P/R 64 report

Just after Thanksgiving I had a chance to build up a 64cm P/R and ride it a bit.

I used a set of 700C wheels that I had been using on an elderly Model F. They are low-end Shimano hubs and Sun CR-18 rims, both 32H.

I use a compact double crank and a single cassette cog w/ spacers in the rear that give me a 50/24 drive that turns into a mid-50s gear which works pretty well hilly Berkeley where this bike lives.

The wheels are shod with 32mm Bontrager Kevlar tires. I tend towards heavy duty tires because I don't have the time to fix flats. The performance suffers a bit but I see it as training for those days when I can get on to lighter tires.

The rest of the build is pretty standard city bike: mountain bars and V-brakes.

Like I said this is my usual setup so it's easy for me to compare apples to apples.

The first thing I noticed was that the uphill performance was not as good as the Model F. I attribute that to the 28.6mm down tube. Then, coming down hill, I looked for wobble.

The wheels have never been trued and when they were on my Model F, I felt a bit of wobble. So I guessed that on the 64 the wobble would be amplified by the light down tube. And it was. So I stopped the bike, rotated the front wheel about its axle 180 degrees and resumed testing. The downhill wobble was attenuated and the ride improved greatly.

When I get back to Berkeley I'm going to have the wheels trued and replace the front rack with a Wald basket (my usual karrier). Then I'll ride it some more and decide if it's a keeper.

We're still waiting on the proper 64s with the 31.8 down tube to arrive. But I don't think I'll use one. The 64 hits me a little to hard in the crotch and I think I'll go back to my ugly, but oh-so-comfortable 59cm 26" P/R.

This 64 is fun to ride on the flats. The extended head tube means that only a 10mm spacer was needed to get my bars where I wanted them to be. I think for folks who wear 34" (and taller) jeans, this will be a very nice bike. I personally would rather see it as a 650B bike but that seems to be a minority view.

Now let's hear from the rest of the kurrent 64cm riders. What do you all think?

-Matthew

Low Trail P

David Duquette just sent photos of his newly reformed P. Here's what he had to say:

Got the low-trail fork rigged up on my P62. Ride is definitely improved. I put a few little tabs on the starboard fork blade to hold the generator wire; the tubing was plenty thick enough to make a couple of tiny threads in it.

Anyhow, here’s the bike, all cleaned up.

David did a nice job.

The High Spark Of Low Trail Boys

I just got done making some modifications to an elderly Model M.

I replaced the fork with a 30mm trail model meant for a 26" P/R. Then shod it with 1.75" Paselas and added a new Wald basket. I bolted the basket stays to the low-rider mounts on the fork. It seems to work OK and it's pretty clean.

But the big news is how the ride has improved. I just can't get over how much I like the feeling that comes from adding a bit of fork offset. The bike seems to steer itself.

Onward to my next project: my own 64 S/L.

Quality Control

Mass collaboration isn't limited to humans. At Kogswell we celebrate the capacity of other species to help in the process of turning out a great product.

Here you see one of the packaging inspectors looking over the quality of the poly bags used in the latest shipment.

What do you think, Rex?

Rack update

We just got photos of the latest batch of rack samples.

Looking good.

The guys at the shop made me laugh. They were very concerned about the fact that the fender did not fit all the way up to the fork crown.

When I tried to explain that the gap was intentional you could hear the collective huh? all the way from Taiwan.

I'm going to paint my set red.

Vaughn Aldredge's handlebars

We get a lot of questions about the handlebars on the home page of our web site.

That bike belongs to Vaughn Aldredge and he had this to say about the bars:

We pulled those bars off of some Jamis city-bike that was in a state of disrepair at my LBS. I had originally bought the Nitto mustache bars, but the end handles weren't long enough to hold the cork grips, rotary shifter, and brakes before curving around. I spent a day searching online for a replacement - and really hadn't found anything that had enough space on the end bars for everything - but that also swept forward like a classic mustache bar. Before I found anything, my LBS called up and told me about the used Jamis bars. I'm not sure if they still make those bars, but I do need another pair (for a similar build - my wife's version of my bike) so I'm planning on calling Jamis at some point to see if I can score another pair.

frame art

One of the best frame builders of our time is Peter Johnson.

Here are some photos of one of his recent creations.

If you wonder what perfection in this discipline looks like, focus on the fork crown.