New Frame for the Black Wheelset

Thinking I might build up a new bike with the Alex wheelset, I picked up a 63cm Centurion CompTA frame on Craigslist. It's a well preserved Japanese frame, from '84 I believe, made of double butted #2 Tange chromoly steel. It's a nice silver and charcoal color scheme, which goes well with the black hub, spokes, and rim. It has some Shimano 600 parts on it which I'll put away or sell on eBay.

Strangely, I found out that the axle on the front Alex wheel is too big for the fork.

Duh-oh!

WTF? I'll have to file out the dropouts to allow for the fatty axle. I didn't notice this until I tried to fit it on the Centurion fork. Not knowing whether this was something with the Centurion fork, I tried the wheel on another bike, and it would not fit on it, either.

I hate doing something permanent like enlarging the slots. My bikes tend to go from one incarnation to another, and I don't like making changes that prevent reverting to the former use. I suppose that a slightly larger opening won't hurt anything....

I will post pictures of the new wheel and the new frame ASAP. I'll have to collect some parts now, including a seatpost, seat, some bullhorns, a new stem, a pulley and cable stop (although I might try setting it up with the downtube shifter again), a crankset, and the other bits I'll need to get on the road.

What am I going to do with two 3 speed fixies?

Lash and Cone Adjustments

Red kiosk, aka Jim, sent me an exerpt from somewhere on the internet, written by a guy in the UK who has had some experience with the S3X hub. See the comments from my last post to get up to speed.

I found his comments interesting, and largely agree with his assessment of the Way Things Are. However, I have had no hint of the dangers of "neutrals" in the hub while shifting up or down, or in standing on the pedals. As you may remember, I have been wary of the possibility of the hub slipping out of gear and sending me on an endo while standing. This used to cause me some concern, but so far, the thing has been rock-solid. You do have to be ready for the shifts, and anticipate the changes in pedal speed, for sure. You do not want to downshift too early at high RPMs.

I had to loosen the locknuts on both of my hubs in order to adjust the axles to fit my 126mm frame. The silver hub was set up to 130mm and the black one was 120mm. I had to add or subtract spacers in order to fit. This caused the cones to loosen on both, and I had to readjust them as best I could. I will take Roger's advice, and research the SA adjustment specs. He does say one thing that rather confuses me. He says that after adjustment you want "... some play at the rim..." At the rim? I don't know what that means. I'm looking at lash at the pedal, but maybe he's locking the pedal and measuring the # of degrees the wheel moves in slack?  Any ideas?

I also agree that you want somewhere between 80-90 gear inches in the top gear. I have something in the mid 80s, and would like a bit more. However, my town has massive hills and the bottom gear doesn't quite cut it, as is, so I'll have to live with it. I may even put a bigger cog on, if I can't get fit enough to climb the last leg home without fear of stroking out. The dragginess of the lower gears I have mentioned and Roger mentions seems to be Not a Problem. I have not noticed any significant drag since I've learned how and when to shift.

This hub rocks. I am having a great time riding it, and don't miss my Paramount fixie one bit. If you can, and you think you'd like the flexibility of 3 gears, get one. You won't be sorry. Like the sage said: "If you have to ask why, you'll never understand."

I have been thinking about putting the second wheelset on the Paramount, or maybe my classic Mercian frame? Blasphemy? Who cares?

Thanks for participating in the discussion. I do appreciate it and hope that we can be of help to anyone interested. Any comments are welcome! Don't be shy! Let us know what you think and what you know.

The New Wheel

I don't remember if I mentioned that the first S3X hub I bought was a silver one that needed building into a wheel. After I got it, I found the Bike Island site which had the black wheelset for a great price and free shipping. So in the interests of easy and quick, I got the wheelset and mounted it on the Bianchi. It is the one shown in the pictures. I never did put the front wheel on, not liking the black so much. I figured I'd get around to building the silver wheel eventually, and start using it instead.

I bought spokes and an Open Sport rim from Harris Cyclery, and following the directions for a 36 spoke 3x wheel on Sheldon Brown's wheelbuilding site, laced it up and trued it as best I could. This was my first go at building a wheel, and it went OK. I had to enlist some help in getting the thing round, but but was able to tension and true it laterally on my own.

BTW, building your own wheel is not cheap. You will pay way more for spokes, nipples, hubs, and rims than a company that makes lots of them does. And you end up paying shipping charges, which are not cheap for wheel-sized packages. I paid more for the parts to build this wheel than I paid for the wheelset from Bike Island. It was an interesting experience, but I won't do it again unless I can't buy what I want off the shelf.  

I mounted it and took it out today for the first ride. Interestingly, it has less lash in the hub than the black one. I suppose it's from a later run, and they have been improved some. I think it looks a lot better than the semi-aero, black Alex SUB wheel on my bike.

There was no performance difference that I could tell. It worked great, shifted smoothly, and stayed true. Now I'm wondering what to do with the Alex wheelset. Maybe I'll find another frame somewhere....

Panties in a Knot

Here is a response to my s3x posting on the Google Groups rec.bicycles.tech group:


Congratulations on adopting what may be the least convenient convenience feature in the cycling world. If I'm going to have to pedal every stroke of the way, then what's the benefit compared the much more pure and authentic and less expensive "fixed-foot" walking?  And why would I want changeable gears to make it easier for me, if I already declined the most obvious and effective means of making my ride easier and more efficient?
This is sort of like those stick-on "sandals" that come back aroundevery so often.  Like, what's wrong with either wearing some damn shoes or just going barefoot?
Three-speed hubs with coaster brakes have been available continuously for something on the close order of one hundred years.  They doeverything your new toy does-- only better, more cheaply,  more safely, and more efficiently-- except bite your fingers off.  (Like other fixed gears, the S3X is really good for that.)


Chalo


Wow. 


And my reply:


Chalo,

That's the thing. You don't have to change anything. Ride your bike. Have fun. Don't get your panties in a twist because people do different things or think differently than you. It's funny how some ofthe bike crowd get when you don't have/do/think/want/ EXACTLY what they do. It's also sad how they sneer at other people who have their own ideas. 
I've ridden fixed almost exclusively for years (way before it became the latest hip thing to do for a couple months). I know what it is and I like the simplicity and the purity also. 3 speed coaster brake hubs don't do what this does, though. They freewheel. And they brake when you back-pedal. You know that. What makes you say that's the same thing as a 3 speed fixed hub?
No one will never convince you that this is a good thing. Your prejudice is obvious by your tone and choice of belittling words. This hub allows me to ride my favorite bike on my commute, which includes knee popping climbs and high RPM descents I don't want to suffer through every day with one gear.


My choice, not yours.


Regards,
Vance


I said that some people will revile you for not hating this hub enough!

Shift Cabling Revisited

Well, check out the pics. I bought a couple of bits from Harris Cyclery to make the shift-work more accurate and easier. The long cable housing and jury-rigged clamp were really binding up the shift cable.

I re-did the whole thing, eliminating most of the cable sheath. I added a cable stop at the extreme front end of the toptube, and added a pulley to transition down the seat stays. This was how they did it with the old English 3-speeds, I think. What I will change later is turn the clamps bolt-side down by flipping them over.

It's a bit obtrusive. I would prefer less stuff. Us fixie folks don't like mess. We don't like stuff. We want everything clean and simple. We want..... well....less, I guess.

I hear you. I asked for it. I got involved with... well....  more.

OK. So I have to live with it. But what about mounting the shifter on the seatpost? Or to a rack braze-on on the seatstay? (I don't have one.)  Or some kind of adapter that clamps to the seatstay? Or, borrowing the brake lever idea from the mountain unicycle crowd, a special clamp under the seat? I downshift/upshift maybe 3x on a ride. Reaching down to the seatpost 6 times in 2 hours is not a problem.

Or just go as-is.

Which is what I'll do, for now.

3rd Ride: The Commute

Well, I think I'm going to contradict most of what I said last time. The p-i drag isn't that much. I think what happened is that I was too cautious about downshifting, and would wait too long, then get bogged down by the stiff headwind and the fact that I'd...well...bogged down.

The drag from the planetary gears didn't seem to be anything much today. I rode the reverse commute, up the big climb on Edgewood Rd and on to Canada. The low gear wasn't low enough to be comfortable esp. toward the top where it gets steeper, at least at my current state of condition. Should I slap on a bigger cog?  Or exercise more?  Hmmmm.

Let's leave it as is for now. I am in miserable condition, and need to get stronger. I'm also old, too heavy, stressed out, and probably drink more sake and red wine than is good for me.

But, hey! This is temporary! Spring is here! I'll ride my butt off!

Soon, I'll be seeing that climb as a mere bump in the road.

Downshift for that!!!? Pffffft!

Or not.

But! The bike is working out. The lash-bump was a little annoying today, but I'd never ridden a steep downhill on this hub and there's probably technique that will lessen the bump.

All in all? Very pleased. This is really what I wanted, less the little problems that really aren't any big deal.

P-I Bob/PG-I Drag

I've always liked the term pedal-induced bob (dual suspension bike lingo). I used it as a log-in name for some biking sites back in the day. Vance, aka Pedal-Induced Bob. Well, the subject for today is (in part) planetary gear-induced drag.

A seat-of-the-pants observation (made by me) is, that when shifting down to a lower gear for climbing, the amount of energy it takes to keep turning the pedals = the amount it took before shifting. Or at least, a big part of it. There doesn't seem to be an easing of the strain, at least momentarily (maybe more). It really does help to downshift on the hills, but each time I have made the transition, it feels like I've hit molasses for a few seconds.

Again, I haven't got much experience in the lower gears, but it does take noticeably more energy to turn the pedals than a standard derailleur transmission does when going up a few cogs. This is planetary gear-induced drag. There's a bit of friction happening when the planetaries are engaged.

Second guessing the designers, I think maybe a better method of doing this would have been a direct-drive 2nd gear instead of the top gear. Then, the  machine would be ridden mainly in the mid-range instead of top gear. This would allow for a top gear of high 80 to 90-ish gear inches, and a more moderate low gear. I don't think running in the planetary gears full time would be good, due to the drag and the wear on the system. I don't know if I wish this yet, though. Maybe I'll find I need the low gear it has now in order to do my climbing, and will just live with spinning on the flats and downhill. We'll see.

Speaking of the spinning, this setup is an improvement on the single speed fixed ratio I was running (50/17, 77.6" vs 82.4") . I am able to get a few more MPH out of it on the flats and downhills, which I appreciate, without losing the ability to climb the ordinary stuff.

The other thing I noticed is the weight. This is no lightweight setup. The wheel weighs in the 1500 grams ballpark. However, I only really notice it when lifting it up and down from the roof rack. It is definitely more porky than before.

My gear-inch specs: 82.4, 61.8, 51.5 based on 50T, 170mm crank, 700c wheel, 25mm tire, 16T cog.