Trakhak

Wearing such clothing, with its colorful, eye-catching logos, likely arrests the attention of drivers better than solid-color jerseys, perhaps increasing the rider's safety an iota. Myself, I depend on wide reflective ankle bands for visibility and wear practical-bordering-on-goofy attire when I'm out cycling these days, outfits that wouild have made me embarrassed for the guy wearing them when I was younger. But it's not as if I was wrong then and I'm right now.

nlerner

Posting to bikeforums?

BFisher

Polishing My Crank

And really, too much polish can be blinding.

bwilli88 

Sending a perfectly good bike to gugie for some gugiefication to make it a perfectlyer gooder bike! 😊🚲

Topless68

Everyone has their little OCD moments - they want things a certain way. One thing that drove me nuts was my Michelin Classic skin wall tires...only had the label on one side. So when i mounted them the first time, i noticed the i had mounted with the label on the NDS....had to start all over so it was showing on the "proper" side of the bike.

SurferRosa

Maybe if you're commuting, you need electric assist, turn signals, need to lock the bike with the handlebars, and you can actually find one for sale that you can afford.

But for me, that's all especially impractical.

What's incredibly practical is buying a $200 vintage bike, $100 worth of tools, and being able to service it myself at any time.

For the common man, what's more "practical" than a c&v bike that will last ... practically forever?

Wildwood 

Fenders and bags on a 30mile ride on a dry day.
20 bikes in a house for 1 consistent cyclist


Defining “practical”

daka

Volunteering at the Bike Exchange, I mount a LOT of tires. I make a point of putting the tire label that indicates the correct inflation pressure at the valve hole - it is more likely to get read there. I've built many wheels but knew nothing about the custom of being able to view the manufacturer's logo through the valve hole. However, I probably don't need to remind anybody here that you can only read the logo thru the hole when there is no tire mounted.... which is briefly on a bike that gets ridden. On the other hand since most rim labels are mounted on the seam directly opposite the valve hole, it does allow the insecure to check out the competition's equipment in one very quick glance - tire label, hub logo and rim brand all lined up!

daka

"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 set up my bikes the same way. When younger, I also rode motorcycles which always had the front brake at the right lever (the clutch being the left lever). Seemed important to be consistent for when applying the brakes as a reflex in an emergency.

Some sidepull brakes (I'm thinking of Campagnolo Record in particular) look like they are oriented to favor right-front, left-rear and give more direct cable routing that way.

squirtdad

Well, if i get a bespoke bike, besides a super nice paint job, it will have pinstriping and a real head badge. No function, but classicism and style

At risk of getting kicked out of totally tubular, with the improvement of clincher tires and lite tubes, there seems less functional advantage for tubular other than the infamous you can ride tubies even if you get a flat on a fast down hill (course i just got a new set of ambrosio nemesis rims)

Trakhak

My first couple of track bikes weren't drilled for brakes, so I used Pletscher rear rack mounting hardware to improvise a ramshackle brake mount above the seat stay bridge and mounted the brake lever on the right, to conform to its position on my road bikes. Still used the right lever for a later track bike on which I had installed a fork with a drilled crown. My most-used modern "track" bike, a Specialized Langster that came with two brakes, is (long story short) now set up front/rightrear/left, which is sometimes a bit disconcerting, but not enough for me to get around to correcting it, so far.

More direct routing to front side-pull brake = sharper cable bend coming out of lever. Also, almost all Itailan and other) bikes with internal brake cable routing in the top tube ran the housing through the left side.

The time-honored cable routing (crossing gracefully over the stem) used by me and everyone I raced with in the 1960s and onward, in the pre-aero-lever era:

dweenk

I shot a couple of 16mm films in college back around 1970-1971, and I did the same thing. It was a good idea then.

tyrion

************ doesn't have a practical purpose (that we know of) but that's not going to stop me from experimenting (in the interest of science).

jdawginsc 

The ultimate definition of efficiently inefficient efficacy.

Andy_K 

The real cognoscenti know which parts originally shined and which always had a dull finish. One day there will be retro-grouches looking at shiny bike parts and saying, "That part should be anodized, not polished." Maybe there already are.

Andy_K 

Some rims, like Velocity A23s, have different markings on each side. When building wheels with these rims, I try to build them so that the labels read correctly from left to right -- i.e. "Velocity" on the rear drive side, "A23" on the front drive side.

Wildwood 

Efficaciously loquacious!

Aardwolf

Seems to depend on the brake, Weinmann 500 routed the "correct" way (ie. same as yours but correct for a British bike):

jdawginsc 

My OCD likes the order by date of your signature bikes.

clubman 

That's still the correct nomenclature. The cameraperson presses Record', counts to 5 and says 'Speed', giving you 5 second handles. Then you must 'edit or trim' the scene (cables) to the length that tells the best story.

The best story is the the most graceful loops imo.

ThermionicScott 

<--- Mine are in order of acquisition, if that was bugging anyone.

Ex Pres 

You missed rim label oriented "right-side-up" to the drive side when the hub label is "right-side-up" from the rider's perspective.

microcord

The labels on my Panaracer Gravelkings say nothing about inflation. I searched around one tyre; and, for the first time ever, I noticed that yes, far from the label it does inconspicuously say KEEP INFLATED 735kPa (7.4bar 105P.S.I.). So, whether I weigh 45 kg or 125 kg, I am to keep it inflated to the same pressure? That wouldn't really have a practical purpose that I can think of.

gugie 

I never do that.

The "ride up a 20% upslope" part - that's what my two foot granny is for.

gugie 

The Big Ring is very useful. You shift into it prior to getting off of your bike for a roadside picture (drive side out, of course).

It makes you look manly.

It's debatable what the practical purpose of looking manly is.

Of course, the problem is when you forget and try to start off in the big ring...