A
Andre Jute
Guest
[email protected] wrote:
"(Don't get me wrong dept.): If you haven't "heard" me say before,
"there's a bent in everyone's future" .... But, at 58-1/2 (three
quarters, actually), with a bad back, arthritis in the hands, and a
difficulty with one of the saddle contact areas (doing much better,
thanks), I'm not there yet."
In considering ordering a custom stainless frame to see me out, I
thought of the top tube and the obstruction it might be in time, when
after the nth hip replacement I can no longer swing my leg over the
saddle. Or of course, leglifting might be become non-PC and outlawed,
and bicyclists will be hunted through the streets with smokers.
I looked into recumbents and even bought one to try and hated it; it
lasted a week before I sold it on. It reminded me of driving to work
in the city in a Porsche, eyeing the nuts holding on bus wheels --from
below the hub. For me a recumbent seemed too much like assisted
suicide by truck.
Then I thought of the opa/oma Dutch bikes, which are low stepthrough
styles for ladies of a certain age and uncertain future. That was just
too depressing. (Chalo is looking for one...)
Then a compromise solution struck me: the Mixte. the style has a
downtube but the seattube is angled down parallel, or almost, with the
downtube. Or in the classic Mixte application there are two thin tubes
from the head tube parallel or almost to the down tube and running all
the way back past the sides of the seat tube to the junction of the
chain- and seat-stays. You can still lift your foot through the gap
reasonably easily and the bike will be reasonably stiff, or at least
stiffer than those U shaped things...
Of course there is no point in ordering a custom bike and having it
fillet-brazed. It has to be lugged, and preferably with fancy lugs
which can be painted a contrasting colour or at least lined with my
house colours of maroon and yellow.
The difficulty of finding stainless lugs for a Mixte is holding up the
project.
The other difficulties that drive people to bents are easily solved: a
seat rather than a saddle, geometry to put your feet on the ground (if
you/re too old for legover, you're old enough to want to sit upright,
right?), an automatic gearbox to keep pedalling effort in the most
efficient range, front suspension to keep the inequalities of the road
out of arthritic fingers (in fact the only arthritis I have was caused
by a bike falling on my little finger a few months ago; when I catch
up on the driver of the car that caused the accident he'll be in pain
for very long time), a suspended seatpost to keep piles comfortable,
and so on. I've even got adaptive front suspension -- electronically
set to hard when you set off, softer riding at speed on the level,
hard to conserve energy when pedalling uphill -- in the Shimano Cyber
Nexus groupset I bought for this Gerry Attrick bike.
Of course, planning such a bike keeps one young, thus defeating or at
least delaying the purpose.
Andre Jute
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/BICYCLE & CYCLING.html
"(Don't get me wrong dept.): If you haven't "heard" me say before,
"there's a bent in everyone's future" .... But, at 58-1/2 (three
quarters, actually), with a bad back, arthritis in the hands, and a
difficulty with one of the saddle contact areas (doing much better,
thanks), I'm not there yet."
In considering ordering a custom stainless frame to see me out, I
thought of the top tube and the obstruction it might be in time, when
after the nth hip replacement I can no longer swing my leg over the
saddle. Or of course, leglifting might be become non-PC and outlawed,
and bicyclists will be hunted through the streets with smokers.
I looked into recumbents and even bought one to try and hated it; it
lasted a week before I sold it on. It reminded me of driving to work
in the city in a Porsche, eyeing the nuts holding on bus wheels --from
below the hub. For me a recumbent seemed too much like assisted
suicide by truck.
Then I thought of the opa/oma Dutch bikes, which are low stepthrough
styles for ladies of a certain age and uncertain future. That was just
too depressing. (Chalo is looking for one...)
Then a compromise solution struck me: the Mixte. the style has a
downtube but the seattube is angled down parallel, or almost, with the
downtube. Or in the classic Mixte application there are two thin tubes
from the head tube parallel or almost to the down tube and running all
the way back past the sides of the seat tube to the junction of the
chain- and seat-stays. You can still lift your foot through the gap
reasonably easily and the bike will be reasonably stiff, or at least
stiffer than those U shaped things...
Of course there is no point in ordering a custom bike and having it
fillet-brazed. It has to be lugged, and preferably with fancy lugs
which can be painted a contrasting colour or at least lined with my
house colours of maroon and yellow.
The difficulty of finding stainless lugs for a Mixte is holding up the
project.
The other difficulties that drive people to bents are easily solved: a
seat rather than a saddle, geometry to put your feet on the ground (if
you/re too old for legover, you're old enough to want to sit upright,
right?), an automatic gearbox to keep pedalling effort in the most
efficient range, front suspension to keep the inequalities of the road
out of arthritic fingers (in fact the only arthritis I have was caused
by a bike falling on my little finger a few months ago; when I catch
up on the driver of the car that caused the accident he'll be in pain
for very long time), a suspended seatpost to keep piles comfortable,
and so on. I've even got adaptive front suspension -- electronically
set to hard when you set off, softer riding at speed on the level,
hard to conserve energy when pedalling uphill -- in the Shimano Cyber
Nexus groupset I bought for this Gerry Attrick bike.
Of course, planning such a bike keeps one young, thus defeating or at
least delaying the purpose.
Andre Jute
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/BICYCLE & CYCLING.html