted so that it spins one way rather than the other, and dutifully make sure to mount it in the way indicated.

(I'm not entirely sure that the orientation is completely meaningless, but I don't notice any difference in use.)

bikemig 

Riding old bikes with old equipment.

That makes a lot of sense to folks like us but not to most people.

johnnyace 

I was told by a very experienced bike mechanic that this is how brake cables are routed in Europe (or at least used to be), and also the preferred method for cyclocross bikes. Can anyone confirm these assertions?

johnnyace 

This. Gives me a point of reference for the culprit-search. I've used it many times.

BFisher

Yep.

If practicality was the driving force, we all might be riding something like the Denny.


But really, it just doesn't get the blood pumping like these do (at least for this guy):

johnnyace 

What's the practical purpose of having the brake cables above the stem and bars, rather than below? Whenever I have the LBS do work for me, they do it below, and I always change it back to above, because "tradition." Practically speaking, they seem more out of the way if they are below, at least to me.

T-Mar

Wearing pro team clothing. That is one huge scam. It costs more than standard cycling clothing and the premium goes straight back to those sponsors. Basically, the sponsors are getting you to pay them, for the privilege of advertising for them. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

easyupbug 

I still think of Roger's "The Professional Guide to Wheel Building" as a masterpiece.

Spaghetti Legs 

Yes for cyclocross,, so you can operate the rear brake while dismounting over the NDS. That being said, the old saying goes if you’re using your brakes in a cross race you’re not trying to win.

Trakhak

Passing the brake cables below the stem and bars can cause a sharp bend in the inner wire where it exits the lever. And cable housing routed that way tends to sag over time, increasing the bending force on the inner wire. Young mechanics are used to seeing modern brake/shift cables running along, through, or below the handlebar, so they don't know any better.