Three Speeds Again.

I dug the old three speed out of the cellar tonight and took her for a little around the block. Last year I never got her working right and I ma afraid that I might not this year either. I also remember thinking last year that three speeds simply were not enough. I think that i may have spoken too soon. I did not try to tackle and of the bigger hill on my usual route but I did some light climbing and first gear wasn't that bad. I suspect that with a larger rear cog fitted it would be fine for most around-town circumstances. I felt that I was going "more than fast enough" in third gear and I would have had to be peddling a lot faster to have been "spinning". The Kenda Cyclocross tires that I fitted to the bike (a mistaken purchase that turned out serendipitously) proved to be plenty grippy and plush on my all steel bicycle.

Sadly, all is no well. My sprung Brooks saddle that is so much the rage on the internet was found to be rather un-comfortable. I suspect that a few simple adjustments wold rectify this situation. Of a more dire concern is the front wheel. It sat tight and spun true when the bike was on the stand, but on the road it wobbles from side to side in the fork. I understand that thee is suppoed to be a certain amount of "play" in the front wheel of a bicycle like this but the amount of play resulted in an unstable feeling and a tire that rubbed against the fender. Both potentially dangerous situations. I have been lax in the past to spend any dough on this bike,not knowing if I had any real use or interest in it as I never got it quite out the door last year. This year, I think it might be "worth it" to have the hub situation looked into. I suspect that they might need new bearings or something. Methinks that this might be the excuse that I have been looking for to make the Pilgrimage to Harris Cyclery that I have always wanted to make. Maybe I'll run into a "certain someone" while I am there!

Testing, testing

My Ride.


I got the new chain and derailure on the BOP (Big 'Ole Peugeot) last night and got the new tube in and got every thing adjusted. I took her out for a spin this afternoon and I have to say that I love how it rode. Despite the fact that I really, really want this bike to work for me it simply IS too large. It's funny but I have a 60cm Raleigh Marathon that fits me very well, and I have a 54cm PRN-10 that is supposed to be too small for me but is not that bad really. Yet, bumping the frame up just 4cm is over the top. It worked well if it weren't for the looong reach to the bars it would be.....still too big for me. Saddle is slammed and the darn thing makes me feel like a10 year old who stole his fathers whip.

My Skilz.

A win is a win right? Well, until your next loss any way and when you loose two in a row, at home, it shakes your confidence and tonight my confidence is shook! Monday night, hen I had game I took the front tire off the Triumph, flipped it around so it was rolling the right way, changes the tube,re-installed the fender so that it didn't rub and called it a day. The chain, I noticed was prety loose, so I left it on the Park Tools Repair Stand to await final adjustment. Which was today. The day that I found out that one of the nuts that hold the back wheel on is stripped or something. Hum, I wonder, too late, if the nuts are different sizes from one side of the wheel to the next? IDK. I'm going to try to get another nut. I hope that they are not some Raleigh-specific spec. that is un-replaceable!

Well, since THAT didn't work out I thought that I would adjust the handle bars on the PRN-10. I got a socket in there and loosened the pinch-bolt, rotated the bars to the desired position and then could NOT get the bolt to tighten. The thing just spin in it's little housing as I try to tighten the nut. There is no slot for a screwdriver or other tool. I tried to hold it still with my thumb but, clearly, that didn't work. So, I am at a loss as how to tighten what should be a fool-proof bolt to adjust! Two losses in a row. I quit and went upstairs to play with the baby.

I heart my babysitter

She came over and watched The Bruce for an hour so that I could go ride. Since she was "going out of her way" I felt compelled to cycle for exercise and not just to be wandering around on a bike. The too-small-for-me-anyway Peugeot is OOS with disconnected break levers and the Precious Sorrento is OOS because I rode it into the ground and now I can't make it shift right. That left the Raleigh Marathon. So out she came. I gotta tell ya, I like this bike. I got a chance to adjust some things over the winter but haven't ridden it since my Father In Law gave it to me. I really like this bike. It's smooth riding and shifting. The riding position is sporty enough to get me out of the wind but relaxed enough that I did not feel at all uncomfortable. The bars have a larger diameter than the Peugeot's bars do and I liked the bend of them better and the cushynes of the old-school foam bar-wraps was very comfortable. The reach to the brake levers is much, much less than on the PRN. Of course, it did not feel as fast or as "lively" as the Peugeot. It doesn't speak french. It is WAY easier to get up hills with it than with the Triumph three speed though. It's a shame that I get so emotionally attached to these things. This is really a great, all around bike but it's an irreplaceable heirloom and if any thing ever happened to it...... I am supposed to be picking up a nice UO-8 in a week or two. I am hoping that that bike will combine the best features of the two bikes for me in a package that is designed and supposed to be RIDDEN not cherished or admired.

THREE SPEEDS!

Well, two actually. I can't get it to shift into first gear but what the hell, it's operational! I have to tell you, I really, really like the ride. I like the way that you sit and the feel of the steel frame. It was cold and the streets were not clear. I purposely tried to ride over some of those icy patches, just to see how the bike would handle. I was impressed. This was only the second time since I was a child that I rode a bicycle in the winter, but I DID try to ride an off-road motorcycle on snowy, icy trails a few years ago. THAT went amazingly poorly. In the mean time I have focused on the similarity between motorcycles and bicycles and those similarities have formed my apprehensions about riding two wheeled vehicles in wintery conditions. It turns out that the differences are more important and that the bicycle is much easier to control and stable on packed snow and ice. It was only a short ride because of the bicycle's shifting problems but it was nice to be out and very enjoyable to be riding my Triumph three speed

I picked this little number up right before Cristmas but did not get a chance to really look at her till tonight. She's a Triumph 3-speed, all black and made in Nottingham! Very nice. It came without fenders and that makes me just a little sad. It DID come with a nice looking OEM Brooks sprung saddle and another, non-branded leather springer. I got the hub's little chain un-buggered and pumped up the tires and adjusted the shifter and took her out for a ride. OW! I need to adjust the chain tighter. I didn't want to make it too tight but in the process I left it slack enough that the chain jumped forward on the sprocket and I smashed my knee. I'm not sure that I have the shifters adjusted just right, even following the Sheldon Brown article ( http://www.sheldonbrown.com/sturmey-archer.html ). I need to make a few final adjustments. get some fenders for her and a nice rack, and voila! I can tell you rigth now, just from riding it up and down the hills in my neighborhood, three speeds with a stock rear sprocket is NOT GROVY on the hills.

UPDATE: The little chain thingie was NOT un-buggered. IT was still very much buggered! It looked like this:
Now, I could find no pictures on the internet of the right side of a Sturmey Archer hub installed on a bike so...here it is. Installed incorrectly. That little chain thingie needs to be sticking out of the END of the knurled metal part. Trust me: it works SO MUCH better that way! Once again, here is the chain from an internally geared Sturmey Archer Hub incorrectly installed.