Where you get your Bike Knowledge. . .

[itsflantastic]

There are some mad insightful cyclists on this board. I occasionally develop an inferiority complex in their presence.
I'm just wondering where all y'all smart folks get yo' knowledge from.

yeah yeah, I know experience sure. but what experience?
you must have some good stories. epiphany moments? books? other riders?

I wanna up my bike knowledge. This board has been a fantastic (flantastic?) tool to do so. I'm asking where this board got so dang smart :banana:


Cheers to all of the knowledgeable friendly forum fellows for real.

Dan

[bostondrunk]

I kno yer not refrering to moi, but the anser to yor qwestion is:

spending too much time on bike forums, reading too many bike magazines, including the last 20 years of the nashbar catalogue, cyclingnews.com, velonews.com, etc etc etc
20 years of all that and yer bound to learn some stuff.... :)

[Kevan]

I would have spent 2 summers of my yoot putting kiddy bikes together at the local bike shop watching and learning the ways of the wise.

Instead... I read books, mags and the porn off the internet, ask questions. I still have much to learn.

[coylifut]

easy. the hard way

[Bud_E]

I would have spent 2 summers of my yoot putting kiddy bikes together at the local bike shop watching and learning the ways of the wise.

Instead... I read books, mags and the porn off the internet, ask questions. I still have much to learn.


The internet has porn ?

[Fixed]

from the jerk
cheers :beer:

[hoss]

and Sheldon Brown's website.

[Too Tall]

I used to break stuff. Now I break less stuff. Breaking stuff is knowledge.

[Kevan]

I used to break stuff. Now I break less stuff. Breaking stuff is knowledge.

the excessive breaking stage.

[rwsaunders]

I used to break stuff. Now I break less stuff. Breaking stuff is knowledge.

Knowledge is good.

[davids]

Not that I think you're talking about me, but:

Personal experience, friends, and here (http://forums.thepaceline.net/index.php?).

[SadieKate]

My teeny tiny bit of knowledge comes from knowing I don't have much so I read and ask and read some more. But what really drives it is that I haven't bought a pre-built bike in years so I spec every single component after I research compatibility from as many credible sources as possible and I do the wrenching myself (with post build QA from a very experienced hubby). I don't want to be one of those folks that provide much entertainment fodder to the LBS folks trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole.

[sg8357]

Alex Wetmore runs bikelist.org, searchable archives at
http://search.bikelist.org, lots of good and loony info on the maillists there.

iBob, Touring, Classic Rendezvous and Tandem are all interesting.

Scott G.

[Ray]

Pretty much anyone who spends regular time on bike forums on the internet is, by definition, highly inquisitive about bikes. All of that inquisitiveness naturally leads to lots and lots and lots of information. Some of which is BS, but a good bit of which isn't and ends up sticking.

I think that most of us, when we have a particular question or issue that we want to find out about, look into it as deeply as we need to in order to get it worked out. Do that enough times and you end up with a lot of knowledge. Some of which is transferable to other folks and some of which isn't. But with a room full of people who are all into it enough to go through this process repeatedly, you're gonna find a lot of knowledge. I count myself among the least knowledgeable around here, but when I need to know something, I go get informed and work out the best solution for myself and I've done this a bunch of times over the years and have picked up a lot of knowledge, some of which is even right! So even a wanker like me has something to contribute from time to time.

It's a friggin' self-selecting cohort, as a demographer might say.

-Ray

[ergott]

http://www.parktool.com/repair/

I didn't learn from this site, but I would if I was starting today. The info is free and high quality. Grab a bike and take it apart and put it back together. With each successive time, you get better.

[MarleyMon]

http://www.parktool.com/repair/

... With each successive time, you get better.

+1 ,a good site.

my new motto: "fail again, fail better"

[SoCalSteve]

Knowledge is good.

Good is great.

[Bill Bove]

Great is the new black.

[Wayne77]

I just regurgitate what someone else said here, but in a far less eloquent manner.

Great thread BTW

[regularguy412]

When I first started riding and racing, I did a lot of reading, e.g.: Bicycling's Handbook and LeMond's Handbook. However, the greatest source of knowledge came from riding and training with two racer-friends of mine. One was a college student getting an Engineering degree. He was a Cat 3 racer and had been racing for about 7 years. My other friend, with whom I still ride today, started racing in 1985. He is five years older than me and was racing five years before I started. Between the two of them, I learned all the proper riding etiquette, nutrition info and maintenance tips.

I owe them both a great deal of gratitude. There really is no substitute for experience. The good news is: Once you learn it the right way, you never forget it.

Mike in AR

[michael white]

I was gifted from infancy with omnipotent knowledge and also near-total recall, among other intellectual attributes. However, due to the wise intervention of my cagey and beautiful nanny Elise, who raised me prinicipally in Luxembourg and St. Maarten, I became adept at feigning normalcy in everyday communication. This, then, is the result. Thank you for your interest. Is there anything else you would like to know about me?

best,
mw

[Grant McLean]

Is there anything else you would like to know about me?

best,
mw

I'd like to know why you post the same thing i'm going to say, usually about
5 minutes before I do...

:)

-g

[michael white]

.

[Jeff N.]

By being around others who're good at it,watching and asking. See one, do one, teach one. Jeff N.

[Fixed]

bro is there any doubt that the jerk and obtuse taught us all a lot about what a bike should be ....i wish i knew 25% as much imho cheers
abby ale for the jerk :beer:

[3chordwonder]

I was gifted from infancy with omnipotent knowledge and also near-total recall, among other intellectual attributes. However, due to the wise intervention of my cagey and beautiful nanny Elise, who raised me ***prinicipally***

I see Your Omnipotent Highness was feigning 'normalcy' right there with that deliberate spelling error - you can't fool us any more now.

[rounder]

I ride my bike and read the same stuff everyone else does. But there was a catalog Bike-Pro Buyer's Guide (1995) that was inspired. They only talked about the things they sold...but every product got a whole paragraph of discussion. The catalog must be 200 pages long. For everyone who spends hours-weeks trying to decide which saddle or water bottle cage to use and why, it was great. There should be something like that today.

[michael white]

I see Your Omnipotent Highness was feigning 'normalcy' right there with that deliberate spelling error - you can't fool us any more now.

goshdang it hey thanks for the tip :beer:

[Ti Designs]

What, you people trust what you read on the internet??? Well in that case, I have some great real estate deals for you...

Honestly, if you don't know me or haven't ridden with me, assume I know nothing, can't tell a torque wrench from a hammer and wobble down the road like a drunk (I said a drunk, not THE drunk).

[Fixed]

we are a trusting lot imho
sir ti

......i would bet you to be fine rider and thanks for sharing your stuff .. I picked up a lot from you bro
anybody know what this is
http://filer.case.edu/~ngb2/Pages/Intro.html
cheers :beer:

[MilanoTom]

I ride my bike and read the same stuff everyone else does. But there was a catalog Bike-Pro Buyer's Guide (1995) that was inspired. They only talked about the things they sold...but every product got a whole paragraph of discussion. The catalog must be 200 pages long. For everyone who spends hours-weeks trying to decide which saddle or water bottle cage to use and why, it was great. There should be something like that today.

When I first started using the internet, Bike-Pro articles always came up in bicycle-related searches. They're still out there, and great for finding information on stuff from ten years back. Check out these sample articles:

http://www.bikepro.com/products/rear_derailleurs/maviczap_rrder.shtml

http://www.bikepro.com/products/cranks/campy.shtml

Bike-Pro aside, I've got only a fraction of the knowledge of many (or most) of the folks on this forum, but what knowledge I gained over the past fifteen years or so came from a combination of reading a lot, listening a lot (with something of a built-in BS filter to go with what I read and heard), and asking a lot of questions.

I learned a lot from doing my own builds, too (and it also gave me an excuse to buy bunches of new tools).

Regards,
Tom

[SadieKate]

What, you people trust what you read on the internet??? Well in that case, I have some great real estate deals for you . . As long as what I read on the 'net at www.branfordbike.com agrees with you, fine. :)

You just gotta know your source - just like doing any medical research on the world wide web of confusion.