Quoted message said:
Quoted message said:http://www.astounding.org.uk/ian/temp/newbike.html
That looks like a really good bike.
I'm happy.
Quoted message said:What are the hub brakes like?
I probably need to caveat my comments - cables are brand new, brakes
are brand new, not finely tweaked, nothing is bedded in yet, I've only
done 4 or so miles on it so far (round the block, then out up one
decent hill, down the side and round the bottom home), all of those
were in the rain, and I've probably only ridden 20 miles on an upright
in the last three years.
My immediately preceeding vehicle for comparison is a low recumbent
trike, with two mighty front disks you can put maximum welly on and
have no fear of going over the front or sliding out sideways.
My first observation was that they sounded like they are shredding
aluminium in there - braking moderate-to-hard, it sounded like gritty
blocks on an alloy rim, shaving off metal. I think I was less aware
of that towards the end of my ride - my guess is something bedding in,
but maybe I was just listening less critically? At first I thought
the brakes were a bit spongy - with the set up to start to rub with
very little lever movement, you can pull the lever quite a long way,
and it feels like weak or long and tortuous cable stretching.
However, when out and about, I could lock the back wheel while still
having more pull available. I thought that the front was not very
powerful, but actually when I tried a brake test (nearly home,
deserted cycle path, brake as hard as I dared as I passed a mark) I
came to a stop in a surprisingly short distance. Bearing in mind I
was nervous of unfamiliar bike, unfamiliar tyres, wet tarmac, and my
body was still screaming that I was perilously high up and going over
the handlebars any moment, there's probably more reserves available
there too. Overall, I'd say that the brakes feel that they are going
to be weak - they feel soft, and the lever resistance starts small and
builds up progressively (cf cantis where you have no resistance, then
the blocks hit the rim and you get lots of resistance more-or-less
immediately) - but in practice they somehow seem to stop me as rapidly
as I'd expect from any other brakes on an upright.
Braking steadily to a stop at the foot of a decent hill using just the
front brake (on the recumbent with luggage I'd expect the disks to be
too hot to grip with bare hands at this point), the cooling fin on the
disk was just warm.
My previous commuter (before the recumbent) ended up with a front
Sturmey Archer hub brake (internally, it's basically a classically
arranged car drum brake). These brakes are much better than that (I
never liked that very much - it binds occasionally, it has no feel, it
wasn't quite right).
However, I really need to get some luggage on it, commute on it, let
the cables stretch and get the adjustment tweaked before commenting
properly.
regards, Ian SMith
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