I've made a change to the Trek 560 I recently built.
As you may recall from earlier posts, I'd equipped the bike with a Velosteel rear coaster brake hub. Well, I swapped it for a single speed rear hub.
I might use the Velosteel hub on another bike, perhaps an old mixte or mountain bike. I hadn't quite gotten used to its idiosyncrasies They include the "dead" pedal stroke of half a pedal revolution I experienced when I started pedaling again after braking and that when I backpedaled, it seemed that the hub had to find its "sweet spot" before the brake engaged. (Other coaster brakes I've ridden would stop the bike as soon as I backpedaled.) I suppose that if I rode the hub more (I put about 200 miles on it.) I'd get used to it.
But even if I were to grow accustomed to, and like, riding with the hub, I don't think I would have wanted to keep it on the Trek--assuming, of course, I decide to keep the Trek. It's a good bike, but a little bit too large for me. Plus, for a winter/beater bike, I think I'd rather have something that can accept wider tires.
One thing you might have noticed is that some of the spokes are silver and some are black.
I didn't plan it that way: It just happened that I had 28 silver and 12 black spokes in the length I needed, and the wheel needed 36 spokes. I used all of the black spokes and 24 of the silver ones. So, every third spoke is black.
Somehow I think that might actually be a selling point!
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I teach.
One thing I like about my morning commute is that it offers me some time in solitude and reflection. Perhaps that seems paradoxical, as the ride is focused on getting to a particular place by a particular time for the purpose of working with and for other people.
But I am fortunate in that, at least for now, I can avoid the morning rush hour. I leave a bit later than most people and have a couple of routes that take me away from heavily-trafficked thoroughfares. And at this time of year, the weather is neither too hot not too cold for my liking. Plus, pedalling seems to open up my senses so that, for a moment, one of the many millions of trees that are changing,or have changed. color and the park benches on either side of it seem like the most beautiful things.
I'm not getting rich, or anything like it. But, at least, I don't have to contend with the traffic on the LIE or GW, or start my day with all of those angry, depressed and indifferent people you see on the 6:42 from Ronkonkoma!
Now, this looks like a tough bike ride:
Actually, the image is part of an announcement for Park Avenue Bike's annual Halloween Cyclo-Cross Race.
The Rochester shop that sponsors the race describes the course as "fast, fun and challenging" and the event as "a ghoulish recipe for fun". Mountain bikes are allowed, as long as they don't have bar-ends.
Seeing that photo is almost a temptation to go to Rochester for the ride. If it's any indication of what the race is like, I'll lose a bunch of weight very quickly!
