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| This is a newer version of my experimental all purpose bike, which is intended for commuting, errands, brevets, and self-supported touring. It dissassembles relatively quickly for transport on plane, bus, train, car, etc. A few minutes is all it takes to break it in half and put it in the trunk of a car. It's really nice sometimes to pack it up and use another form of transportation to get thru an area that's not that fun to ride a bike in. The frame seperates into 2 pieces similiar to the Ritchey Breakaway bike. Also, the fork is easily removed at the crown, where it clamps onto the steerer. Pictures of its disassembly are below. |
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| The sack you see hanging on the brakelevers is something I made out of Sunbrella material. It can carry a full grocery bag and then some. The load rests on the front rack. It's a very convienient way to carry stuff. I can put a sweater in the sack, and a boxed pie or cake on top of it, and take it home without wrecking it. It's easy to keep an eye on stuff I take along, or just grab something out of the sack while riding. |
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| Framebuilder numbers: HA 72.5 degrees, SA 71, trail: 35mm, wheelbase: 41.5" main tubes are 9/6/9 cromoly, The wheels are 20", 406 BMX size. Hands off riding is easy at 10mph. Front loads carry well and add even more stability. The round profile of the Schwalbe Marathon Racer 40mm wide tire on the front gives great handling and a nice ride. Primo Comet tires ride nicely also. Front tires that are not round in profile tend to affect steering in a negative way, and make it more difficult to ride hands-off (like the flattish city marathon, or V-shaped regular marathon). I use a regular marathon for the rear tire for durablity and flat resistance. Fenders and lights are just a good idea for any touring bike, and this bike has been designed for them. There is a SON generator hub, and a Inoled headlight visible in the picture. These items are avaliable from Peter White Cycles. The front brake is a cantilever, the rear is an Avid cable controlled disc. |
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| The extra long (410mm) Thompson seatpost allows me to make a small frame triangle, which helps in making the bagged bike really compact. The racks are both custom made for this bike out of cromoly steel tubing. The chainrings are 58, 38, 24. Freewheel is 11 to 32. The gear inches range from 15" to 102". Sometimes that low gear is really appreciated on a steep grade when I am carrying a full touring load. |
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| The shifters are Shimano bar-cons, threaded together in-line with the 10x1mm threaded end of the expander bolt that I cut off. A home-made clamp brazed onto the handlebar stem face-plate holds it all in place. This is a very convienient place for the shifters. |
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| That's a fuzzy picture of a very long headtube (12"). To make it, first I started off with a 12" length of 1 3/8" .058" tubing. I brazed the top and downtubes to it. When I finished the front triangle, I cut out the middle section of the "headtube" and did a little lug carving at each end of it. Then I slipped in the 0.9mm real headtube tubing (meant for a lugged 1" steerer) from Henry James, to span the distance. Then I silver-soldered it in place at each end. There is a pump peg sticking out at the top. |
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| A better view of the treatment of a headtube lug. Nothing fancy here, but it's a major departure for me to attempt to make a lug with a bit of aesthetic appeal. The paint job is still just the Rustoleum and foam brush. A narrow clamp holds the headset adjustment when the handlebar stem is removed. |
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| The front rack is made similiar to the rear one. It bolts on at 4 points, and will carry the front panniers. It is absolutely the rock solid extra-stiff extension of the fork, and weighs about 3/4 lb. Anyone in need of a good rack should talk to their local framebuilder, who could make something much better than anything you could buy off the shelf today at a bike shop. This one needs a real paint job. The front hub is a Schmidt generator. It powers the Lumotec light mounted at the front of the rack. Looking at the back of the fork crown, you can see 2 bolts that clamp it to the steerer. No lowriders needed here. One advantage of using small wheels is the potential for improved load carrying ability. |
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| The rear rack is very stiff and has a big 16x7" platform. It's made out of a mix of 3/8 and 5/16" .035 cromoly tubes. There's some 1/8" rod running down the center. Pegs are at each corner, making cinching down a big load really easy (I like to use an old narrow inner tube for that). Four bolts hold it to the frame. It weighs about a pound and a half. |
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| Did you notice the short crankset? 155mm arms. I designed the bike around it, and made the bottom bracket height 9 3/4"(bb center to ground) when using 40mm wide tires. It makes the bike almost unrideable with "normal" 170mm cranks (which would scrape pedals in the corners). These cranks are easy on my knees and promote spinning. After riding with them for 20 minutes, they felt totally normal. Now, when I ride a 170mm crank bike, it feels like I'm "high-stepping" for the first few minutes or so. I got them from PBW. |
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| This home-made kickstand adds about a half pound. I can remove it since it is bolted in place. But I find it too useful to get rid of it. I suppose it slows me down, so now I leave about 8 seconds earlier for my 13 mile commute. It swings with positive stops, from parallel to the chainstay, to the hold-the-bike-up mode. A clamping action (bolt with a lever brazed onto it) modulates the force needed to move it. I can clamp it down solid in the 'down' position, to make the bike unrideable; hard to steal (the cranks would hit the kickstand). Or I can quickly pop it out and use the pivoting end of it as a bottle opener; I brazed the end of it into a bottleopener design. |
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| I had to modify the rack to go around the disc brake. The coin you see on the rack is a standoff that keeps the pannier from contacting the brake. Next time I make this, I will design it so that the brake mounts to the chainstay. Gives me an excuse to make another bike. However, this arrangement of brazed tubes seems to work just fine. |
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| This picture is from my previous bike. Same design on this one. It's the downtube-bottom bracket connection. Just a sleeve clamp. A 1 1/4 .058 tube silver brazed onto the downtube. A 1 1/8 .049 stub on the bottom bracket connects with it. 2 bolts grip it solid. Boeshield lubes it. It never moves, period. I have used this arrangement on several of my bikes. |
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| Above, there it is in a pile in the back of a Honda accord. It takes just a few minutes to break it down like this. It takes up less than half of the trunk space. |
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