Any question answered...

Hello David

You can test this if you like. Have a spare.

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Shimano M540, or if you're hurting, the M520.

If I have a 1" steel steerer with a 1" spacer underneath a shim, and the shim is longer than stem's stack height, can I put a 1 1/8" spacer under the stem resting on the 1" spacer, or should it always go on top of the stem?
Or should I just find a shorter shim?
Once everything is tight there aren't any significant forces going through there, are there?

You can put a 1⅛" spacer either under or over the stem such that the shim has clearance from the ends of the stem+spacer stack, meaning the adjuster compression goes through the stem+spacer and the shim has some degree of axial float.

Why are the lights in the distance twinkling?

They're not as far away as you think.
I would consider ducking.

You are blinking.

@scoble: SPDs are boring though. Functional and indestructible but I've been using them for ever and fancied trying something else.

No love on the forum for Look S Trak or Crank Bros Candys?

Cheap, decent single speed freewheels?
Theo's islabike needs a new one. From what I recall the shimano ones are now a bit crap and not all that cheap....

Buy SPDs, spray with glitter.

Ebay Suntour BMX freewheels; good quality, and a fair number left in NOS state.

They're pedals, would you like me to stamp NJS on it for accreditation to get credential?

I have a bronze credential, I know what I'm talking about.

Sorry to hear that, Ed, what happened to the real one?

The original brass one froze off in the recent cold snap.

Don't be a dicks.

Bronze or otherwise?

If a frame has a 'Mid BMX BB' is there a converter to get it use good old Square Taper?

yep. here truvativ

EDIT - OOS here, sorry

EDIT2 -all wrong, apologies for brain fart.

That's American, not the same as mid.

I don't think there is anything available. You might be able to get a
tapered axle made at the right length with 19mm OD bits in the right place for the mid bearings but I imagine it'll be expensive. I've never seen one made before.

It'd probably be prone to breaking anyway without anything holding the bearings against each other.

I had some top hat bushes made to insert a 5/8" square taper axle into some 20mm bearings, but the crank bosses were shimmed to control end float and bearing retention on that bike. It shouldn't be horribly expensive to put square tapers onto a length of 19mm round bar, but as noted above you'd need to think about how to keep the bearings in the right place.

For an OTP solution, it might be worth trawling BMX fora to see whether anybody has stuffed some square taper junior cranks into a mid frame.

Got a small stone(?) rattling around my rim. Can't for the life of me get it to come out of the valve hole. Any tricks for this?