RE: [CR]Re: "Pino" wheels - Now: the tri-nutted version

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Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
Subject: RE: [CR]Re: "Pino" wheels - Now: the tri-nutted version
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 16:53:00 -0800
Thread-Topic: [CR]Re: "Pino" wheels - Now: the tri-nutted version
Thread-Index: AcXvv4VzLIXa3FuBS62r4hr193FHjQABmymQ
From: "Mark Bulgier" <Mark@bulgier.net>
To: "John Jorgensen" <designzero@earthlink.net>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>


John Jorgensen wrote:
>
> Pino did boast that his earlier wheels could be ridden down
> stairs though.

Hmm, are there wheels that can't be ridden down stairs?

I have ridden plenty of wheels down stairs - "courthouse" or campus stairs anyway. Never heard of a wheel that couldn't take it, given reasonable rim weight and spoke count for the rider's weight. For instance I rode 36 spoke Arc En Ciel rims with normal tubulars down such stairs when I weighed ~175 lb. I wouldn't have tried that with my Medaille d'Or rims, but a lighter rider could. (Some skill required)

The tire is usually what determines how steep a stair you can ride down, how fast - pinch flats will happen long before the wheel collapses, again for any reasonably built wheel.

While I too admired Pino's inventiveness, I am skeptical of using wires as compression members*, and take the marketing comments as just that.

*Aside from the compression effect you get by decreasing the tension on a pre-tensioned spoke - that is real. I mean pushing on a spoke that has no tension left, which is what those Pino spoke nuts are about. I think they are nuts!

Mark Bulgier
Seattle WA USA