OH, dear friends. I cannot sleep. Again, I did too much. Just woke up, asleep since last posting' retouch an extra,
absolutely unneeded textings. Me me me, right? No, no no. This is General where we can talk to the walls if we like.
I am not a lazy guy, even though I seem to be always here, with no real life.
But I can write and meet people online, and go out once or twice per day.
ALL of last night (my wakeful time), was spent making docos about this bike nobody wants to buy.
They don't want to buy it because, primarily, Trek and or Shimano, screwed up.
It is such a wonderful bike when in tune, in the right terrain. It is strong and neat.
I am dismayed, extremely, that one of two things happened: Treck engineers sent a wrong number to Shimano,
wrong cable length spec'd. OR Shimano did not follow Trek's spec.
Either way: dead LIMES, and LOTs of them. And the average joe would buy one and wonder "why did I get this pretty useless bike?
I have TWO black Limes. Lime one did not shift, at all, until I kluged it. It came right off the LBS floor, and with no instructions.
Lime two is a replacement for Lime one, which got crashed by vehicular collision. Not my error, that.
I especially ordered Lime 2 to be EXACTLY the same as Lime one, and for it to come IN THE BOX, and I'd put it together, myself.
It contained, thank goodness, the Shimano set up directions, about as simple and likely for a LBS to follow, as to build a for $400,
a rocket ship to the moon.
I understand Trek's great effort was to style this bike to look cool and be cool.
BUT IT DOES NOT WORK AS ADVERTISED, and to make =these= two samples work right,
requires that the user become self-taught expert. That I have done, become a semi-expert on this crop of LIME LITES, at least.
Shame on Trek. I am going to give them an earful. I want to learn WHO made that error with the too-long cable, and WHY the "N" adjustment
in the brainy-box is virtually impossible to get out without an expert bike tech on hand. THEY, the LBS's are NOT going to go through the rigamarol
that I've taught to myself, not for a four or five hundred dollar bike.
I look at my Sunkruiser that has become an e-bike.
So basic, so steel, not a pound heavier than the aluminum LIME (about 22 pounds, each).
A word about Sun Kruiser or whatever it is called: It is spec'd and imported by JB Importers.
More "what the hell?" trivia. JB importers is the USA's national largest importer of decent, private label bikes.
They are based here in Miami. GUESS WHO used to work, thirty years ago, just across the street from the warehouse-beginning of JB Importers?
Hint: he talks too much. WHO founded JB Importers? Jack O'Brien. WHO was this "Jack O'Brien"? I know not if he's dead or retired or in any way associated with JB.
JB importers is fast, prompt, carries spares, and does not sell to LBS's, junky wallymart-type bikes.
JACK O'Brien, I learned way back then (1976), from my boss at Rinky Tink (where I taught myself how to tune pianos), was, in the mid to late sixties,
our local TV staion's afternoon kiddie show/cartoon show host. JUMPIN' JACK he called himself. He JUMPED up and down in time to his theme song,
then made small talk to the tykes, then ran the cartoons. He was a good childrens' show host, young, black haired, energetic. When that show closed,
I don't know why, he got into the then-new bike boom. Natually, instead of buying from Schwinn, still USA made and riding high, he created, made, founded,
the import Chinese bike business for this nation. Grew pretty big, that JB Importers did. I talk to them. They don't know Jack. So he has been gone for a long time.
The Sun Kruiser, out of the store: worked perfectly. No drag in the coaster brake. It is a single speed rear hub built to last forever, if you keep it greased.
It does not drag, does not click at any time. It is STEALTH. It cost, at the LBS, an even two hundred bucks. It is all old-tech, cup and cone, easy to work upon,
has a well-jigged and welded frame (so does the LIME). HOW these firms can offer such quality for so little money, amazes. So how hard should I run on Trek for the
Lime Disaster. It's not like they launched Titanic and sank her with all lives aboard, but....how many, many buyers and dealers have been bitten in the arse by this basically,
wonderful bike, the LIME?
It as good as dead. Trek does not know how to market it.
How many NEW "2008" models (what I have) languish in their warehouses?
I might guess, tens of thousands, all with too-long cables? All basically DOA?
GIANT is china, too, direct from china, a big line of high quality bikes.
Remember, China makes more, in one year, of bikes than the USA has made since 1879.
They make bikes of all quality and price ranges. GIANT, too, partnered with Shimano for this "Coasting Technology"
that was all the touted-thing in 2007. The sole Giant Suede, cheapest version with Coasting Technology, that I have tried,
at the other LBS, Mack Cycle "On sale only $329". THAT is a great price for such a bike...not as manly-cool as the Lime, but spec-identical.
The sample I tried out there at Mack Cycle (I've known them since about 1965) DID NOT WORK EITHER: it's in permanent second gear,
no auto shifting at all. I KNOW that I could adjust that particular bike in half hour's time now, and make it sweet-running as a well-adjusted LIME.
But LBSs are interested in selling, not REFURBISHING defective, low-end, out of the box, bikes, that don't work as advertised....
And HOW VERY POOR of Shimano, has been their advertising? Absolutely mis-selling in the USA, the basic concept.
Again, idiocy, black socks on shoes, pantless middle aged man, legs:
[youtube]Rt5Js4YR9BU[/youtube]
and he does not even talk about the main point of the product:
IT THINKS FOR YOU AND ALWAYS GETS INTO THE RIGHT GEAR FOR YOUR RIDING SPEED OR CONDITION,
AND IT IS NOT A DYNAMO OUTPUTTING DC, it is MODEL T-RUGGED, MAGNETO, OUTPUTTING HIGH VOLTAGE AC.
Sheesh. He's just a flack in black sox. The Lime/Shimano DOES NOT make all that much noise. they must've put a radio mic
right on the rear hub area. Makes it sound like a toy truck coming from Billy's Baby Boy Hauling Company. :lol:
IF IT IS SET-UP to work. Beloved, banned, absent RANDY, could have done a MUCH better selling job of the Shimano Coasting system.
It's washed up, is what it is, and for no sane reason. Ostriches with their heads in the sand...beautiful engineering ruined for want of a
horseshoe nail, so to speak.
I will get on the phone with USA Shimano and kick verbal tail.
I will write to Shimano Japan and tell them what this has cost.
Not one in thousands of LIME owners has delved into this product,
nor into the Shimano COASTNG neat-o aspect of it, as have I, online, just in two months time or less.
Had I known of this system in 2007, I'd have militated for PROPER SELLING and PROPER training of final QC people
at Giant, at Trek, et. al.
But here we are. It's an Edsel. A superior Edsel. Get one of either brand here in the USA.
I am here to help you set up your COASTING TECH auto-shift, manual transmission bike.
It is not as silent as the Sunkruiser, but it is quality and it is more beautiful by far, in black, in particular.
Get thee a LIME LITE. I have it now, as we ex-navy vulgar types would say,
I have it dicked now.
You too! We are no master of this bike, not the other way around.
Sexxxy videos will come in time. Happy videos of a Lime fitted with Hanks and dulled-invisble-black, Planet Bike fenders.
Ride it in the rain, or through puddles, and the bike stays clean, you stay clean.
EASY maintenance. Great ride, even better on Hank slicks. ALL GUY bike.
The hell with derailleurs, even if they are -sort of- more "efficient" in new condition, than the venerable three speed,
none of whose "speeds" are direct drive, as in the SunKruiser type of single speed, or any "fixie" bike.
You want maximum efficiency? Get a single speed or fixie and build your leg muscles thick, just like they all did from 1889 to about
1905, and, later, on through the sixties (kids' bikes). Only the English, in particular, ever much bothered big-time with the three speed
internal gear transmissions. THEY had the internal problems "dicked" some pretty good. So does Shimano, though they have made the
transmission virtually unserviceable...buy a new one for fifty bucks, instead...but the COASTING version is specific and costs about $200 if it
goes South, after warranty time is up. Because it only comes as a complete wheel assembly.
I can write for days, and toward what end? I should be sleeping instead of fulminating like Vesuvius.
Most all of you have family, wife, kids, day jobs, or watch sports on TV.
I can't do any of that. But, I did, get a first coat of concrete sealant on the chimney this AM.
No more water leak. I can fix things that were never made right in the first place. Am a certifiable
"figure-it-outer"; even taught myself watch repair when I was six through fifteen. Taught myself everything,
except how to be brief and to the point. My latter life has been a waste, due to health issues. But I don't sit
on my ass because of no "SLEEEEEE". I think and write and cajole and...frock Drew Pearson all to hell.
He's probably there, if there were such a place, but there is no hell, nor, here, any heaven on my earth.
PISS on 'em all.
MISTER DIZZY again, last week, and then his work of this AM at seven, and he has overdone his physical limits again,
and will be Out of Order for having over-drawn from his failing body's tank 'o hot air.
Feh.
[youtube]iAsJVdh69ic[/youtube]
----
Cranks make the wheels of the world turn round.
I can't be a piano tech to the world's greatest pianists anymore.
I can only write, and sometimes, seal a 1974 chimney top, that WAS NEVER sealed,
per architectural specification, before. Endless years of leakage and plaster damage,
now fixed. FRAUDS of builders and roofers, telling us "it's all perfect atop that chimney."
Liars. Want something done right? Sick in the body or not:
DO IT YOURSELF.
---
a...m not finished. Randy was a crank, a crazy crank. So was deafscooter, in his way.
You all "killed" them both with lack of empathy, for those rare men who =thought=
they knew of a better, superior way. In ways, they did and do. Now silenced,
and we here are DEAF to them both, and now too, to this-crank-reid.
I make a trough. If the hosses don't drink, duck em all. :|
Public Shame!
)
