Sunday was a wind swept wash out of a day for cycling, though i was still out for a few hours to try out the Surly Cross-Check`s new rear wheel i laced up last week...
Do you spy it? A Shimano Alfine 8 speed internal gear hub (IGH) i bought last summer reduced, along with a trigger shifter for regular handle bars that i have managed to bodge on the drop bars...
Surly Cross-Check;
The cross-Check is one of Surly Bikes longest production and favourite and best selling bikes, probably due to its price to ride quality and its diversity in build options,
You can read about the CC here on the Surly Website
My Cross-Check Commuter;
And you can read about how i built my Cross-Check from a Fixie bike my big bro gave me, the frame was too small so i won on eBay a 56cm black CC frame set for £275-not bad for an under a year old frame set with little use, you can read about the bikes first build here; Checkmate!
Single speed or gears?
If you read that link then you will have seen 3 bikes i own and have ridden single speed;
The Surly KramPug 29+.
The Surly Karate Monkey 29er ridged MTB,
And then the Cross-Check,
And the Cross-Check was with full mudguards added a perfect commuter, well nearly because once you add panniers and some shopping that perfect single gear ratio becomes too hard, as it does when you venture off road even if you add a freewheel to the flip-flop rear hub but use road gearing off road, as i wrote in the last CC blog post here; Roughstuff on the Cross-Check
And for myself the problem of riding single speed is the bikes have to be geared for road or off road,
All these bikes i would love to keep as a single speed set up, but with gears they are so much more versatile,
Derailleur drive chains for commuting;
For UK winter commuting on the mud coated country roads i ride here in East Lothian derailleur gears are not ideal and take a lot of punishment...
Which is why i usually switch to the old 1985 Muddy Fox Courier MTB...
As you can see after the worst of this winter it has taken a lot of crap, the chain is shot after 4 months...
The answer? Hub gears!;
Longer chain life as a single speed but gear options so you can ride whatever the hills or wind, or bike weight with shopping etc and arriving without having a melt down with sweat- and that is the important one if like myself you work outside, last thing you want to do after a commute is go out side (in the same base layers) and get cold and a chill...
So, i decided to get the hub gear laced up this week and having a spare Mavic rim i went on line and using Pro Wheel builder i got the spoke lenght needed...
Having a rake through the bundles of spokes i have from previous wheels i stripped i had 32 288mm spokes, think these are from the single speed 29+ wheel, at 288mm lenght they were perfect!,
I laced the wheel up one afternoon and while the radial truness is not perfect the wheel is good enough and spoke tension feels the same around the wheel- so far so good this week!...
The MTB trigger shifter i mounted using a cheap Accessory bar clamp made for lights, electronic computers etc,,, and it works a treat!...
Only the cable needs some 3M stick on mounts to tidy it up...
One bike with two rear wheels and 3 build options;
So now i have a geared 3 season commuter with the option of the 20 tooth sprocket 8 speed IGH, or with a quick cut of a few cable ties, remove the bar clamp and re fit the flip-flop hub wheel and ride the bike with the fixed 20tooth track sprocket, or as a 20 tooth freewheel single speed!
Happy days...
More soon...
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