Now that I’ve knocked down the big sources of noise, I can hear the smaller ones. Given the unexplained offset in the derailleur adjustment, it should come as no surprise that I was now contending with derailleur noise.
According to the postal service my Alfine hub has been received by Shimano. According to Shimano they’ll look at it within three to five days. So I should have some sort of resolution soon. Meanwhile I’m back using my old drivetrain, and it sucks.
My precious Alfine hub will soon be at peace with its maker, but I’ve still got some healing to do. My experience with Alfine has been a roller coaster ride that has left me wary of internally geared hubs. Not to mention anxious, moody, and prone to sudden outbursts of sobbing. Combined with my DualDrive and Sturmey-Archer experience I guess you could say that I’m thrice bitten… fourfold shy? I’ve lost count. What follows is my therapy.
The jury is still out on Alfine and to a lesser extent Di2 so I’m pressing on with the experiment. If Alfine proves a bust, here are the options I see.
Now that I’ve seen belt drive in action on a couple of “city bikes” in town, I can’t seem to let this one go. On an upright bike, belt drive is smooth, reliable, light, and silent. On a recumbent it has the potential to solve what for many is their bane: a long, greasy, noisy, unwieldy chain. This post is my attempt at taking a closer look to see what might be preventing the adoption of belt drive for recumbents and, specifically, ‘bent trikes. I’ll discuss the issues I see, many unique to ‘bents. Then I’ll see if I can figure out what it would take to adapt my current trike to belt drive. Continue reading
It’s a fact that a typical ‘bent needs wider and lower gearing than a typical upright bike. Just how much wider and lower is a subjective, sometimes technical, and oft’ debated topic that can make large chunks of time vanish. I’ll try to keep this brief. I use Gear Inches in the following discussion because it is commonly used in trike specifications and it provides a good way to make relative comparisons between drivetrains. Consult a Gear Inch Calculator to see how Gear Inches translate into speed.
Recently I took a trip down to Payson, UT to check out internally geared hubs (IGH). This was a pretty crazy trip, 900 miles and around 12 hours of driving for a couple hours with the folks at Utah Trikes. That says a lot about my expectations for the shop and they didn’t disappoint. Continue reading
I guess anything under the recumbent banner could be considered unconventional but I think I’ll be pushing into particularly rare territory for this build. My goal is a machine that will be equally comfortable on tour or commuting to work; fun to ride, easy to maintain, impervious to weather. Fast, relatively lightweight, simple, at least externally. Here are some of the characteristics I think will get me the closest. Continue reading
A Seasonal Commute 