Riding the Hub

Well, I went for a ride, and as promised, I am posting my first impressions of the hub in action. Over-all, I am very pleased with it. Unfortunately, there is work to be done on my shifter cabling. The casing kept slipping due to the slipshod method I used to set it up, and I could not shift correctly toward the end of the short ride. I was able to get a good idea how everything works, although I didn't get to try the lowest gear on the steepest hills. I didn't really need to though, with the 16T cog I'm currently using. I'm thinking a 14 would suit me better. We'll see.

I had first set up the shifter on the downtube boss, thinking it the cleanest install with the cable running through the stock cable router at the bottom bracket. This shifted well and was by far the neatest, least visible setup, but I kept kicking the shiftrod with my heel. Crap.

I took that apart, and doing the bar-end thang,  ran a long casing through the toptube loops and clamped it to the seatstay. Nice feature: The barend shifter supplied by SA can be taken off the barend plug and bolted to the downtube boss. Kewl.

That solved the heel strike problem, but it is way more visible and I have to use a different method of clamping or use clamp-on cable stops. There is a little pulley device out there that may allow me to eliminate the bulk of the casing. I think it attaches to the seat clamp bolt, but I don't remember.

Anyway, the ride: There was little difference between the way the bike felt/performed in high gear and riding with a regular fixed wheel. The main difference is that the S3X is not a zero-lash setup. There is about 3/8 of an inch of play in the drivetrain, measured at the pedal. This feels much like a very loose chain does on your regular fixed setup.

It's normal for the S3X, though, and I gather from research that they reduced the lash from the prototype hubs. That must have been excessive, because this is kind of a lot. This was not a surprise, as I had read the warnings. Actually, No Big Deal. It didn't bother me, and I suppose that I will learn to forget about it over time.

Shifting into the lower gears was kewl. It feels WEIRD. It happens fast, and the RPMs go up with kind of a jolt. Got to be careful here. Upshifting was fine.

Shifting seems to accomplish what I'd hoped for. Mostly. I want to be able to ride faster on the flats and downhills without the leg-searing high rpms, and still be able to climb the fairly steep hills of my normal rides. Plus, I want to be able to ride the real steep climbs that I could not manage on the fixed setup. Is it all going to work out as I hoped? Is the S3X the panacea I've been dreaming of?

I doubt it. The realm of fixed gear riding is all about compromises. I'm sure the S3X will require some compromises that will rear their ugly heads in subsequent rides. I'm already thinking that the gear spread is not optimal.

We'll see. Remember what I said about compromises?

My bike is huge (me too, I guess): a 63cm Ishiwata Magny double-butted Bianchi frame and fork, 80s vintage, with a S3X mounted to an Alex 36 spoke SUB rim, a 50T Sugino/170mm crankset, 16T cog, Ultegra front brake, bullhorn bars with an SA barend shifter, SPD clipless pedals, and a 32 hole CXP22 front rim/Shimano hub (until I mount the matching SUB front rim). What's your ride?