Tom Sherman <
[email protected]> wrote in message news:<
[email protected]>...
> Carl Fogel wrote:
>
> > ... I suppose that I can't complain if it's only 15 speeds. My touring bike only has 14.
>
> Dear Carl,
>
> Does your touring bike have a single chainring and Rohloff hub?
>
> Tom Sherman - Quad Cities (Illinois Side)
Dear Tom,
My newsgroup indexing gods broke the following replies off into another thread, so I reproduce them
below, lest you miss vital technical details, and then reveal the results of the first ride.
Carl Fogel
[First, my reply to your wide-eyed innocence.]
Dear Tom,
Which touring bike do you mean?
I am now [modest cough] the owner and operator of two bicycles.
My faithful old 53/39 Schwinn LeTour with seven rear sprockets?
Or my brand-new triple-front-ring, five-rear-cogs Fury Roadmaster from MalWart, $53.73 plus $3.98
tax, complete with kickstand--yes, a kickstand is included!--and tires now inflated to 55
sizzling psi?
Ostentatiously,
Carl Fogel, Fury Roadmaster owner since 03-03-2004 4:36pm MST
[Next, Kevin Cullen confessed to helpless admiration, but stopped short of requesting a signed
photograph.]
> I'm terribly impressed. Please provide us with stories of how you "overcome any obstacles in your
> way and make it to the top".
>
> --Kevin
Dear Kevin,
I have a working title: "It's Not About the Bike." (The editor has expressed vague reservations.)
However, despite my scorn for technology, I have already removed both spoke-reflectors, having been
advised that the extra rotating mass might cost me precious seconds during acceleration.
The spoke-reflectors almost escaped my notice, lurking down there under the mammoth mountain-bike
tire-knobs.
Why, I wonder, does my new contraption have such huge, fierce treads sticking out on the side? Are
these triceratops-like projections a mating signal to female mountain-bikes and a challenge to male
mountain-bikes, like the antlers on moose or the ears on basset hounds?
Carl Fogel
[Now for the results of the first test ride.]
Since none of my neighbors complained about a 48-year-old man riding back and forth on the street at
midnight while getting a spare speedometer to work and raising the seat post and handlebar stem, I
sallied forth after lunch, feeling much like Sancho Panza.
The gearshifts are clicky friction doo-dads mounted on either handlebar and confuse me easily, but
I'm used to down-tube shifters (which also confuse me some days, but that's another story).
The cranks are shorter than usual. Peter Chisholm would wince at the riding position, but I'll
probably get used to it. The silly thing is sold for gentlemen aged 10-17 who are still pursuing
their education, not for someone just over six feet tall, around 195 pounds, and consumed by
insatiable curiosity.
The fork legs are as thick as my touring bike's main tubes, so mounting the speedometer involved larger-than-
normal zip ties and a section of thorn-resistant inner tube to pad the sensor out to within hailing
distance of the spoke magnet. Sears best measuring tape indicated a front tire unashamed of an 81.5-
inch circumference, so I set the $13 speedometer that I had lying around to 2070mm.
Sitting bolt upright in the approved MTB fashion, I was surprised to find the speedometer creeping
up to almost respectable levels. For my trial run, I pedalled over to the city park and did two
slightly different laps, hoping for about four miles. While a bowling ball might not roll around
this route, I doubt that there's ten feet of elevation change, including going up and down over the
four six-inch-high speed humps.
I assume that soulless rec.bicycles.tech readers care nothing for scenic description, so here's
the raw data:
13:42 elapsed time, 4.06 miles, 17.8 mph average speed, and 22.2 mph maximum speed (which startled
me, but I think a brief tailwind on the backstretch past the zoo was responsible). The original
thread that started all this involved a college student who wanted to buy something to pedal two
miles to school and two miles back, so four miles seems reasonable.
Afterward, I counted teeth and found a 48-tooth front sprocket with elegant shifting ramps powering
a 14-tooth rear cog. (I neglected to pick the bike with the owner's manual at MalWart. The fully-
equipped bike had a funny bump when its front tire rolled, so I rejected it while gazing longingly
at the $64 model that, alas, was out of my price range.)
Only 996 more miles and Dave Van Tol's check for $7.71 is mine! This must be how Lance feels as he
rolls off the starting line in France, already thinking about spending his prize money on Sheryl
Crowe CD's.
Carl Fogel