how its going with the new ride

[markg0vbr]

two months of riding the becchetta, 26x26
the only odd thing with it is the front tyre gets so light it hardly touches the road and some times jumps a inch or two to the side, when powering up hill.
it has the 1.25 Kendra tyres on but i find them a comfortable ride, so i don't think i will Chang them.
on todays ride i did 25.1 miles with 1272ft of clime at a average speed of 15.7 mph.
the euro mesh seat and open cell foam is good apart from the moist back, a ventasit pad might be the ticket for this.
although not as light as my old df race bike it is a lot lighter than the trike and flying along banking into corners is fantastic.
better than the trike, no! just different, i could definitely go touring with it, the ski boot bag / side pods and the under seat rack and panniers.

on the down side i am not that big a fan of twist grip shifters, i find it difficult to Changing gear with wet / sweetie hands (i shatter my wrist ten years ago and i still cant grip properly with one hand) but with some very thin gloves i don't have a problem.
has anyone gone over to trigger shifters?

 

[sunnyjim]

two .........
has anyone gone over to trigger shifters?

I changed the twister for a trigger shift when I put the Alfine 8 speed hub on my raptobike. Much nicer, but obviously a lot of that is the hub. Only problem is that between my beer belly & short legs the cockpit is somewhat cramped and my leg occasionally hits the lever making an unexpected downshift.
Never been keen on twisters. On the QNT I replaced the horrible microshift things with downtube friction levers mounted on the handlebars below the brakes.

 

[3tyretrackterry]

sunnyjim
have you any photos of this adaption as i am looking at changing my twisters and am looking for ideas. i have seen trikes with mountain bike shifters on which seem to work ok have also looked at bar end shifters. but i am still looking at present
many thanks

 

[Number14]

Have a look at the picture of the ASS bike halfway down this page posted by Bazz. I think the ones he used are these from SJS Cycles.

 

[tongskie01]

I changed the twister for a trigger shift when I put the Alfine 8 speed hub on my raptobike. Much nicer, but obviously a lot of that is the hub. Only problem is that between my beer belly & short legs the cockpit is somewhat cramped and my leg occasionally hits the lever making an unexpected downshift.
Never been keen on twisters. On the QNT I replaced the horrible microshift things with downtube friction levers mounted on the handlebars below the brakes.

im planning to upgrade to speed hub for my raptobike as well, does it affect the speed?

 

[swscotland bentrider]

Good to hear it is going well. I've got 250K on mine so far and am loving it. I have fitted a ventisit pad (the comfort version) and Kojaks but otherwise it is stock. I'm getting a hint of 'recumbutt' but not near as bad as on the Corsa. Better position perhaps? Anyway I am going to slacken the bottom zip tie to see if that helps. Overall it is stable and confidence inspiring and fairly fast. Good stuff!

Cheers

John

 

[PaulM]

the only odd thing with it is the front tyre gets so light it hardly touches the road and some times jumps a inch or two to the side, when powering up hill.
it has the 1.25 Kendra tyres on but i find them a comfortable ride, so i don't think i will Chang them.
on todays ride i did 25.1 miles with 1272ft of clime at a average speed of 15.7 mph.

It sounds like you might have too much weight at the rear. What frame-size did you get and what inside-leg are you, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[markg0vbr]

i think it is just that the hills are that steep, i have only noticed it happen on the really steep hills when i am in a very low gear.

 

[sunnyjim]

sunnyjim
have you any photos of this adaption as i am looking at changing my twisters and am looking for ideas. i have seen trikes with mountain bike shifters on which seem to work ok have also looked at bar end shifters. but i am still looking at present
many thanks

Pic attached. These are braze-on levers modifed to fit them with a long M5 screw right through the lever and handlebars. (Hole through the bars is OK, but obviously not what you'd do on a standard DF frame...). Collars for the cable are short lengths of SS bar again held by screws through the bars by M5 screws into tapped holes and cross drilled & countersunk to suit the cable inner & outer. I made these to include additional cable length adjusters as you can see on the pic, but the adjusters on the shifters should be enough.

The levers in N14's link to look like a ready-made solution (if a little pricey) . I hadn't seen them when I made my version.

I find the levers placed where I have them is convenient for shifting either with fingers or palm of hand. One quickly learns to keep fingers out of the wheel...


Gooey stuff on cable is white lithium grease to stop water getting in.

 

[arallsopp]

I run bar end shifters on my lightweight USS bike, with twist grips on the other one. They each have their advantages and issues.

Reasons to like twist grips:

• They do a great job at keeping water out of the cables.
• Twist grips 'overshift' by design on the ratchet, so the change is always firm.
• (Depending on the bike) they can be discrete.
• They don't get knocked accidentally when you/someone else touches your bike.
• After 8k all weather miles, they're still "fit and forget".

Reasons to like bar end shifters:

• Twist grips are near impossible to use with cold wet hands.
• Twist grips can introduce an element of shift-steer.
• You can tell you're at the extent of the gearing by feeling for the position of the lever (rather than have to give an experimental twist).
• (Depending on the bike) they can be discrete.

All in, I like the fair weather Furai with the bar ends, and the Panzerfiets with the twists. Worst case for Panzerfiets is that nasty greasy rain that combines with moisturiser on my hands and freezing winds to make the gearing near impossible to change. Worst case for the Furai was getting caught out in a storm and having the cables fill up with water, some 400 miles from home. In retrospect, for a multi-day ride, I'd favour twist grips.

 

[3tyretrackterry]

thanks for the pic makes a bit more sense. i do like my twistgrips but can be a tad difficult in adverse weather or when hands are slippy. i agree with arallsop regarding pros and cons was just wondering how others have overcome any problems
thanks again

 

[sunnyjim]

im planning to upgrade to speed hub for my raptobike as well, does it affect the speed?

I did it for convenience rather than speed, having got stuck in the wrong gear too often, and I wanted to get rid of the twistshift anyway, and the hub came complete with the trigger shift. Also I had trouble getting the deraiileur to work with 40/60 chainrings while staying out of the front wheel. With a 20 tooth sprocket on the Alfine hub the gears end up:


113.9 75.9

93.2 62.1

80.2 53.5

70.5 47.0

60.0 40.0

49.1 32.7

42.3 28.2

37.2 24.8