EvilV

Any thoughts on Schwalbe City Jet for Strida 5


I'm going to replace the tyres on my Strida copy and was wondering about these ->

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/M...?ModelID=24630

Apart from anything else, it ain't that helpful that there are two very different sizes of 16" tyres around and that few of the sellers advertise the ISO rim sizes.

regfman

another of my tales of woe:

I have an electric air compressor in the garage that I bought to keep my car tires inflated, rather than paying to use the pumps at the gas stations. I'm old enough that I remember when the pump was free, and I decided that I'd rather pay $80 for my own pump than be paying $0.25 every so often to fill my tires

I got lazy recently and rather than use my hand pump to pump up my low tires on my fake strida I decided to use the electric pump, and I didn't bother to turn down the regulator valve on the pump since I figured it's probably not very accurate anyway. Well I blew up the tire because I couldn't release the value quickly enough when the tire was inflating.

So I went to the shop that I mentioned on another thread and the only tire they had was the Schwalbe City Jet so i bought it. The tires that came on the bike were 16 x 1.75. The City Jet tire is a 16 x 1.95. It fits on the rim but the fenders don't fit over the tire. It is a much larger tire than the original one. The bike store is allowing me to bring the tire back since I haven't ridden on it and they are ordering another Schwalbe that is 16 x 1.75. Actually they are ordering two of them as i figure I might as well have two good tires that I can inflate more than the cheap ones that came on my fake Strida. --- Plus I bought a floor pump with a gauge on it and I won't be using the electric compressor for bikes anymore.

EvilV

Wow - am I glad I asked that question.

Sorry to hear of your problem.

LOL - the reason I am replacing my tyre is almost the same. It is marked 35psi max, but being an optimist and liking efficient transport, I just pumped them to 65psi.... IDIOT!!!

Of course the rear one has developed a bump now. The front is fine, but it takes no load hardly so it hasn't had such a hard life.

So - I need to stick to that 1.75 then. Any idea which schwalbe tyre? I'm not tied to that make, it just looked like a great offer at £9.99 including postage.

BruceMetras

I'm running Maxxis Hookworms 16x1.95 .. note they are rated at 110psi... don't know if the rims will take that though.. I run 50psi and that seems fine.. very rugged looking tire .. should be for BMX stunts ... fenders will clear by adjusting them, or perhaps slotting the mounts.. I didn't have to slot mine..

EvilV

Thanks Bruce. I'll see if I can find some on the web in the UK.

EDIT:

I'm only getting US offers on google.

BruceMetras

Keep at it, there has got to be a knock-off of it in the UK.. ahaha... here's mine sitting in the rain (something that it's been doing a lot of lately).. I find that it is pretty darn good in the wet stuff .. brakes remain excellent.. speeds remain low for obvious gearing reasons.. handles dirt and gravel roads well enough with the bigger tires and I could care less if the drivetrain components are getting soaked or muddy.. even though it's raining, dog still needs to get run.

regfman

That tire looks about the same size as the City Jet but my experience was that it seemed too close. You apparently got your 1.95 to fit. I did play around with adjusting it on the slotting. Maybe the City Jet is a bit larger, or more likely I didn't take enough time tweaking it.

EvilV

Was it actually rubbing the fender?

regfman

Yes. The fender was a bit wobbly. I would pull on it a bit and open up some clearance in one spot and it would be touching somewhere else. It was that close.

EvilV

I'll take a look at how much 'meat' there is on the fender mounting. If there is enough, it would probably be easy to enlarge the slot so that the thing could be mounted higher. I'm also googling for hookworms in that size.

Maybe Cyclistjohn or Chop can advise on tyres available in the UK. They have a lot of Strida experience.

SesameCrunch

Glad to see your SLO is being put to good use.

Did you do anything with the bottom bracket, or is it still original?

BruceMetras

Funny, some guy that hangs around the GG Bridge parking lot in a long trenchcoat seems to be flogging these things to unknowing louts. haha



The plastic bottom bracket is obviously a huge weak link in the SLO.. I did heli-coil mine with an 8x1.25mm heli-coil and it is solid for now and has undergone multiple belt tensioning sessions as I went around messing with things to mess with, and, doesn't lose tension for the time being .. I'll probably want to order up an aluminum BB before the hybrid-plastic one disintegrates under me..

Did your Strida sell on CL?

SesameCrunch

Heli-coil, eh? Gotta remember that one.

No, no takers on the real Strida. I think the market for triangle shaped folders is totally overtaken by the clones. Don't think anybody wants to pay Strida prices any more. Good thing I got a discount on mine, heh heh. No regrets, though. I still love that bike.... (Come to think of it, I love all my bikes. Look where I keep my Moulton nowadays. BTW, notice the nice rack? )





Sorry for the thread hijack, EvilV.

Now, back to our regular scheduled programming...

BruceMetras

Crunchie!! that bike looks so .. so British... just gorgeous.. wife must love it in front of the fireplace... sorry to continue the hijack Evil, but.... how did you ever manage to let that beauty go (?!?!?!?)

EvilV

I can always buy another if I want too.... He keeps putting up these pictures to make me nostalgic.

I wasn't riding it after an injury I got last winter and I kept looking at it and thinking, that's too much money for an ornament. It lived in my house too. Talk about a spoiled bike (*).


By the way, with all the ribbing you've been giving me about being Mr Knockoff - I didn't know that you had an SLO. I must say, it looks pretty neat in those tyres. I like the colour too. Yours seems to be from the same stable as mine (Yonkiang wot not & etc). It has the reflective stripe down the front frame member. Are the insides of your hex bolts gently rusting? Mine have a thin film of rust discolouration inside the hex recesses. No big deal, but not well plated fastening hardware. I see you kept the original pedals. Mine went in the can on the second day and I put on some spare non-folding ones for now. I can swap them out with my MKS folders from the Merc if I want to take it somewhere which requires ultra-compact folding.



(*) spoiled in the sense of an over-indulged child - I'm not commenting adversely on Crunchy's minor alterations which are very nice.

cyclistjohn

Very unhelpful, yes. Many sites don't give enough info' on dimensions.

I fitted a City Jet 54 * 305 (16 * 1.95) to the front of my Strida 3 about a year ago, & it's now on the front of my recumbent. It was fine, but as I had no luck fitting a big apple to the back (at least with a reasonable pressure) I didn't try it on the back.

Interestingly Chop! reported he has fitted big apples ok, so perhaps the rear wheel clearance to belt is greater on the 5? Of course I don't know how exact the copies are in that area, so maybe buy just 1 & try it?

john

EvilV

I think they are dimensionally exact. People are swapping out strida parts. The differences are in the finer points of manufacture and in some instances of materials. Someone I know changed his rear wheel for a strida one after a spoke problem and found the wheel bearings were identical. I had some spokes break as well, but got some new spokes made up and have tried to tension the wheel. None of the spokes were remotely tight enough, so there was a lot of fatigue going on. My amateur wheel building (for amateur read AMATEUR or maybe A M A T E U R) may or may not solve the problem. Having said that, I did manage to tension the Merc rear wheel so that it has lasted about 3000 miles without any more breakages.

On the belt clearance thing, there is a 12 - 13mm clearance between the current tyre and the belt and about 10mm under the mudguard (fender). I'd rather not have to alter the mudguard position because it looks as if I'd have to remove the rear wheel to do it, but there is about another 10mm of adjustment possible. This should make it possible to gain another 20mm in total. To be honest a 16x1.75 tyre is the answer. That's what I will pursue.

EvilV

Right - I ordered through the Strida supply chain.

Kenda 16x1.5 £16.99 plus postage.

I'll make sure not to over pump this one.

BruceMetras

Know full well, all ribbing was always in the context of good natured fun .. and, at no time did I suggest you should have spent $700+ on a real SLO... Mine came into stock after some serious arm-twisting by that GG Bridge parking lot guy... I've always liked the idea of the Strida, but here in the States, just way too much dough for me .. anyway, this GG Bridge guy was up for bartering with bangers, so one SLO was exchanged ... as to the hardware, I replaced any of the bolts that I thought were doing any real work.. pretty cheap hardware to say the least.. also, I think yours is the deluxe, updated SLO.. note my handlebar warning... no idea what it says.. probably something to do with who to contact with warranty complaints..

SesameCrunch

It says the same thing as the sticker on the real Strida - "Warning! When braking, use the rear brakes first."

EvilV

No - I knew it was in fun. No probs - I just meant I had no idea you had one. You probably said, but I missed it. As for warranty, I contacted my seller and asked him about spare parts. He sent me the official Strida URL.

I ordered my new tyre from a bike shop in the Strida supply chain. I know another SLO owner with one exactly like mine and when he snapped a rear spoke he ordered a new Strida wheel from the same shop. It went straight on. Even has identical bearings. The hub is much better made and the wheel is properly tensioned unlike our SLO ones - hence the snapped spokes he and I had.

EvilV

Got the original Strida Kenda tyre today..... What a beast it was to get onto the rim.

The original SLO tyre came on and off in seconds without tools. Fingers only - no problem. This Kenda was about the tightest tyre I ever put on. I had it soaped up - had to. I think I would have torn the bead other wise it was so tight. As I got one side a bit more over the rim, the other side was coming off it. I got 'She Who Must be Obeyed' to help me. She couldn't even hold one side on as I inched the other over the rim, bit by cursing bit. In the end, we did it. She said it put her in mind of giving birth to our three sons - only this was a lot tighter and more of a struggle.

Nice image - or not as the case may be.

BruceMetras

Oh, that's a great image.. thanks for sharing.. haha.. the Maxxis tires went right on.. no drama.... neener neeener!

trueno92

haha damn. did any of you guys use plastic tire levers? they make the job a bit easier, cuz when ur trying to slide on one side of the tire, the lever can hold it in place from always jumping out...

either way, I haven't really experimented with different tire widths. The tires already seem pretty fat, running 1.50's but I am just a bit concerned about when the bike is folded, the tires could come in the way of preventing the magnets from making contact. the magnet axle could be extended, but it could make rolling the bike in folded form, a bit more prone to coming apart.

EvilV

They aren't available here - leastways not advertised on the web. I tried local shop after shop on the phone and as soon as I mentioned the size they just said -'Oh - sorry - no call for anything that size.' To be fair - there are VERY few folders around this city. t is compact enough to ride directly to where you want to be without going multi modal so - not a lot of folders. I couldn't find any on the web either - at least not in the UK.

Yeh I have some nice orange plastic levers. As for the 1.75s and magnetic click and hold. It worked ok, but sometimes I did have to make a VERY purposeful closure to initiate it.