My lovely bicycles
Or, the loveliest mean of transport
This article is in remembrance of the countless bikes that had gotten stolen from me. It's really wild out there, and this green one will always be my favorite.
Now look at this picture, from around 2018. This bike never got stolen because it was too broken and weird, but it had room for a couple of friends and beers in the back.
It was really the weirdest. It had a bmx handlebar, a flower basket in the front and we bought it from the oldest bike mechanic in southern Italy, he was very proud of it. He described it as fully featured, and led our attention on the contraption he devised for protecting your clothes from the greasy parts next to the chain. That was a frying pan. The pallet instead, that one I added it.
This red one was a real piece of art. I've rode it from early 2024, and by this point I started parking my bike upstairs, in my bedroom. If anyone wanted to steal it they had to step over my dead body.
Dynamo powered front and rear lights, a convenient luggage rack, a super comfy saddle with dampening springs, 4 speeds transmission and the shiniest chrome and red finish. It was so delightful.
It took me a while to say goodbye to it, but in the end, I did sell it. That was both for that I was living with two smelly bikes in my bedroom, and also to make up for the wide expenses on my mtb, the one I did my first long distance adventure with.
I mentioned in the article linked above some specs that I discovered about the bike. That is because I bought it second handed and for a very fair price from a guy that bodged it together. Here are my findings/hypotheses:
- It has a RST Blaze 650b 27.5" 100mm travel fork with lockout, probably with its stickers peeled off. It doesn't really reach that much travel in my model, and 100mm to start with is a risible amount.
- The aluminum frame has no labels whatsoever, most likely it was acquired as a standalone part from Aliexpress.
- Its cranks could only have belonged to a Focus 29" hardtail, that's what's written on them.
- It had some pretty beaten up Shimano HG cassette and front gears, that provided a classic 3x9, 42-24t in the back and 11-34t in the front.
- Most small parts and nubs were from pretty cool brands, like FSA.
- The brakes are two different types of Tektro oil systems.
This microblog post was uploaded during the first get go with the bike after the upgrades. In order, from the front:
- I swapped the old 680mm wide handlebar with a 800mm aluminum one, which I'm very happy with, and sold the old one (26-10=16€)
- I've also got a short handlebar stem, because I sold the old one too, and it was too long for my likings (10€)
- I've cut the fork tube, so I installed a new star nut (few €)
- I've adapted a cad design to give the Btwin BC 120 odometer a proper handlebar attachment (0€)
And in the middle:
- I got an aluminum bottle cage (6€) that I've spray painted, and the paint is not really sticking. But I like it just the same.
- I got a proper cycling water bottle. For some days I've used a metal thermos with a cool chrome finish, but it was making so much noise with all the rattling and leaked half a liter of water every single time it was opened. The upgrade was well needed.
All around:
- I've swapped the brake pads, the old ones were completely eaten off.
- I've bled some more oil into the brake tubes, the rear brake did not have the right response.
- I've put a coating of wax on the chain, and it rolls wonderfully now.
And now with the rear. For some reason I've had the idea of converting the transmission from a 3x9 to a 1x9. Now 9 speeds are not that many, and their steps also are not so impressive.
Keeping a 3x9 would have been a safer choice overall for a crappy bike like mine: you get more speed on flat and softer climbs, not to mention the ability to always click into the smaller cog with one tap of a button and attack the hill with little notice.
But a 1x drivetrain is more modern, and you can justify the cost for it is a simpler mechanical system that asks for less maintenance, slaps less the chain when nudging around and... I simply wanted it so badly I couldn't resist. Here's what I got:
- a 32 teeth narrow-wide chainring (14€)
- a 9 speed 11-40t cassette, with the bigger cog made of aluminum! (27€)
- a new chain with quicklinks from KMC. I only did cut 2 links. You can see how much the derailleur is struggling in the image above.
- A derailleur hanger extender.
The derailleur in fact is still the stock one, with a 85mm cage, that was to live his life next to a comfortable 11-34t gearbox. Now it has to do a whole lot of more work. With some adjustments to the B screw, the H an L little screws, the cable tension and thanks to the hanger extender, it all sort of kinda works. Here are the gear ratios that we get with the new transmission:
| Teeth | Ratio |
|---|---|
| 40 | 0.8 |
| 34 | 1.06 |
| 28 | 1.14 |
| 24 | 1.33 |
| 21 | 1.52 |
| 19 | 1.68 |
| 16 | 2.0 |
| 13 | 2.46 |
| 11 | 2.91 |
A couple of days ago I went and tested the transmission on an old enemy of a road, Via dell'Osservanza.
Google maps lies, if you look at it you'll tell that it is not an 8% hill.
Some scary parts are 17%, according to Climbfinder. I tried those and just after the thoughest climbs I turned on Via Gabiola, to do my usual trip around the hills.
All and all a 0.8 ratio is pretty solid also for the climbiest climbs, sometimes though the derailleur skips some teeth while changing to the lower gears. I don't think that any amount of tweaking it will save the game, but apart from those cranky noises you hear if you pedal hard with the gear not fully clicked in, the results could have been way worse.
I really like the setup for now, the 1100mm wheelbase with the new handlebars seems to give it good stability and I'm all around okay with the transmission. And I guess it looks pretty sleek too. As the guy who sold it to me said, also the eye wants its part.
