owenfinn

The Yuba Mundo and a hot Bird in Chinatown this afternoon.

BruceMetras

No ads when you become a paying member (small fee) of the forum and get a 'star' after your name..

I run Kojaks also on my Birdy.. very nice tire .. feels as fast as the earlier narrower Stelvios did and faster than the Marathon Racers I have on a second bike.. a medium cage derailleur probably won't be satisfactory if you fold your bike often.. it won't lever enough chain on the fold and the chain will most likely be on the ground.. you did good! that Peugeot is a keeper ...

Sangetsu

Today I picked up a new XT derailleur for my bike. I ended up getting the medium cage version as the long-cage SLX derailleur I am using is scraping the ground when I lean the bike over to the right. The SLX was a freebie, so no loss in tossing it out. Hopefully the XT has more clearance.

Tomorrow's weather report is calling for possible snow, so I can stay inside and tinker with the bike. I took a 30km ride to the seaside park the other day, and the bike rode beautifully, I'm hoping for better weather next weekend.

sjdude

I too use a long cage shadow XT rear-D, but without any ground clearance issues.

One thing i noticed was that the long cage XT rear-D is longer than the long cage Capreo rear-D that it replaced.

More Birdy Pics to keep things going.

Sangetsu

I couldn't get the long-cage SLX derailleur to shift properly with the 10 speed XT sprocket, and the derailleur kept scraping the ground when I made right hand turns. Yesterday I installed a new XT derailleur which works wonderfully well. I got a medium-cage derailleur which cured the scraping problem, and seems to work fine with the big 36 tooth cog.

The big earthquake hit while I was installing the cable on the derailleur, and then I was running all over my apartment trying to catch things as they fell while my apartment building was swaying about one meter back and forth.

I went for a 30km ride today along Tokyo Bay, it was eerily quiet.

jur

Wow...

Mario Sol

not hijacking the thread...anybody owns a disc birdy?

Christoffer

Hello! I don't own a birdy ... Yet . I plan to buy one (Alfine disc) in the near future.. And I have one question to you all: is it easy to put 20" tires and wheels on a recent/new birdy ? And can I put all sorts of 20" or is there a max.width due to the wheel/front fork clearance?

(After a lot of searches here and g..gle, I understand that older birdies require some hardware changes but I can't find any info concerning the actual models)
THANKS!

Clownbike

Glad to see some life left on this thread. Sad that the Birdy has become a bit of an orphan in the states. Have been running a medium cage SRAM X-9 derailleur on my 2006ish Silver with a 34t XTR cassete and trigger shifter with no problems. Very precise.

Getting ready to start the upgrades on the Gobike, and will toss up some pics comparing it to the Birdy when it gets going.

Clownbike

If you want disc brakes on a Birdy, you would have to purchase one with them already installed, or have 'braze-ons' added to mount the calipers. Discs do help facilitate changing wheel sizes, as rim brakes would need to be modified to work with the new size.

Christoffer

Thanks. Ok then I'll stick to the disc-included version

tablet

Hi,
I own a 9sp birdy europe and i was looking to replace the front and rear elastomer suspension. I've been told that it's usual to find oil suspensions for birdys made in taiwan and japan retailers. Does anyone have experience with these?. Since I live in Europe , do you know any online shop where I can buy any of those and send it to me where i live?

On the other hand I wrote to R&M to inquire about the possibility of a belt driven birdy, but they say they hadn't found a relieble way to do that. I suppose they're smarter than anyone to say that, but any ideas about it?

Great thread and great photos!

1 guy 1 bike

https://www.thecyclopedia.com/page7/index.html no experience but good things have been said about these, cyclopedia should be able to ship to europe without any problems.

Clownbike

Here's another source - https://www.ysroad.net/original/skyshock/index.html. No personal experience, but there used to be a poster that recommended them highly. Unfortunately it's hard to find Japanese shops willing to sell outside the country, or even respond to English emails. It's been awhile since I tried, so maybe worth a shot.

Transformer

Every Birdy I've seen incorporates a spring chain tensioner. The chains also flex laterally when the bikes are folded. I can see these elements rendering a belt drive impossible to retrofit.

tablet

Now I've been folding my bike I see what you say. Alas it's an inherent design issue. A real pity :-(

jur

Hang on though - there was a Birdy with a belt in production at one stage.

Diode100

Yup, Birdy Green, with IHG, but it was withdrawn, because it was troublesome I read somewhere. Limited market availablity, USA and Germany. Don't know how they kept tension on the belt.

tablet

As I read the response R&M gave to me, they say didn't found a reliable way to use a flexible belt. Maybe that birdy geen had some sort of flexible belt, which ,I guess, wasn't too reliable or strong enough when cycling, so they discarded it.

2cycle2

Just like to add that I have a picture of a belt driven Birdy. It looks as though they had a cunning cog which reduced flex around the small rear pulley - presumably improving drive efficiency whilst helping control the belt when folding. I'll try to post a picture if I can master the process (I'm new to this) and if anyone is still interested . . .

PS re: Diode100 - what does IHG mean?

Diode100

IHG = Internal Hub Gear.

Transformer

I'm still interested in seeing the belt-drive birdy since I'm the idiot who said it was impossible.

2cycle2

Thanks Diode - obvious now. Here possibly is the picture:
Did that work?

2cycle2

And for Transformer here is another one. This is earlier - from 1997 - note that this does not have the cunning cog but a more complex main drive wheel - presumably to enable tension adjustments. Anyone know what GLAD stands for? And whilst in the swing, also a pic showing what happens to the belt on the cunning cog bike when folded.

Transformer

Thanks! I'm happy to stand corrected (and to stick with the chain-drive on my Frog).