@vas: what do you consider to be an X-Large chainring?
I think the Dura Ace and Campagnolo track cogs go down to 13 T. (I even have a 12T Campagnolo, but it seems to have a smaller diamerter than the standard track-hubs.)
The 13T cog will give you some more speed but probably still not enough. I ride 13Ton 54T on my Swift what I find very convenient. Still: Chainrings larger than 52T are hard to find. But I think 13Ton 52T are widely available and will also do fine on a fast bike.

If you still need more speed you might consider to get the ring custom manufactured. The wicked 72 T chainring on my Auto Mini Folder did cost me barely 35 Euros. A very nice guy in germany did it for me on his laser-cutter...

You guys must have massively strong legs to be pushing such big gears. When I first rode a fixed gear, I started-out with the recommended 70" gear, then went to a 67", and now I'm at a 65" with shorter cranks (165mm). Either that or I guess you both live in relatively flat areas. :)

This kind of ratio ( 56 ) works good in Vienna. It is not exactly flat here, in fact it goes up and down all the time. But (and here comes the point) the inclination of the roads is not very steep, instead they go up or down for long distances. That means riding on very high speed (half of the time). With a smaller gear I felt much like riding a sewing machine. Some of the upward-hills need extra attention ofcourse.

After getting seriously wet last week riding my swift (summer is over) , I constructed a pair of slim fenders for the bike. They are made from brass, including a little soldering and threading. The distance to the wheel is fully adjustable so the fenders can be positioned very precisely. This works great. ALso the bike can be folded (take a look at the trick with the rubber splash guard).
How do you like them?
(A shot of the complete bike will be posted in the swift galleries soon)

Clever! Now you have to polish them of course. :) But is the back one long enough? Looks marginal.

I think I will not polish them. I like the un-polished look. They will get darker anyways (which is good).
The complete bike gains lot of style with this patina-thing. Every part on the bike looks so wonderfully antique but still tidy. All the parts fit perfectly together. I think a polished pair of brass-fenders would spoil the dignity of the bike.

I infact didn't test the functionality yet, as it didn't rain for some days. But I took some attention in the lenght of the rear splash guard. Theoretically it should work. I will report as soon as it starts raining.

Has anyone left a Swift at a company's reception desk during a meeting? I'm curious to see what sort of welcome (or not) the request gets.

Request for under seat/wedge bag suggestions/tips/warnings
 

Hi,

I'm thinking of adding an under seat storage solution to my swift.

I'm thinking through the pluses and minuses. of using backpacks, fannypacks with and without drink holders & under seat packs (wedge packs?)

I'm currently leaning towards an under seat storage solution.

Anybody have any tips, product recommendations (or product warnings), etc.

What's your favorite under seat solution (that doesn't need a tool to remove and doesn't mess with folding too much)

I currently don't have a bottle cage, so bags with a bottle holding solution migh be interesting.

Okay, let the tips and suggestions flow.

Thanks

"With the Kool Stop Salmon pads on my V-brakes, they squealed at low speeds and under hard braking. Annoying as hell."

Hey James, I have this problem too. I agree, annoying as hell. Do you know why this is happening? My old shimano pads didn't give me this problem.

Swift in Alaska
 

I thought I would give you urban riders something to chuckle about. I use my Swift as my transport for real estate appraisal work in small towns around Southeast Alaska. I make day trips by small plane or ferry to outlying towns and use my single-speed Swift for ground transport. When folded it fits well behind the last seat in the Cessna Caravan (208) commuter I usually fly. I ride right off the tarmac, through the terminal building, out onto the street and on to my appointments. People are generally positive about an old guy riding up on a weird bike, to do their house appraisal. I haven’t had any negative reactions yet. The pilots get a big charge out of it too.

Of course this is weather dependant. By November, I will have studs on my 29er and will have hung the Swift on the wall for the season. I do take the Swift on winter vacations however. You can see my post about fitting it into a Samsonite case. Well, I was just wiping the mud off the Swift from this week’s trip to Skagway and thought I would make a post of it. Cheers.

I'm not sure why. Of the 3 Kool Stop salmon sets I've tried (thinline, dual-compound MTB, and full compound MTB), they've all squealed. Although when installed on my cantis, I find they don't squeal as much, if at all, so long as you keep both the rim surface (I clean mine with rubbing alcohol) and the salmon pads themselves clean (I sandpaper mine every week). When mine begin to squeel, I clean the rim and pads, then re-adjust the toe-in (I use a thick rubber band as a toe-in guide). This cures the squealing on my cantis under almost all conditions. Strangely enough, though, this exact same procedure failed to ever work on my V-brakes. It's interesting to note that the canti arms have almost no play when installed on the mounting posts, while the V-brakes (both stock Tektro and Avid SD5) are sloppy as hell.

But yeah, it's really baffling how the cheap no-brand pads don't squeal, while the supposed uber-quality Kool Stop salmons do.

There's your problem. The slop introduces movement allowing squeal.

So that's what I've "heard" ;) , but what I don't get is that on both my old Swift and my current one, the V-brakes (both Tektro and Avid SD5) had a lot of play in them. 2 sets of brake posts and 2 sets of V-brakes: all sloppy. I wonder why the canti brake arms fit nice and snug.

My Avid V-brakes torque down positively, with the pivot inside the mech.

My back one squeals but I have been too lazy to set toe-in, I just slapped it on. Time to snap out of it.

My V-Brakes are shimano deore. Do you think perhaps the shimano pads were so poor at stopping the rim, it never really exposed how much play the brakes had? The salmons do brake better, but as a result gets "pulled" by the rim more?

Resale price of custom Swift?
 

I'm considering selling my Swift, but am not sure what a fair price would be. My bike's a year old, and I got an offer for 50% of the new value - seems a little low to me. Given that it's custom, and happens to be exactly what the buyer wants (drop bars, hub gears) and which also happens not to be available off the shelf I'd say it's worth more. Ideas?

I'd have to say, I'm not selling because I'm disappointed with the Swift as such. I just hardly ride it anymore, it's so uncomfortable on the ****ty roads in San Francisco and I no longer need a folder on my commute. I almost always ride my 40 year old Raleigh town bike, it's so comfortable and low stress.

I guess the thing I like least about the Swift is it's poor fold. It's still huge when folded, and comes apart into an untidy bundle that can't stand on its own. If I were to buy another folder, it would probably be a Merc or Brompton.

From the world of m/c, a rule of thump is 80% of orig. bike price plus 50% of aftermarket parts. If you take the aftermarket parts off, you can often get 80% of aftermarket part price, so alot of sellers return the bike to stock and sell m/c and parts separately. Aftermarket parts on bicycles are not as expensive, but I think the rule of thumb is a good starting place. Some tricked out MX bikes have aftermarket parts worth more than the stock m/c.

It is probably worth more given a quick review of EBay.

I completely relate to your disgust with the abysmal conditions of San Francisco streets. You have to wonder with all the tourist dollars pouring into the city, why a significant portion hasn't gone towards fixing the streets. Welcome to San Francisco.

Riding a 20"-wheeled bike with an aluminum frame as stiff as the Swift's can really make your body fell beaten-up after an hour of riding through the city. I find that riding SF on a folder is like navigating a slalom course, with constant weaving and jumping just to get around the nasty potholes (some sinkholes) and generally obliterated sections of pavement. The sections of bad road that cannot be avoided requires one to constantly lift up and off the saddle, using one's legs as suspension (this is easier done on a fixed-gear because you have the force of back pedal pressure). It really sucks to have to ride like this on a 700C bike, so you can just imagine how much more worse it is on a 406 bike. As uncomfortable it can be, I personally find the fun factor still out-weighs the inconvenience, but in comparison with your Raleigh townie and your 'bent, I can totally see where you're coming from.

Anyway, after having been in SF for some time now, I guess I needn't tell you that you can easily fetch double the price you paid for your Raleigh, as demand for vintage fixie conversions is big in this area. ;)

Hi, I'm looking to buy a swift and I'm close by. Let me know if you want to sell it.

BTW, are there any LBS in S.F. that sells the Swift?

Well, fairly close:

Oceanworks
2703 Tenth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
(510) 849-1383
www.askangus.com

I had a chance to ride it around the Menlo Park area a couple of weeks ago. Bliss! The roads are so good, it really made me appreciate what a lovely bike it can be :)

I've been using a carradice SQR slim bag. I attach it right under the saddle. It will hold 10 kg of stuff (including a laptop) and has minimal effect on folding. Several places sell them in the US (harris cyclery, calhoun cycle, and peter white cycle).

great story
 

Great story, thanks. And I think I'm adventurous biking through midtown!

Swift for sale
 

Yangmusa,

The rule of thumb re: buying used versus new bikes/ parts (assuming current model and like new condition) is the used price = about 60%-70% of new.

I found my like new Swift Xootr on Craigs List for $400 including shipping and it came with a $100 saddle plus some nice bar ends. Demand and availability are also factor. You can certainly ask more as it is easier to lower the price than to raise it!

That said if you are still thinking about selling it - let us all know what you have. I am in SF and would love to have internal gears as an option. I hate derailleurs. My fixed gear wheel set is in limbo at the mercy of the kind friend who is building the rear wheel... again.

If yours has a steel frame (I can't remember...) even better... I'd like to ride a steel frame Swift to compare the two frames.

Ivan