EcoVelo

1×9

Alan — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:30:05 +0000

Single speed drivetrains have significant appeal. They’re simple, lightweight, and tough. They boil the riding experience down to its most basic form, eliminating the distractions associated with more complex drivetrains while putting the rider more closely in touch with the terrain. The trade off for this simplicity is the inability to change gear ratios (of course) which makes riding in varied terrain more challenging, particularly if any kind of loads are involved. Plus, riding a high gear at low cadence can put considerable strain on joints and connective tissue which can lead to injury over the long term.

At the other extreme are 3x9 27-speed drivetrains designed for mountain biking or loaded touring. These drivetrains are well-suited for riding in rugged, off-road conditions or carrying heavy loads long distances over mountain passes and across deserts. In other words, they provide a wide range of gears to suit those who ride in a wide variety of conditions. They’re so effective that they’ve become standard issue on many bikes, even bikes that may never see a single track or a mountain summit. The downside to these versatile drivetrains is the added complexity and cost, as well as the higher maintenance required to keep them running efficiently. More →

Villaraigosa Says “Thanks”

Alan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:31:14 +0000

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says "thank you" to those who reached out after his accident last week, while promising a bicycle summit in Los Angeles. More →

Thursday Morning Commute Free Association

Alan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:45:31 +0000

A few random thoughts triggered by this morning's commute photo:

Bike commuting beats the heck out of sitting on the freeway in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
The new bars and saddle really changed the character of this bike. I didn't think the below-the-saddle bar height was going to work for me at all, but it's nice having my weight distributed a little more evenly between the bars and saddle.
Speaking of saddles, the Selle An-Atomica beats the heck out of the Brooks it replaced for sheer comfort. BTW - does anyone know the status of S-A with Tom Milton's passing?

Thorn [Flickr]

EcoVelo — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:28:41 PDT

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Vectran Killer

Alan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:33:04 +0000

You're looking at the first foreign object to penetrate my Marathon Supremes' impenetrable Vectran layers in nearly two years of riding. I pull these out of Supremes all the time with no ill effects, but this bad boy made it all the way through to the core. It's such a grand specimen I may have to give it a coat of shellac and mount it in a shadow box. More →

Civia Design

Alan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:39:33 +0000

Burton Avery, the industrial designer at Civia, posted the first in a series of articles about the design process behind their belt drive Bryant. More →

Soma Frame Sale

Alan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:41:05 +0000

Soma has a number of their frames marked down. The sale runs through 7/31. More →

An Unexpected Respite

Alan — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:59:18 +0000

What a treat. The normal high for today's date in our neck of the woods is 95F, but it only reached a mildly pleasant 80F this afternoon. It made for an unexpectedly enjoyable commute home.

BP = Bicycle Power

Alan — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:03:46 +0000

Eric over at Tubulocity has designed a new T-shirt in response to the BP disaster in the Gulf. More →

Sweep

Alan — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:34:51 +0000

Here are a couple of Panda portraits showing my new Civia bars versus my old Nitto North Road bars (both installed on the LHT). As different as these bars look, surprisingly, the fore/aft grip positions are nearly identical. The wrist angles are different though; the Nitto is at 70 degrees, while the Civia is at 50 degrees. More →

Thumbies [Flickr]

EcoVelo — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:13:23 PDT

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Paul Thumbies

Alan — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:09:34 +0000

Regulars who read this blog know I'm a long time fan of bar-end shifters set to friction mode. I've been using bar-ends for over 25 years and I still find them to be the most intuitive and comfortable shifters available (for me). The only drawback to bar-ends is that they only work on a certain, limited set of handlebars that have the proper inner diameter and enough sweep to point the shifters toward the rear of the bike. This eliminates a good 50% of the available bars, some of which I've been dying to try out.

My second favorite shifters after bar-ends are old-school mountain-bike-style thumb shifters. High quality thumb shifters are pretty much a thing of the past, but a super alternative are Thumbies from Paul Component Engineering. Thumbies are cool little shifter mounts that convert bar-end shifters to old-style thumb shifters. They're available in models to fit Shimano, Campy, and SRAM shifters, they're beautifully machined, and they truly are a joy to use. The icing on the cake is that Thumbies open up access to many of those other handlebars that don't accept bar-ends. More →

History of Brompton Film

Alan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:57:43 +0000

A new film chronicling the history of the Brompton folding bike company is due out on August 2nd. More →

His & Hers Step-Throughs

Alan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 03:13:22 +0000

When Michael was little, she always wondered why "boys" bikes had the high bar since they were the ones who had something to damage. Makes sense to me. More →

Cycle Superhighway Videos on Good

Alan — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:01:44 +0000

Good Magazine collected a few videos of the new London Cycle Superhighways.

1 Girl + 2 Wheels

Alan — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:23:44 +0000

Our friends Rick & Erin are bicycle advocates who organize the popular Tweed Rides here in Sacramento. Erin recently started a blog chronicling her experiences as a woman living car-free. As you'll see when you visit her site, Erin is an excellent writer and photographer who is not afraid to tackle difficult topics. More →

Ruminations on the Ubiquitous Transpo Bike

Alan — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:08:14 +0000

I do a lot of bus riding as part of my commute. To stave off boredom, I scout bicycles and keep a rough tally in my head of how many and what type of bikes I see during my trip. Around where I live, the #1 type of bike being used for transportation is the generic sub-$500, hard-tail, suspension-fork mountain bike. The Trek 820 shown above is a typical example, though I see similar bikes from all the major brands. These may not be ideal bikes for how they're being used, and they're certainly not glamorous, but they're pretty tough, they're reasonably comfortable, and the price is right. Most that I see still have knobby tires installed, and a good number seem to be ill-fitting. I suspect a simple tire swap, along with some assistance from a local bike shop to dial in the fit, would dramatically improve the ride experience for many of the people on these bikes. More →

A Lesson Re-Learned

Alan — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:39:19 +0000

As transportational bicyclists, it’s easy to forget that we’re also exercising, sometimes to fairly high levels, over long periods, and with little to no recovery time. Back in the summer of 2008, I made the mistake of riding nearly every day for 4 months straight, the result of which was a bad case of tendonitis in my left knee and a 3-month stint off the bike to nurse the injury. The knee eventually healed, but more importantly, I learned a lesson: when those little aches and pains from riding everyday start up, it’s important to take a rest break to let the body heal before they turn into something major. More →

Still Life

Alan — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:18:30 +0000

An estimated 3 million people (1 million on bikes!) attended a 37-mile closure of Germany's high-speed autobahn network this past weekend. The event, appropriately titled "Still Life", was a celebration of the Ruhr region being chosen as a "European Capital of Culture" by the European Union. More →

Spokes: Are Flats Related to Heat?

Alan — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:40:39 +0000

In yesterday's New York Times "Spokes", J. David Goodman asked if heat is the culprit behind the higher number of flats bike shops see during the summer. The theory is that higher temperatures raise the air pressure within bike tires, increasing the likelihood of flats. More →

A Bar Fight

Alan — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:53:10 +0000

As I mentioned in a prior post, Civia recently sent me a box of handlebars to play around with and evaluate. They sent 5 total in various shapes and sizes.

Upon opening the box, the 50 degree Aldrich immediately caught my eye. You can't see it very well in the above photo, but it has a backward sweep and zero rise that reminds me somewhat of the handlebars you see on old French city bikes (but with a little less sweep). More →

Gallery: Sheilia & Terry’s Yuba Mundo V2 Deluxe

Alan — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:39:14 +0000

Gallery photos of Sheilia & Terry's Yuba Mundo V2 Deluxe. More →

Rivendell Headtube [Flickr]

EcoVelo — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:14:13 PDT

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