Experiments in Cycling.

So every so often I try to make something happen on a bike that really shouldn't happen. I don't do some crazy trick or jump off a cliff I rebuild something to make it work in a way it wasn't designed for. So my latest experiment was to create a polo bicycle without completely destroying my fixed gear bicycle. I seen it successfully done by others so I figured how hard could it be.

When I bought my wheel set for my fixed gear bike it has 2 different kinds of possibilities for cogs. There is a fixed side for track cogs so you can ride a fixed gear and a freewheel side so you can hook up a freewheel which is different from a cassette (like a geared bike). A freewheel is slightly different as it has the pawls and mechanism all within it so you don't need a hyperglide style hub like you see on a road or mountain bike hub. It's also only designed for one gear. So I now have the option to flip the direction of my wheel and change gears in a matter of minutes. The gearing goes from a 44x16 fixed (74.25 gear inches) and the single speed side has a gearing of 44x22 (54 gear inches). So a nice fairly stout road gearing for riding around town, but a nice easy simple low gearing for rolling back home or playing a round of polo.

Now the first problem I had with arranging this gearing was if I could this gearing on my bike without having to re linking my chain to a different length. So at first the chain lenght was too long, then too short. So I had to either re pick a gearing on the SS or fix side to make it work. I tried something haphazardly and I got a half link and magically I could run both. A chain normally has links that have to be taken out and put back in 2 links at a time, that adds up to 1". A half link allows 2 links to be taken out and 1 link to be placed in its position. These things fix a lot of chain tension problems on a single speed or fixed gear and they are totally awesome. So a difference of 6T, roughly 3/4" of movement in the drop and it just fit like a glove.

Now since I was going to be running a single speed I needed a new brake. I learned that a vintage frame has a weird rear brake mount. I got lucky and placed a vintage look-a-like rear brake on the bike, but the lever I had sucked. I did not know that this was the problem. I tried another rear brake and learned that the newer bikes have different rear brake mounts. This recessed bolt was not long enough to fit through the rear mount. So I had to abandon that brake. I got a tricky double mount brake lever that I could pull both the front and rear brake at the same time. This lever sucked. I got different set of brake levers, some Avid 5 long pull brakes. Turns out they sucked also. I began to do some research and realized taht the problem was not the levers, but the style. There are long and short pull levers and brakes. Most road style brakes are short or normal pull. The levers I have are long pull. If you mix long levers with short pull brakes it turns out you have to pull twice as hard to get the force required from the appropriate brake. So... I am currently waiting on my short pull levers to arrive in the mail and hopefully will resolve this braking issue I've been having.

So after some fucking around hopefully I will have my polo/fixed gear machine under wraps. All my bicycles serve dual purpose. This will just be an addition to the list. I need to order a few more parts but I think once my brakes show up things will get to rolling in the right direction and I will be able to stop on a dime.

I must say though after riding bikes seriously for about 5 years now I am still learning new things all the time. Sheldon Brown is still the man, RIP.