Best shoes for casual riding: Leather and cheap.

As I’ve mentioned, I don’t clip in anymore. My short trips and urban riding make it much easier to just wear everyday shoes and platform pedals. That usually means dress shoes for commuting to my subway stop. Or nicer, dress casual shoes for dress-down days.

When I do errand running or long weekend rides, I tend to wear tennis shoes. These shoes most always feature leather uppers. It’s amazing what kind of hits and dings your feet take when biking. When stopped, I tend to rotate my pedals to a 1 to 3 o’clock position. This enables me to pedal off quickly when I have to go. I bring up my pedals with the top of my shoes to get to this position. Jagged or sharp platform pedals can scuff your shoes as you do this. Using shoes make of synthetic materials i.e. running shoes means that they will scuff quickly and could tear. Try to go for leather uppers instead. I prefer them to be white in color. Darker colors tend to heat up quicker in the sun.

I’ve found that leather tennis shoes are really great in cutting out the scuffs and dings. And, there are so many manufacturers of these types of tennis shoes that it’s easy to find them relatively cheap. I think I bought the two shoes in the pix at Marshalls or Ross discount apparel stores. I just picked up the Fila’s at the top for $19.99 (!). Read the label on the inside of the tongue to make sure you get leather uppers. Manufacturers are legally required to put the content of their shoes on the tongue. There are many shoes that look like leather, but in reality are synthetic.

Falling is easier on a folding bike.

Add the above to the benefits of riding a folding bike. This morning I took a tumble over some black ice. I went around this little puddle, which I could see was glazed at the top. Turns out that the radius of ice surrounding the pond was greater than I thought. I went around it and my Brompton fishtailed from under me. I landed on my hands ok. My only scrape was my back heel, which was probably caught under one of pedals. Did not tear any of my clothing and my gloves didn’t even get wet.

I was not going that fast so that probably helped. I’m thinking that the small dimensions of my bike allowed me to straddle over it enough to land on my hands. Also, the small wheels probably keep you closer to the ground. I keep thinking that if I was on my full size bike, it would have been a bad fall. I think I could have ended up on my side with a bruised shoulder or maybe even a broken collarbone.

Anyway, I’m glad I’m ok and will give such puddles plenty of clearance in the future. Be safe out there.

Rolling On The Floor Laughing (ROTFL).

Downtube front fork swap out.

I may have mentioned this in one of my earlier posts that the 2009.5 Downtubes have a different front suspension fork that earlier ones. You can tell because there seems to be less travel in the new fork than the old ones. If you look at some pictures of new DT bikes, the shiny inner part of the fork seems to be a few centimeters shorter than the older ones. I like my bike to have a cushy front fork (i.e. more travel).

After a long search, I found a guy that had a front fork from an old Downtube (Thanks, Joseph Monti!). I paid $35 for his fork shipped. In addition, it’s kinda hard to find compatible forks for Downtube. They have to be 1 1/8” diameter and threaded. And, as I understand it, all threads are not alike. They’re supposed to be standard, but I’ve heard of some threads that do not match. I asked some LBS guys about buying a non-threaded fork and have them “cut” threads for one. They were wary about the threads matching and recommended against this.

Sure, you can buy a new fork on the DT site, but I was afraid I’d get one of the newer lesser suspension forks. After I got it, I immediately compressed it by hand on my floor and was confident it would work because it ‘gave’ way more than the old one. (BTW, Downtube has some fancy suspension adjustable forks on their site, but they are about $1K. That’s more than a new Downtube bike!)

The swap was fairly straightforward since everything matched. It was more time-consuming to move the brakes to the new fork and dial those in. The result: yes, my DT does have more cushiness, but some of the grease inside this replacement fork may have dried up. It could be better. Also, the color of the fork is dark blue so it doesn’t match my red bike (minor negative). I’ll probably have to take the fork apart and relube it. That will be a subject of a future post.

Brompton Assembly Video.

Recorded this snippet from a TV show on how the Brommie is made. Pretty cool stuff.

Brommie Assembly. from jo dimes on Vimeo.

Cateye Vectra Wireless Speedometer Quickie Review

I ran this Cateye Vectra first on the Brompton then on the Downtube. I bought it in February 2009 and just recently it started messing up. I could hear the magnet clicking on every turn of the wheel, but it would not register as a revolution on the main unit. At first I thought it was the battery so I replaced that (both on the main unit and the wheel sensor). That didn’t solve the problem.

I thought maybe that my cell phone was interfering with the signal transmission, but a few rides without my cell proved that theory wrong. I finally figured out that the unit had to be closer to the wheel sensor. The main unit needed to be nearer about an extra three to six inches. I don’t know why this Cateye started putting out a weaker signal all of a sudden.

Needless to say I couldn’t bring the unit closer to the wheel sensor unless I brought the handlebars down considerably. Or, install some 12” wheels on the Downtube, ha-ha.

I can’t recommend this Cateye Vectra. It lasted about 1 year and 8 months. Cateye supposedly makes good quality units. It was pricey, too. MSRP is/was $40 but I paid $35 for it on sale.

Primo Comet Tires on Downtube 8H.

I was getting a little tired of the sluggishness from the Kenda Kwests that came with the Downtube 8H so I picked up some Primo Comet tires. These tires have gotten some good reviews on the Bikeforums community. They are smooth tire with just a very slight line pattern.

Yes, the tires are a big improvement over the Kendas, but I wouldn’t say it is like night and day in terms of change. The tires roll better than the Kendas, but I still detect a little hugging or grippishness (is that a word?) of the road. I think they could be a little nimbler. Another positive for the Primo comets are that they are 100psi tires. This is probably what makes them roll better than the Kendas. The Kendas max out at 60psi.

A caveat is in order, though. I continued the pattern of having a fatter tire in the back vs. the thin one in the front. The Kendas were 20x1.75” rear tire vs. 20x1.5” in the front. The Primos I went with are 1.90” for the rear tire vs. 1.50” for the front.

Why did I do this? I guess I “drank the koolaid” in that Downtube puts a wider tire in the rear for various reasons. I quote from the DT site:

Q Why do you have different front and rear tires on some models?
A This is one of the best features of our bikes. Note the forces on the front wheel are push based, and pull based on the rear. Pushing is "harder" than pulling, hence more energy is wasted up front. Hence we thinned the front tire. Additionally, the seat tube is angled back more weight is distributed towards the rear of the bike. Hence we put a wide rear tire for traction. This configuration is highly efficient, and very safe.

I believe some other bicycle experts also have recommended this, maybe even the late Sheldon Brown, but I’m not 100% sure on that.

Maybe I should have just kept a 1.5” Primo comet in the back (?). In addition, I couldn’t find a 1.75” Primo comet tire for the rear. The next closest size was 1.90” so I went with that. Maybe I installed too fat of a tire.

Another surprise is the weight of these tires vs. the Kendas. I weighed the Primos and the front one weighed 12.5 oz and the rear weighed 20oz. Both of these tires weigh just a little over 32oz, or 2 lbs, together. The Kendas weigh right around 1 lb each. The front Kenda tire was just a smidgen lighter than the rear. Therefore, you’re getting better performing and higher PSI tires for the same weight.

Bottom line: a nice upgrade over the Kenda Kwests, but still could be better. The best rolling tire I have found for a small wheeled bike is the yellow tag Brompton brand stock tires. Those roll very well and are 100psi tires.

Tag: Primo comet tire review.