Looking for a place to post about electrifying my bike
http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLINGbuildingpedelec1.html and new lights
http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLINGbuildingpedelec5.html I came across what appears to be a whole bunch of private message from Dan, Pavel and Jim to me that I've not seen before. Apologies for not replying, gentlemen.
Dan, I'd be delighted to write about hub gearboxes, but it will have to be some other time as after recent events I'm about six months behind with my life, and today the summer started, with good riding weather. And getting me started on cars... I wrote a how-to book for what I thought were hotrodders, but it was given to young engineers as a bible by GM, and is now a bible to the ultralight crowd, so perhaps I didn't know as much about hotrodders as I thought!
Pavel, the comfortable handlebars on my Kranich are in order Humpert Tour (very slightly cranked), which are for some reason the Utopia default handlebar, nothing wrong with them but if you're looking for comfort/ergonomics, you can do better; no-name but most likely Kalloy steel North Road style bars a dealer kept for me after some trendy threw them off his new bike as not exclusive (read expensive) enough...; North Road style bars called Kalloy Uno 092 (check on the n'lock site for the number!) that came in a kit with the n'lock unlocking stem I use for security. The branded Kalloys are different from the unbranded ones, in that the angle of the curves are different, and this in turn encroaches on the straight length of bar available for controls which should be under your hand, no further than finger reach away, compared to the unbranded bar. The difference is so marked that on the unbranded bar I used full length Brooks grips, but on the one supplied by n'lock I have to use a short grip on the Rohloff control side, because otherwise my brakes won't fit.
I'm a big fan of North Road bars. There is nothing more comfortable for those of us who sit upright. Good North Road bars put your hands and wrists at the optimum angle. When I went ton-up (behind an adapted truck) I used North Road bars on a Gazelle Switch stem, which put them down and forward to give me a flat back just for the day, and much more comfortable and controllable than drops they were too.
Jim, thanks for the links. Horrifying, if you have those ring locks on two of your bikes.
Andre Jute
