Folding bike at COSTCO!

Spotted this folding bike yesterday when I was at the COSTCO. This model looks like those old Hummer/Montague folding bikes of yesteryear. Price was $399.99 USD. Bike had 26” wheels and had an impressive looking air rear suspension. It is also equipped with disc brakes and front suspension. I noticed that the rear derailleur was “Altus”. Model of the bike was “Cam Rock”. The box said the company was “Kent Bicycles”, which are not known for providing quality bikes. COSTCO usually stands by their products so perhaps this is different.

Anyway, I got excited to see a folding bike at a well-known retailer like COSTCO.

A Request for Bike Tube Manufactures: Put the Seams Away from the Center!

I've repaired my share of flats in my day and 9 times out of 10, the puncture is at the center of the tube. And, it's usually right next to the joining raised seam of the rubber tube. For repairing a flat, you have to ground down the area around the hole with that mini scraper. With the puncture next to the seam, it makes it harder to grind away most of the raised joining seam. Sometimes I've had unsuccessful flat repairs because I didn't prep (i.e. grind down the seam) the area around the hole enough.

I was wondering why bike tube manufacturers don't put this seam on the sides or at another place where punctures don't usually happen. Or, how about putting the seam on the inside of the tube (and inverted seam tube!)? I don't know if this is even possible with bike tubes but I thought I'd post about my gripe.

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.