A pleasant surprise

Despite the Nuvinci  hub and porteur rack on Byron, my Soma Mixte,

 the Hunqapiller is a heavier bike. 

 I use them both in the winter.  

Byron sports the conservative Nokian A10 studs

 

while the Hunq rolls the more substantial W106 with 10 mm more rubber,an aggressive knobby tread and more aggressive stud pattern as well as 106 studs per tire. 

 I use Byron for anything up to ten miles if the snow is not too deep and rutted. 

 The Hunq gets all the rest of the action,ice,ruts,icey ruts with fresh wet snow,mud and generally any riding longer than 5 miles.

   What has perplexed me is that the Hunq is truly faster and easier to ride in the winter than Byron.  The Soma mixte frame was conceived as a light "cafe racer" model and has a much more aggressive geometry.  Also the Nokian A10 tires are supposed to have less rolling resistence than any studded tire.  One would think the bike would be the faster and more nimble of the two.  It's just not so.  The Hunq seems to float through the slop and speed along the wet pavement with ease while I really feel I am working out on the mixte.  I don't think the Deore LX hubs could make that much difference over the Nuvinci and 105 hub.  After all they will have to counteract 7 lbs of weight,10 mm of additional tread and all those studs.  I don't get it, but I swear it is true.

Re-Review Soma Buena Vista Mixte

   I think a few words are in order after using Byron, my Soma Buena Vista for the past season.   

Wow! This is one really neat bike!

    I use it as my dedicated city bike for commuting, errands and generally anything within a ten mile radius of my home.  I have found it to be a load of fun and I still look forward to riding it every day.  That is not likely to be true of many bikes on the market.  Being a true mixte design with twin sloping top tubes it provides extra stability to the very light Tange Prestige tubing, and the sloping tubes provide  protection for your valuables in stop and go traffic.    The geometry is more aggressive and sporty than the laid back touring and city design common in mixte designs.

      Being set up with a VO model 8 saddle and swept back Albatross bars, it provides a very comfortable upright ride in traffic while making you want to get out of the saddle and "go after it" when the occasion allows. Even with my 220# build, I experience no squishiness in the bottom bracket which is common in lightweight steel tubing.

In the end the bike is a lot more fun to ride than the Raleigh Gran Prix it replaced. 

 I would have no reservations about setting this up with standard gearing, drop bars and using it for credit card touring or charity rides.
    A couple products I tried on this bike were the VO headset, bottom bracket and the model 8 saddle.  What can I say about the headset and bottom bracket?  The fit, they work, I needed to readjust each of them once during the year.  It will be a few years before I know if the over sized bearings are any real benefit but I expect that they are.  The saddle is really incredibly comfortable.

The springs got a little squeaky after a few months, but adjusting the tension bolt a little bit eliminated most of that.  Hey the springs are tellin' me they are working!  The dye used on the pebbled leather is wearing in many
many areas, I'm not sure if I like that or not.  I gives it a kind of antiqued look which is in character for the rest of the bike, but I don't think that should happen in one season.  The other features of the saddle are excellent, the fiber panel under the seat seems to really prevent any saddle sag, as you can see.  After a year of a bigger guy on it is still firm and well adjusted.
    Overall this is one of the better investments I have made in cycling.  It will pay for itself many times over the course of my life and my son's.  When he saw it he said, "Hey that's nice, PeeWee Herman would be proud of you!"

Guess what he's getting in the will.

Rivendell's contribution to Byron

     While most of the parts I used on Byron were borrowed from my previous mixte or from Soma and Velo Orange, there are a couple which are peculiar to Rivendel also.  I used their Albatross bar, which is a really wide north road type bar made by Nitto of Japan.  I chose it because I thought it's width thwould be more comfortable since my shoulders are wide.  It also provides a sporty drop position when inverted and I certainly wasn't disappointed in the finish.  Most people opt for a narrower bar on city bikes, but this is a small city, I'm not noodling my way through traffic jams on a daily basis.  In fact, this town has installed bike lanes wherever they fit on the streets.  Another item is the rear view mirror.  I really like it.  It is made in Germany and available from Rivendell for about $20 or so.  It has a unique shape, provides a nice field of vision, fits on any handlebar and doesn't look completely dorky (although my son said Peewee Herman would be proud, I disowned my son). 

The  most important part from Riv is the Grip Rite pedals. It's another of Grant Peterson's designs which has hit the mainstream.  MKS makes them and distributes them everywhere .  These are not only super comfortable with the huge pedal surface they are extremely functional as well.  The enormous length makes ankling much easier and more natural and

when I wear regular street shoes

placing the heel against the pedal traps my foot in perfect position so the ball of my foot stays right over the axle.  In effect the heel provides the same service as a pair of toeclips, trapping my foot in position and providing a way to extend the pedal stroke upwards as well.

Byron's heart and soul -- the wheels

I ordered the wheels for Byron with a Shimano 105 front hub.  I think the 105 is a good "sweet spot" in the Shimano line, providing excellent performance at a reasonable price.  

The rims are Velocity Dyad which are a V shaped rim made a little wider than normal.  It is supposed to accomodate wider tires for touring and off-road abuse so it makes a good match for a city bike.

As I mentioned in an earlier post,  I ended up ordering 650b (584mm) rims for this bike so it would handle a tire wider than 28mm with fenders.  The other advantage I hadn't anticipated is strength.  When lacing the spokes on the Nuvinci hub, the manufacturer is specific in demanding that only a 2 cross pattern be used.  I am not a wheelbuilder (haven't the patience) so I didn't ask why.  But since I'm one of those larger cyclists whose best lean weight is 215 lbs, I am afraid that the 700c wheel would develop alignment problems tackling rough city streets day in and day out with only a 2 cross pattern.  Just something to think about.

    The 650b wheels also gave me a good excuse to try out the new Soma Express tires.  These are boasted to be specially durable, high performance city tires.    Labeled as 38-584 these only blow up to be about 34mm in width due to the reinforced sidewall casings.  They fit nicely inside a 45mm fender.

If the tread looks familiar, it should.  The tire is made by Panaracer for the Soma label.  For all intents and purposes, it is the Pasela TG so many have come to rely upon, with the stronger sidewalls I mentioned.

Since the only problem I have had with the normal Pasela TG was one "snakebite" blowout from a pothole,

I am looking forward to giving this tire some work.  They seem to roll as fast as the skinnier version with all the cush and comfyness of a 650b profile.

     One other Soma product I like on this bike is their inverse brake levers.   They fit in the Albatross handlebars, nearly any bar that accepts bar end shifters, and there is an adapter available to fit larger diameter bars.  They won't squeeze into MTB sized bars.   As you can see, the finish is first rate, the logo discreet and tasteful and they eliminate a lot of clutter on the handlebars.  Thanks to a very light return spring, the action is precise and very easy.  The only issue I had with them, and it's not the lever really, is that I couldn't anchor the cable under the grip on the right hand side.  If I had, it would be in the way constantly while using the twist grip.  It's not a functional or even a cosmetic issue for me, but I thought I would mention it.  Other than that, I am really pleased with the lever.   Coupled with the Tektro 556 sidepulls, I can practically stop the bike with my pinky fingers.

     Oops, getting late, time to take Byron out for a ride!

Byron's Velo Orange parts

      I took a nice long ride around town to feel out and tweek the seat and handlebar settings yesterday.  Byron was swift, responsive and smooth all the way through about 15 miles in the afternoon.  I will be working on the ride position for about a week or so before I commit to trimming the steerer tube.  He is going to provide a great city ride and seemed quite comfortable at the coffee shop,

but true to his namesake will probably be more at home a the local pubs.

 As I mentioned he is outfitted with several parts from VO.  I had tried and liked the Porteur Rack , beautiful stem and fenders they make,

so I decided to give a couple of their more "gutsy" components a try.  I bought both the bottom bracket unit and headset from them for this bike and am quite pleased.  What attracted me to them both was the fact that they are made with "oversized" bearings.  Now I'm no real technician and can't specifically tell you what that means in millimeters, but after 40  years on the street and adjusting and wearing out bearings that most cyclists don't ever touch,  I think oversized is worth trying.  The bottom bracket fit in just fine like it should with a normal Park tool.  The headset required a little coaxing with a mallet and 2X4 to seat the bearing races, but was no real problem.  The finish on the headset has a true "mirror finish" and is beautiful.

I suppose the proof will be miles down the road on the bearing issue, but I'm as pleased with both products as I have been with their more cosmetically inclined accessories.  

     I also tried their seat post, which has a little more setback than most and am really pleased with the double bolted design.  This is the first I have used with more than one bolt and really like the action on this

The finish is first rate and the hinge provides true micro adjustment of the seat angle.  

My tush is going to love this very soon and I keep finding more things to excite me about this build.

Installing the Nuvinci hub

   When I got the new wheels in for Byron (the Mixte) I was a little intimidated by the hardware for the Nuvinci hub.  I had wrenched a few weird things but this had a single shifter with two cables running back to the hub and this funny looking "shift interface."   The first thing I did was enquire on the Mechanics forum at bikeforums.net to see if anybody had any experience and advice.   I received several helpful comments which, when compiled, amounted to "quit being a man and read the instructions."  So I did and the directions are very clear and simple.  After a couple of aspirins and a nap, I decided it best to just look at the components.
    The directions are clear and the installation is surprisingly easy!  After installing the cog of choice, one must turn the barrel adjusters completely clockwise while looking them in the barrel.  Then install enough housing to reach all the way to the rear hub, providing enough extra for handlebar turning and wheel removal. Once the housing is installed pull one cable all the way taut through the housing.  If the indicator line on the shifter goes flat, install the small anchor nut 117 mm from the cable housing.   If the indicator line goes curly making a hill shape, install the other, latchey looking, anchor 114mm from the cable housing.   Pull the other cable out all the way and install the leftover anchor.
    The interface itself fits easily in the hub, it has splines on the back which slip right into the splines on the hub and locks in place with a small lockring.  It can be easily positioned so it is in line with the chainstay.   There are two slotted ferrules to fit the ends of the cable guides and the cables only fit one way if the anchors are positioned properly.   The one with the small anchor goes through the top ferrule and around the unit to a small catch, the cable with the larger anchor goes through the bottom ferrule to another catch.

The latch mechanism closes over the first catch for additional security.  What amazed me was the simple fact that I was done!  In the case of the Shimano Nexus hub, there are a series of little dots and plastic pieces which have to be aligned both before and after installation.  In this case, the mechanism is simply two cables turning a wheel which turns the splines in the hub.  Of course I'm oversimplifying this intentionally, but once you follow the directions and look at it, this is one incredibly simple mechanism.  The cables provide counter tension for each other and you don't end up with umpteen minute plastic pieces relying on springs and levers which inevitably wear out and break.

   Now with full housing through the length of the cable travel, routing the cables through the frame can be an issue.  I took a pair of dountube cable stops, removed the barrel adjusters and ran the housing right through the stops for a start.

That left me with the problem of anchors below the bottom bracket.  Ignoring my mismatched socks, I got some zipties and first anchored the cables together on the chainstay.

Then I used a couple plastic anchors

for zipties by trimming the excess plastic from the sides and screwing them in place using one of the waterbottle bosses, and the the anchor bolt for the bottom bracket shell.

The anchors hold as many as 4 zipties and make it very easy to anchor the cables securely and discreetly under the bike.

Again ignoring my mismatched socks, I trimmed all the ties closely and was done.   I think that when it's necessary to remove the real wheel, the tie on the chainstay can be cut and enough slack pulled out to make tire changes fairly painless.  The cables can be pretty easily removed from the shift interface,  but I honestly don't think it will be necessary unless repairing the wheel itself.
    Now that Byron is on the road, I am more than ecstatic over the performance of this hub.  The only adjustment which needs to be done can be performed by removing cable slack through the barrel adjusters.  Beyond that I don't anticipate any problems.

Soma Buena Vista with Nuvinci Hub

   I finally got it together.  "It" being the new mixte bike.  Based on the Soma Buena Vista frame it's a mixte design made of Tange Prestige tubing.   I wanted an IGH drivetrain and found that the new lighter weight Nuvinci hub provided what I .think is the best value on the market.  Today was the first real ride I took on the finished bike and my immediate reaction is wow...OMG...wow!

The combination of the sporty geomety of the Soma frame, the 650b tires and the gearless Nuvinci hub have created a responsive, fast and light city bike which promises years of pleasurable bopping around town.
The bike is a compilation of  parts I selected from Soma, Rivendell, Velo-Orange and the local LBS.  Basically, everybody got into my pocket a little bit.

The first ride was like nothing I have ever experienced.  The Nuvinci hub works so smoothly that there is never any break in pedaling cadence.  It is an entirely intuitive experience, constantly adjusting, rather than shifting to meet the needs of the pedaling resistance.  There is an indicator

which serves no real practical purpose since there are no specific gears to indicate.  I referred to it at stop signs to give me a starting point, but once moving, the adjustment is made entirely by feel.
    There are a lot of components on this bike that I have never used and the next few days will include more detailed information on those and why, after 40 years of experience on city streets, I chose them.

Me and the Mixte

     This promises to be a rather long post with a follow up in the next couple of days because me and the Mixte have had an infatuation going on for a few years.  It all started with the gas prices and my son graduating from high school.  Two things became apparant; gas was not going down and, thanks to scholarships and grants, my son's college was not going to cost as much as I expected.  Of course, being an inveterate cyclist of over 35 years, my answer to both events was to drive less by being self-indulgent and buying a new bike strictly for city use.   I found in my journey through the internet two things that attracted me, the internal gear hubs and Rivendell's Wilbury Mixte bicycle.

    Internal gearing has been around for years but the new 7,8,11 and 14 speed hubs made perfect sense for a city bike.  The ability to shift whenever we want gives us more freedom to deal with stop and go traffic and the sealed hub reduces maintenance a great deal.  That was kind of a no-brainer.
     The Mixte is a different matter.  For those unfamiliar, the Mixte is a frame style which has been around for many decades.  The word "mixte" is a French term which is used to describe activities and technologies of a mixed gender in nature.  According to discussions I have had, and what little information I can find, the general understanding is that the Mixte frame design became popular in Nazi occupied France when fuel was scarce and delivery vehicles were needed.   The frame design, with it's twin sloping top tubes extending to the rear dropouts,

solved a few problems.   It provided additional lateral strength, reinforced the rear triangle and made it easier to mount and dismount a loaded bike frequently in city traffic.  After the war, fuel was more plentiful, delivery bikes were replaced by trucks and the mixte design continued but was marketed as a "women's model."  So the gender issues that surround the design really exist because of several decades of advertising.  Somewhere around the late '70's or early '80's they started to disappear altogether. Rivendell began to sell their Glorius and Wilbury models after the turn of the century and a few others followed suit.
    I decided to get a Wilbury but the price tag at $1500 was something I would have to work on.  Well I found a Jamis Commuter at a good price which would provide the Nexus 8 wheelset and drivetrain I wanted. With that I had a townie bike I could use while I put together the money and parts for the Wilbury and I could use it for a "winter beater" later on.  Well,things went wrong with the exchange rates, the Yen got expensive, Rivendell's Japanese supplier didn't raise prices but it cost more dollars to buy the Yen to buy the bike.  Bummer.  The price went up to $2200 dollars and Riv discontinued it in favor of a new frame, the Betty Foy,
made in Taiwan.  The price was good, they promised a different color for the men's model (Y'ves Gomez) but the frame was spec'd for 650B wheels.  I already had the wheelset I wanted in 700c!  Damn.  Soma came to the rescue with the Buena Vista model, but they sold out almost immediately.  While waiting for more Buena Vista bikes to be delivered I ran across a nice '76 Raleigh on Craigslist.  The one in the photo above, by then it was fall '09 and I spent the winter refurbishing it.   It was a tad too small for me, but a long seat post and longer stem made it comfortable.

   I enjoyed riding that all last summer and think it is the most comfortable design you can get for city riding.  It's fast, light responsive and the sloping tubes are out of the way with all the frequent stops and starts of city riding.   I  thought it was one classy ride and never had anybody mention the whole "girl's bike" thing to me.  Perhaps somebody thought about it, but if they did they kept it to their ignorant self.
    A few things changed for me this past winter and I ran into that great American oxymoron (extra money), so I decided to get a frame that really fit.  The Soma Buena Vista is being built in two colors now and I chose one in graphite grey.  It has a lovely metallic finish and, although I prefer a lugged frame, this has some of the cleanest welds I have seen and the frame over all looks great.  One bit of irony, the frame will not accommodate tires larger than 28mm with fenders.  They said so, I thought I knew better, I was wrong.  Guess what, I ended up ordering a set of 650B wheels to get the tire size I wanted in the frame.
   During the crappy snowfall and freezing rain of the past couple of days I brought in the parts box and frame to start hanging things on it.   I'll put up some more specifics on the build when I finish it off and get him on the road.

I hope we are only a couple of weeks from  spring because, not only am I anxious to ride this bike, I am sick and damn tired of studded snow tires!  Anyway, I was determined to build a "manly man's mixte" since that gender issue keeps getting kicked around the bike forums.  I like the grey metallic paint, the black and chrome
parts, but how does one put the final touch on a gentleman's mixte?

Now that's what I'm talkin' about.  Hydrate and carbo load in one swig.
     The only remaining problem is a name.

I see all the girls out there with their custom and vintage mixtes  personified with an identity of their own: Josephine, Marianne, Penelope, pinky, etc.and, of course Betty Foy.
What does one name a manly man's mixte?  There could be the usual; Duke, Rambo, Slade.  Nah, too cliche'd and macho.  The horse thing occurred to me, you know; Shadowfax, Tornado, Silver.  Nope too corny.  Then it struck me

Byron. 

 Noble, literate, creative, refined, adventurous, athletic and heroic; he's all that and I didn't even have to mention wildly promiscuous.  Yep, a man's man,  a man to be admired, Byron it is.
    
        OK, Maaybe I over thought this whole thing.  Maaybe I went over the top and had a little too much fun with this.
But, that probably explains the pretty nurses with their sympathetic but condescending smiles.