Titanium Wedding Ring, Why Titanium Not Popular In Ironman ?

Q: I was at the napa world cup last year and bought a titanium wedding ring for my husband. Don't know the name of a company who carries them here in Sacto, C

A: It was a canadian company whose name I have forgotten and can't find in the back of various cycling magazines. Any one out there have an idea who to contact? A recently married friend of mine wants to know.

A:Seriously, my 650C-wheeled bike is geared with a 53x11, and our 700C-wheeled tandem is geared with the same, and so far the cogs and chains seem to be holding up just fine, even though I don't have the time to clean and lube things as often as I'd like. However, all other things being equal (which I recognize is usually not the case), I'd prefer a larger chainring and cog, to try to get back some of that ~2% of power lost to friction in the chain. For example, this past summer I went with a 60x12 top gear instead of 53x11 top gear for the TT in Tallahassee, with additional benefits being that 1) with more chain wrapped around the chainring, I could dispense with the front derailleur w/o having to worry about dropping the chain, and 2) a single 60 tooth ring is quite sinister looking. (Not that any of this helped, of course, since the closest I got to Carl Sundquist and his 50:17 40k was 30 s, i.e., right when I started...) Speaking of big rings w/ shifting ramps - are the ones you mentioned available w/o the rest of the bike being attached? We could use something a bit bigger on the tandem, since w/ roughly twice the power w/o twice the drag there is some benefit to pedaling even at ~40 mph, which is about where my slow-twitch wife and I currently run out of gear... i agree gerard, i think the friction advantage of a bigger ring is very incremental and frankly questionable. the one case when i do like a bigger ring and cog, though, or bigger wheels, and i think this is the one gearing drawback to our bikes, is that on the very high end the difference in gear between 12 and 11 is noticeably large. when you plunk the chain into the 11 it has that feel of flipping the overdrive toggle on an english roadster. i wish the change in gear wasn't that big. There have been so many quotes and requotes that I am not sure who said what, but if Mike Bundy were to put a 57t chainring on his P2, there would be no problem. It was designed to take up to a 60t ring. And I actually know one time trialer who uses a 60t ring, but he doesn't use a small ring so front shifting is no consideration. On the rear he has 11-12-12-12-13-13-13-13 or something similar, so he can have a straight chainline on the 12. Something for you, Andrew? On a similar note, all frames with band-clamps (which now includes QR if I am correct), any ring size can be accomodated.

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