Another Furlough Day

I figured that I'd try to get something productive done, during my unpaid day off. In the wake of re-tiring my commuter, I figured I'd perform a bit of maintenance on it. I've put nearly 2600 miles on it, since building it up at the end of May.

So, I overhauled the hubs and adjusted the brakes (first time for the hubs, a pretty regular thing for the brakes). I considered replacing the chain, but got distracted by something else and never got it done. Maybe tomorrow...

As you can see, the 42c tires that I put on the bike are quite a bit smaller than what was on there (click the link in the first paragraph to see the original tires). The new tires do roll a little more easily, but I am still painfully slow on this bike. On the orange Ghetto Bike, I averaged 33 minutes on the ride to work, at my comfortable/brisk pace. On this bike, if I hammer it, I still can't get under 35 minutes. At the same level of effort I felt on the Ghetto Bike, I am closer to 40 minutes on this bike.

The gearing on this bike is a bit lower, and that shows up in slower speeds on the downhills and flats. I had geared it lower to make up for the added weight of the big tires. I don't really want to bump the gearing up, too much, because the studded 26" tires sort of require lower gearing in the snow. The eccentric bottom bracket doesn't offer enough adjustment to allow running a significantly different gear on the two wheelsets unless I re-size the chain when I swap out wheels. And, if I was going to go to that much trouble, I might as well go back to having a separate snow bike.

Oh, well. I think the tires are a good compromise. Hopefully, the wheels will hold up.

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