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 3×9 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.

After riding a number of 8-speed and 9-speed IGH-equipped bikes for the past two years, I’ve found they cover my needs for city riding quite well as long as the overall range is sufficiently low. And on my bikes with double and triple cranks, I’ve found I spend nearly 100% of the time on a chainring in the 40-42 tooth range. This has me thinking that a 1×9 drivetrain with a single 42 tooth ring up front and a 11-34 cassette in the rear may be a perfect set-up for the type of utility riding that I do on a daily basis.

Consider the following:

• The gear combos I use 99% of the time on my derailleur bike: 42 x 11/34 (700c)
• The gear inches for that range: 33.4″ – 103.1″
• The gear/cadence/speed relationship in the highest gear: 42×11 @ 80 rpm = 24.5 mph
• The gear/cadence/speed relationship in the lowest gear: 42×34 @ 60 rpm = 6 mph

On a city bike to be used for commuting or running errands, I rarely top 20 mph, and I certainly have no need to spin out past 80 rpm at 25 mph, even on a downhill; beyond that I just coast.

On the low end, I find 33” (6 mph at 60 rpm) plenty low for loads up to 60-70 lbs on moderate hills, the typical max I experience. Of course, on a cargo bike in mountainous terrain, where the loads are greater and the hills are longer and steeper, lower gears are a must.

I’d say that I’m going to give a 1×9 drivetrain a try, but the fact is, I’ve effectively been using a 1×9 drivetrain for a number of years. You only have to look at my crank to see what I mean; the outer ring was replaced with a chainguard long ago, and the inner ring has zero wear on it. I do plan on replacing the triple with a single crank, if for no other reason than to make it official.

All calculations were made using the late Sheldon Brown’s excellent Gear Calculator.

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

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

1. Bike commuting beats the heck out of sitting on the freeway in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
2. 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.
3. 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?
4. The Pass & Stow porteur rack with matching Freight Baggage Rack Bag make a super front catch-all carrier.
5. I realized the other day that I’ve probably shifted to the granny ring on this bike all of 3 times over the past two years, and then only to test a shifter. With that in mind, I have in the works to turn this into a 1×9 drivetrain. More on this later.
6. At the right of the photo is an intersection where one of our bike trails meets one of our bike lanes. Notice the stop sign and the generous width of the the bike lanes going in either direction perpendicular to the path. The same type of on-street lanes connect with the off-street path on the other end as well. It’s not a bad system.
7. That Arkel Bug is a tough bag. It’s seen a ton of abuse and it looks like new.
8. Surly needs to put kickstand plates on their LHTs.
9. The Canon G10 is a sweet little on-bike camera.
10. The best thing in this photo is the little highlight on the top tube.

Have a super day and a safe commute!

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.

The wimpy racing tires on our little fixie were attacked by a handful of these same (but smaller) thorns and every single one penetrated the tubes. It goes without saying that the tubes were toast. It’s official: I hate wimpy racing tires (you would too if you were the designated flat fixer in a family of five).

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

Interesting!

View the full article →

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

Soma →

A Pleasant Day, A Pleasant Surprise

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.

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

Well said, Eric! The shirts can be ordered online for $20.

Tubulocity →

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 (aka sweep) are different though; the Nitto is at 70 degrees, while the Civia is at 50 degrees. While the Civia wrist angle provides more leverage and a feeling of quicker, more secure steering, the 70-degree angle of the Nitto is more casual and relaxed. The Nitto has a couple of centimeters of rise which also contributes to the relaxed feeling. I haven’t yet decided which I prefer…

Civia Aldrich – 50 Degrees

Nitto North Road – 70 Degrees

For those of you who are riding bars other than drops, how much sweep do you prefer?

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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.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ll be testing a bunch of handlebars over the next couple of months. The first set are the 50 degree Aldrich bars from Civia (see above). Next in line are a set of Nitto Promenade porteur bars. Neither of these bars accept bar-end shifters, so the Thumbies will be getting a good workout and earning their keep.

Paul Component Engineering →

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

A trailer of the documentary can be viewed on the Brompton website. The DVD will be available through Brompton dealers.

View the trailer →

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. Perhaps it’s time to officially declare the step-through “gender-neutral” or even “man-friendly”.

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

Good →

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. Have a look, and if you like what you see, consider adding her RSS feed. I’m looking forward to following her daily updates as the site grows over the coming months.

1 Girl + 2 Wheels →

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.

While I’m always happy to see anyone on a bike, and these mountain-bikes-being-used-as-commuters seem to be working fairly well for a surprising number of people, it would sure be great if there was a more road-worthy alternative that was widely available in this price range. I’m imagining a simple TIG-welded steel bike with a rigid fork, upright geometry, roadster bars, cushy tires, single chainring up front, 7-speed cassette in back, wide saddle, metal fenders, and folding wire panniers. If they can build a 21-speed, suspended mountain bike for under $500, it seems like someone should be able to build my fantasy city bike and sell it for under $500 as well. Linus is doing something along these lines (see below), though they’ve chosen to go with a 3-speed IGH which might be a tough sell to non-bikies who have come to expect at least 21 gears. The $64 question is whether a bike like my 7-speed could go up against a 21-speed mountain bike on the sales floor of the typical neighborhood bike shop or big box store (I’m somewhat doubtful).

I’ve argued many times for adjusting our thinking regarding bike pricing, and I still feel that as a society we undervalue bicycles. I don’t know how many times I’ve talked to people who balked at the price of a $1000 bicycle while not even blinking an eye at the price of a $20,000 automobile. And while we can argue for a change in perspective on bike pricing until we’re blue in the face, that’s not going to change the fact that for the foreseeable future, an overwhelming majority of the bikes on the road will continue to be from the low end of the price range. It would be great to see more bikes in this price range designed specifically for the commuter/transport bicyclist.

Recovery is a term used in exercise parlance to describe the process of taking a break from training to allow the body to rebuild tissues torn down during exercise. From Wikipedia:

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.

For various reasons, all unrelated to recovery, I was off the bike most of this week. Prior to this unplanned break, I had been riding nearly every day for a fairly long stretch. Yesterday, after being off the bike for the fourth day in a row, I noticed something; I was suddenly pain free. Pretty much all of my little aches and sore spots were gone. Prior to this epiphany, I wasn’t consciously aware of being in pain, but in retrospect, I was experiencing chronic, low grade soreness and discomfort resulting from riding many days in a row without a sustained break. How quickly we forget those hard-earned lessons!

Somehow I feel as if I dodged a bullet here. My aches, pains, and general fatigue could have very easily turned into a more serious injury if not for this week’s serendipitous break. The lesson re-learned is that our bodies don’t know the difference between riding a bike for training or riding a bike for transportation. Either way, we need to occasionally take a break to heal up and fully recharge our batteries.

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. Approximately 22,000 tables were set up, which has to qualify the event as the world’s largest picnic. It must have been quite a sight, seeing such a long stretch of high-speed roadway filled with pedestrians and bicyclists.

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.

Personally, I think heat is definitely not the culprit. If anything, higher pressure would lead to fewer flats by reducing the chances for pinch flats (of course, the probability of having a blowout increases with high pressure, but we’re talking flats, not catastrophic blowouts). I think it’s explained by the fact that more people are on their bikes during the summer, and that there is more debris on the road during the dry season (rain and wind help clear away debris fall through spring).

What’s your take?

Spokes on Flats →

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).

Getting set up for this bit of experimentation required ditching my cork grips and replacing them with clamp-on ODIs for easy installation and removal. None of the Civia bars take bar-end shifters, so I also had to order up a set of Paul Thumbies which are currently making the long trip from Chico in a brown truck (hence the drooping shifters in the photo). And finally, since most of these bars have less rise than the North Roads I’ve been running the past two years, I swapped the Brooks B67 saddle for a narrower Selle An-Atomica Titanico.

I plan on trying each of the bars for at least a few weeks. It’ll be interesting to see if any of them displace my old favorite North Roads (I’ll let you know how it turns out).

The Yuba Mundo V2 Deluxe was a build-up by Joe Bike of Portland. The only original parts are the frame and rack. The V2 comes with a bolt on rack while the current V3 is welded to the frame. The components were selected by Joe Bike and the only things I’ve added are pedals (Welgo B-18s) and a rear cushion I made from fabric purchased locally. My wife, Sheilia, rode over once to a friend’s house which prompted me to make the cushion. This is a very versatile bike besides just being fun to ride. I’ve bungie corded plastic bins to the rack and hauled old rusted bike frames to the recycler. Brought home a filing cabinet from a garage sale and realized I need to get a two legged kickstand. I found the Fat Franks at 30-psi makes it a excellent beach crusier, but even at their maxium 60-psi they still provide a comfortable ride.

Mundo Deluxe component list:

• frame and rack: Yuba Mundo
• headset: Cane Creek
• fork: Surly Big Dummy
• front brake: Avid BB7 Mt with 203mm rotor
• rear brake: Avid Single Digit 5
• front derailleur: SR
• rear derailleur: SRAM X3
• shifters: SRAM X5 8-spd twist shift
• seatpost: Thompson Elite
• saddle: Brooks Champion Flyer
• crankset: Shimano M442 square-tapered 175mm
• rings: 44-32-22
• pedals: Welgo B-18
• hubs: Shimano Deore
• rims: Sun Rims Rhyno Lite
• tires: Schwalbe Fat Franks 26 X 2.25
• fenders: Planet Bike Cascadia

—Sheilia & Terry