On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 4:07 PM, Duane Strosaker <strosaker_at_yahoo.com> wrote: > > Speaking of building. I hopped on my bicycle yesterday, and something that > bugged me about it was that all my bike gear was factory made. Being able to > make your own gear is one of the nice things about kayaking. I enjoy making > my own gear almost as much as kayaking itself, and paddling with gear you > made is all the more better. Thirty years ago I had some mech. engr. pals who had their own shop with a lathe, mill, drill press, etc. We could make a lot of cool things for almost anything. We cast portlights for sailboats from bronze, we made anchor windlasses, stanchion braces, etc. We also made some bike gear but found that it was difficult to make anything important. It's probably a lot worse now. We did fab up some gear-changing-levers out of bronze. They weren't as light as Campy stuff but they looked a lot cooler. But deraileurs, brakes, etc. were too much trouble and, even back then, it was easier to buy Shimano, etc. A modern bicycle is a pretty sophisticated piece of machinery. I thought my Peugeot PX-10 made from 4130 double-butted was the deal then (it's still pretty cool) but the bikes are REI are pretty amazing; I'd like a close-up of a Tour de France bike (which was what the PX-10 was made for in 1972). How about a cool rear rack from teak? Or a bike computer holder? Who cares about weight; it's for exercise anyway, isn't it? :P Stay calm. Visit the projects forum at www.westcoastpaddlers.com for a fix. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Jul 13 2008 - 17:23:43 PDT
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