I do like the Alfine: clean, simple, I like the triggers, and I like that I can switch gears whenever, when fully stopped, etc. Nope, never dropped the chain.

fwiw, I wasn't originally planning on getting an Alfine -- at the time, I had been considering several bikes, one of which was a Dahon with a Nexus -- then I walked into a small local folding bike shop, and they just happened to have a single Swift, custom built by Peter Reich (the Swift designer), sitting right there with the Alfine -- fate spoke. I do kind of wish I had gone straight to Peter, but that would likely have meant a several month or so wait.

Veering off a bit -- at the time, I was also interested in belt drives -- and, I suppose, I still am -- I think the combination of a belt drive to an IGH on a folder could make a pretty neat package.

I am riding in Riverside Park too.
I rode and played at the clay tennis courts at 96th Street last Friday.
It snowed Saturday. I suspect that the tennis courts will not be open much longer this year.

fwiw, there are a bunch of courts (not clay) up just south of the Little Red Lighthouse -- there are always open courts there...

I have seen the courts near the little red light house.
There are also some hard courts in Riverside park near 119th. Away from the river.
It is hard to explain unlesss you paly tennis, but I think that playing on clay is just nicer. The ball bounches differently and takes differently to spin and pace. It is easier on the legs too. The downside to the clay courts at 96th Street is that you are required to sweep the courts when you finish and then clean the lines.

There are also har-tru clay courts in Central Park. You don't have to sweep there. But they are always crowded and the ball doesn't bounch the same as in Riverside at 96th. They do dry off faster after it rains.

I think I've seen these on discontinued product closeout sheets from Trek--stop by a Trek dealer and see if they can get you a screaming deal on one.

Merry Christmas to all

A winter ride
 

Along the Hudson

I am going to install a new shimano nexus hub wheel soon and was wondering if you can make some close up pics of your hub or more importantly, what color non turn washers are you using? I only got the standard non turn washer for horizontal dropouts, but I think I need angle ones to make the shift cable get the right angle.

Here's a shot of mine, and the cable routing that I used.. this setup has been trouble free.. I also use the trigger shifter which resulted in better indexing and crisper shifts. I can't really remember now what color the washers are for sure (bike resides in an airplane hanger), looks grey in my photo though .. hope it helps.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2275/...bc7a6bea_b.jpg

Hey pokkuhlag, here's what I've got -- note also that my cable is routed a bit differently than BruceMetras' (fwiw, this bike was built by Peter Reich, which is not to say that his way is necessarily "better," but just so you know)...

HTH! :)

Thank you for both your replies, I'll go whatever the yellow and brown lock nuts will give me. it is good to see other options are available with cable routing

Check this website. It tells you what set of non turn washers you need for your dropouts.
http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/shimano-nexus.html

Let's say you had a Swift with a Crossrack, and you wanted to take a 15" x 15" x 6" manual typewriter on the road.

Let's say you also wanted to take change of clothing, repair stuff, etc., that already fill your Arkel Bug to capacity, and you hate wearing a backpack.

How would you do it?

How would I do it? Chuck the typewriter. Pack my Palm with its folding keyboard.

Conventional carrier rack on the back for the typewriter. I'd hate to weigh the Crossrack down with that sucker.

Like a rack and a milk crate?

sqynt, I did look at that folding keyboard, but the Palm's screen is just too small for my purposes--and I'm also not sure it'll handle an 800-page document. On top of which, one of the attractions of a typewriter is that I can't get online with it.

Thanks, guys.

ok so i got the PB fenders from the xootr website. they work well, but i find that the rear fender interferes with the folding action. the fender curves back so far that, when folded, the flap wraps around the tire and hits the ground. anyone else notice this? any work-arounds? i'd prefer not to cut it up, but basically every time i fold, and the fender pushes into the ground, the nuts holding the fender to the silver stays pop off and i have to put them back on (very frustrating).

Yep, rack and crate.


Yes, but can the typewriter handle such a monster? ;)

Well, okay, that's a point.

But using a typewriter, I don't expect it to integrate with the existing 550 pages in Word. Using a Palm, my sense of unity would be persistently itchy.

This may be a long shot, but consider an Alphasmart. Except for the Dana, which is Palm-based, they're all black-and-white portable word processors with long (700 hours claimed) battery life, full-sized-keyboards, and no functions other than word processing. The Alphasmart 3000 can be had on ebay for about $30.

Thanks. I've wanted to want one since they first came out, but unfortunately I can't deal with the screen size. I write novels, and I need to see more than a few lines at a time.

I appreciate the suggestion, though. It's almost the right equipment.

nice SWIFT on ebay. seems to ship to the US only...
http://cgi.ebay.at/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...E:B:SS:AT:1123

Just some recent pics to bump the thread...

How's my old neighborhood, Inwood, doing, Noteon? Take some pictures there, please.

The one with the trailer was taken at P.S. 178, corner of Ellwood and Bogardus!