Ron Damon

Ron Damon

Sengguan

Ron Damon

cat0020

Curious, how often do you actually use that 53x42 gearing? 1%, less than 1%?
Does the chain & rear derailleur actually clear the rear tire when you're in that gear?

Ron Damon

Ron Damon

Western bloke: "Hey, is that a Brompton?"
Me: "No, it's not a Brompton."
Western bloke: "Yeah, it's a Brompton!"
Me: 🙄

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Ron Damon

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Change log

• Replaced grips with Ergon GP2

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Ron Damon

Ron Damon

Completed the Tour-de-Korea 2024 on the FnHon Gust 16".

CrimsonEclipse

That derailleur is really close to the ground.
It's gonna catch and break.... and it looks stupid.

Why don't you take a few minutes and calculate a mod for it so it's not so dangerous!
Minor skills... snip snip and perfection!

Or pay someone who can instead of leaving it looking really bad.

Maybe you should consider walking!

Ron Damon

We'll save this latest incoherent outburst too.

CrimsonEclipse

Made ya speechless!

Let's see if you stay that way....

veganbikes

It's gonna catch and break? On what? It is not going below the tire and it is a folding bike which has limitations but nothing there looks particularly out of place. It is a short cage 10 speed derailleur it would be tough to get much shorter than that.

What is their to "snip snip" I doubt the chain is too long and it has a derailleur to keep it tensioned.

What looks really bad? The only thing I would complain about is the logo on the cranks and it being a knock off Dahon (though seemingly a decent frame) but in the end it does look nice overall. Good color, a good practical build. Maybe not how I would build it but nothing seems ridiculous about it or really bad and that is always going to be subjective to your own personal tastes.

It seems as if you like to comment in places you have no real knowledge or maybe you don't like folding bikes and that is fine but maybe learn a little bit before making ridiculous claims because you don't understand.

Yes if Ron had gone with a medium cage or long cage he would be very likely if not certain to hit the ground but as is he won't and I am sure he knows how to ride a folding bike as I believe he has a number of them or has had a number of them. Considering he mentioned he completed the Tour De Korea which is a decently long ride and was able to post pictures of the bike in good condition it is pretty clear the bike is fine. No need to walk when you can ride. Now if you like to walk with your bike that is fine, go for it. I know sometimes I have to and it sucks and sometimes I do it just to take a break but to say you need to do it over a folding bike is just silly.

Jipe

These two pictures show that the derailleur cage obviously hit something.

Even if its a short cage, this derailleur with this big cog cassette and 50x305 wheels comes really close to the ground.

Slightly bigger wheels like 50x355 would help but this frame seems not able to accept wheels bigger than 50x305?

Ron Damon

https://www.bikeforums.net/folding-b...16-2022-a.html

The Shimano Zee RD currently on the FnHon Gust 16" is on its eighth year of service since 2016 across four different bikes, including another 305er (FSIR Spin 3), several tours international and domestic, and daily use. The part has has seen lots and lots of action, and has indeed taken hits and scrapes from when I've taken it off-road in veritable rock gardens. The scrape on the pulley cage is obviously a sideways glance while moving forwards. The light scrape on the RD body, I suspect, is when the bike fell on the drive side and the RD body scraped against the floor.
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Knocks and scrapes not withstanding, it remains in perfect physical and operating (though not cosmetic) condition, shifting crisply, precisely and quickly. It is tour tried and tested on 16" (305) wheels. Twice. This is what it looks like, literally, today.



​There are marginally wider/taller tires in ETRTO305 size. I've shown them -- Deli Tire Lizard 57-305 and Kenda Kontact 58-305 -- on this channel before, and have them on hand for when these Schwalbe Big Apple 50-305 wear out. Well, I have two new pairs of those too for fear that they might be hard to find or discontinued in the future, but that's a different story.

Jipe

The cage length alone doesn't define how low the derailleur cage goes.

The way the whole derailleur, body+cage, stretch is also important. Shimano improved the geometry of the recent rear derailleur to allow bigger cogs without having the cage going lower.

Look at the pictures below of a Shimano Ultegra RD-R8000GS 11s (the equivalent 105 is identical excepted for the weight) it has a much longer cage than the Zee but doesn't put its cage lower.

splithub

So you want to say that a derailleur that hangs 2cm below the rims edge on a 18" wheel, hangs not lower than a derailleur that hangs <1cm below the rims edge on a 16" wheel? Really? Wow...

Jipe

Compare the shape of the Ultegra and the shape of the Zee: the Ultegra body is never very much tilted to the ground it is slightly tilted to the ground only when the chain is on the biggest cogs and the cage extended to the front not to the ground while with the Zee the body and cage are aligned and tilted much more to the ground with as consequence that the length of the boy and cage are combined to place the very short cage of the Zee close to the ground.

So the distance of the cage to the ground doesn't depend only of the cage length but also of the way the derailleur stretches (which is defined by its geometry) and of the chain length.

splithub

...aah yes, a derailleur that hangs 35mm+ lower than another - hangs not lower. Logic doesn't really apply to you right?

Ron Damon

A rough, back-of-the envelope calculation suggests that the radius of a 355 wheel with a 50mm wide tire is about 22.8cm, while the radius of a 305 wheel with the same width tire is 20.3cm. Therefore, the latter provides 2.5cm (about an inch) less ground clearance than the former, holding all other factors constant. I don't see how the Shimano Ultegra RD-R8000GS part would provide more ground clearance than the Shimano Zee RD-M640-SS part, based on these calculations and the images provided. What's more, the former part is rated only to 34T max cog. This, its rather meager max cog capacity, accounts for tl only very slight incline or angle. There's no free lunch.



How would this, on a 305 wheel with 2.5cm less ground clearance or a wheel radius that is 2.5cm shorter, be better? I'd be worse. Which begs the question instead, why is he using this GS Ultegra job when he could be using the Zee RD?
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cat0020

Does that chain rub against the rear tire in the largest cog?

Ron Damon

None the worse for wear from the overseas tour

Ron Damon

Workmanship is top notch indeed. No complaints. Especially for the price paid.

Ron Damon

In 2018, I bought this FSIR Spin 3 on sale in Singapore for $210. Since then I've used its 16" (305) wheels for everyday use, on one domestic and two international tours across two bikes.



Today, six years later, the Narra-branded wheels, now on my FnHon Gust 16", are still true, never having needed truing, rolling smoothly and with all original spokes intact. The brake track remains in good condition too. Not bad for cheap "Asiatic garbage", eh?