New Rear Wheel

October 18th, 2008
bikes
My bike is now a three speed. And it is capable of stopping in the rain. I am much in favor of both of these. On thursday I got the wheel and it turned out to be 622mm instead of 635mm. I considered trying to get a different wheel, but with the advice of some people online decided that the 13mm wasn't too much and I could try putting a wide (and so also tall) tire on it. This morning I put it on, and it seems great.

Some thoughts on the process of wheel replacement. Taking off the wheel was harder than it should have been because I didn't remember that non-derailleur bikes use master link chains. So I tried to move the hub towards the pedals enough to get the chain off, and I succeeded, but it was harder than it needed to be. In removing the wheel I had to remove part of the chain guard as well. I think if I'd remembered about the master link I would not have needed to, but as it was I did. That was annoying.

One interesting thing about the bike is that the fork ends are not drop outs but instead rear facing. Sort of annoying, but not really a problem. Maybe makes it more reliable?

The hub is a SRAM Spectro T3, which looks like it's a pretty good one. It has three speeds (186% range from messing with the sheldon brown gear calculator) and a coaster brake. The people I got it from included a traditional style sturmey archer shifter and cable which were ideal. Which is good, as the standard SRAM shifter for the T3 is a handlebar twist one which wouldn't have fit my bike at all. One thing I like a lot about the shifter is that it is unlabeled and shiny. The old ones with red lettering were ok, but I really like things that don't actually need labels to be blank. The gears seem like they're placed well, but we'll see tomorrow when I try them.

Gear Gain fractions Percentages
1 0.734 -22.6%
2 1.000 direct drive
3 1.362 +36.2%

Referenced in: New bike

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