Mick F wrote:Great!
A couple of techy questions:
Where's the front mech?
How does the wheel-lock affect the chain? Surely you can't turn the front wheel through 90 degrees?
There is no front mech... bear with me!
The stock bike comes with a single front ring, which is okay if you can handle just the gear range of a cassette (11-32 is a shade under 300%). There's no problem 'crossing gears' because the chainline is so long (and exotic!)
The demo I borrowed for a week had a 60t chainring, for 35-100". I already felt the top end too limiting for fast runs - hence the 70t. This gives a 120" top gear which allows me to pedal up over 40mph using my "mad fixed wheel spinning skills"...
Then I thought, I can hardly attempt LEJoG on a bike with a 40" granny gear. I can happily get around Edinburgh on that but not out of Cornwall!
So, in the end I ordered a second chainwheel (52t which will get me down to 28.5") and then it seemed silly to physically swap them when I realised they can both be on at the same time...
So far I've barely wanted the small ring, so I'm not sure whether to fit a mech or not. It's the civilised solution but another shifter, cable etc. to look after (it's been hard enough going from one gear to nine!). Plus I'd need to manufacture some sort of extended cage that could cope with a 70t ring... a project for a rainy day perhaps!
As for the wheel lock, you can only turn right about ~30 degrees before you get interference, but it doesn't seem to really happen while riding. I guess you tend to lean more and steer less?
)
