Posts Tagged ‘commuting’

I’ve been using my Forte Single Speed Conversion Kit (www.performancebike.com) for about 9 months now. It is still in reasonably good shape and functions. I can’t say that I’m extremely satisfied with it though. Here are my reasons:

1. The tolerance between the bolt and and the tensioner arm is loose and doesn’t get better with use. Therefore the pulley sits on the chain at an odd angle.
2. There is a cage around the pulley to keep the chain from coming off of the pulley. The axle bolt for the pulley comes loose frequently and alloys the cage to rotate and hit the chain. You have to stop and tighten the axle bolt. Sucks!
3. I thought that since I was going single speed in the back there’s no use for a front derailleur so I removed mine — mistake. Without the front derailleur, curb hops and off-roading sometimes sends my chain to the bottom bracket or my pedal spindle.
4. If your hub body is anything other than steel, the kit is not a good idea. You only put one cog on the back and the cog’s interface with the hub body is very small. Thus, with my aluminum hub body, the cog ate half-way through the hub-body splines — not good if your attached to your hub (mine is 12 years old with roughly 10,000 miles on it). I had to put on an old cassette to spread the load.
5. The spring tension isn’t great or adjustable. So, if your chain happens to be a bit on the long side and taking one more link out makes it too short, your chain may just skip over your cog.

It’s great to be free of a derailleur and all of its problems but the conversion kit needs some design iterations.

Overall Rating: 2 Broken Down Cars

I’m not your typical bike commuter, if there is actually such a thing. I unfortunately do not live close enough to work to make my commute door to door. Instead, I drive part way to a local mall and climb out of the valley it is in for a nice little 700 feet of climbing in just under 8 miles one way. Until this year, the same bike I raced in crits and road races was the same I used for my commutes. I don’t have fenders, nor any of the commuter-specific gear. I wear my team kits/gear, and take my hilly commutes as way to force training into an otherwise hectic and busy day, finding sprint points on the rolling hills of Raleigh, North Carolina.

But for me, bike commuting has a lot more value than simply the health and daily training benefits. Obviously, it’s a great way to burn less fuel and save some wear and tear on your vehicle. But even that is a secondary perk for me. The days I bike to and from work are just a little better than those in my car. Cycling into the office is a completely refreshing and almost cleansing way for me to start and end the day. It clears the mind a bit and washes the stresses and annoyances away for the day.

Every road and mountain biker alike will recognize how routes look different by bike versus by a four-wheeled vehicle. I bike some of the same roads I drive in on, but you get to see things from a different perspective – partially because you’re moving at a slower pace (usually, but not always) and are at a different height, but being in the open air of a pedal-powered transport also allows you to literally smell the roses, notice homes, landscapes and some really scenic sunrises and sunsets. You notice and experience things that you’re totally oblivious to enclosed in your car.

While bike commuting isn’t feasible for everyone, I really think everyone should at least try to give it a shot once. Granted, some are too far from home to do a complete route to and from work, but there are plenty of park and ride lots and safe public parking to leave a vehicle behind, like I do. Bike commuting is different than your group rides with its own unique goal — getting from here to there, and then back again. Everyone is different, but for me, the combination of sights, sounds and smells coupled with the physical aspects of starting and ending the work day spinning on my road bikes is a completely rewarding daily ritual.

A sidewall failure of my Sweetskins MTB tire today reminded me of a temporary fix I once read about and actually used once. When you tear the casing of a tire, you can be seriously disabled. You’ve probably blown your tube and replacing the tube won’t fix the tear. A temporary solution you can use is to place some sort of paper currency, preferably a small value bill, between the tube and the location of the tear in the tire. You can then pump up the tire and the bill will keep the tube from protruding from the tire hopefully long enough for you to arrive at your final destination. If you’re like most people, you probably carry a cell phone and can call the wifey or a beer-drinking buddy to come and get you, but why involve an undesirable vehicle when you don’t have to. Besides, it would be more fun to impress your buddies with your ingenuity and adventurousness by fixing the tire with the dollar trick (hopefully with your buddy’s dollar).

I admit I did not use this trick today. Conditions were very wet and cold and getting another flat on affected tire was not unlikely. When I got the flat, I was only about a half mile from work so I cyclocrossed it the rest of the way. It’s good to know that I can still run that far. Then, I caught a ride home with a buddy who lives a few blocks away. I missed an opportunity to re-confirm my dollar trick. Even I am prone to weakness sometimes.

When I first came to Memphis one and a half years ago, I was determined to continue biking to work or, since this was the big city, take the bus to work. I was told by people at work, and I quote, “You ain’t ridin’ your bike around here,” and, “You don’t want to ride the bus.” After last year’s experience riding the bus in the winter, I found they were right. You don’t want to ride the bus.

I think it’s funny that people said I couldn’t do either. I along with a long-time Memphian friend of mine have long ago proven them wrong. It’s not because they said it, it’s more because who said it. The quotes I gave above didn’t actually come from only two people, they’re an amalgam of quotes from numerous people. What I find funny about both quotes is that none of the people who said them have actually tried to do either, ride the bus or ride their bike to work. I guess people just like to give an opinion whether they know anything or not.

I have expressed my views on the biking environment of Memphis previously on my website. I don’t paint the doom and gloom picture that most cycling advocates around Memphis do. Memphis is a pretty good place to ride. My kids (ages 2 and 4) and I bike all over Memphis and we’ve never had a problem. My view on the Memphis buses is not so flattering.

I started taking the bus last winter when it became too dark in the morning and night to ride my bike to work. I was excited. I’m just a small-town kid and although I had taken buses in places around the country and in several other countries, I had never taken a city bus on my own. After much internet research I was able to find my route. The morning route started a half block from my house and dropped me off in front of my work. The evening route started 10 minutes walk from work and dropped me off a half block from my home. A one-way trip took an hour and ten minutes to cover the 8 miles. Yes, it only takes 35 minutes by bike and 15 by car but hey, I’m doing it for the environment and the future of my kids.

My long-time-Memphian friend joined me on the bus rides. We soon found out how difficult it is to ride the bus in Memphis. Often the buses didn’t come on time or came early which was worse. Since the next bus didn’t come for another 35 or 40 minutes, good luck getting to work on time. The MATA help line wasn’t much help either. The twenty or so times I tried to call, only once did someone answer. My friend complained profusely both to MATA and the Commercial Appeal (see his letter to the editor entitled “Don’t Count on MATA”) to no avail. The bus arrivals continued to be erratic. The day daylight savings came, I was back on the bike.

My buddy and I are professionals and being late to work now and then probably wouldn’t do either or our careers much damage. I really feel for the people who have hourly jobs and no other way to get to work. They can’t show up 30 minutes late, even if infrequently. And I can’t imagine relying on the bus entirely without a car or bicycle. I often sat on the bus and wondered how these people got along using the bus. Maybe they had been riding it so long they didn’t know any better. I lived in Haiti for over two years and the public transportation in most of the major cities was abundant and efficient, although not always comfortable. MATA is neither abundant, efficient nor comfortable.

I don’t know how to fix MATA but as long as gas, cars and insurance are cheap and MATA’s service stinks, they aren’t going to see an increase in ridership. I still have a MATA punch card in my wallet…forget it, I’m going by bike.

If you have read any of my other entries, you know that I entered the commuting world via recreational cycling. I have no special “commuter” bike. I have a mountain bike and I have a road bike.

Neither is perfectly ideal for commuting and I switch between them frequently.

My road bike is a Masi Gran Corsa. I guess you’d call it a race bike although I have never raced it. I bought it used and built it up with a decent set of components. It is nice and light and fast (at least for this engine).

When I ride my Masi, it compels me to ride fast. It is so light and quick that before I know it, I’m hammering up the hills, chasing down other commuters/riders, and doing intervals between stoplights. It’s just the type of bike that is meant to be ridden hard so that is what I do.

There are some downsides to riding a racing style road bike for my everyday commute. First, it does not stand up particularly well to road debris. At first, I had A LOT of flats. Then, I wised up. I bought some kevlar tire strips and some more durable tires. Now, I don’t get flats very frequently (of course, I just jinxed myself by saying that).

Second, the Masi can be a bit harsh. In the name of safety, I take a several back roads to get to work. Some of these are not paved particularly well and my hands sure feel it by the time I hit the smooth roads.

It is not suitable for all conditions. I don’t ride it at all if it is wet out. I’m nervous (probably overly nervous) about the tires slipping out. It also is not very well suited for any non-paved surface.

Lastly, it is not entirely comfortable constantly being in an aggressive race position. It is not a bike that you just “cruise” on.

My mountain bike is a Ventana El Rey full suspension 29er. I love this bike. I’ve gone through my fair share of mountain bikes and I tend to be pretty hard on them. I have broken just about every frame (and more parts than I can remember) I’ve had over the past 7 years and several of them twice so I have gravitated towards a high end bike. I also have come to appreciate the quality of a nice frame outfitted with nice components. Alright…enough justification, I’ll just come out and say it…when it comes to mountain bike, I’m a bike snob. Not that I judge other people by what they ride, but when choosing my bike, I’m willing to lay down some coin.

When it comes to commuting, the mountain bike is definitely not the ideal vehicle. The big knobby tires make it like riding through peanut butter compared to the road bike. It is also considerably heftier than the road bike. The suspension is not 100% efficient so there is some power lost. That being said, if I had to choose only one bike, this is it.

The best thing about it is the versatility. I can ride it any where, any time.

When I ride my road bike, I have to stick to pavement which means that I have to go about 5 miles out of my way to stay on safe roads. On my mountain bike, I can just ride off road. In one of my routes, I will cut through the subdivision across the road before taking a hike-and-bike trail through the park. The problem is that the entrance to the subdivision is about a quarter mile away down a very busy road that has a small shoulder and a 65 mph speed limit. Needless to say, I don’t feel very comfortable riding on this road. I don’t even attempt this route on my road bike. On my mountain bike, it is no problem. I either ride behind a guard rail or I ride about 20 feet off the road in the dirt.

Debris, wet roads, glass are all no problems on my mountain bike. Having a tubeless tire set-up almost avoids all flats and the big knobbies prevent traction issues.

One other thought merits discussion. My mountain bike is expensive. Silly expensive. Embarrassingly expensive. This makes me just a little bit protective of it. I do not leave it unattended without a heavy duty lock. Even then, I will only do it in trusted areas or for short periods of time. When I arrive at work, it comes up to my office with me (so does the road bike).

Basically, I ride my mountain bike on my commute if:
1. I plan to hit trail after work
2. The pavement is wet
3. I just feel like cruising
4. I have no stops to make that require locking it up.

I ride the road bike to work otherwise.

The bottom line is that you can make any bike work for your commute. You don’t need anything special.

As they say…”Run what you brung”.