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Weekly Posting for Rec.Bicycles.*
Last updated October 18, 1992


This is the weekly posting to Rec.Bicycles.*.  In it, you will find
information on how to get a copy of the FAQ (in case you missed it
when it was posted to rec.bicycles.misc/news.answers) and some tips on
nettiquette when posting articles to rec.bicycles.*.  


Mike Iglesias
iglesias@draco.acs.uci.edu


Posting Guidelines
------------------

The rec.bicycles subgroups are described below - please try to post your
article to the appropriate group.  The newsgroups were designed to minimize
cross posting, so please take the time to think about the most appropriate
newsgroup and post your article there. 

rec.bicycles.marketplace: Bicycles, components, ancillary equipment and
   services wanted or for sale, reviews of such things, places to buy
   them, and evaluations of these sources.  Not for discussion of general
   engineering, maintenance, or repair -- see rec.bicycles.tech.

rec.bicycles.tech: Techniques of engineering, construction, maintenance
   and repair of bicycles and ancillary equipment.  Not for products or
   services offered or wanted -- see rec.bicycles.marketplace.

rec.bicycles.rides: Discussions of tours and training or commuting routes.
   Not for disussion of general riding techniques -- see rec.bicycles.misc.

rec.bicycles.soc: Social issues, cycling transportation advocacy, laws,
   conduct of riders and drivers; road hazards such as potholes, dogs, and
   sociopaths.

rec.bicycles.racing: Race results, racing techniques, rules, and
   organizations.  Not racing equipment -- see rec.bicycles.marketplace
   or rec.bicycles.tech.

rec.bicycles.misc:  General riding techniques, rider physiology,
   injuries and treatment, diets, and other cycling topics.



Nettiquette
-----------

Here are some tips to remember when posting to rec.bicycles.*:

  * Check your line lengths.  Most readers use 80 column terminals, and 
    articles with longer line lengths are hard to read.  72 characters per
    line is a good length, since it allows others to quote you without
    running over 80 characters.
 
  * Trim down your quotes.  Delete parts of the article that you are not
    responding to.  Less to read from previous posts is better.  And please
    don't include the signature of the article you are responding to.

  * If you are asking a basic question, please check the FAQ first.  If the
    FAQ is has expired on your system, see the "Archives" section below
    for information on how to get a copy.

  * If someone posts a question about something that was resolved recently,
    please answer the poster via email.  Rehashing something that was just
    discussed is a waste of bandwidth unless you have something new to add.

  * Please don't flame someone if their posting should have been restricted 
    to a certain region (for example, california only).  Most people are not 
    the news admin on their system, so publicly flaming them does no good.
    A nicely worded email message to them that there may be a problem
    would allow them to notify their news admin.  Please remember that
    it may be some other site somewhere along the line that is leaking
    articles out of its region and the poster may not have any way to
    solve the problem.

  * Along the above lines, please try to restrict your postings to your
    site/region/state/whatever.  People in Australia may not want to see
    bike-for-sale ads from the U.S., for example.

  * Make your subject line informative about the content of your article.

  * If you are following up an article to create a new article, please
    remember to delete the "References:" line in the header.  This will
    help the readers who use a threaded news reader; otherwise your new
    topic will be mixed in with an old one.

  * Please don't flame others.  We're a somewhat opinionated group, and
    there are many diverse personalities here.  This is especially true
    in the never-ending helmet wars.

  * Speaking of helmet wars, let's try to stay away from them.  Most
    everything that could be said pro and con for wearing helmets has
    been said at least once in rec.bicycles.  There is some evidence that
    wearing a helmet can help prevent head injuries.  There are people that
    wear a helmet all the time, people that wear a helmet some of the time,
    and people who will never wear one.  Everyone has their own reasons
    for their decision, and most will not change it in the middle of a
    flaming helmet war.  Questions on types of helmets, what ones are
    coolest (temperature and otherwise), etc are always welcome.


Archives

I've made available via anonymous ftp a copy of the current FAQ and a
few other items on draco.acs.uci.edu (128.200.34.12).  This is the
workstation on my desk, so I'd appreciate it if people would restrict
their use to 7pm-7am Pacific time.  The files are in pub/rec.bicycles.

For those without Internet access, you can use the ftpmail server at
gatekeeper.dec.com to get copies of the items there.  I really don't
have time to email copies of files to people who can't get at them
easily.  To use the FTP server, send an email message containing the
line

help

in the body of the message to ftpmail@gatekeeper.dec.com.  You'll get
a help file back from the FTP server with more information on how to
use it. 

Here's what's available at this time:

                README for Rec.Bicycles Anonymous FTP area

bike.lockers	David H. Wolfskill's (david@dhw68k.cts.com) summary of
		bike locker vendors.

bike.painting   Sam Henry's (shenry@rice.edu) collection of articles on
		how to paint a bike.

bike_power.*    Ken Roberts program to calculate power output and power
		consumption.  See bike_power.doc for more info.

biking_log.hqx	Phil Etheridge's (phil@massey.ac.nz) hypercard stack
		riding diary.  It keeps track of dates, distance, time,
		average speed, etc., and keeps running weekly, monthly,
		and yearly totals.

bmb.ride	Pamela Blalock's (pamela@keps.com) report on her 1992 
		Boston-Montreal-Boston ride.

competitive.nutrition
		Roger Marquis' (marquis@well.uucp) article from the
		Feb 91 Velo News on nutrition and cycling.

faq.*		The current Frequently Asked Questions posting

first.century	Pamela Blalock's (pamela@keps.kodak.com) tips on training
		for your first century ride.

lights		Tom Reingold's (tr@samadams.princeton.edu) collection of 
		articles on bike lights.

mtb.buy		Joakim Karlsson's (aviator@athena.mit.edu) article on 
		buying an entry-level MTB.

pbp.info	Pamela Blalock's (pamela@keps.kodak.com) information 
		on her Paris-Brest-Paris ride.

pictures	Bicycling gif pictures.

ride.index	Chris Hull's/Bill Bushnell's (bushnell@lmsc.lockheed.com)
		explanation of a way to "index" rides and compare the 
		difficulty of different rides.

spike.bike	Bob Fishell's (spike@cbnewsd.att.com) Spike Bike series.  
		They are numbered in the order that Bob posted them to
		rec.bicycles.  All the Spike Bike stories are 
		"Copyright 1989 by Robert Fishell, all rights reserved."

spokelen11.bas	Roger Marquis' (marquis@well.uucp) spoke length 
		calculator, written in Microsoft Quickbasic.

spokelen.c	Andy Tucker's (tucker@Neon.Stanford.EDU) port of 
		Roger Marquis' spokelen11.bas to C.

studded.tires	Nancy Piltch's (piltch@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov) compilation
		of messages on studded tires, including how to make your
		own.

tandem.boxes	Arnie Berger's (arnie@hp-lsd.cos.hp.com) notes on how
		he built a box to transport his tandem to Europe and
		back.  It's taken from a longer travelogue on his trip - if
		you want more information, contact him at the above
		address.

trailers	A summary posting of messages about bike trailers.  Good
		stuff if you're thinking of buying a trailer.

wheels.*.hqx    R. Scott Truesdell's (truesdel@ics.uci.edu) Hypercard
		stack to calculate spoke lengths.  See wheels.readme
		for more info.

wintertips	Pete Hickey's (pete@panda1.uottawa.ca) notes about
		how to cycle in the winter.