Category Archives: city cycling

Tired

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While sitting around in my back yard staring off into space and listening to the birds, I suddenly got the urge to turn my Panasonic winter bike upside down to take a look at the bottom bracket and the frame from underneath.  Every now and then, it’s a good idea to get a different perspective on your bike, especially with an older frame, and one such as this that has so many cosmetic challenges.  Once I had the bike upside down, the afternoon lighting suddenly illuminated something I wasn’t actually looking for:  huge sidewall cracks in my 6 year old bullet proof commuter tires.  As I looked more carefully, I also saw that the tread (which still shows no wear) is also separating from the sidewall casing.  Uh oh!

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These are Nimbus Armadillo 26 X 1.5 inch tires, and they are aptly named.  I have never had a flat during the entire time I have used them.  They are not particularly comfortable tires, but the trade-off in commuting reliability has been worth the sacrifice to comfort.  The front tire had fewer sidewall cracks than the rear tire, as one would expect, but I decided not to take any further chances of a blow-out and replace them.

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On hand, the only 26″ tires I had were some Panaracer Pasela folders which are the extras I carry when I am using my Terry on tours or longer rides.  They are 26 x 1.25, so are about  6 mm narrower than the old Nimbus Armadillos.  But, they will have to do for now, and they are perfectly decent tires. I didn’t have any Schrader valved tubes which would fit these narrower tires.  But, it’s really no problem to use Presta valves with Schrader rims.

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While you can purchase special grommets which will adapt a Schrader rim to a Presta valve, I have always just used a boot made from a small piece of rim protector, as shown above.  I’ve never had a problem with this approach.

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While the bike was upside down, I looked at the bottom bracket, the brakes, and the chainstays.  The bike is getting some rust in the area where it experienced some massive chain suck, so I’ll need to file that down and paint the area to keep it protected.  I also like to look at the U-brakes from this perspective.  The straddle cable is very fiddly and difficult to access when the bike is right side up. You can see how narrow the straddle cable has to be to accommodate this design. Otherwise, everything looks good!

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The narrower Pasela tires look a bit odd with the wide Planet Bike fenders, but the ride quality will probably be nicer, and the bike will be faster (fun!).  Meanwhile, I have ordered a set of Compass’ 26 x 1.5 McLure Pass tires.  I look forward to trying them out on this bike.  The tires will be much lighter than the old Armadillos, and should provide for an amazing ride in comparison.  Flat resistance will probably be not as good, but I am hopeful.  I have been using Compass’ 650b Loup Loup Pass tires on my Meral and have been amazed at their comfort and performance – and I’ve had not a single flat on those tires.

Portland Bike Share – 1st Ride on the 1st Day

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2016-07-19 010

With Portland’s typical giddy fanfare for anything bicycle related, the city’s bike share program went live today.  I had tentatively planned on attempting to test ride one of these bikes today, and as it turned out, all of the day’s mishaps led to my first ride on one of these orange monsters.

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I was down at South Waterfront awaiting an annual doctor appointment which went awry.  My physician’s schedule got seriously backed up so after waiting for too long, I had to reschedule and move on to my next appointment.  But, while I was cooling my heels in the waiting room I had time to download the Biketown app on my iPhone and go through the steps to set up an account and review the process of renting the bike, which at first seemed kind of daunting.  Thankfully, the app worked perfectly so that when I exited OHSU to the street level to feast upon the orangeness surrounding me, it was very easy to enter my codes into this solar powered key pad and unlock the bike from the rack.  Unfortunately, the bike I unlocked turned out to be unrideable.

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The bike’s quick release for the seat post binder bolt would not hold position because the nut on the bolt could not be turned to tighten it.  Lacking any tools, and knowing that I was not willing to damage (further) my knees with a too low seat height, I put the bike back into its rack and forfeited my $2.50 rental fee.  Then, I checked the seatpost QR’s on all the other bikes in the rack and found that they similarly could not be tightened adequately to hold the seatpost, until I finally spotted my ride – an orange monster parked askew with the seat post jacked way up.

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So, I entered my codes again – a very easy process that involves an account number plus a PIN, unlocked the bike, slung the lock into its holder on the left side, tossed my brief case into the front basket (which is very narrow), and started to get underway.  During this process, several cyclists approached me and asked about the steps involved in renting these bikes and how the system works.  I did my best to educate them with the tiny bit of knowledge in my head at the time.

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Then I mounted the 45 lb. machine, which involves pushing your leg above the lowered top tube rather than throwing a leg over and which actually seems harder to do.  Immediately I noticed the terrible handling – a result of ill conceived frame geometry for a bike which is designed to carry its weight on the front.  The bike wobbled around as I got underway, and I felt like a novice cyclist rather than the experienced rider that I am.  Once moving, I was okay, but anytime I put my foot down the bad geometry kicked in and the bike weaved from side to side. But, as with any bike, you can adapt to strange handling characteristics with enough saddle time.  I’m not sure I really want any more saddle time on these bikes, though.  My 1950 Raleigh Sports Tourist, which also weighs 45 lbs is an absolute gem in comparison, being well balanced, easy to handle, and with an amazingly comfortable, if upright, riding position.

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These bikes, provided by Social Bicycles, aka SoBi, are equipped with a shaft drive and an internal Nexus 8 speed hub.  Having not ridden a shaft drive before, I was curious if I would notice any particular differences as compared to a chain drive.  And, I hadn’t tested the Shimano 8 speed internal hub, so I was also curious how this component would perform.  Since I needed to head over the to east side of Portland, that meant taking the Tilikum Crossing‘s mild but long hill in my work clothes.  These bikes have no bottle cage, so even if I had a water bottle, it would not be readily accessible.  Riding east over the bridge, I was passed by ALL cyclists, and a few called out to ask me how I liked the ride.

I found the shaft drive to feel fairly normal, but the Nexus hub seemed to have a lot of inefficiency in the lower gears.  I only engaged the 4th and 3rd gears of the hub, but those gears felt so compromised that I ended up stomping up the hill in a higher gear so I could avoid the sluggish feeling that the hub offered in the lower gears.

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The Kenda tires were fine and seemed to absorb some road shock, but the High Nelly upright position made my back hurt right away.  The drum brakes required a lot of force to stop the bike quickly, making me think “whoa, Nelly!”.  At least there would be no danger of doing an endo on one of these machines.

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By the time I got to the east side of Portland, I couldn’t wait to scan the horizon for the first orangeness I could spot.  I ditched this bike at a Bikeshare rack along the Max line, and continued the rest of my journey via public transportation, having spent a total of $3.60 to rent the bike, and now spending another $2.50 to continue on my journey.  While on the bus, I sent an email to customer support to alert them to the seatpost QR issue.  A few hours later I received a response letting me know that if you encounter any mechanical issue with a bike, put it back in the rack and hit the “repair” button on the keypad and the bike will be taken out of service until the issue is resolved.

Who are these bikes for?  Well, maybe Nike can answer that question.  Portland is unique in that its Bike Share program is not funded with taxpayer dollars, but rather relies on the millions received from corporate sponsors.

Possibly, these bikes could be useful for inner city users who need a quick jaunt to areas not covered by public transportation.  The apps provided by SoBi worked extremely well for me, so the barriers to use involve not technology, but lack of access to technology.  And that will be my final criticism for this program.  Who is it helping?  Those who don’t really need help at all.

Riding the Old Peugeot 650b Mixte

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Peugeot 650b Mixte

I have put off making some final adjustments to this vintage Peugeot 650b mixte, knowing that I needed to dial in the Jeay brakes and work out the other little bugs that always come up during a frame up build.  But with today’s unnaturally warm weather, I decided to take the bike out into the wiles of Portland.  Even though this Peugeot is positively a city bike, Portland’s traffic scene and “bike culture” are in no way conducive to safe and leisurely riding on this type of machine.  So, a weekend trip along Springwater corridor and through the Eastbank Esplanade is the most enjoyable way to learn the handling characteristics of a new ride such as this.

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I am not sure why it is so tempting to think of a 70 year old bike as clunky and incompetent, but riding this machine today reminded me again how well the cycling industry had developed by the time the Germans occupied France in 1941.

First of all, this is no clunker.  It weighs 28 lbs as pictured (without bag), and that includes the fork mounted dynamo, fenders, and heavy Gauthier leather saddle.  Not bad!  The frame is made with Vitus Rubis tubing, which was used on higher end models in the 30’s and 40’s. The front end had no unpleasant “wobbly” feeling as can exist on some mixte frames, and handling was easy at all speeds.  Maybe the long wheelbase and super slack seat tube angle provide for the comfortable ride – but it is really fun to corner on this bike.  Kind of like riding on a roller coaster.  Whee!

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The Simplex Tour de France rear derailleur works perfectly out on the road, with accuracy, and no trimming.  Of course, there are only 3 gears here.  And what big gears they are, ranging from 54 to 75 gear inches.  I have to wonder about these giant gears on older machines that I encounter.  Were people stronger then?  Did they simply walk up the hills?  Is France totally flat?  Ha.  I can lower the gearing a bit by going up to 24 teeth, which is the maximum that this derailleur can handle.  Or maybe I’ll just tough it out for now.

Simplex Tour de France

It is very difficult to find builder information for bikes manufactured in France during the occupation years.  Based on some reading, I have learned that the cycling industry in France actually experienced a “bike boom” because petrol was unavailable to the populace, so driving was no longer really an option for most people.  And, there is a lot of shame surrounding those businesses who benefited financially during those terrible times, even though they may have been among the resistance on a moral and intellectual level.  The disruptions to normal business practices during the Nazi occupation, as well as this shame and possibly the need for secrecy has meant that it is nearly impossible to determine what exactly was going on in some of the cycling shops in France during the time.  I have found it interesting that there were sudden innovations (Simplex derailleurs) and new companies emerging (Mafac) right after France was liberated.  I suspect that research and innovation was in fact occurring during the occupation years, but went on, undocumented.  (Jan Heine has an interesting blog post about this topic here.)

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Correctly dating this Peugeot has been challenging.  Peugeot catalogs during the late 30’s and 1940’s cannot be found.  There is very little information about what was happening at the Peugeot factory during the occupation, with the implication that they actually shut down.  Some websites claim that the factory did shut down during the occupation, but I think they may be referencing only the automobile factory, as by this time the bicycle factory had been separated out as a distinct division, located in Beaulieu (Mandeure), France.  So, my best guess based on its original components and on the frame characteristics is that this bike dates to sometime in the late 30’s through the 1940’s.

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I was worried that the wood grips, which are very comfortable, would fly off the handlebars during vigorous climbing, as they are connected to the bar only with a conical cork insert located inside the grips, which I tapped into the bars with a mallet.  They held fine.  The Gauthier ladies leather saddle was shockingly comfortable – no changes were needed there.  I was also concerned that while the brake levers are quite lovely, the shape would inhibit emergency braking, with their slight arc in the middle restricting the movement.  As it turned out, braking was quite noisy!  This alerted others to my presence.  I had installed Kool Stop orange pads on the front, but had left the old funky Mafac pads as is on the rear.  Big mistake!  This bike needs Kool Stops front and rear, plus a complete cleaning and sanding of the rims to eliminate braking squeal, which I have now done.

Vintage Peugeot

Peugeot 650b resting at home

Thank you to Shawn at Adventurepdx, for this nice old Carradice bag which goes perfectly on this Peugeot.  I don’t use saddlebags much, and was shocked just how much you can jam into this thing.  It is the perfect addition to the bike and adds all the utility needed to make this a useful commuter and weekend rider.