December 30, 2005 - It works!
The Airfree tires are on the Speed 8! My first test ride around the block found all systems functioned. Unfortunately, I had too many conflicts today to do any serious testing, but that will come.
So, it’s been two full months since I got the Speed 8. I paid $375.00 for the bike, $60.00 for new tubes and rim tape, and $300.00 for new wheels and the Airfree tires. For this money, I should be able to buy a really nice bike, or could I? I haven’t bought too many bikes that I have loved right out of the box.
During the past two months I have been stranded at work with flats, waited weeks for delivery of parts, and educated myself on several topics, including, but not limited to, Dahon knowing there was a tube failure issue with the wheel, tube, tire combination on the bike I bought. The flat issue led me to rekindle my interest in flat-free Airfree urethane bike tires, which led me to further understand the extent at which the bicycle industry is not standardized and I would need a new wheel set that lead to have to modify parts of the bike to accept the new equipment. All the time with this tinkering (I am proud to be a tinkerer), my bike has remained in the corner of my shop until today.
All the parts arrived this week, and I have spent what little free time during the past 2 days assembling them.
First, the Airfree tires I bought are Catalina 20 x 1.75 inch 120 PSI equivalent tire. The new wheel set is from Velocity, their 20 inch 36 spoke Taipan rim. I also purchased a new SRAM 11T-32T cassette to keep the pneumatic and urethane wheel set separate so I could easily swap the two back and forth – well this isn’t happening because the Velocity rims are wider than the Dahon OEM Kinetix Aero rim’s, so the brakes and derailleur have been adjusted for the new wheel set making swapping back and forth an exercise in fine bike adjustments.
Next, mounting urethane tires is like alligator wrestling. The tires stay on the wheels by friction, as well as mechanically fitting to the grove on the rim intended for the beads on clincher style pneumatic tires. Part of the “friction” attachment is the urethane wheels are smaller in diameter than the rim of the bike tire, so mounting the tires is a little like putting size 30 jeans on a 36 inch waste. The tool Airfree supplied with the tires broke and I had to resort to using broad bladed screwdrivers as levers. Warming the tires for a few minutes at a low heat helped to soften the tires and made them a little easier to mount – the beer helped too. Luckily the screwdrivers didn’t mare the rims.
With the tires mounted on the wheels next came mounting the wheels on the bike. The rear wheel fit into the dropouts without a problem. Because the Tiapan’s are wider rims the brakes needed adjustment. Moving to the front, the Tiapan didn’t fit the fork dropouts. I took the fork off the bike and brought it to my buddy Sal at the local custom motorcycle shop to see if he could use some of his neat tools to make the fit – needless to say, Sal no longer works at that shop. So, off to the LBS in search of a new fork.
No new fork needed – yet. The gorillas at the LBS muscled the fork blades into accepting the new wheel [I hope the work done by the LBS doesn’t cause any premature failure]. So home I went, reinstalled the fork and brakes, did a quick safety check – nothing loose, nothing cracked. With everything in order, I took the bike for a quick test ride around the block – a few times, and in the rain.
My initial impression of the tires and wheels are there is little difference between the urethane and pneumatic tires. I got on the bike, I peddled, and I moved forward – and I didn’t fall off. The traction in the wet weather appeared fine. The road noise is a little different, but that could be as simple as the tread pattern is different from what I am use to. I also appear to have an added bonus. The 1st gear finally works without the chain skipping off the chain ring. I suppose the chain angle between the 32T cog and the chain ring has lessened by a few degrees thus decreasing the tendency for the chain to want to jump.
Slowly I’ll be adding the fenders and rack back onto the bike. I also have a pair of bar ends I will install.
I have also been playing with a few concepts for light bars (accessory bars) that I can swap between cycles so I don’t need to continuously swap lights, bells, flashers, mirrors, etc. between the bikes. With the light bar all I need to do is swap the bar between the bikes. I have found ¾ inch PVC pipe perfect for the bar because most clamp-on mounts fit that diameter. The length can vary on the users desires. I have drilled holes along the pipe specific to each bike and position (i.e. front or rear). Cable ties and/or black plastic tape keep everything snug.
More will come……
So, it’s been two full months since I got the Speed 8. I paid $375.00 for the bike, $60.00 for new tubes and rim tape, and $300.00 for new wheels and the Airfree tires. For this money, I should be able to buy a really nice bike, or could I? I haven’t bought too many bikes that I have loved right out of the box.
During the past two months I have been stranded at work with flats, waited weeks for delivery of parts, and educated myself on several topics, including, but not limited to, Dahon knowing there was a tube failure issue with the wheel, tube, tire combination on the bike I bought. The flat issue led me to rekindle my interest in flat-free Airfree urethane bike tires, which led me to further understand the extent at which the bicycle industry is not standardized and I would need a new wheel set that lead to have to modify parts of the bike to accept the new equipment. All the time with this tinkering (I am proud to be a tinkerer), my bike has remained in the corner of my shop until today.
All the parts arrived this week, and I have spent what little free time during the past 2 days assembling them.
First, the Airfree tires I bought are Catalina 20 x 1.75 inch 120 PSI equivalent tire. The new wheel set is from Velocity, their 20 inch 36 spoke Taipan rim. I also purchased a new SRAM 11T-32T cassette to keep the pneumatic and urethane wheel set separate so I could easily swap the two back and forth – well this isn’t happening because the Velocity rims are wider than the Dahon OEM Kinetix Aero rim’s, so the brakes and derailleur have been adjusted for the new wheel set making swapping back and forth an exercise in fine bike adjustments.
Next, mounting urethane tires is like alligator wrestling. The tires stay on the wheels by friction, as well as mechanically fitting to the grove on the rim intended for the beads on clincher style pneumatic tires. Part of the “friction” attachment is the urethane wheels are smaller in diameter than the rim of the bike tire, so mounting the tires is a little like putting size 30 jeans on a 36 inch waste. The tool Airfree supplied with the tires broke and I had to resort to using broad bladed screwdrivers as levers. Warming the tires for a few minutes at a low heat helped to soften the tires and made them a little easier to mount – the beer helped too. Luckily the screwdrivers didn’t mare the rims.
With the tires mounted on the wheels next came mounting the wheels on the bike. The rear wheel fit into the dropouts without a problem. Because the Tiapan’s are wider rims the brakes needed adjustment. Moving to the front, the Tiapan didn’t fit the fork dropouts. I took the fork off the bike and brought it to my buddy Sal at the local custom motorcycle shop to see if he could use some of his neat tools to make the fit – needless to say, Sal no longer works at that shop. So, off to the LBS in search of a new fork.
No new fork needed – yet. The gorillas at the LBS muscled the fork blades into accepting the new wheel [I hope the work done by the LBS doesn’t cause any premature failure]. So home I went, reinstalled the fork and brakes, did a quick safety check – nothing loose, nothing cracked. With everything in order, I took the bike for a quick test ride around the block – a few times, and in the rain.
My initial impression of the tires and wheels are there is little difference between the urethane and pneumatic tires. I got on the bike, I peddled, and I moved forward – and I didn’t fall off. The traction in the wet weather appeared fine. The road noise is a little different, but that could be as simple as the tread pattern is different from what I am use to. I also appear to have an added bonus. The 1st gear finally works without the chain skipping off the chain ring. I suppose the chain angle between the 32T cog and the chain ring has lessened by a few degrees thus decreasing the tendency for the chain to want to jump.
Slowly I’ll be adding the fenders and rack back onto the bike. I also have a pair of bar ends I will install.
I have also been playing with a few concepts for light bars (accessory bars) that I can swap between cycles so I don’t need to continuously swap lights, bells, flashers, mirrors, etc. between the bikes. With the light bar all I need to do is swap the bar between the bikes. I have found ¾ inch PVC pipe perfect for the bar because most clamp-on mounts fit that diameter. The length can vary on the users desires. I have drilled holes along the pipe specific to each bike and position (i.e. front or rear). Cable ties and/or black plastic tape keep everything snug.
More will come……
posted by Gymswhirled Kilts at 1:27 AM
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