Is Stan the solution?
Dear Lennard,
I read the article in the latest issue of VeloNews about Hutchinson's tubeless road tires and up and coming new tubeless road rims.What prevents me from using a Stan's No-Tube kit along with Mavic Ksyriums and a pair of new Michelin Pro Race tires or even a new pair of cross tires. Is it a safety issue?By the way, I have used Mavic Crossmax SL, a Stan's No-Tube kit with my tire of choice with great success off road.
JoeDear Joe,
Yes, it most certainly is a safety issue! I had the same idea whenI got my first bottle of Stan’s NoTubes. I slapped a pair of Vittoria OpenCorsa Evo CX tires onto some Ksyriums, threw in the Stan’s liquid, andmerrily pumped them up to 100psi. A little tipping them back and forthwith soapsuds on them eliminated any leakage. I was stoked, headed outof my driveway and down the hill.I had gotten about 200 meters and had a good head of steam going when the front tire completely blew off of the rim on both sides. If that were not dangerous enough, the fact that (1) the Open Corsa tire lies flat when off of the rim, (2) there was no inner tube to create any friction, and(3) the whole rim and inside of the tire were slimy with wet liquid latex,made the rim just slither back and forth in the tire. I was very luckynot to eat it big time; I had very little control with that front rim slidingaround like that. I’m not sure if I even had a helmet on, since I was justmessing around in the shop and jumped onto the bike. I could easily havesmacked my head on the pavement and not even be here to tell the story.Don’t do it! Don’t take comfort that it work on MTB tires either. The pressures are different.The Hutchinson Road Tubeless tires have a square bead-lock above thebead on the outside that engages a similarly-shaped recess just below thehook in the Dura-Ace Scandium wheels. That bead-lock is crucial to avoidingmy mishap under road tire pressures.
LennardFashion of the times
Dear Lennard,
A friend sent me postcards from the cycling shrine at Ghisallo Italy.One pictures the bicycle ridden by Gianni Motta in the 1966 Giro. The bike has side-pull brakes. The cable tension screw on the levers looks like the system used on Universal brakes. But I seem to recall that Universal was only making center-pull brakes which were all the rage until Campagnolo come out with their side-pull in the late '60s. I am the original owner of a 1965 Masi Special that has Universal center-pull brakes.It is strange, when I started racing in the late '50s, side-pull brakes were the only thing around. Then the fad went to center-pull (and recessedheadsets, too) and back again to side pull. Do you have any idea what brakes may be on the Motta bicycle?
MichaelDear Michael,
I’ve seen that bike at the Madonna del Ghisallo, and those are Universals. Universal made sidepull brakes that were the low-cost alternative to Campy Nuovo Record at the end of the 1970s, so I doubt those are Gianni’s original brakes. My roommate in college had some on his otherwise full-Campy Cinelli. They were pretty flexy, as I recall.
LennardA few problems
Dear Lennard,
I'm having a couple problems with my new STI shifters/drivetrain.Problem 1: STI lever sometimes fails to shift to smallercog (bigger gear) in rear. It happens intermittently and usuallyworks on the second attempt. I can tell the shifter feels like something’snot quite engaged. I'm not sure if maybe it's from the way I restmy fingers on the lever - perhaps, I'm not letting it disengage from aprevious shift - or something like that?Problem 2: My chain gets thrown off on the inside of thecrank when pedaling at a good cadence (at least 70-80). I've adjustedthe front derailleur every which way (up, down, side-to -side. Itcan even be rubbing on the chain a little bit and it'll still do this.I had another pro mechanic try and the problem was still there. Iwonder if the combination of DA STI lever and Ultegra front derailleurhas something to do with it. It seems like the DA STI lever can reallyslam the derailleur over quickly.Details of setup: Frame is a 56cm Year 2000 Trek 5200 (butbought a couple months ago - I'm told by my local bike shop that Trek hadsome extras around so I got a deal). As I said, levers are Dura-Ace.Crank and derailleurs are Ultegra. Chain is also Dura-Ace.Except for the crank, I installed everything myself (the shop installedthe crank for me).All parts were purchased new.
DemianDear Demian
The first question is tough. It could be one of many things. Very likely, the pawl/ratchet mechanism is not functioning properly and should probably be replaced. I'm certain it will be covered under warranty. Contact Shimano about that.As for the second question, Ultegra and Dura-Ace are completely compatible, and shifting will work fine with this combination. It is either a derailleur adjustment problem or a chainline problem (i.e., your crank is sitting too far away from the frame).If you cannot adjust it out, the simplest way to deal with either isto install an inner stop, like a Deda Dog Fang, a Jump Stop, or a ThirdEye Chain Watcher.
LennardAn innie or an outie?
Dear Lennard,
I've read ChrisKing's Manifesto against the Integrated Headset, and I 'd like a secondopinion. The bike I'm looking at (Casati) uses an integrated headset,and it's making me nervous. I'm tempted to believe the King Doctrine,especially since I've become a convert to his headset. I went throughthree Ultegra headsets on my LeMond GAN bike, (the frame had been reamedand faced prior to installation) and finally bit the bullet for the King.It's been four years now, and not a whisper of the problem.
SteveDear Steve,
It won't be as good as a King press-in headset, but I doubt you'llhave a problem. Especially if it is the steel Casati model, as I have seenhow they make those tube end inserts. They are machined from steel witha lip to press fit inside the head tube and are then brazed into the endsof the head tube. They will hold up.Aluminum bearing seats will wear, but that steel one should be verytough, and the fact that there are an enormous number of aluminum oneson the market which are working just fine should be of some solace.
LennardAnd now I know the rest of the story
Dear Lennard,
Like many of your readers, I had knee pain which couldn't be tracedto the normal culprits (incorrect seat height, incorrect saddle positioning,pedaling too large a gear, etc.). I was diagnosed with iliotibial bandfriction syndrome, and was advised to do more stretching and icing, amongother things. I never got better. It wasn't until months later whenI took the bottom bracket apart for its first cleaning that I discoveredthe real cause. The factory that had assembled that particular Trek 7000mountain bike had installed the spindle incorrectly--the chain rings wereattached to the short end of the spindle, not the long end as they're supposedto be! I installed the spindle correctly, and the knee pain vanished. Thatwas more than 10 years ago, and I've never had a problem since.
SamDear Sam,
That's amazing! Now, most cranks are positioned at the same width fromthe frame on either side, so this is a function of the age of the bike.I’m glad it fixed your problem.
Lennard

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Technical writer Lennard Zinn is a frame builder (www.zinncycles.com),a former U.S. national team rider and author of several best-selling bookson bikes and bike maintenance including Zinn& the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance, which is now availableas a 4-hour instructional DVDZinn& the Art of Road Bike Maintenance, and Zinn's Cycling Primer:Maintenance Tips and Skill Building for Cyclists. Zinn's regular columnis devoted to addressing readers' technical questions about bikes, theircare and feeding and how we as riders can use them as comfortably and efficientlyas possible. Readers can send brief technical questions directlyto Zinn. Zinn's column appears here each Tuesday.