And God, the Dahon’s wheels are heavy — 2.25kg for the rear rim+hub (includes a Shimano Nexus internal hub) and 1.18kg for the front rim+hub, radially spoked to a dyno-hub. In comparison, my Aeroheat + XTR front wheel weighs 0.640kg.

Once I started riding Le Chacal on my daily commute, instead of my 700mm titanium racing bike, I realized how absurdly low-geared it is. Small wheels plus the stock MTB gearing set on it leaves me with way too many ultra-granny gears (full cadence 90rpm pushes me at normal walking speed!) and not enough high-end to go fast.

So how to fix it? The rear cassette is 11-32. 11 is about the smallest cog you can get without getting into the strange Shimano Capreo transmission system. I don’t want to go down this route because Capreo is hard to find, it uses special tools, and defeats some of the simplicity-of-repair I want for the bike. Then what about replacing the 44-32-22 crankset with bigger rings? Again, turns out these are hard to find and I couldn’t get something big enough to make a difference.

It turns out the best thing to do it just toss the crankset entirely and replace it with a road set, like Shimano Ultegra 53-39 double-ring. That combination loses some of the uselessly-low granny gears and earns me a few higher gears. I’ll still be able to spin them out > 40kmh, but it’s definitely going to be faster.

This chart shows my current gearing (Le Chacal Current) and my race bike gearing (Tri Current) versus the new design (Ultegra 53/39 + 11-34). Main differences: Highest gear at 90rpm cadence gets me close to 40kmh. I sacrifice most of the <10kmh granny gears. And since I have fewer cog combinations, the spacing at higher gears is fairly wide.

This should do, and Ultegra or comparable hardware is easy and inexpensive to get hold of. The problem, however, is that my bike’s cable routing is setup for a MTB-style derailleur — the cable comes from the top of the bike while road bikes expect the cable to come from underneath the bottom bracket. Bad news. What can I do that doesn’t involve welding on new brazeons? Turns out a German company manufacturers a little addon lever that I can bolt on to the derailleur which converts it to a top-pull operation. I don’t know how long it will take to get this piece.

Most signs point to me bringing Le Chacal to Italy in its stock configuration unless by some miracle Speen can airmail me this part in just a few days. And if not, who cares. My high gear still runs at 33kmh, and as proven, this is the max speed I can maintain continuously for an hour, so I can live with it. The bikes are here for leisure anyway, not hard riding. Plus I wonder how my gearing compares to Le Chacal, which Matt will be riding. Fortunately, they are matched pretty well, in fact the Dahon is geared a touch faster.

Anyway, the Dahon Mu XL is re-assembled and it should be ready to ride.

I was shocked to realize how heavy my front wheel is. The wheel + dynamo hub + (light) Schwalbe Marathon Racer tire weights in at 1680 grams. That’s more than the entire rear wheel assembly of Le Chacal! I’m going to have to switch out that wheel for a dyno-free racing wheel. That’s just stupid weight.

Today’s telemetry said I rode 16.51km averaging 26.1km/h max speed 46.2km/h in 37:55. I have a lot of traffic lights along the way, so I am not sure how that accounts in the averages and times.

Before I even got to the root cause of the headset, I discovered a serious problem. I don’t know whether its Dahon manufacturing or Speedmatrix Singapore that’s at fault. Regardless, the person who put together the fork and headset cross-threaded the soft aluminum internal headset. Really bad. When I unscrewed the fitting that secures the steerer tube and headset, the aluminum just stuck to the bolt threads like a bad chalky powder. There’s no gripping power left, and there’s no part to replace — the frame itself is damaged internally.

Anyway, we did a GI Joe fix. Sulaiman found a star-fangled nut, bolt, and a plug and we were able to clamp down the headset in a different way.

The new headset didn’t fix much — the fork still had play in it. Sulaiman’s man fussed with the bike while Sulaiman and I were discussing other stuff. He got rid of the headset play, although the steering feels a bit tight and gravelly. I may try to loosen it a bit to see if I can gain some freedom without getting headset wiggle.

Sulaiman and discussed the possibility the cones themeslves may not be properly aligned. Really what I need to do is tear down the whole headset/fork assembly and figure out what’s happening with these bearings and cones. Only then can I get a comprehensive fix.

It’s just been disgustingly hot and humid here. 90F and raining. Today was particularly appalling. I watched Luke trampolining before I made coffee this morning and after just two minutes ended up sweating through my shirt into a truly sopping mess. I dried out under high power airconditioning in the car. But I had a meeting at 10am at a local coffee shop. I made the mistake of sitting outside. I don’t know what happened to me, but I just soaked through to an unheard of extent. The only thing that didn’t get wet was the outer layer of my cuffs. So, so gross. Thank God I had an extra shirt in the office.

Dahon Bicycle

Dug out my Dahon Mu XL today, to check it out for riding to work tomorrow. I had to adjust the toe-in of the front brakes. They were squealing like harpies. Did a rough job, but they’re fine now. For some reason I cannot find V-Brakes in my Barnett manual. (Unless they are called something else or I didn’t look close enough.) I also suspect that the brake pivots are a bit gummy or need some adjustment too.

Not sure about the headset. Either the headset or the extended handlebars have a slight wobble to them. I think I tightened the headset some, but I can still feel the wobble, so I suspect it’s a mix of headset and handlebars.

While I was screwing with the brake pads I noticed that the front wheel doesn’t coast very well. It definitely doesn’t coast for long w/ the dynamo on. But even off it’s not much better (spins free for < 5 seconds). I don’t know if I just never noticed how much friction there was before, or if the hub needs some maintenance and lube to loosen it up.

I found an old handmade messenger bag in my crate. I chose my smaller one since I don’t have too much stuff to bring tomorrow. I already depot’d several changes of clothes and toiletries in a suitcase at work.

Food

A friend passed me a recipe for rosemary syrup, lemon, and vodka today. Came at a perfect time, as we have extremely sappy, pungent rosemary growing in our front yard and Ling’ mom returned from Moscow at 6am this morning, with two bottles of vodka for me.

Next week he’s bringing over some buffalo steaks from Canada as well as more kielbasa and some dry aged (!!) ribeye.

Luke’s Birthday Party on Sunday

23 kids coming. 10am. Wow. At least it’s at a kids’ gym, not our house.

This photo sequence proves the concept is valid:  I can pack a full bicycle into a 26″x26″x12″ case.

Now the question is implementation.

Clearly the S&S Torque Coupling is key, but it’s almost irrelevant to the project because it is so solid and so dependable.

My question is what should the rest of the bike be.

Absolute simplicity comes in screaming First Place.  That’s why my initial instinct is to have only a single Shimano Nexus internal 8-speed hub in my rear, and just a single chain ring in the front.   The  Nexus works so beautifully on my Dahon that I am delighted if I can incorporate it into another bike.

One question is, “is eight speeds enough?”  I mean it would be nice to have a front derailler.  Of course the packing picture above showed a three-speed chainring.  Then it dawned on me: forget the derailler system.  I can always just move the chain by hand.  So I could reduce the derailler into just have a simple chain tensioner. I lose the ability to shift front gear on the fly, but I probably can live without that capability.  The Nexus gives me enough flexibility  in general around my main chainring.  If I am about to embark on a major epoch change (say I’ve pedalled across a valley, and now about to ascend the hills) I can always hop off and in twenty seconds flip the chain over to the granny chainring.  I have to find out more about chain tensioners, though. I don’t know about that technology, but it clearly should be simpler than a derailler system.

Airborne

Originally uploaded by karavshin.

Still puttering around. Luke’s cold has took a notable turn for the better. He’s not producing 12oz of snot each day, for instance.

Luke keeps asking to go see the (water) puppets again. Ling keeps persistently saying he won’t be interested a second time. I doubt her. So tomorrow she’s going shopping and he and I are going to the puppet theatre again.

Ate at a “well thought of” (a friend told me about it, I didn’t go based on the insipid review) restaurant, Green Tangerine, today. Lot of decorative French fusion. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzz.

It brought me to the realization that, like Steve McQueen, I demand authenticity [in my food]. (McQueen demanded authenticity in his crummy movies). Real stuff, where the focus is more on using best ingredients and preparing it right and with care. Not, like tonight’s example, covering a dull fish tartare (really just a ceviche) with a “latticework of homemade pasta.” The pasta was bone white. They used a fucked-up flour for it, and I think it wasn’t air-dried. That’s why it looked and tasted like soft paste.

*Also, the softshell crab appetizer was shit. They put so much fucking oregano in the marina that it stunk. The last time I ate something so over-herbed was when Megan and I poisoned ourself with a pizza made mostly of sage.

It’s alright, because I found a really good guide to the food scene in Hanoi. It gives excellent citations (so far everything I’ve tried has been good) and it gives current, accurate addresses. I find Hanoi perhaps the easiest city I’ve ever had to navigate. Every single street is clearly marked (unlike Chengdu). Every single building is clearly and consistently numbered (unlike Tokyo). And I bought a small street directory book (instead of a crappy folding tourist map) which is complete and accurate and indexed.

I unfolded my Dahon this evening and took it out for an hour’s spin while Ling put Luke to bed. It was teriffic. The temperature was mid 60s? A temperature that you don’t even notice, yet just cool enough that even at 80% exertion on my bike, I wouldn’t sweat. The driving scene here is insane, so it felt like being a bicycle courier or something, weaving traffic, swerving, wrong-ways on one-ways, etc. Although, it’s actually quite harmless and there is some sort of chaotic organization to the place. Sort of like how they say flocks of birds or fish show complex organization even though they have no leader and they follow only a few simple rules.

 Actions:  

1) Lubricate seat post

2) Replace platform pedals with Shimano SPD clips

3) Rotate brake levers 20-degrees around the handlebars

4) Rotate shifter-grip 20-degrees around handlebars to permit #3.

5) Tighten bolt that links handlebars/headset/fork.

6) Test ride bike with my powerful new pedals

Observations

1) Clicking/popping noises coming out of the transmission when I pedal hard in low gears

2) Rear brake mal-adjusted and rubbing the wheel

3) One rear drop-out has severe scraping marks from the bolt of the axle.

Attempted Solution

1) Turn the adjusment knob on the shifter to make sure the two yellow lines are aligned on the hub, which should mean the hub is in correct tuning, alignment.

 Results

1) Continue failure, problem.

My next ideas?

1) Hub is broken internally?

2)  Twist shifter is somehow internally broken so the indexer doesn’t operate

3) Cable path is screwed up and somehow shifting or unshifting the bike

Narrative…

So I fixated on #1 being the issue after I confirmed #3 was ok, and that the only adjustment on #2 was my loosening/retightening the handlebar clamp.  I even posted notes on some forums about the problem.   Nothing answered me exactly. And I got some things like, “is the chain clean?”  “is the chain loose?” etc.

Anyway, I was disgusted so threw the bike in my trunk so that I could take it to the store after work.  While at work I was thinking, “even if the chain is loose (it was a bit floppy), there is no way there is enough slack for the chain to slip puling around the cogs.”

After work, set off to the store (in the west part of singapore, where I always get lost).  Halfway there I start wondering if maybe the chain driveline is not straight.  That’s the first thing I said to the guy when I arrived at the store.

Then as he’s looking at it, the whole answer falls on top of me like that scene at the end of The Usual Suspects when suddenly (and too late) everything is apparent:

I put on SPD pedal clips, which allows me to pedal with substantially more power.  This pulled the axle so hard that it slipped in the dropouts, scraping them and also pulling the wheel tight against one brake pad.  The noise was the chain coming off the final tooth of the cog, not from internal to the hub. (which I should have known — it was a chain-noise similar to what I’d hear from a derailler).  

If I had thought about this properly, for two minutes, I should have realized this, and could have fixed it in ten minutes, instead of embarassing myself by having to take it to a bike shop.  Ugh. Cursed myself all night for this.  All the clues were there, noticed, and totally ignored.

My prototype messenger bag

Originally uploaded by karavshin.

Messenger bags are cool. In fact, very cool. Doubt me? Check out Freitag’s F-Cutter website as an example.

I’ve always liked them, and now since I ride my bike to work frequently, I have an excuse to use one. I have to carry my books, papers, lunch, coffee thermos, clothes, etc.

There are a lot of web articles on making your own. Some in fact go so far to make the material out of melting plastic shopping bags together. (Don’t get any ideas, Mother)

So I made my first bag a few weeks ago. It’s a simple design. The dimensions are related to the Golden Ratio and it fits me reasonably well. It’s made out of canvas and some lightweight seatbelt-like material I found.

My sewing machine is really capable, so I managed to do all the nice finishing stitches like overlocking the edges so they don’t fray, and using very strong triple-stitches on the seams.

I’m going to build a v1.0 bag next. I like the cloth/canvas look, but I want it waterproof, so I’ll have some sort of vinyl underneath/inside. I want it a bit bigger so that it fills up more of my back and I can fit something as large as A3 paper in it. I want designated paper sleeves in it, too, to separate my papers from the heavier stuff. I have other more interesting ideas to add to the bag, but I’ll save those until I’ve finished them.

Although the bike looks like a cross between a young giraffe and a clown bike, the angles and distances between seat, pedals, and handlebars is very similar to my Trek Liquid 20 mountain bikes. I find it comfortable and endurable, but still quick enough. It feels very solid at low speed splitting traffic and still feels confident on faster descents (25mph?). On the way home tonight I tried to pedal it without hands, something I can do on all my bikes. It seemed to jump away from me, but I think it’s my fault, a combination of: carrying 20lbs in a messenger bag, being tired from a fast sprint home, and not really concentrating. Maybe also because the pedals don’t have clips.

“Pedals don’t have clips?” That sounds like a problem, but surpisingly it’s ok and I’m getting along alright without them. On 20 minute rides, the efficiency losses aren’t that huge anyway. The reason these pedals don’t have clips is that they can fold up. I’m sure I could upgrade or replace them, but I’m satisfied with them. The other accesories on the bike are superior. I’ve got used to the feel of Cane Creek elastometer shock-absorbing seat post. The little dynamo+Hella front light do goo duty at night and, I think, catch a bit of attention. The shifting of the 8-speed hub gearshift is flawless. The range between high/low gears gives good coverage of the shifting spectrum. I love having a hub, rather than derailleuers. Can shift whether I’m moving or not (good for setting up to dash from red-lights) and I never miss a shift. For urban biking, definitely worth the weight tradeoffs. Speakng of weight, this bike weighs about as much as a normal, generic mountain bike. I find that good enough. The V-brakes are sufficient too. Tonight I came to a very hard stop and actually pushed the seat post down the center tube an inch or two. (clearly I hadn’t tightened it quite enough)

How have I been using this bike? Commuting to/from work every day (except last thursday because I was hungover) and riding Little Boy around the neighborhood on the weekend. The commute is great. Oddly, the commute time is the same, whether biking or driving (some perfect storm of distance, traffic density, and signage), and I still have a lot of the thrill of freedom and elements on a bike that I had when I was a kid, so I WANT to ride to work. It’s not like forcing myself to goto a dull gym or to do calisthenics. (As an aside, I think a bike is probably the most wonderful object in the world. It’s beautiful, it’s fun, it’s liberating. )

So, in conclusion: I think the Dahon Mu XL is a wonderful urban commuting bike. I will be interested to see how it functions for me trying to commute from my new house. My current route is something like 5.5km. I do it in 20 minutes (averaging 10mph I guess… I stop at lights). My new place, depending on the route will be between 15 and 20km. So I guess I’m looking at a commute time more like one hour. Hmmm. Well, presumably I’ll go faster then 10km because I’ll have longer stretches of uninterrupted pedaling, but still, that means it’s a struggle to commute both ways (2hours a day pedaling?!).

Today I bought a toy for the boy an I, a Dahon Mu XL folding bicycle, Dahon’s premier city biking folder. Then I bought the boy a Bellelli Clever Duck bicycle seat that cantilevers off the seat stem and allows him to ride with me. I was so excited about it that I wanted to wake him up from his sleep to take him on a ride. Only two things prevented me: 1) angry mother 2) I haven’t got him a helmet yet.

So Saturday we’ll get a helmet for little bugger and then go off for rides… The botanical gardens are nearby, our favorite french bakery, orchard road, etc. etc. It should be terrific fun.

On the ‘practical’ side, I can ride my bike to work now, and if I am not in the mood to ride home, simply fold it up, toss in the taxi, and fetch a ride home.

The bike is really elegant, like my Fujita folding kayak. It’s slightly different than the photo shown. Mine has a parallelogram shock-absorbing seat based on some elastomer plugs. As well, the front wheel hub is a high-efficiency dynamo that powers a tiny Hella light on the front.

I chose this model over others because it has a mostly-closed chain system, simple, strong V-brakes (as opposed to always-problematic disc brakes), and most importantly, a sealed 6-speed hub, instead of deraillers that will get knocked out of alignment easily and smear grease everywhere.