It’s been very dry round right here, our bodies of water however:
The draw back of the dryness has been plenty of brush fires:
However the upside is that path circumstances are optimum:
Currently my most popular trail-meandering bike has been the Roaduno:
[Photo was taken a week or two ago. Note how the color has drained from the landscape since then.]
Since receiving it I’ve made varied modifications, probably the most important of which have been the swap to drop bars and the unlocking of the interior chainring to attain a two-speed setup, and I’ve been extraordinarily happy. Nonetheless, a part of the enjoyable of a unusual bike like that is experimenting with it, and I’d been pondering it will be good to have one thing slightly greater than that 38-tooth ring, so I made a decision to impress everyone who’s already offended by the entire “dinglespeed” factor and go all the way in which by changing the bike right into a “thringlespeed.”
Clearly I may have achieved thringle-fication by including a 3rd ring to the crank that was already on there, however as a substitute I made a decision to change it for this:
It’s the Suntour “Microdrive” that was on the Softride–or at the very least the drive-side half is. The opposite half appears to be a Sugino:
But when your crank arms aren’t mismatched are you actually don’t sq. taper proper?
I’d say no.
Because of its Micro-ness, along with the 42-tooth outer ring, I’d additionally get a teeny-tiny 20-tooth interior ring, which is significantly smaller than the 26-tooth interior ring on the Silver crank:
It’s a stunning crank in each approach, and a 26-tooth interior ring is lots small, however keep in mind, we’re experimenting right here.
Often after I tinker it winds up being a debacle, however on this case every little thing went easily regardless of my greatest efforts. Thankfully the prevailing backside bracket was a great match, although as you may see there’s not a lot room between that teeny-tiny ring and the underside bracket lug:
In addition to that it was actually only a matter of adjusting the restrict screws on the entrance derailleur, and earlier than lengthy I used to be out driving:
The very first thing I observed was the distinction in each stiffness and Q-factor of the mismatched crank arms:
Simply kidding:
I did actually just like the triple, although. The bike already had a low gear, however now it has a low gear, as little as I may presumably want. The center ring is sufficiently small to get me nearly every little thing else, and the 42-tooth outer ring is an actual enchancment on the flats. And it’s all managed by a easy downtube-mounted toggle swap:
“However what’s the purpose of all this? For those who’re going to show a singlespeed right into a three-speed, why not get an internally-geared hub or one thing?,” it’s possible you’ll be asking.
In fact I perceive that the front-shifting functionality of the Roaduno isn’t for everyone. Nonetheless, the fantastic thing about it’s that, not like an internally-geared hub, for those who do resolve to benefit from it, it you should utilize all that previous crap you’ve already bought mendacity round–shifters, derailleurs, freewheels, fastened hubs, and many others. (And for those who don’t have bins stuffed with that crap you may get a lot of it for subsequent to nothing.) Then for those who get uninterested in it in frontally-geared mode you may shortly take away every little thing and make it a “correct” singlespeed once more. An internally-geared hub is a complete different proposition–clearly they’re nice, however they’re not conducive to spur-of-the-moment tinkering the way in which derailleurs and stuff are. I did all this on a whim earlier than heading out for a trip, which is an enormous a part of what makes the bike enjoyable:
Talking of Rivendell, I see the presale for the lugged model of the Roadini is about to open:
[Photo: Rivendell]
Why should they tempt me so?
