BB guns are something you’re all fairly familiar with but how many of you know anything about airsoft guns? The biggest mistake most gun fans make is to look at airsoft guns as just being toys. This is so far from the truth. The huge range of airsoft guns, rifles, pistols, shotguns and fully automatic machine guns offer a huge amount of fun and entertainment for anybody who wants to get involved. Even if you’re a hardcore gunhead you’ll still get a kick from airsoft weapons.

Gun crime is an increasingly worrying problem internationally. This has led to a total backlash against weapon owners of all kinds. This has been taken to extremes whereby liberal parties have started imposing more and more rules on what types of weapons people can own. There is the common misunderstanding that anybody interested in weapons has violent tendencies – this couldn’t be further from the truth. Appreciating the beauty of a replica firearm is no different to appreciating the lines of a sports car or admiring a piece of modern art. Airsoft guns haven’t been around long but they’ve gathered a large following and are dominating the replica weapon and toy gun markets. So if you’re always wanted to own your own Desert Eagle or M4 rifle then airsoft offers both a safe and fun way to do this.

Standard BB guns fire a small lead pellet which can cause considerable harm when used by a skilled marksman. Unlikely to kill a human bb guns are used to hunt small rodents on farms all over the world – to great effect. Now not every gun enthusiast wants to go hunting. Maybe they just like the look and feel of a particular pistol or rifle. Airsoft guns are ideal for this type of gun fan. Airsoft ammunition is also non-lethal. Instead of a lead pellet a standard airsoft guns fires a 6mm plastic pellet that weighs between 0.12g and 0.20g. The heavier weights provide added accuracy. Do bear in mind that even though these pellets are plastic they can and do hurt when they hit you so never fire an airsoft gun at anybody unless they’re wearing suitable protective clothing. The level of pain is on a par with being hit by a paintball.
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The first bicycle wheels were from a horse drawn cart, made of wood with a metal band round the bicycle rim, very hard and very uncomfortable to ride. Then a man called Dunlop (Scottish) invented the pneumatic tire, this along with Macadam (another Scot) inventing the tar road surface made cycling a lot more comfortable.

The bicycle rim, like the bicycle frame hasn’t changed much in design, its still round and always will be. From the first wooden rims the next were made of steel, then alloy and now if you can afford it, carbon. Of all bicycle parts the bicycle rim can make a big difference to how your bike handles. First the weight of your rim affects your sprinting and climbing as the weight will low you down, for a long, flat effort the weight isn’t so important as when you get the wheels rolling the weight can help to keep them going. The shape of the rim can be important also, a flat rim is best for climbing as aerodynamics are not so important on a hill, a deep section, aero, rim will help you cut through the air, but in a cross wind could cause you handling problems.

Bicycle Rims Materials

The different materials used for rims are very important also, steel is heavy and if damaged can be difficult to pull back into shape, but because its so strong it is quite difficult to bend in the first place and steel is cheaper than all the other materials. Alloy is probably the most popular rim, it can be made in any shape and profile, flat or aero, but not too deep as it would then weigh too much, most deep section rims are of a alloy braking section nearest the tire which is then mounted to a carbon deep section for lightness and aerodynamics and a very beautiful looking bicycle rim. As with most things if money is no problem you can go for the best, this would be an all carbon rim, strong and very light, but there are a few problems with these rims, first they don’t brake so well in wet conditions and you must use special brake blocks for carbon and they can be expensive, also the rim has to be perfectly round and not have any bulges in the rim wall as this will make braking quite erratic, carbon is a difficult material to work with and must be well looked after.
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