Thought I might as well post some UK swift pics as well. I've also been off the bike for a few months (for a few reasons) so I thought it might be a good idea to reconfigure things to better suit the kind of riding I'm doing (or will be) for the foreseeable future.
I work from home / stay at home dad so I'm not commuting anymore. I put the kid in the trailer to take her to nursery a couple times a week, and to take her to playgrounds and other fun stuff along the local canal path. It rains a lot here, and the muddy path was not fun on Kojaks, especially while pulling a trailer
. The chain was taking a beating, as were the rims from all the dirty riding. Seemed like I was spending more time maintaining the bike than riding it. Certainly, it was eating into my (precious) time when I could be out in riding on my own in the lovely Scottish countryside on Sunday mornings.
I've turned the bike into a "Smoother Xootr". I've gotten rid of the front derailleur, Kojaks, V-brakes, and bullhorn handlebars. I've installed a SA X-RD8(w) internal gear hub with a hub brake laced to the rims that came with the bike. Up front, is a SA X-FD drum brake hub. The handlebars are no-name north-road style bars mounted on a 175mm 17deg stem. I normally have the stem angled downwards, this places the handlebars *just* below the saddle.
3quartfrnt.jpg side.jpg
If I flip the stem, the bike is ideal for pootling along, but I've noticed that without weight over the front wheel the steering gets really light while climbing. It's great for going slow along the path. The position feels less serious, which encourages me to take it easy (which is what you should do on MUP while pulling a two year old in a trailer). It's only 4 minutes to flip the stem around, so no reason not to change things as the mood suits.
pootlemode.jpg
As I mentioned in another post, I've fit Big Apples. There's been some discussion lately about clearance with these tires. As you can see, plenty of room up front, much less so in the rear.
bafrontclr.jpg BArearclearance.jpg
I've only put about 50 miles on the bike like this. So far, I'm very happy with it. the BA's really quiet down the road buzz & make the rough sections of the canal path bearable. The fat contact patch is soooo much nicer on the slippery stuff. No complaints about the stopping power of the drums, and it's nice that wet doesn't affect them. I've got a 39 tooth chain-ring and 25 tooth cog on the hub. This gives a gear - inch range from the high 20's in first to the mid 90's in 8th. Low enough for me to get the trailer up the hills I need to, but with enough top end to still have some fun bombing down hills when I'm on my own. The one thing that has surprised me is how noisy the hub is. It doesn't bother me, but it is louder than I imagined it would be. The bike is definitely a bit heavier like this, but it doesn't seem to be affecting my travel times by much. My trip into town (which I would describe as having rolling hills) would take around 30 minutes before, and it takes about 30 minutes now. I hope the reliability of the hub won't be an issue like it has for others on the forums. So far, so good.
The last bit I need to change is the saddle. I'm leaning at getting a Brooks, but keep flip - flopping bewteen the b-17 and flyer. Any opinions?
If folks are interested, I can report back with more impressions after I've logged a 1000 miles or so.