Good to know...as that means I must a 15% stronger cyclist.

:beer:

That would put me at about 27% stronger on my little 349 wheels. I just love blowing by the Litespeeds on my commute to work in the mornings.

I joined a bunch of 50-odd roadies last night on a training ride through the burbs. We were stopped on many occasions by red lights and it was very noticible to me that on green, I would be clipped into my Eggbeaters ready to go while riders in front struggled to clip in their road pedals. As I gained confidence, I decided bugger that, I'll just go past.

So that's what I did. Then another thing became blazingly obvious: The Swift with its small light wheels accelerates MUCH faster than a roadie - on every occasion I was leaving younger strapping guys 20-30m behind while they got up to speed. The Swift gets up to speed almost instantly, it really was remarkable! (Of course those same younger strapping riders would soon overtake indignantly.)

Less stories of you flaying the competition and more stories of how we can put a front derailleur on this bike.

:D

haha theres no better place to ride than the burbs ;)

A common axis must be maintained for the upper and lower segments of the seat tube. Even ostensibly minor deviations from the common axis will stress the seatstays, and as everyone here knows, such repetitive flexion can lead to metal fatigue, microscopic crack propagation, and catastrophic failure.

The naked eye won't tell you if your frame has suffered metal fatigue.

Xootr's increasing the wall thickness of the seat-tube, the seat-stays, and the chain-stays is an improvement; the newer version of the aluminum frame is more robust than the earlier aluminum version; but the seatpost must be very snug in the seat-tube(s) and the quick-releases must also remain tight in order to maintain the common axis and prevent repetitive flexion, the thicker wall notwithstanding.

I would like the rear triangle of the Swift as well as its front fork to be made of cromoly, because I'm still somewhat concerned that the weld connecting seat-stay to seat-tube weakens the 6061-T6 aluminum on the seat-stay in the vicinity of the weld, the so-called "heat-affected zone" or HAZ. Welding causes 6061-T6 aluminum to lose 40% of its strength in the HAZ. Maybe the gauge increase is sufficient to address that issue. Time will tell.

While Xootr is at it: disc tabs, eccentric bottom bracket shell, and vertical dropouts on this cromoly rear triangle, please.

HYPOTHETICAL FELIX CULPA SCENARIO: "Xootr stands by our Swift with a lifetime frame warranty and can replace the original aluminum rear triangle ... or you can upgrade to our CroMo rear triangle, which has disc tabs and an eccentric bottom bracket, should you ever wish to use an internal hub and/or rear disc brake. "

NOTE: Riders who prefer the (somewhat heavier) internal hubs typically do not obsess over bike weight.


http://www.key-to-nonferrous.com/def...Article&NM=154

http://www.esab.ca/ca/en/Education/K...f-the-weld.cfm

http://www.afsa.org.za/welding-corne...ruary-2006.pdf

Regards
T

Front derailleur kit from Xootr
 

I know it is a year after you posted this question, but I just found this thread and Xootr now has a front derailer kit for the Swift.

http://www.xootr.com/xootr/swift/Fro...lleurKit.shtml

Impressive thread; Noteon showed me some pics of his Swift; this is definitely the definitive folder to get.

I didn't know if anyone's seen this fellow's build:

http://www.myspace.com/xootrswift
http://a700.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...07b3d41cfb.jpg

Too late. I got tired of not having a front derailleur after moving to the Bay Area. Now have the Bike Friday.

and yes, I've seen it... :thumb:

The BF packs better in a suitcase anyways.

I was looking at a BMX carbon fork.

Axle to crown dim of 313mm, which I believe is 7mm shorter than the stock Swift fork.

The problem is that the alloy steer tube (offered in 1” or 1 1/8” sizes) length is rather short at 180mm.

I would like to stick with the clean looking alloy tube and clamp solution for the stem riser but apparently it is not recommended to clamp down a 1” steer tube on a threadless headset. Even if you could I’m not sure if there is enough steer tube left to clamp on the riser safely. Using a 1 1/8 steer tube would presumably rule out this method.

And using a threaded headset and 1” steer tube would probably not leave enough steer tube.

Would also need to know how rickybails fitted his bracket for the brake.

All this is new territory for me.

What is it about the Swift?

One wacky idea I had was use a piece of straight gauge 34mm titanium tubing in combination with a mast topper in place of a conventional seatpost. This Woodman topper is available in 33.9, which might be close enough for rock n' roll, but they also do custom diameters.

http://www.woodmancomponents.com/Web...%88%2007:27:25

If I end up getting a Swift I might give it a shot. The other nice thing is I might be able to get an overlong tube and cut it to exact length once I get my saddle height set (it's about 79cm on most bikes) to make sure the post is bracing everything well.

Oh, and the ti would look nice with silver :)

I'd pay good money to see a Capreo that lasted for decades. in my experience, the 9-tooth cog wears super-quickly. sadly I built a custom wheel with a Capreo hub before figuring this out

Hi everyone!

Ok, I know this has all been discussed before, but everything is constantly changing and moving forward and everyone’s experience is increasing.

So, I am looking for a nice set of light and fast 406 wheels and tyres, though would be willing to sacrifice a hundred grams or so per wheel to increase reliability. This is my first small-wheeled bicycle so I have no experience to call on.

Set-up will be a nine-speed derailleur system.

Use will be on all kinds of UK roads including hilly. No off road or dirt use. I tend to ride quite fast so I usually manage to steer clear of potholes and really bad bits of road surface. I am light and lean.

Rim wear will not be an issue because I don’t use the brakes much, seriously, I’m still running a beautiful pair of 20 year old extremely high mileage Mavic MA40’s that still run perfectly true. Blocks and rims are always kept very clean.

The Dahon Kinitex Pro wheelset has been recommended and is available in UK through dahonspares.co.uk for £200 but I noticed that the front wheel is only a 74mm width. Also heard of a few rim failures.

I’m interested in everyone’s (anyone’s) experience. Off the shelf, handbuilt, hubs, rims, spokes, spoke counts, spoke patterns, weight and reliability etc.

What has been your experience? Do you love or hate your wheels?

Thank you for reading.

I think if you choose the right gears you should rarely be in the 9T - just an overdrive when you're powering downhill. If you're in it that much then maybe you need a bigger front ring. In fact you want to avoid needing to stay in the biggest cog too as the chain is more efficient the straighter it is.

I used a problem solver brake nut to provide somewhere to screw in a thick alu plate so that it cleared the fork. I have a couple of aluminum plates that attach either end of the brake mount on the fork. They drop down and I have an alu block with a hole through that lines up with holes in the alu plates. I realise that this is a woeful explaination but not able to provide a photo at the moment, sorry.

I've got those wheels. I love them but cannot recommend them. Mine front rim has just gone after just 7 months of daily commuting (4 miles a day) plus a handful of 2-hour rides. The braking surface hasn't worn down - the rim has started to bulge at the join, so if you brake the bulge catches in calipers - too dangerous to ride. I've broken a couple of spokes on these wheels too, and because there are so few spokes, when one goes the resulting buckle is too much to ride safely on. I would not buy again, but will try to get mine fixed if I can, and keep them for races and occasional rides.

So I'm in the same position as you - looking for a decent pair of wheels. I've done custom before and would do again. I have some 451 Capreo 24H wheels where both (Alex) rims cracked after a year. I would not sacrifice strength for weight again (like the kinetix pro) and think 24h is plenty strong enough for a 20" wheel - never had any broken spokes on these and they never went out of true. I wouldn't buy alex rims again - I had another alex rim break on my on an airnimal wheel.

Another idea I'm considering is getting a pair of wheels from a quality mainstream folder. Kansi wheels seem good, and my friend who has broken many a dahon wheel has had no problems with his kansi wheels. They may be other mainstream folders that come with quality wheels where I can buy the wheels separately as spares. Anyone got any recommendations?

As I have airnimal forks on my swift, I have a choice of 406,451,508 and 520 wheels. I have a lovely urial 520 wheelset I got from Airnimal that rides lovely on the swift. They are currently loaned out to my 10-year old to pimp up her MTB but I can always get them back.

Richard.

I built a 451 wheelset using AmCl road hubs and Sun Ringle Assault SL rims. Front is 16 spoke, rear 21 spoke, each with holes left open. I don't keep records of how many miles, but I have now had them for years without a single problem. I guess somewhere I posted when I made the change so that should show the date. Edit: September 2010

http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t..._bullhorns.jpg

Thank you for such an informative and useful reply.

That definitely rules out the Kinitex Pro’s. Spoke breakage appears to be a real problem and people have been replacing them with stronger spokes but this has been causing cracks around the rim holes.

As I’m currently running the stock wheels with Big Apple tyres there is plenty of room for improvement without going to extremes and your 24h recommendation has been noted. I also noted that Jur is happy with 16 front and 21 rear.

How did it go on Saturday? That must have been good fun indoors and with the crowds watching. I tried to enter but was too late. I would much prefer a rolling start too as my seat tube is shimmed and it can be a bit fiddly getting the post in. I had planned to come and watch but something cropped up at the last minute. It would have been interesting to see a lighter Swift folder.

Please keep us informed if you come across any good deals or useful information.

Michael.

Here's a couple of photos of the bracket. On the photo from the rear you can just see the alu block that sits between the front and back plates. It's a bit extreme - hopeful by now there's a decent fork alternative where folks don't have to do this sort of lash-up. I've also attached the photo of the little hub spacers I had made to fit a 74mm hub (dahon wheels like the kinetix pro) in my 100mm forks.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=294538http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=294539http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=294540

I couldn't go. When I booked it was a 7:30 race only, but then they added in heats earlier in the day and I couldn't make it. In any case with the snow, yesterday was a day to spend with the kids.. We don't get snow that often down here in sussex so we have to make the most of it.

Jur, What does the latest iteration of your Swift weigh in at? When it was first pictured way back on page 3 you claimed an astonishing sub 20 lbs. ( 9k) weight. I have done many many modifications to my Swift and cant get it below 22 -23lbs.
It is heavily modified.... photos to follow. I think the bare frame is pretty heavy for an aluminum frame.

I just weighed mine again... I have since replaced the light Tioga Spyder saddle with a Brooks B17. With that it is dead on 9kg. The Brooks is about 0.4kg heavier than the Spyder so in that photo it must have been sub-9kg.

I do wish the Swift was a bit lighter, either stock or with an easy upgrade. When I first got it I made it my primary bike and racked up 1000 miles quite quickly but since then I've gotten a little tired of it, mostly because of the weight and the small wheels on bumps/rougher terrain, despite all it's capabilities, and only ride it a couple times a month now. I have 406 rims and a 1x9 drivetrain on it, with the stock fork and seat post.

I just saw Velocity A23s are available in 20"/406. Claimed weight is 300 grams. Available in 24h too.