Getting My 'Bent Soon....

[NYC XYZ]

Hey, just a BIG THANK-YOU to all y'all 'bent-heads here for the help
and advice these past two or three months. I'm putting in an order
with Hostel Shoppe for their tricked-out SMGTe
(http://www.hostelshoppe.com/cgi-bin/specs.cgi?Bike1=1081348728), but
with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires.

Is there some kind of super-chain and cassette out there that won't
wear out for...oh, say 50K miles??

 

[Phil, Squid-in-Training]

NYC XYZ wrote:
> Hey, just a BIG THANK-YOU to all y'all 'bent-heads here for the help
> and advice these past two or three months. I'm putting in an order
> with Hostel Shoppe for their tricked-out SMGTe
> (http://www.hostelshoppe.com/cgi-bin/specs.cgi?Bike1=1081348728), but
> with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires.
>
> Is there some kind of super-chain and cassette out there that won't
> wear out for...oh, say 50K miles??

A shaftie/belt drive/enclosed chain. Of those, the shaftie is the most
readily available.

I had the chance to ride a recumbent for the first time recently. It was
the most twitchy ride ever... I rather believed I was going to die for the
first couple of seconds.
--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

 

[JeffWills]

Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
>
> I had the chance to ride a recumbent for the first time recently. It was
> the most twitchy ride ever... I rather believed I was going to die for the
> first couple of seconds.

That happens to a lot of first-time 'bent riders, and seems to be more
prevalent among *more* experienced upright riders. It's cured by
relaxing the upper body, which reduces feedback through the
handlebars. Also, leaning back into the seat helps stabilize the bike.

Jeff

 

[Peter Clinch]

NYC XYZ wrote:
> Hey, just a BIG THANK-YOU to all y'all 'bent-heads here for the help
> and advice these past two or three months. I'm putting in an order
> with Hostel Shoppe for their tricked-out SMGTe
> (http://www.hostelshoppe.com/cgi-bin/specs.cgi?Bike1=1081348728), but
> with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires.

I thought you wanted the best brakes you could find for huge descents at
high speed? The hydraulics are considerably more effective than
mechanicals for this (that's why serious mountain bikes all use
hydraulic discs, and the hydraulic rim brakes IME (direct, of trying
Avid mechs fitted to HP Vels and the HS-33s) are more powerful than mech
discs too outside of mudbaths.

> Is there some kind of super-chain and cassette out there that won't
> wear out for...oh, say 50K miles??

Chain, no, and get a Rohloff if you don't want to change a cassette ever
again. But the chains do last a while. Being 2.4 chains or so they
last roughly 2.4 times as long to start with as the stretch is evened
out more, and with no cack thrown up onto the transmission from the
front wheel there's a lot less goop getting onto it to help with the wear.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[Dave Larrington]

In article <XzLTf.37235$2c4.34692@dukeread11>, Phil, Squid-in-Training
([email protected]) wrote:

> I had the chance to ride a recumbent for the first time recently. It was
> the most twitchy ride ever... I rather believed I was going to die for the
> first couple of seconds.

Mr Larrington's Bicycle Handling /La/

twitchy: more responsive than my normal ride
sluggish: less responsive than my normal ride

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
Barley, barley, barley, world cruise. You never see a farmer on a bike.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per NYC XYZ:
>Is there some kind of super-chain and cassette out there that won't
>wear out for...oh, say 50K miles??

Rohloff internally-geared hub - if you can live with 2 pounds of additional
weight. Also, I dunno if there are shifting issues with a der so far from the
bars, but if there are I'd expect Rohloff's system to mitigate them.
--
PeteCresswell

 

[Peter Clinch]

(PeteCresswell) wrote:

> Rohloff internally-geared hub - if you can live with 2 pounds of additional
> weight. Also, I dunno if there are shifting issues with a der so far from the
> bars, but if there are I'd expect Rohloff's system to mitigate them.

Derailleurs work fine on 'bents, to some degree better than uprights
because the length of chain means a less pronounced angle as you change
from one side to the other, so there's potentially less chain and
sprocket wear.

But a Rohloff does you about as close to a guaranteed change as you'll
get (no thrown chains again! ). Though aside from the weight
disadvantage, and the cost issues, there are a couple of other gotchas
worth considering. If you don't like twist grip shifters then that's
really the only game in town (Thorn have an option for drop bars where a
twister is turned into a separate knob, but trigger shifting it ain't
AFAICT), so that's not so good, and if you're used to close ratios as
typical of sports bikes then you might well find the jumps between gears
a bit big for your liking. It's about the most efficient hub money can
buy, but still probably poorer than a well maintained and used
derailleur in terms of absolute muscle -> momentum conversion.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Peter Clinch:
> It's about the most efficient hub money can
>buy, but still probably poorer than a well maintained and used
>derailleur in terms of absolute muscle -> momentum conversion.

As the owner of two of the things, I'd change "probably" to "definitely".

They're also significantly noisy in gears 1-7.

But for me nothing beats being able to get out of the saddle on a hill and just
roll up 4 gears ..... and roll back down when you feel like sitting again. Ditto
attacking a steep little hill in gear 8 or 9 and then instantly rolling down to,
say, 2 or 3 when your momentum runs out.

Also, not having a lot of brain cells to spare, it's nice not to have to keep
track of which front chain wheel I'm on...
--
PeteCresswell

 

[NYC XYZ]

JeffWills wrote:
> Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
> >
> > I had the chance to ride a recumbent for the first time recently. It was
> > the most twitchy ride ever... I rather believed I was going to die for the
> > first couple of seconds.
>
> That happens to a lot of first-time 'bent riders, and seems to be more
> prevalent among *more* experienced upright riders. It's cured by
> relaxing the upper body, which reduces feedback through the
> handlebars. Also, leaning back into the seat helps stabilize the bike.
>
> Jeff


I just don't get this "twitchy ride for newbies" thing...the SMGTe
isn't the most newbie-friendly 'bent around, it's said, but it was all
of a few minutes when I just took to it! Mind you, I didn't learn how
to ride a bike until age 12 or 13, I think...so I'm thinking if I can
do it, heck, anybody can, really!

All I did was a lap around the parking lot of an industrial
complex...not a lot, but enough to have sold me on that 'bent, and
enough to know that, yes, it handles differently than an upright, and
it handles rather more sensitively, too, but I don't anticipate any
problems, even in urban traffic! I'll just have to go slower than I'm
used to, is all, bearing in mind that even the slowest I can go and
still remain balanced will always be faster than the slowest I can go
on an upright, balanced....

Easy!

I just haven't tried any hills yet...woohoo....

 

[Phil, Squid-in-Training]

JeffWills wrote:
> Phil, Squid-in-Training wrote:
>>
>> I had the chance to ride a recumbent for the first time recently.
>> It was the most twitchy ride ever... I rather believed I was going
>> to die for the first couple of seconds.
>
> That happens to a lot of first-time 'bent riders, and seems to be more
> prevalent among *more* experienced upright riders. It's cured by
> relaxing the upper body, which reduces feedback through the
> handlebars. Also, leaning back into the seat helps stabilize the bike.

Ooh... I'm a more experienced rider. Can I add that to my résumé?

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

 

[Peter Clinch]

NYC XYZ wrote:

> I just don't get this "twitchy ride for newbies" thing...

It affects different people different ways. Some people can get
straight on and ride off, others have quite a few false starts. I was
somewhere in between. Nervousness seems to be the problem, with any
errors in balance and steering over-compensated for.

in my case tiller steering makes life worse for me than superman or
underseat setups, but other folk "get" tiller steering straight away.
It all seems to be down to the individual.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email protected] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/