Slow Sunday

Bikes of the day

Mine.

In orange you will see my go-fast bike. It's very light, short of wheelbase, quick-steering, and the handlebars sit several centimeters below the saddle. I immediately notice a change of a few mm in the positions of the seat or handbars. Specifically, it has a custom lugged steel frame, Dura Ace drivetrain and components, Brooks Swallow saddle, and 28mm Continental road tires. It's comfy and when I'm in decent shape I can (solo) average 31 kph in low wind over 100km. I did not bring this one with me and I miss it.

In white you can see my commuter/light-touring/randonneur. It's a Surly Cross-Check frame. It's fairly heavy. The handlebars sit level with the seat. the wheel-base is a bit longer. I have racks mounted front and back. I have the Nitto Noodle bars and like them. I have the Shimano Nexus 8 speed internally geared hub. It's a nice drivetrain, but really, really heavy. I run Conti CountryRide 37mm tires. I've got the Planet Bike Cascadia fenders. They're nice and long for good puddle protection. The racks are Surly's Nice Racks. They're powder-coated cromoly and just bullet -proof. I usually hang Ortleib Office bags on the back. Unloaded, the white bike gives up about 2 kph to the orange one and with loaded office bags, another 2 kph. It's very comfy, giving a fairly up-right position on the tops and a decent tuck in the drops. I'm using the HubBub adaptor to mount the shifter. I've read complaints, but I have made it work pretty well. Getting it set properly is key. I used a bit of the leather bar wrap on the end of the HubBub to help snug it.

The Surly works well in all the situations you'd use a Dutch bike and it has the advantage of being fast and comfy for longer rides (to Delft and back for instance). The one place that it fails is at the train station. I couldn't bring myself to leave this bike at the train station. It's not the theft that worries me. It's not very hard to be much more secure than the rest of the Dutch bikes. The problem is that people at the bike parking stalls have no respect for bikes. They literally shove them in any which way they can. For going to the train-stations, one must really have a cheap bike to which one is not in the least emotionally attached.

Sugino BB warning

One word of warning: I went with Sugino cranks and the matching Sugino BB. The BB had a bearing failure quite recently after only 1000 km. I won't be buying Sugino again soon.