Supercommuter?

[le.voyageur]

Brucey, how is the rear hub holding up? No issues with the axle?
thanks

[LuckyLuke]

Looking good except for the V-brakes!

Hi Samuel,
They've seen better days!
They work fine though.
As an aside, they're quite useful to have in the spares box, if one is partial to V brakes on older frames with narrower brake bosses.
They're the only V brakes I've found that work with bosses as narrow as ~55mm apart, in combination with a particularly slim Kool Stop brake pad.

That's a fine bicycle, there. How do you find the performance of the 90mm hub brake?

Cheers cycle tramp.
So far, in the dry it's been adequate. Not as strong I feel as a well set up front canti or V-brake.
However, as others mentioned upthread, there seems to be a long bedding in period.
Although I been commuting with it since Jan '18. Typically 120-150km per week.
Another factor might be the brake levers. The Surly has Tektro ones that are adjustable. I've set them up as canti-brake cable pull for the front, V-brake cable pull for the rear. They seem a bit spindlier compared to the Shimano Nexus 8 brake levers I've used previously.

I ran another 90mm drum dynohub a 26" rim for a couple of years, then passed that bike onto my brother in law.
It wore a different, fatter tyre (2" Schwalbe Kojak).
In this guise, I recall the brake was stronger and felt on par with a good canti, and nicer modulation than a V-brake.
Perhaps the smaller wheel, maybe the tyre difference explains it.

In the wet, both dynohub wheels brake excellently, in that I don't notice any difference in braking compared to the dry. (I don't brake hard when leaning over in the wet though, I'm referring to upright braking.

I'm ~67kg. Bike ?~15-20kg (not weighed it, total guestimate). Luggage could be up to 15-20kg.

Overall I feel they're really good hubs for commuting bikes and don't have any regrets so far. Not cheap though!

Best wishes,

Luke

[Brucey]

luckyluke, that looks like a very solid build, pretty much bombproof for your needs. My chum is (by and large) somewhat time-poor (and inherently competitive in nature; he cannot bear to be overtaken, even when commuting... ) so he wanted a bike that was not only low-maintenance, but also pretty swift. The resultant concoction reflects that; without mudguards and a rack fitted, the bike would be comparable with many training bikes.

Brucey, how is the rear hub holding up? No issues with the axle?
thanks

None yet, although I have explained that it most likely will eventually break. The life expectancy of these axles seems to be between 10000 miles (eg with a load) and 60000 miles (less strong rider, smaller load). The way things are going I expect my chum to put at least 50000 miles into this bike before it is done so the possibility of breakage is a real issue, that we have discussed recently. Options are;

- replace when it breaks
- replace on a precautionary basis, (maybe at 30000 miles or so)
- use an outrigger bearing to support the freewheel.

I favour the last of these but it will work best/easiest if the sprockets are swapped on the one freewheel body, rather than swapping freewheels wholesale as has been done previously. None of the (correctly fitted) freewheel bodies has worn to date and the SunRace freewheels look to be a good choice in other respects, so it is likely that effort will be put into the outrigger bearing idea before too long. Probably a special tool (that cannot slip) will be made to loosen the sprocket lockring on the SunRace freewheels so that the sprockets can be replaced with similar items. It was (quite rightly) deemed to be a waste of time putting effort into this well ahead of time; he mightn't have got on with the bike, and/or the freewheels might have been no good.

Note that because the axle is 9mm threaded, and the freewheel spline is very deep, this might give the possibility of using a metric bearing with a slightly larger OD for the outrigger (rather than the 3/8" bore, 7/8" OD 'R6' imperial sized one that is more usually employed) which might be a little bit stronger.

cheers

[le.voyageur]

Thanks very informative details as per usual.
I'm asking as I'm about to put one of these hubs into service. I have a spare damaged hub so can use the axle from that should it go pop.
Thanks

[Brucey]

note that this hubshell design has not changed since the days of 5s and compact 6s freewheels, yet it is shipped now spaced for an 8s freewheel, IIRC. A side-effect of this is that the left flange is a loooong way from the wheel centreline and there is basically stuff-all tension in these spokes if the wheel is built normally.

My chum's wheel was built with reduced dish (courtesy of respacing the hub) with DB spokes and yet the NDS spokes still needed threadlock on the nipples in order that they stayed put in service. Lots of people just increase the tension all round but this risks rim (and even hub) failure. The flanges are pretty robust but I have seen a couple of breakages (at ten years plus, mind) which are presumably due to this. Remember that the expected service life is much longer than a 'normal hub/rim combination' so it is best to be careful/conservative with spoke tensions.

cheers

[LuckyLuke]

luckyluke, that looks like a very solid build, pretty much bombproof for your needs. My chum is (by and large) somewhat time-poor (and inherently competitive in nature; he cannot bear to be overtaken, even when commuting... ) so he wanted a bike that was not only low-maintenance, but also pretty swift. The resultant concoction reflects that; without mudguards and a rack fitted, the bike would be comparable with many training bikes.

Me too! Mine seems durable so far but I would like more speed.
I think drops could help, or a lighter weight frame. All without sacrificing comfort and durability of course!

I like do like the look of Sheldon's Nexus Raleigh, & Niggle's Pompino Aldine 11.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/org/raleigh ... exus7.html

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=106007

I think there will be a Mk 5 at some point...

Cheers Brucey for kicking off the Supercommuter thread, & keeping us posted on its progress.

Best wishes,

Luke

[cycle tramp]

note that this hubshell design has not changed since the days of 5s and compact 6s freewheels, yet it is shipped now spaced for an 8s freewheel, IIRC. A side-effect of this is that the left flange is a loooong way from the wheel centreline and there is basically stuff-all tension in these spokes if the wheel is built normally.
cheers

And thank you for the warning about the change to the drum brake up spacing. If i go for another rear drum brake, i'll space it for a 5 speed freewheel in the hope of achieving a more even dish.

[mig]

are those SKS mudguards? showing any signs of rot yet?

[Brucey]

are those SKS mudguards? showing any signs of rot yet?

oh yes, plenty of that. So far about 1/3 of the rivets have decayed and fallen out (despite a previous coating of waxoyl, that hasn't been renewed as I originally proposed) and there is a fair amount of white furriness where there should be an aluminium sandwich layer. The mudguards were from the 'old' bike anyway and my chum is happy to use pop rivets etc on them as required until they break completely.

In point of fact I think that the rot in these mudguards could be at least delayed if a layer of rubber was sandwiched between the bracket and the inside of the mudguard.

cheers

[Greystoke]

Is there a thread relating to adding outrigger bearings to screw on freewheels?

[rjb]

Is there a thread relating to adding outrigger bearings to screw on freewheels?

Heres my original post. viewtopic.php?f=5&t=61819&hilit=Suzue

[Greystoke]

Brill, thanks

[Brucey]

note that the SA hub has a 9mm axle (cf the suzue's 3/8" one) so you can/should use a different bearing. A 9227 bearing (9mm ID, 22mm OD, 7mm width) should do the trick, but if the freewheel opening is already 22.2mm, it might be slack fit.

An outrigger bearing that fits a suzue hub (3/8" x 7/8" x9/32") is from a different (pre metric) series, so doesn't have a conventional number designation of the usual modern type. 'R6' is the usual designator for this bearing.

chees

[Greystoke]

i'll measure it all up beforehand, thanks for all the info

[JakobW]

(reminded of this thread again by a reference elsewhere)

Any updates, Brucey? I think this is one of my favourite threads/bikes on this board. Does the bike live outside? I've had a quick skim of the beginning of the thread and couldn't find the answer.