the sci guy 

new addition to my commuter for my birthday. garmin edge 200 gps/comp.
i love the size, and it provides the perfect amount of functionality i wanted. it lets me upload to mapmyride without a hitch.
used it today on a ride, but very excited to use it monday on my commute!

pauschl

Here's my two bikes. The "before" picture of the blue Schwinn is exactly how it looked when i bought it. The before pic of the red mongoose is after i had added the rack, mirror, kickstand. I have about $400 in each of them.

RubeRad

Wait, I've been admiring pics of this lil' beast, and 65ers Moulton, but I just realized, this doesn't fold! (or at least I can't see any articulation points). Is it really that much smaller than a full-sized road bike this way that it makes a difference?

RubeRad

pauschl, I assume you posted your "before" pics after your "after" pics, and your "after" pics before your "before" pics?

Tell me about the shifters/placement on the drop bars on the schwinn. The red dials look like these, am I right? How does it work for you to put the right shifter inside the top of the drops like that? Does it range both above and below the bar? Do you work it thumb-only, or do your fingers get involved from underneath as well?

pauschl

Yes, correct assumption. Oops...


Correct again. Sunrace shifters. $18 yeehaw!
I works pretty well. Actually I love it. i tried the left one like that too but it didn't work as well. I like it near the stem.

I switched the shifters, left shifter on the right side of the bar, and vice versa. So when I push down/forward on the right shifter it is shifting up to a harder gear. I've found that to down shift it works best to use the thumb to pull the shifter up. But you can also use the fingers from underneath. When I get to the lowest gear, the shifter is just barely higher than the hood.

Shifting in the drops works even better than on the hoods. I used to have shallower drops and the shifter got in the way sometimes. With these bars it's easy to reach with the thumb but out of the way for moving my hands forward in the drops.

RubeRad

Wow, 100% personally-customized ergonomics! I've heard of swapping brake levers before (SB liked that, I think I'm too far along to switch at this point), but never shifters. So when you have the lever horizontal/forward like pictured, is that your small ring or your middle ring? (assuming you have a triple -- will I be correct again for a hat trick?!)

jowilson

1992('93?) Trek Antelope 800
Just transferred the parts from my Diamondback frame yesterday and got it fine tuned this morning. Great fit for me and I can't wait to go on tour with it. It is also my commuter and I have commuted just over 200 miles with it. With this frame I have gone about 10 miles.

I am thinking about converting to friction shifters. Will friction shifters work with a 3x7 drivetrain?
Josh

RubeRad

Friction shifters with almost certainly with with almost anything, and definitely certainly work with yer average 3x7, unless there's some bizarre funky thing going on (which I would not expect for a drivetrain coming off a Diamondback). One of the shifter sets you should consider is the thumbshifters linked above, on pauschl's bikes. Another possibility (compromise) is Shimano Tourney frictionx7, like this.

thugpipe

nope, no fold. this bike has a 1" longer wheel base than my road bike with 700c wheels and it is a foot shorter not to mention the wheels are 7" lower to the tops. I find it a ton easier to carry in confined spaces and a whole lot better to ride the subway with, but at the end of the day I just plain like it, I like that it is odd and I like the way it rides. I have a folding bike too that I occasionally ride to work, a Dahon Silvertip.

pauschl

Oh, I didn't explain that well... The right shifter is still the rear derailer. By using the shifter meant for the left side/front derailer it makes it so pushing forward is an upshift and pulling back is a downshift- more intuitive for me. I get the same result on the other bike by having the shifters under the bar instead of on top, which is also way better for me ergonomically. Of course, that also switches the left one too. But that works well also. When you push the left shifter forward it drops to a lower chainring- easy maneuver.

jowilson

Thanks, I will probably put the frictions shifters on tomorrow.
And the drivetrain on the Diamondback was not the original. A nasty crash bent the drive side crankarm and I had to replace it. I didn't like the gearing on it so I replaced the crankset with a 24-34-46 front and 14-34 MegaRange freewheel for touring. I want to get friction shifters because they are easier maintenance for touring and I can have more room on the handlebars for a bag.

Sixty Fiver

My beater had been running with a rear coaster hub and after loaning it out last fall it returned with that hub not working and as I have a spare I will overhaul it and get that wheel running again and save that wheelset for some future build.

Had been thinking that the beater would be nice if I swapped to a fixed drive which would lighten up the bike and always like having a bike that I am less worried about locking up, one that is set up for bad weather, but is still a rock solid ride. To that end I built up new wheels and fitted much lighter tyres than the Marathons it was running and it makes quite a difference in the rollout... the gearing remains the same as the thread on driver from the old coaster hub just went on the new hubs.

Sixty Fiver

The Moulton is not a folder either... although many people mistake it for one. It fits me just like my other bikes as the reach and position on the bike is pretty much identical to my touring bicycles.

Shahmatt

Here's my folding commuter with blinkers on!

arsprod 

Gasp, that beautiful old Peugeot is your beater?

bhtooefr

So I normally commute on my trike, which was posted earlier in this thread, but I decided to do something different today.

Therefore, I guess I get to post my folder in here:

PatrickGSR94

2-speed kickback hub? How does that work?

bhtooefr

You backpedal a little, and it shifts to the other gear. The choices are either direct drive or a 1.36:1 gear.

It's also a coaster brake, but the coaster brake engages a little further past the gearshift point, so you can shift without hitting the brake at all. (But, you can't use the coaster brake without shifting, so you have to remember to shift again if you didn't want to shift.)

PatrickGSR94

haha weird, I guess you just use your front rim brake most of the time then huh?

RidingMatthew

that kickback hub sounds pretty cool. Are they not available now?

bhtooefr

I'm typically a front brake heavy rider anyway, so I don't mind it. The coaster brake basically acts as a backup for when the front brake is either ineffective (wet) or dangerous (slick surfaces).

And, Sturmey-Archer makes a 2-speed kickback hub (both with and without a coaster brake, and with a 1.38 2nd gear), but it has a reputation for poor shifting and eventually grenading (and we're talking about a kickback hub, so it's not like the typical failure mode of shifting under load is even possible). Oh, and it has a 116 mm OLD, and this bike has a 110 mm rear triangle (which, it's steel, so spreading it is certainly possible, but it'd be one more thing to do).

This Sachs hub has a reputation for being extremely reliable, it shifts nicely, and the coaster brake is strong. And, 112 mm OLD, which is close enough. (The earlier (like 1960s) version was actually 110 mm.) I got mine (complete with a repack) from here: https://torpedo-coasterbrake.com/

There were also a couple Bendix kickback hubs from the 60s and 70s, I believe, and collectors go nuts for those. As I understand, they're heavier and don't shift as well as the Sachs hubs. I don't know much about them, though. Edit: Red band used a "disc" brake (not sure how this works), yellow and blue used a "shoe" brake (looks like a normal coaster drum brake). Red and yellow are gear-down hubs (.67 1st, direct drive 2nd), blue is gear-up ("overdrive") (direct drive first, 1.5 2nd). Edit 2: Looks like the "disc" brake is essentially a steel/brass clutch pack that's shoved against the hub shell to brake.

Also worth mentioning are the three automatic hubs, because one of them is still in production, and two of them (including the one still in production) are related to my R 2110.

There's the Sachs A 2110, which is the same as my hub, but instead of kickback shifting, had centrifugal shifting based on wheel RPM. Red ring (typically, but not always, 28h) shifted at 16 km/h in a 20" wheel or 17 km/h in a 22" wheel, blue band (typically, but not always, 36h) shifted at 17 km/h in a 24" wheel, up to 19 km/h in a 28" (700C) wheel. The shift point was set by an internal spring, but changing that point requires opening the hub.

Shimano made an automatic hub, the AB-100, around that timeframe as well, based around the same concept as the Sachs automatic (although this one's a gear-down hub, not a gear-up hub - 0.74 1st, direct-drive 2nd). It has the advantage of having a big plastic knob for adjusting the shift point, but I've heard that it's not a very good hub. (I'm under the impression that this was before Shimano made good IGHes.)

SRAM has resurrected the A 2110 design as the Automatix. Now it's 1.37 in 2nd gear, but the shift points suck even WORSE (about 1 km/h slower than the A 2110), and you still have to crack it open and screw with the spring to change the shift point. Oh, and the 28h one that is optimized for a folder is unobtainium outside of Germany.

Gregc86430

My commute is usually from Central MD to DC, so I take the train.
This summer however I'm on a detail 8 miles away in Beautiful Shepherdstown, WV. I rode my bike for the first time Wednesday. Lots of hills and lots of traffic for small towns, but it was great.
She's a 30 year old Ross Adventurer, but she looks brand new and rides like a dream.

RubeRad

Yikes! Do you like that seat nosing at your nethers? Straighten that puppy out unless you're done having children. Otherwise, nice bike, nice pic, good on ya for riding, those office chairs are hideous.

jowilson

So I didn't feel like sifting through 448 pages of commuter bikes to find the answer to question, so perhaps someone could answer it for me: Why isn't this a sticky yet?!

​Josh

randomgear

It used to be , back in the good old days.
But some admin (name not to be mentioned, lest I provoke his wrath) decided that there were too many stickies; so POOF!