Recent content by spokewrench

I've read that blood level is not an indicator of adequate magnesium. The body will scavenge it from other cells to maintain the blood level. The endocrinologist said, for example, that adequate magnesium is necessary for 300 hormones. A British study of teeth found a strong inverse correlation...

There was a time when chucks screwed onto Schrader valves with no loss. I think Schrader chuck designers began to ignore bicycles in the 1970s because the Schrader bicycle market was much smaller than before. Car tires have more volume, so air loss matters less. Screw-on chucks are faster...

In the 1950s, a Scandinavian heart specialist began giving heart attack victims an intravenous magnesium sulfate solution as soon as possible. Deaths in the following 6 weeks, which has been 20%, dropped to 2%. Hospitals around the world adopted it with great results. That was bad for the bottom...

My Abound may weigh 90 pounds. I've run 304 miles since my last charge and the display says 69% is left. My first 2 ebikes were single-speed, so I needed a bit of motor torque on hills. With the Abound, if 6 mph is fast enough, I climb without the motor. On a wide street with no oncoming...

I now have two digital torque tools: 0.3 to 6 Nm and 3 to 60 Nm. Measurement doesn't seem to involve any moving parts, which I think may mean great accuracy now and in five years. Each can be set to record peak, which means I can tighten by feel, then see what torque I used. That's fun, but I...

I believe the machinists like my neighbor build and maintain the machinery used for production. I hadn't thought of assembly workers. I'll have to ask him if torque wrenches are used there. Henry Ford's assembly line sped up production but made work so boring that there was a high turnover...

Three years ago I bought a torque driver that works on that principle. I tested it today with a strain-gauge driver. The first time, it clicked at 4.07. The tenth time, it clicked at 3.80. For the 8 between, it clicked between 3.85 and 3.90. The whole spread was only 7%: pretty good. For the...

My first two e-bikes had one speed. I used the motor on hills and to get underway. Then I got a 7-speed. Lately, I've been riding it as a regular bike most of the time. Since my last charge, I've been 260 miles and the display says it's at 76%. Motor assistance is still a nice option if I'm in a...

Except rear axle nuts, every fastener on my Aventon bike has a hex socket, but the supplied folding hex key set is terrible. More than 50 years ago, I discovered that the ISO hex keys that came with BMW motorcycles took the guesswork out of torquing, so I ordered a complete set. The H4, H5, H6...

You said when mechanics tightened by feel, the results weren't good. How did they check? Unfastening a bolt wouldn't tell because you'd have to overcome static friction. Nobody had mentioned ISO hex keys, but now you seem to be saying they were testing hex keys. If I were a Quality Engineer at...

I like a beam wrench because it's reliable. However, it's not precise; that is, reading the pointer is not exact. A clicking wrench is precise but could be inaccurate (unreliable). Last year I bought a set of 7 calibration weights which I could use for 1g, 188g, and 124 points between. I...

They're all supposed to seal. Schrader had been making pneumatic valves (for applications like life preservers and diving equipment) for decades when the Michelins demonstrated the inner tube. Unlike the Presta, his valve was designed for inner tubes. A year later, he patented the sealing cap as...

Sand or water will be thrown on a tangent to the tire. Four years ago, I got tired of how high the front tire of my Radrunner would throw grit and water on wet pavement. I bought a stack of polypropylene cutting boards from Amazon. They're like pace mats, 1mm thick. Polypropylene can be shaped...

All my motorcycles had externally threaded metal Schrader stems. I put tubes like that on one e-bike. To me, the advantage is that it's easier to press on a chuck when the tube is deflated. The other day, after mowing on an old rider, I noticed that the rubber Schrader stem on a front wheel...