Cyclesense GETTING IT RIGHT 43,000 fact-checkers can’t be wrong. But I can. by John Schubert Did you know there are no new $300 road bikes sold in the U.S.? I used to think that, but now I know better. My recent article decrying the lack of entry-priced touring bikes included the sweeping statement that there are no dropped-handlebar bikes in that price range sold in the U.S. And then I heard, uh, cor - rective missives from two folks. One was Tom Shaddox, an esteemed Adventure Cyclist contributor, and the other was an old client of mine, Arnold Kamler, the president of Kent Bicycles. quite spiffy, and they make quite the As Tom and Arnold pointed out, ecological statement. Kent offers the 14-speed Kent GMC By the way, Hubbub also sells Yukon XL road bike for $325 (the price custom-fitted bikes with sensible spoke I found — your price may vary). For patterns. This is good news for riders that tidy sum, you get a welded alu - who want a really nice custom bike but minum frame, STI shifting, three frame are put off by the goofball spoking that sizes, reasonable components, light - has become nearly universal in the weight aluminum rims, and 25C tires. medium and high-price range. Goofball Mass merchants are Kent’s primary spoking usually can’t be shade-tree- E L P retail outlets. mechanic-serviced, the parts aren’t I S G E Arnold, that looks like a sharp bike standard, and if anything breaks, you’re R G for the price! . walking the rest of the trip. Hubbub cadence -. 336 x gear inches = speed But as if Arnold and Tom hadn’t allows you to spend plenty of money corrected me enough, I then had to hear from my own nephew, on a really nice custom-fitted bike and still get old-fashioned Charlie Schubert. Charlie works at the new Bikes Not Bombs wheels that are easy to service. Beat a path to Cleveland if that’s retail bike shop in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and they offer what you want. reconditioned touring bikes, as well as racing and commuter bikes. Availability depends on what gets donated to the shop, A reader named Roy wrote and asked a question which but if you can wait around for the right frame for you, they’ll made me realize I hadn’t explained myself properly in my recent build it up to fit for a modest price. This sounds like retrogrouch mini-course on training for speed. heaven! Check out bikesnotbombs.org and head for Jamaica I used the term “gear inches” without defining it and I also Plain. didn’t share with you my favorite speed conversion formula. I last wrote a detailed article about gearing over five years ago I get occasional inquiries wondering where one can buy (“Gearing 101” March 2002 issue). So here’s a mini-refresher: those spiffy handbuilt mirrors that Ohio’s Greatest Recycler, Most of us think of gearing as ratios: a two-foot diameter Chuck Harris, makes from old spokes, soda bottles, and other pulley driving a one-foot-diameter pulley would have a 2:1 ratio. twice-used materials. Well, the best answer is to go to a cycling But bicycle gearing is expressed as a single number, called “gear event in the Midwest and hope that Chuck shows up with his inches,” and the reason why is more than a century old. booth to sell some mirrors. I did that once and bought three of Remember, the original high-performance bikes were the them. The second-best answer is to get in touch with Hubbub “penny farthing” type with the huge front wheels and tiny rear Bicycles in Cleveland, Ohio (Hubbub.com). They occasionally wheels. The whole point of the large wheel was that it could go get a shipment from Chuck, but the mirrors sell out quickly, so farther with each turn of the pedals, and hence faster, than a be persistent. Despite all that recycled content, they do look small wheel. Bikes were sold by wheel diameter, and a typical 32 ADVENTURE CYCLIST SEPTEMBER /OCTOBER 2007 ADVENTURECYCLING .ORG penny farthing would have, say, a 45-inch impression that “gear inches” told you piece of high-tech sports equipment. A diameter wheel. Larger wheels were faster how far the bike traveled for each turn of touring bike is designed to withstand (and even more dangerous) than smaller the cranks. It doesn’t. But if you multiply abuse. Rare is the touring bike that hasn’t wheels. “gear inches” by pi (3.14), you do get seen a radiator hose clamp or some simi - Thankfully, this didn’t last very long. that distance — in inches. lar indignity. And you don’t want to do After a few years of people falling off their Now here’s the speed formula I did - that to a carbon-fiber bike. penny farthings, bike designers figured n’t fully share: if you could pedal a But the other factor that bears out that they could have two sensible- cadence of 336, your speed in miles per repeating is that a touring bike really isn’t sized wheels and use a chain drive with a hour would equal your gear inches. much slower than a racing bike. Salesmen gear ratio to get higher gears. They So cadence divided by 336, times and buyers’ guides that tell you otherwise expressed the result in the wheel diameter gear inches, gives your speed. are just wrong. If you put lightweight tires you’d have if your sensible bike were a That sounds like a lot of math to do, on your touring bike, it will go just about penny-farthing. If you had two 27-inch particularly in your head. But there’s a as fast as a racing bike. The two or three wheels and a 2:1 ratio between your front handy shortcut. pounds of added weight in the frame and chainwheel and your rear cog, you wound A reasonable touring cadence is components won’t make a big difference. up with 54 gear inches. between 80 and 90 rpm. And 84 happens I’ve done enough touring on racing That’s how the nomenclature came to be one fourth of 336. So if you’re riding bikes to know firsthand: you don’t get about, and it’s actually quite handy, even such a cadence, your speed is one quarter “racing liveliness” underneath your pan - though we’ve stopped comparing our of your gear inches. (For more fun with niers. You get a bike that doesn’t handle bikes with penny farthings. Count up the gear numbers, check out Sheldon Brown’s as well, isn’t geared right, and can be teeth on all your front chainwheels and “Gain Ratios” in the problematic in many ways. rear cogs, and do some long division, and November/December 1999 issue.) you’ll have the gear inch number for every In the course of researching an possible gearing combination on your bike. My next letter came from a gent answer to a reader query about touring on What do the numbers mean? Here’s named Leo, who will soon be touring a three-wheeler, I have decided that we a rule of thumb: with his sweetie in Northern California. should all memorize the following quick 20 inches for very steep hills Leo is a hardcore racer, and he wanted to primer on trikes: 30 inches for steep hills know if he could modify his composite A trike with the single wheel in front 40 inches for medium hills Trek 5200 for loaded touring, perhaps by is a “frog.” A trike with the single wheel 50 inches for slight hills swapping the carbon fork for a steel tour - in back is a “tadpole.” 60 inches for almost-flat ing fork. Tadpoles are faster, more stable, and 70 inches for flat I talked him out of it, thankfully, but better-handling. A motorcycle-racing 80 inches for hard riding on flat there may be other Leos out there who friend of mine used to commute to work 90 inches for downhill should hear this: race horses make crum - in the Philadelphia suburbs on his 100 inches for steep downhill my work horses, and the same goes for Greenspeed tadpole and loved it. My buddy Roy was under the bicycles. A carbon fiber bike is a delicate continued on page 35 ADVENTURE CYCLIST SEPTEMBER /OCTOBER 2007 ADVENTURECYCLING .ORG 33 Maps = Adventure Cycling! The maps and books you’ll need to plan your bike vacation, TransAmerica, Great Divide, Lewis & Clark, Underground Railroad and more. FREE CATALOG (800)721-8719 PO Box 8308, Missoula, MT 59807 www.adventurecycling.org continued from page 27 continued from page 33 Not bad for a program that began a competitive process, and that in the past Frogs are best ridden cautiously at with one employee and no dedicated budg - three years “we’ve been able to reach slower speeds. et. Today, the North Carolina Bicycle about an eighth of the state’s population, With rare exceptions, a tadpole will be Program has ten staff members and a about 1.5 million people.” noticeably slower than a two-wheeler but it budget of $6 million annually, and the He said that with the 2007 awards, can make for really fun riding. Whether network of designated bike routes is only the bicycle program will have given match - you’re charmed by the low center of gravi - one part of the program’s accomplishes.